Northampton County's solicitor and other unnamed officials were awarded an Express Times turkey on Saturday because they refuse to answer questions about a recently hired, and fired, Children and Youth caseworker, Jose Huertas-Aponte. Somehow, he talked his way into a job, even though he had skipped bail after being charged in Puerto Rico with molesting a 14 year-old boy about five years ago.Children and Youth workers, whose purpose is to protect children and families, are devastated. But they've been muzzled by county officials concerned about the confidentiality owed to to both children as well as a former worker. One of these employees is willing to speak out on condition that I protect his/her anonymity.
1. Did Huertas get the usual background check? What is involved? It is my understanding that, yes, Mr. Huertas did go through the usual background check. All new hires must submit to a Child Abuse History Clearance, a Pennsylvania State Police Background Check and submit fingerprints to the FBI. I spoke with a member of the administration and asked how Mr. Huertas was able to get hired if he was out on bail in Puerto Rico. I still have not gotten a straight answer. All I can speculate is that we accepted the background checks he had submitted to Valley Counseling when he started working there or because he only used one last name (Huertas) instead on the hyphenated double last name (Huertas- Aponte) that his status in Puerto Rico was not picked up.
2. In the six months he worked there, wouldn't he have been a probationary employee most of the time? What was his caseload like? All new employees are on probation for six months. Additionally, during that time period they are undergoing state mandated training to get certified as a Caseworker. During this time period, they have a maximum caseload of seven cases. Mr. Huertas was a caseworker in one of the adolescent units.
3. Did he have an opportunity to meet privately with children? Meeting privately with children is part of being a caseworker. Unfortunately, he did have access to children.
4. Has the county contacted the families of any children who came into contact w/ Huertas? I would hope so, but have no knowledge if they actually did. I do know that one family contacted the Agency.
5. Are you familiar with the details of that other investigation? If so, is it appropriate to discuss or should it be kept quiet for now? I am not familiar with the details of that investigation. I have heard many rumors. I don't like to spread rumors.
6. How is Kevin Dolan taking this? (Dolan supervises Children and Youth). I already know he is a class act. Is he holding up? How are you holding up? How about the caseworkers? Kevin is a great leader. He is very upset about this. Actually, we are all upset about this. The majority of the staff work very hard at a very thankless job. Lets face it, the public hates Children and Youth. We are the bad guys who come in and rip families apart. Hell, Children and Youth terminates parental rights. People hate us. Seriously, people don't let their children play with my kids once they find out what I do for a living. This is just one more thing for the general public to crucify us for and once again, we cannot defend ourselves.
7. Is there room for improvement? How can your office do better? Is the caseload still too heavy? Up until *****, I was a caseworker. While caseloads average around 11 to 13 families, the hours are long. It is not uncommon for the workers in my unit to start work at 8:30 in the morning and not finish up until 7 or 8 at night. Most do not ask for overtime, but instead try to "flex" their schedules. The caseworkers are working weekends to accommodate visits between families and their children who are in placement. They often will use their own money to buy supplies that families need (diaper, milk, school supplies).
Room for improvement - recognition. The employees want their positive contributions recognized. Also, if the employee concerns could be taken seriously. This is most evident in the area safety. Lets face it, almost no one wants to be involved with CYF. Most of our clients are angry, hostile, or have some type of mental health issue. Threats to our safety are not uncommon. What has been done to address the safety concerns? Lets see, Sam and Joe [two terminated deputy sheriffs] are our security. Maintenance finally replaced all the burned out lights inside the building. Oh, and administration gave the caseworkers mini maglight flash lights for when they have to go into dark hallways.
I hate to sound like I am complaining. I am lucky enough to be able to say I really do love my job. There is always room for improvement, especially when dealing with a government agency. There will always be the redundant paperwork (lots and lots of paperwork. Way too much paperwork) or employees who do not pull their weight (between the union and civil service rules, it is nearly impossible to remove an employee once they are off probation. Luckily (?) most of the worst slacking offenders move to less stressful divisions like MH/MR and Aging, but overall, I really do think the Agency is doing the best they can do with the resources allotted to them.
