Would you trust your children with someone convicted of domestic violence and assault?

Foster home arrests go higher
Official demands to know why kids placed there
Coolidge, Sharon. Cincinnati Enquirer, March 16, 2007, pg. B1.

Another 30 Hamilton County foster parents or other adults in foster homes have past arrests, officials discovered Thursday .

One man who lived in the home with a foster child had to be hospitalized for mental illness in January after being arrested for menacing by stalking, according to records from the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Office.

Of the 30, three have been convicted of domestic violence, records show. Domestic violence convictions automatically exclude people from being foster parents, according to state law. It is unclear whether the three people are foster parents or just live in homes with foster children.

That means 57 of 517 Hamilton County foster parents checked - 11 percent - have criminal histories.

Of the 27 Hamilton County foster parents checked earlier this month, the county Department of Job and Family Services has sought to move two children, one from a man who has been convicted of child endangering, department spokesman Brian Gregg said.

The most recent checks include foster parents licensed through private agencies and parents licensed through the county.

At least another 233 foster parents licensed in Hamilton County have not been checked, but the department has pledged to make sure all foster parents are entered into a daily criminal background check by April 4.

There are 750 children in Hamilton County foster care. Two Hamilton County children have died in foster care in the last seven years.

"This problem is significant," said county Clerk of Courts Greg Hartmann, whose office did the background checks.

He demanded that the department explain to the public its decision to place children with these parents.

"You wonder if the bureaucrats who gave children to these people would allow them to care for their own children," said county Commissioner Pat DeWine, who created the background check program with Hartmann.

"It shows we need background checks done on the rest of the foster parents immediately."

Said Gregg: "We'll take a deeper look at each one. We'll do it as quickly as possible. We want to make sure kids are as safe as they can be."

The records show the 57 parents were charged with assault, domestic violence, receiving stolen property, menacing and welfare fraud among other things. In most cases, the charges were tossed out or reduced to lesser charges. Minor charges would allow them to continue to be foster parents.

The man arrested of menacing by stalking has a lengthy criminal record dating to 1986. He has been convicted of resisting arrest, domestic violation, disorderly conduct and assault.

The man was found incompetent to go to trial Jan. 12. The criminal case was dismissed, but he was found mentally ill in Hamilton County Probate Court and sent to a state mental hospital. He has since been released, Hartmann said.

JFS officials could not say whether the man is back in the house with the child.

DeWine and Hartmann teamed up last fall to create the instant notification system after 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel died in foster care in Clermont County. Marcus' foster father had been arrested for domestic violence, a charge never seen by foster-care case workers because background checks were done only sporadically.