ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Department of Children and Families is now reviewing the decisions of a top agency lawyer being considered for a Brevard Circuit Court judgeship and its Central Florida administrator – but the action comes only after DCF’s Secretary learned Local 6 uncovered information about the officials’ actions.

DCF Secretary Lucy Hadi wants to know why the officials approved of a former Merritt Island foster family adopting children -- even though their foster home was previously shut down and children removed because of concerns over mistreatment there.

The adoptive father, 35-year-old Robert Howard, has since been arrested and charged with 70 counts of sexual battery on a child.

Also, DCF only last month ordered an Inspector General, or IG, investigation of a December 2004 incident that had previously been kept quiet by DCF, in apparent violation of a DCF operating procedures which requires the IG be informed of policy violations.

In that case, a DCF worker placed two Brevard County children in the home of a man the department determined was ineligible to care for the children because of prior allegations he abused the girls. The girls then claimed the man molested them again.

In both cases, no formal investigation was done until Local 6 inquired about the cases, raising a question DCF now refuses to answer: Does it seek to cover up its mistakes?

E-MAIL TRAIL

For instance, e-mails obtained by Local 6 reveal that on Oct. 20 -- the day after Howard was arrested -- Bill Spann, Hadi’s chief of staff in Tallahassee, wanted a quality assurance review of the Howard case.

But District Administrator Mike Watkins successfully quashed any such review after talking with Spann and General Counsel Kelly McKibben. Watkins and McKibben are the DCF officials most responsible for approving of the Howards’ last two adoptions.

Watkins responded to Spann’s request for a review with another e-mail that afternoon: “I don’t believe a QA report is warranted at this time.”

At that time, Watkins was seeking – and has since accepted -- a $125,000 a year job heading a private foster care agency in Tallahassee. And McKibben was – and remains -- under consideration by Governor Jeb Bush for a Circuit Court judgeship in Brevard County. They refuse to say whether the decision was based in any way on their potential pending career moves.

DCF will not say why Spann requested the QA review or why Watkins was allowed to decide it should not be done. Nor would Spann explain his response to Watkins in another e-mail sent one minute after Watkins announced his decision on October 20th: “That should work. Just trying to anticipate.”

One month later, after being contacted by Local 6, Hadi ordered a QA and an investigation to determine whether the Howard case “was properly handled by the Orlando district office and (to) identify any areas for improvement.”

FAILURE TO INVESTGIATE

If the pending investigation reveals DCF did not properly investigate itself in the Howard case, it would not be the first time.

DCF procedures require all employees to notify the Inspector General of suspected violations of policy.

But when that worker was fired in December 2004 for placing children with their previously identified suspected molester, no IG referral was made, Local 6 has learned.

The DCF case worker was fired for not fully checking the man’s background through the DCF database. Had he done so, he would have seen the children were not eligible for placement there, according to his former supervisor, Peyton Butler.

“That was bad, that was real bad,” said Butler, who was recently fired from DCF after three years in Brevard. The agency won’t say why she was fired, but she and a co-worker say they think it’s because they’ve been wrongly linked to anonymous e-mails criticizing management of DCF’s North Brevard office.

“We were supposed to keep them safe and we put them into a home where I think what happened to them in the home we placed them in was much worse than the home we took them out of,” Butler said.

The girls’ mother told Local 6 she doesn’t believe the girls’ claims, but DCF gave them enough credibility to bar contact between the girls and the relative with whom they were placed anyway.

The accused molester denied he in any way harmed the girls, but says he was surprised when a DCF worker brought them to his house to stay last December, after the girls’ mother needed medical attention for a mental illness.

“It's got me puzzled on that,” said the man, who we are not identifying because he is related to the children who accused him of abuse.

Titusville police have referred the case to the state attorney, who will determine if charges should be brought.

MEDIA ALERTS

DCF officials in Tallahassee were made aware of Howard’s possession of child pornography and his pending arrest as early at Oct. 7, two weeks before he was taken into custody and held without bond on the sexual battery charges, according to e-mail reviewed by Local 6.