8. I'm sure you saw KarenEMT's comment. She praised an "Erick". Do you have any comment about what she said? Erik is a great guy and a good investigator. I will admit that some of our investigators can be overzealous. All allegations of abuse are investigated. We realize that bogus referrals are made, but they need to be followed up on. Imagine the public outcry if we did not follow up on a referral and a child was hurt or killed.
As for the overzealous investigators, I think that comes with their job. Recently, I had the unfortunate privilege of being investigated by the Regional Office of Children and Youth. My daughter had gotten in trouble at school and to deflect the punishment told them that her [parents] were going to beat her. Without ever speaking with my daughter, the investigator looked at [us] and I and told her to stop lying and just admit that we beat the child and the investigation would be over quicker. I was appalled. I also reported her to her supervisor, but not till after she concluded the investigation (it was unfounded).
No excuse for this oversight but we live in an imperfect world and you just can't totally remove human error from these systems that are supposedly doing the background checks. Hoping the county finds the loophole and closes it tight!
ReplyDeleteA few things need to be said on this. One, all new employees cases are not limited for the first six months.. Maybe in some offices they are but certainly not in investigations. I don't believe he worked in that unit however. As far as the slackers supposedly leaving for MHMR or Aging comment that is a joke. Those are the sane people and usually the brightest. I'd agree that C&Y is a tough job
ReplyDeleteand at times thankless but they really screwed up here and need to stop making excuses. Someone needs to be called on the carpet on this one. Council should be asking questions publically and right now about why this happened and what needs to be done so it doesn't happen again..Period!!
they really screwed up here and need to stop making excuses.
ReplyDeleteExplain to me how C&Y screwed up. A background check was done. This dude was a probationary employee for most of the six months he was there. His caseload appears to have been minimal. The office supervisor, Kevin Dolan, is a class act and you must know that. So explain how C&Y screwed up.
Also, explain how county council is going to investigate this without politicizing it, as has already been done in some of the comments. Explain what county council can learn that the administration itself is unable to learn.
Oh my God Bernie..You can't be serious. This hire was an extremely nightmarish mistake. Someone screwed up somewhere. It is Council's job to do this. I can't believe you don't realize this. On your part it follows your protect Stoffa at all costs attitude. Be realistic here..Your protection of your buddies here strikes right at the heart of your credibility.. You should be better than that, you usually are..If I didn't have to run I would spend another hour on why you are wrong on this and why the Express is perfectly correct in what they had to say..
ReplyDeleteThe ET Did NOT call for a public investigation by county council. It called for public answers to some questions - and that request is reasonable. The public is entitled to know whether a background check was done and what C&Y's general procedure is concerning background checks. The public is entitled to know whether families have been notified. I don't believe that answering those questions will compromise the confidentiality owed to children or to the county's employees.
ReplyDeleteYou are demanding a very public investigation, but have not answered my question. How specifically did C&Y screw up? We all know the hire itself was a nightmarish mistake, but that is no basis for concluding that C&Y itself is at fault.
We are all aware, as Dave has noted, that we live in an imprefect world. We do know, thanks to this C&Y worker, that a background check was done.
Errors can be dealt with administratively. An investigation bty the county's legislative body will solve very little because of legal requirements concerning confidentiality.
But that's not the reason you want to launch an investigation. It has nothing to do with the children. It has everything to do with politics. Your remarks about Stoffa are evidencve of that.
Have to agree with BO'H. I've worked with social workers, not here in pa but in other states, and most of them are tremendously decent and compassionate people. like every other job, there are a few bad ones. i am glad that they did a background check, my concern was that in their desire to obtain spanish speaking workers, they shortcut the process somehow, assuming he is spanish speaking.
ReplyDeleteWhats the difference between a pitbull and children & youth??? THE PITBULL WILL EVENTUALLY LET GO OF THE CHILD!
ReplyDeleteYour comments are motivated by emotion, not logic.
