CALIFORNIA News

Legislation that would ramp up penalties for sex crimes, dubbed
"Chelsea's Law" for a 17-year-old high school senior who was murdered
earlier this year, won final approval in the Legislature Monday.

Assembly Bill 1844 by Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, is the latest in a strong of measures named after the victims of sensational crimes.

John Albert Gardner, a convicted sex offender, has pleaded guilty to killing Poway High School senior Chelsea King and also a 14-year-old Escondido girl, Amber DuBois, and faces life sentences. Both were abducted while jogging or walking near their homes.

Fletcher's measure, sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
on a 70-0 vote, increases penalties for a wide variety of sex crimes
and includes life imprisonment without parole for some sex crimes
against minors and lifetime parole supervision for habitual sex
criminals.

"This is something we can all be proud of," Fletcher told the Assembly prior to the vote.

Fletcher's office released a statement from King's parents, Brent and
Kelly King, after the vote: "Oh behalf of Chelsea, and the 100,000
people who have given us the momentum to complete this process, we offer
a symbolic sunflower ovation to all California Assembly members and
Senators who voted in favor of Chelsea's Law. This is a uniquely
collaborative achievement, powered by people who care passionately about
the children of California."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Friday named for slain Poway High School senior Chelsea King that he said will better protect California's children.
The governor put his signature to Assembly Bill 1844, known as "Chelsea's Law," during a ceremony at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park.
"Because of Chelsea, everyone has joined together to solve this serious problem in our state," Schwarzenegger said. "Because of Chelsea, California's children will be safer. Because of Chelsea, this never has to happen again."
The bill, authored by Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, requires a life sentence without the possibility of parole for forcible sex acts against minors. It also tightens sex offense parole guidelines and requires lifelong tracking of certain sex offenders.
Fletcher said Chelsea's Law -- which goes into effect immediately -- puts California at the forefront in dealing with violent sex offenders.
"We are about to see signed into law a sweeping piece of legislation that will better protect our children, who are the most vulnerable, the most innocent, the most precious," Fletcher said. "Today is a very good day for them."
The legislation creates a "true one-strike life without the possibility of parole charge" for violent sex offenders who prey on children, he said.
"Because, if you don't believe you can rehabilitate someone that violently sex offends a child, you should not let them out, and today California will adopt this," he said.
Fletcher thanked members of the state Senate and Assembly, who unanimously approved the legislation.
Schwarzenegger and Fletcher were joined at the ceremony by Chelsea's parents.
Brent King said Chelsea's Law will fix California's "broken system" and ensure that the "worst of the worst violent child predators" are locked up for life.
Both thanked legislators and the governor for quickly passing Chelsea's Law.
"Our children look to us for guidance and understanding of how our world should be," Kelly King said. "In supporting and passing Chelsea's Law, you have shown them what is good and right and sound decision-making in government."
Also taking part in the bill signing ceremony were San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, and Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta.
Chelsea was raped and killed Feb. 25 by registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III, who grabbed her while she was jogging at a Rancho Bernardo park. Searchers found the 17-year-old student's body a few days later in a shallow grave on the shore of Lake Hodges.
Gardner, 31, was sentenced in May to two life terms without parole for murdering and sexually assaulting Chelsea and abducting, raping and fatally stabbing 14-year-old Amber Dubois of Escondido a year earlier.
A package of bills promoted by Amber's father, and intended to improve law enforcement handling of missing person cases, also await the governor's signature.

Chelsea's Law makes me proud to be from, and living in California.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs “Dubois” bills


Amber Dubois, a 14-year-old was kidnapped from an Escondido street in February 2009, and Amber Dubois' body was found earlier this year. Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Schwarzenegger signed the “Dubois” bill which outlines three basic measures to bring an abducted or kidnapped child home before he or she falls prey to horrific crimes like rape or child abuse. The three measures are: · Assembly Bill 34 requires the state to report abduction to a national tracking system within two hours, instead of the current four hours. · Assembly Bill 33 requires improved law enforcement coordination across jurisdictions to improve responses to abductions. · Assembly Bill 1022 creates a position of “director of missing children operations” to oversee programs aimed at reducing abductions. Amber Dubois’s father, Moe Dubois said, “We’re ecstatic, hopefully this will help.” Moe Dubois was the one who supported this legislation to be passed in the memory of his daughter Amber Dubois so that in the future, appropriate measures are taken. He also said, “When a child is being taken from you a mile a minute, every minute counts.”