But the e-mails reveal more concern about possible media involvement in the case than any effort to investigate why DCF approved of 41 children being placed in the home.

Brevard County sheriff’s detective Dan Ogden says pornographic images of Howard’s alleged victim -- taken with Howard’s camera -- were among potentially thousands of digital photos and video clips containing child pornography found in the home. Local 6 is not identifying that girl.

“Based on what I've seen from his images, he has a preference for pre-teen children engaged in sexual activity,” said Ogden, adding he got a “sick feeling” when he realized DCF had sent foster children through the Howard home.

In an effort to identify any other victims in the images, Ogden has identified all 41 former foster children placed by DCF in the Howard home since 2000. Ogden said this week he’s already talked to some and found no new victims.

CONCERNS OVERRULED

The Howards’ last application to adopt was unanimously rejected by a committee of DCF workers and other child welfare specialists in Brevard last year, citing concerns about indications of prior abuse in the home.

But in September 2004 District Administrator Watkins and General Counsel McKibben overruled the adoption review committee. Watkins said he has overruled a committee’s recommendation only one time in nearly two years as district administrator.

Watkins and McKibben refused to comment on why they judged it was appropriate for the Howards to adopt, despite confirmed prior indications of abuse.

According to various sources:

In February 2001, DCF was told that Robert Howard was bragging he walked in on a foster daughter who was naked in the shower, claiming she asked him if he “liked what he saw.” Howard admitted accidentally walking in on a 9-year-old girl, but – after she announced she was in the shower – he said he immediately covered his eyes and walked out before he could see her naked. The girl denied Howard ever even walked in on her.

DCF ruled that complaint unfounded and allowed the Howards to adopt children and continue as foster parents.

Then, in September 2002, three foster children were removed from the home, in the 1400 block of Saturn Street, after one child claimed to have been locked overnight in her room, where she was forced to urinate on the carpet, and other children claimed they were told hidden cameras watched their every move in the house.

Child abuse investigator Ogden says such behavior would be warning signs to him “of a pattern of abuse and I would have fears that they may escalate.”

No cameras were found and no criminal charges were sought against the Howards because the “confinement” and “bizarre punishment” mistreatments confirmed by DCF investigators did not rise to the level of criminal conduct, according to sources.

But the three foster children were placed in other homes and the department made sure the Howards were not relicensed as a foster home in January 2003.

COMMUNICATIONS BREAKDOWN

But, in March 2003, the mother of two former foster children previously placed with the Howards dropped them off there and failed to return as promised, prompting the Howards to again call DCF and, this time, be approved to shelter the two new children.

The DCF workers who approved of that “non-relative placement” failed for months to get all the background on the house from other DCF employees who played a role in the removal of children just months earlier, according to sources.

And when the prior abuse report was discovered, the agency decided to leave the children with the Howards anyway as it moved ahead with terminating the natural mother’s parental rights, according to sources.

Robert Howard, 35, and his 57-year-old wife, Margaret, sought to become the adoptive parents, but were stymied by the adoption review committee’s negative recommendation, according to sources.

But then Watkins and McKibben overruled the committee and a judge finalized the adoption earlier this year.

McKibben is one of three finalists being considered by Governor Bush for a Circuit Court judgeship in Brevard County. She is the same DCF attorney who tried to prolong the Terry Schiavo case by filing an unsuccessful 11th-hour motion to intervene, claiming Schiavo had to be kept alive so abuse allegations could be investigated. Opposing counsel said McKibben’s actions on behalf of Governor Bush “reek(ed) of intervention of politics in this case” and the judge rejected them.

Watkins also refused comment, but we have learned they made their decision after considering that the children were likely going to stay with the Howards anyway, whether they were adopted or not, because DCF believed removing them would be very traumatic.

All five adopted children were removed from the home in September and Robert Howard remains in jail without bond. His wife has refused to comment.