ReplyDeleteGood job on the arrest Northampton County Sheriffs Department!!
ReplyDeleteThese caseworkers deserve to be hated and they know why they should be hated - because they lie in court, a clever insinuating style of lying with a grain of truth mixed in to be convincing and because the service plans they create are essentially a fraud.
ReplyDeleteIllinois DCF$ is a corrupt, incompetent, renegade bureaucracy with a communist philosophy that uses Gestapo tactics under a veil of secrecy to operate above the law and outside the moral norms of society to harm children and destroy innocent families while wasting millions of the taxpayers money.
The last thing we need is more government psycho-psychiatrists, psycho-psychologists, psycho-therapists, psycho-counselors and psycho-caseworkers who would be out of work were it not for Illinois abducting children based on HEARSAY AND LIES, and HOLDING THESE CHILDREN HOSTAGE until the parents consent to be treated like laboratory rats undergoing psychological experimentation based on JUNK SCIENCE and VOODOO PSYCHOLOGY.
The state has granted the worst kind of people power far in excess of their intellectual capacity and moral integrity, and has created a bureaucracy that attracts the worse kind of sick sadists who perpetrate a fraud on the juvenile courts of Illinois with their lies and misrepresentation of families and conspire to defraud the federal government by holding children in foster care far beyond any reasonable need.
DCF$ = Government at war with families.
We need laws with teeth to put any DCFS agent, enabler, cooperator or collaborator in PRISON for any abuse of power especially the seizure of children whose life is not in danger.
The HARM child protective services does to children with its wacko procedures and policies is well documented by intelligent researchers, but the political hacks and child traffickers are not going to give up all those $$$$$$$$$$ just because they are harming children.
Don't think the lazy, stupid caseworkers do anything in the best interests of the child. All they care about is their own comfort and convenience and all their falsified reports to make them look like heroes.
DCF$ makes me want to vomit.
The only thing I want to hear out of McKewen's mouth is how sorry he is for all the harm this agency has done, and apologize to all the innocent parents and children that they have victimized.
I want all those DCFS attorneys fired and DCFS to GET OUT OF DENIAL about what a bunch of lying rabid weasels they are and CONFESS and PROVIDE a forum to all the parents they have wrongly accused.
We need to investigate how CASA acts as a propaganda arm for foster care profiteers, and how they deliberately collaborate to destroy families. We need to have their secret reports professionally audited by someone completely independent and compensated by how many CASA volunteers they send to prison for LYING AND HARMING CHILDREN.
I curse DCF$- MAY GOD DAMN DCF$ TO H3LL.
Without an investigation it is rather hard to know if and how C&Y screwed up. So to ask me how I know they screwed up is ridiculous. The fact that they are the only C&Y agency in the State and possibly the country that recently hired a sex offender lends some credence to the idea that they screwed something up. My comment about Stoffa has nothing to do with the politics of the matter. Everyone who reads your column knows you love the guy. Why not, he's a likeable guy. That doesn't mean that Council should ignore their responsibility and look into what happened here. If they don't they are not doing their job..Period! Period! Period!
ReplyDeleteWithout an investigation it is rather hard to know if and how C&Y screwed up.
ReplyDeleteReally, you've already claimed, "they really screwed up here and need to stop making excuses. Someone needs to be called on the carpet on this one."
See, what you really want to do is sit around and slam Stoffa and C&Y. You don't know what they've done wrong, but it must be something. And you want a bunch of pols, looking for headlines, to conduct this impartial investigation.
Are you out of your mind?
The pols are supposed to find out what the hell happened and reprt it to the public so we know. That is what they are being paid for..That is what the newspaper is looking for.It is called light on the subject. However, your head is so far up Stoffa's butt you can't see this. Never will!
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this Bernie. I still shake inside thinking that there was even the tiniest possibility that Mr. Aponte could have had unsupervised contact with my children, or the children in our school or neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't want to pass blame or point fingers. Eventually, I'd love to know what kinds of steps can and will be taken to ensure that nothing like this will ever happen again here in Northampton County.