Autopsy reports on slain children can be sealed from the media under one of 102 bills approved Monday by Gov. Schwarzenegger that also included harsher penalties for anyone hurting a child younger than 8, a ban on selling electronic cigarettes to minors and longer license revocations for repeat drunk drivers.SB 5 by Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta) allows autopsy reports to be sealed at the request of the victim’s parents and was in response to media requests for documents in the cases of Chelsea King and Amber Dubois, two San Diego County teenagers raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender.Schwarzenegger also signed AB 1280 by Assemblyman Mike Villines (R-Clovis), which creates harsher penalties for anyone who causes physical harm to a child younger than 8 resulting in permanent injury or disability.Anyone convicted of three or more drunk-driving incidents in a 10-year period could have their license revoked for up to 10 years under AB 1601 by Assemblyman Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo). And the governor also signed a measure making it an infraction to sell or furnish electronic cigarettes to people younger than 18. SB 882 is by Sen. Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro).Schwarzenegger vetoed 37 bills Monday, including one that would have required fur-clothing manufacturers to attach conspicuous labels naming the kind of animal used for each garment. The governor said AB 1656 by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) would increase costs for clothes makers, and the $1,000 fee for failing to include the label was too steep.

Audit: Los Angeles Dept. of Children and Family Services Covering Up Child Fatalities
September 13th, 2010

The sins of child protective agencies are many, and many have detailed them at length. I’ve tossed my hat in that ring on occasion. Mostly, CPS agencies tend to over-interfere in families. I recently ran a piece based on a blog in the New York Times written by attorney Chris Gottlieb. She’s an attorney whose largely thankless job it is to try to defend parents targeted by CPS. Most of her clients are poor, and they find themselves criticized for infractions as bizarre as feeding the child Chinese take-out and allowing it to play in a sprinkler.

What Gottlieb didn’t mention was the fact that CPS agencies across the country have the habit of pretending that fathers don’t exist. When they take a child from maternal care, it often goes straight into foster care, Do Not Pass GO, Do Not Contact the Dad. The Urban Institute did a study in 2006 and learned that, in some 80% of cases in which a child was taken from a mother, CPS knew the identity of the father, but failed to make any effort to ascertain his fitness as a placement for the child in over half of those cases.

Both of those examples - the intrusiveness into legitimate parental decision-making and the preference for foster care over father care - are indemic in CPS agencies nationwide. Indeed, in Texas at least, it’s gotten so bad that a judge recently issued a restraining order against the agency in one particularly egregious case.

But this article is a new one to me (Los Angeles Times, 8/31/10). It seems that the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services has been covering up child deaths that are known or suspected to have resulted from abuse or neglect. That’s the conclusion of a recent audit of the agency completed by the county’s Office of Independent Review on August 30th.

Beginning on January 1, 2008, the State of California required child protective agencies to make public the circumstances of children’s deaths from abuse or neglect, the better to understand and, if necessary, alter the behavior of CPS agencies and caseworkers. Of course the new law only requires publishing information about deaths from abuse or neglect, not about other fatalities to children. That distinction opened the door to the DCFS to “interpret” certain fatalities as not resulting from abuse or neglect in one context and as resulting from abuse or neglect in another.

The audit is clear that the statute seeks to “promote public scrutiny” of abuse or neglect resulting in death, and therefore of the actions of the DCFS. That in turn “might cause criticism of the child protective agency to occur. Accordingly, there may be… incentives for child protective service officials to adopt a narrow… view” of whether a fatality resulted from abuse or neglect.

