Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - Wednesday, October 10, 2001
Carol Marbin Miller
Broward Circuit Judge John A. Frusciante, who has been a strong critic of the Department of Children & Families in recent weeks, also asked the agency to re-evaluate its procedures for locating runaways who can be at significant risk while on the streets.
"We have to have a planned program that we are going to follow, in order to help these children have a better tomorrow. When they run away, we have to expedite how we handle [it],'' Frusciante said.
Frusciante also scolded the agency for failing to alert him that the girl was missing or advise him that she was assaulted.
The judge said he would impose sanctions against the agency for failing to inform him in a timely fashion of critical incidents involving children in his division.
A department official said DCF already is reviewing the agency's runaway procedures. Officials have said the department did all it could to find the 16-year-old, who walked away from a van parked outside a Miami-Dade school for troubled children.
Frusciante's order came after a lengthy hearing, which was requested by the girl's lawyers and guardians. They said in a September court pleading that DCF administrators "failed to offer [the girl] any meaningful protection.''
The 16-year-old Broward girl, who is believed to have the intellect and maturity of a nine- or 10-year-old, was missing in Miami from Sept. 4 to Sept. 9.
When she was found, she reported that three men sexually assaulted her in two incidents, the court document said.
David Bazerman, the girl's attorney ad litem, told the judge Tuesday that administrators erred by not offering the girl sex-assault counseling or even an HIV test since the ordeal.
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