I'd also love to see investigations and services rendered with the highest amounts of professionalism and compassion possible. When statewide 80% of cases are unfounded, that means the majority of parents, teachers, and professionals being investigated are innocent. On the other hand, I truly understand the angry/mentally ill clients the agency sees again and again (many years of volunteering on the ambulance....)
I do not envy C & Y workers AT ALL. God bless them.
The pols are supposed to find out what the hell happened and reprt it to the public so we know. That is what they are being paid for.That is what the newspaper is looking for.It is called light on the subject. However, your head is so far up Stoffa's butt you can't see this. Never will!
ReplyDeleteNorthampton County Council are not crime dogs. We have a DA t conduct investigations and a county exec to supervise county employees. A legislative body exists to legisdlate, not satisfy your prurient interests and political peeves.
The newspaper exists to protect the public's right to know, but last time I checked, no newspaper was calling for a witch hunt.
And once again, you come back to Stoffa. Hmmmm.
What is this, the Spanish Inquisition?
The Spanish Inquisition is what we need. Now would be a good time, since no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.
ReplyDeleteI find, I agree with the anonn poster at 3:57. This is a serious issue and one of the functions of County Council is to review County issues. The way someone is hired is indeed an important issue. The taxpayers pay not only salaries but insurance and lawsuits when problems occur. The people in the chain of command can speak to the process without compromising this specific case.
The problem I have is, you know that Bernnie. You have advocated all kinds of reviews by CC over the years. When Angle went over the top in the past you never said let the administration handle that you were one of the first in line with a noose.
You really do seem to be very defensive regarding this administration. Please don't say everyone that has a problem is out to get poor Mr. Stoffa. You sound like the Pawloski/Bennet Patrol. I happen to believe this Department gets alot of abuse and stonewalling only makes it worse. Who does that benefit, the Department or the Stoffa Administration?
If Council does not publicy review policy, they, not the administration are guilty of gross negligence.
I've read enough of this post to see political pundits spout off on something, that they don't know their arse from a hole in the ground.
ReplyDeleteCounty Council will NOT investigate a damn thing in this case, and I will tell you why.
First, the culprit was arrested. Lay 90% of any blame where it is deserved. On the criminal. I love it when political amateurs blame everyone but the criminal.
Secondly, criminal background checks are a FEDERAL and STATE systems. County Council has no jurisdiction. They can fish all they want. NCIC is a federal criminal information system, while CLEAN is Pennsylvania's system.
Thirdly, depending on how his fingerprints are submitted, if taken manually, it takes months for the FBI to come back with an answer.
Fourth, ever hear of garbage in, garbage out? Criminal arrests are only inputted into NCIC if, and only if, the police department has someone doing it. Believe it or not, the majority of police departments enter information, but a few do not. I wonder if the Puerto Rican police department entered his information in a timely manner.
Fifth, the anons on this post are blaming people and systems within the County. AGAIN, for your thick uneducated skulls, these are FEDERAL and STATE systems that are relied upon for background checks. If you want to go digging up political dirt, go somewhere else. If you can't quantify your reasoning why C&Y need investigating, then you're just a bunch of political hacks, talking out your ass.
BC
From my fourth point above, add this from the Express-Times -
ReplyDelete"A background check likely would have been fruitless, because the warrant under which Huertas-Aponte was arrested was signed June 19, six months after he began his job with the county."
The County did everything it was supposed to do. If you want to go on a witch hunt or blame someone, then blame the Puerto Rican Criminal Justice System for not inputting the information in NCIC in a timely fashion.
Or better yet, since you want County Council to investigate something, send them out of the contiguous U.S. We could use the break around here from all this fingerpointing.
BC
I was told about this thread, amazing. I have never heard people get so fired up about NOT looking into a problem. If I didn't think there were problems worth looking into before, I for one think there is something now.
ReplyDeleteIf by chance this BC person is a County employee, rank and file or Administration, then the sooner the better.