That’s bureaucratese for “if the public finds out how DCFS screwed up, it’ll be critical, so DCFS hides the information.” As County Superviser Zev Yaroslavsky put it,

“The board has been misled, but more importantly the public has been misled and that is really inexcusable,” Yaroslavsky said. “There is only one possible motivation here, other than the right hand not doing what the left hand is doing, and that is an intent to withhold information from the public.”

Meanwhile, the police seem to like public scrutiny even less than does the DCFS. In the first year in which the new law was in effect, law enforcement agencies provided full information in almost every one of the cases, but since then, “the stream of information about SB 39 child deaths… has been largely shut down.”
CPS agencies are given a difficult job to perform. Caseworkers are often overworked and underpaid, but are tasked with deciding which children are at risk of injury or neglect and which are not. They invariably tread a fine line between over-intrusion into private family lives and too little intrusion that can result in child abuse or neglect. Into the bargain, many of the families they deal with are poor and so caseworkers are required to figure out if particular parenting behavior stems from neglect or simply a lack of resources. The correct call in those cases is not always clear, I’m sure. Finally, the CPS system has a built-in bias that encourages caseworkers to over-interfere. Taking a child from a parent generates few headlines; a child injured or killed generates many.

Mindful of that, SB 39 seeks to shine a light on the doings of LA County’s DCFS. As in most bureaucracies, that’s ruffled some feathers, but that’s a good thing. The people of Los Angeles have a right to know what their employees are up to, especially when mistakes are made. And that’s never more true than when children are the victims of those mistakes.

VISALIA — Powerful, heart-wrenching and at times, hard to watch — that is what The Lisa Project — a multi-media program that allows visitors to experience the life of abuse from a child’s perspective, is.“Everything you thought you knew about child abuse is about to change,” the self-guided audio tells people going through the exhibit.“I’m going to tell you of a world that is foreign to you, but very familiar to me,” the presentation begins as Lisa, the narrator, shares her story and the story of other abused children.The unique mobile project, designed to raise the community’s awareness of child abuse, is presented by the Tulare County Child Abuse Prevention Council through the month of October.Through audio narration, and told through a child’s perspective, visitors are guided from room to room with scenarios depicting abuse. The PG-13 exhibit is not meant to shock visitors but is intended to educate the community about the very real threat to children, said marketing chair Patricia Pullen of Synchrony of Visalia, a nonprofit mental health agency that also provides parent education.“This is an incredible way to educate the community about the different forms of child abuse,” Pullen said. “Abuse is not just physical, but can be emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect — which is the No. 1 aspect in Tulare County. Neglect in Tulare County is most prominent.”During the 25-minute tour, visitors are guided through several rooms and hear the stories of five children — Lisa, Evan, Michael, Maria and Ashley.The stories began with the playing of a 9-1-1 call from 6-year-old Lisa, who is crying and asking for help. Her step-father is hitting her mother, who is bleeding. Her sister, 4, lays listless and the girl pleads for help to stop her step-father from taking her newborn baby brother.Lisa then guides listeners through several rooms — each one focusing on a different child and what that child lives through — mental abuse, neglect, sexual abuse and physical abuse.
In Michael’s case, the fifth-grader is portrayed as being emotionally abused by his mother as she repeatedly tells him he is useless and that she wishes she had aborted him.And so the stories continue. Maria’s story deals with sexual abuse by her father. Ashley’s story is about physical abuse. And Evan’s story is about neglect. Along the way, the children’s abused, neglected and frightened faces are shown.The rooms range from a filthy kitchen where Evan sleeps on the floor and cries himself to sleep from hunger every night because his drug-addicted mother does not take care of him, to Ashley’s room filled with beautiful things — a vanity filled with perfumes and makeup, an iPod, a cell phone, beautiful gowns, shopping bags from Macy’s and designer purses. Photos on the wall show a beautiful Ashley, wearing her cheerleader outfit, riding a horse, and vacationing in Hawaii. But there is an unseen story — and Ashley shares it. She is physically abused, by her father, and her boyfriend.“The truth is, I’d do anything to get out of this house,” Ashley says on the audio presentation.The stories and statistics are not made up.“This is real,” it says on the walls of the statistics’ room. “In 2009, more than 9,000 calls were made to child welfare services alleging abuse.”As visitors enter the statistics room, they can take a few minutes to read some of the devastating figures about child abuse, said Billie Shawl, president of the Tulare County Child Abuse Prevention Council.“Our goal is to get as many people as we can to see this,” Shawl said. “But we also give people a chance to have a positive response. We have it hopeful.”Abuse is suffered by children of all ages, socio-economic backgrounds and from all cultures.“It’s everyone’s responsibility to do something,” Pullen said. “We all can do something to protect them. We can volunteer at school, read a book to a child, and watch at a grocery store. And if you see someone having a hard time, don’t judge. Go up to them and ask the parent if you can help. You’re not there criticizing. You’re there offering a solution.”Before visitors leave the exhibit, they are asked to take a few minutes to share their thoughts and reflect on what they have just experienced. Counselors are also on hand to answer questions and talk to visitors if the exhibit triggers unpleasant childhood memories.
With 198 volunteers from 20 different agencies, organizers want people to know that resources exist and can help families and children who are suffering, Shawl said.The Lisa Project was created by Lindy Turner-Hardin, executive director of the San Joaquin County Child Abuse Prevention Council, with help from her husband, Gene Hardin.
After visiting a King Tut exhibit in San Francisco, where the couple followed an audio-visual tour of Tut’s life, Gene Hardin thought of the idea of creating a tour that showcased the lives of abused children.The original exhibit was created in a building in Stockton, but because of its success, the Child Abuse Prevention Council decided to rebuild the project as a mobile exhibit that can make stops through the state, and someday, through the country. The Visalia visit will run through the month of October.Visitors are encouraged to go beyond the headlines and the statistics and visit the exhibit to experience the life of an abused child.The Lisa Project is open from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and from 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays from Oct. 1 to 29.
The mobile unit is located at 200 S. Court St. in Visalia. For more information, call 735-0456.Because of the nature of the exhibit, children younger than 13, are not allowed to listen to the audio track.