This sounds like on arrogant bunch of people who have lost touch with what they are entrusted to do. Thats apparent even to someone with a thick skull like myself.
Anon 11:25,
ReplyDeleteNo one has suggested that we NOT look into a serious problem. If there is criminal activity, we have a DA. If there are problems in C&Y, that's for the administration to examine. But the last thing you want to do is convene a group of part-time county pols to stick their noses in children's files and employer-employee relationships. Convening a kangaroo court and taking those risks is just plain stupid. The only reason to do something irresposnible like that is for political mileage.
Not one member of council mentioned the incident this evening, which suggests to me that they are thankfully aware of their own limitations.
As far as the identity of "BC" is concerned, the message matters far more than the messenger. Without knowing who he/she is, you go on to take his remarks and then claim that C&Y is an arrogant bunch that has lost sight of its mission.
That's like adding 1 + 1 and coming up with 3.
To anon 11:25 PM
ReplyDeleteIf the County is not given information, upfront, from the State or Federal governments that they rely upon, then wherein lies the fault? This isn't arrogance. It's fact.
You are blaming the County for lapses in other governmental systems. If a criminal history comes back without listing anything, what else is the County to do? I would like to hear your answer. Identify the problem and provide specific solutions.
You are speculating (as am I) but the answer will probably come back to loopholes found in NCIC or the lack of information provided by the originating arresting agency in Puerto Rico, not a Northampton County employee.
It is a shame all this valuable information is on a blog and not disseminated by a Public Agency.
ReplyDeleteI blame no one yet but find it amazing that there is so much to not say by some who say so much on this blog. If it is so obvious say it at a public meeting.
Anyone who scans blogs is aware of Bernies sudden trust in all things Executive Branch since Mr. Stoffa took office, that was not always the case. I get where he is coming from but if it is so ex[plainable and so non-privledged information have the meeting.
Sorry, Dude this does not pass the smell test not even close. The problem is if the shadt hits the fan for some reason, Stoffa will get a pass like he always has but the Department will bear the brunt.
Better to get out in front on these things since it is so obvious.
Once again, you just have to bring up Stoffa. This is not about him. This is about children. I do have confidence in Stoffa, a good man. I also have confidence in Kevin Dolan, the CYF Director who was appointed when Reibman was in office.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when it comes to prior administrations, I can't think of a single situation in which CC ever convened an investigation. Sorry, but you're dreaming. There was no CC investigation into the payments that resulted in the federal prosecution of Michael Solomon. There was no CC investigation into cell phone abuse or Vince Dominach's penchant for wife swapping on county time. Even when there were allegations of all kinds of misconduct at the prison, it was the administration that investigated the allegations. So did the DA. I had no opinion bc I never knew the facts. That is not CC's job.
My criticism of Reibman related to the bond and pay to play practices. It was never personal.
Once you deal with an investigator, and her supervisor who knowingly submit decieving "evidence" to cover for their lack of investigatory skills, and lack of judgement when it comes to sending an abused child right back to a household where the mother has failed a lie detctor test, and the mother's boyfriend has pending drug dealing charges which he was convicted of and sentenced for you WILL understand why people have NO faith in the system.
ReplyDeleteThis child recieved many more serious injuries because of these "lapses" of judgement.
Fact. Not inuendo.
Really I knew nothing about this until today. I feel that the reason this guy got away with getting this job was because he lied by not using his full name & the lack of communication between other countries & ours. There should be a system where all criminal records are available world wide. I don't think C&Y is at all respoonsible for this mistake. As for hating C&Y, yes I hated my caseworker for quite sometime. I now understand that they really are just out to protect children. They do try to reunite families when possible. I am thankful for all my caseworkers have done for mty family. My children are still in care (7 years). Due to my mental illness, them coming home just is not an option any more. I see children every other weekend ( they come oposite weekends because they don't get along). I love my children & would do anything to keep them safe. C&Y helps make sure they are safe. I thank C&Y for all they do.
ReplyDelete