Child deaths rise among those monitored by L.A. County family services, records show

October 18, 2010 | 3:33pm EDT

The number of children dying of abuse or neglect after involvement by Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services has steadily increased since 2008, according to confidential documents reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.The data represent the first time the public has gained access to the department’s year-over-year maltreatment fatality trends. According to information circulated recently among senior county officials, the number of children who have died of abuse or neglect by their caregivers rose from 18 in 2008 to 26 in 2009. This year, the county had recorded 21 maltreatment fatalities in the year's first eight months.

“Something has gone terribly, terribly haywire in the oversight of these children,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, responding to the figures. The majority of the maltreatment fatalities occurred while DCFS was actively overseeing the child’s welfare or just days or months after social workers closed the case for the child, the records show.

The maltreatment fatalities, which were recently revised under the supervision of the county’s Office of Independent Review but have yet to be released in response to public inquiries, are part of a larger group of fatalities tracked by the department. According to those confidential figures, also reviewed by The Times, the total number of children who died of any cause after DCFS contact rose from 97 in 2004 to 163 in 2009. The rise was driven largely by a sustained increase in homicides, from 19 in 2004 to 55 in 2009. The department’s bookkeeping of records for fatalities before 2008, however, has been flawed. For instance, the department’s records last month reflected the total number of fatalities for 2003 as being 91. This month, the department’s records said the 2003 fatality figure was 146 and was subject to further revision.

Yaroslavsky questioned whether the department’s drive to reduce the number of children removed from their families and placed in foster care has led the county to leave too many children in unsafe conditions.The number of foster children has dropped from 52,000 in 1997 to 18,800 this year. During this period, the department has focused on increased drug treatment, parental training and other services meant to allow children to remain safely with their own parents.


The drive has been motivated by the belief that a child’s welfare is best served by his or own family, even when that family is somewhat troubled. But the reduction of foster children is also a budgetary imperative. Under an experimental federal and state program known as the Title IV-E waiver, Los Angeles County agreed to accept a fixed sum for foster care. If it exceeds that amount, the county must pay the difference. If it spends less, the county can use the savings to reduce child abuse and neglect as it sees fit.

Yaroslavsky said he agreed with the precept that children belong with their own families whenever possible, but he said he worried that the department has been so single-minded in its drive to reduce the number of foster children that social workers have been blinded to the dangers parents sometimes pose.“The facts need to dictate how DCFS handles these marginalized children.

Evidence can’t be ignored because there is a orthodoxy that says kids need to be kept with their families,” Yaroslavsky said.

The numbers contrast sharply with the DCFS’s earlier statements about child deaths. This summer, director Trish Ploehn released statistics to the L.A. County Commission for Children and Families showing that the number of maltreatment fatalities was decreasing. Ploehn had also told The Times in an interview she believed the numbers were going down. She declined requests to comment for this article.

In a statement released Monday, Ploehn said: "Due to the fluid nature of these determinations and the large number of cases to be processed, the release of these files has taken longer than we had hoped -- and the public has consequently had to wait longer than we would have liked. We are implementing processes so that, moving forward, we are able to release information to the public, when requested under [the state’s disclosure law], in prescribed time frames.”

Calif. county restricts sex offenders on Halloween

VISALIA, Calif. --
A California county has passed a law barring people convicted of sex crimes against children from decorating their homes and handing out candy to kids on Halloween.

The Porterville Recorder reports that the Tulare County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday in favor of the new ordinance despite objections it could violate state law and the U.S. Constitution.

Supervisors say the law will keep children safe while trick or treating.

But Public Defender Michael Sheltzer says there is no evidence that children are more vulnerable to sex offenders on Halloween.

He says the new regulations are legally questionable under the state's Jessica's Law and also restrict the rights of sex offenders under the First Amendment.
___

The California Highway Patrol
is urging residents to sign up for a service that sends Amber Alerts to
cellphones via text message – one more way residents can help
authorities find missing children fast.
The
service, which is free regardless of a person's wireless plan, sends
alerts tailored to specific area based on a provided ZIP code. Up to
five ZIP codes can be added, and authorities recommend that people at
least add the ZIP codes where they live and work.
Residents can sign up by visiting www.wirelessamberalerts.org. Alerts can also be sent in Spanish.


Want another way to get news about abducted children? Yeah, there's an app for that. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
has created an application for iPhones that offers a real-time feed of
active Amber Alerts, with information about the suspect and the
incident.
The application also allows a user to view a list of missing children compiled by the NCMEC and organized by states. If a user has information about a case, they can use the application to directly call NCMEC's
hotline or send a report that includes the user's current GPS
coordinates and their phone number, in case more details are needed.
According to NCMEC
officials, applications for other smartphones are in the works. In the
meantime, a similar application is available for Droid users, though it
has no connection to NCMEC.
Still another way to stay informed and potentially help find missing children is Facebook. "Like" the "California Amber Alert" page to get alerts that way, too.
An Amber Alert is an activation of the Emergency Alert System by a law enforcement agency searching for an abducted child.
Four
criteria must be met before an Amber Alert is issued: There must be
confirmation that the child was abducted, as opposed to being missing;
the victim must be 17 years old or younger, or have a proven mental or
physical disability; there must be reason to believe the victim is in
imminent danger of injury or death; and there must be information that,
if given to the public, could help lead to the child's discovery, such
as a vehicle or suspect description.
Since the Amber Alert program began in California
in 2002, 184 alerts have been issued about 223 abducted children. Of
those, 218 children have been recovered, and 106 suspects have been
arrested, according to the CHP.


Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/08/05/3818535/sign-up-for-amber-alerts-on-cellphone.html#ixzz1UG7NIrRO