Lifeway under fire
Dann sues to close foster agency
Cadwallader, Bruce. Columbus Dispatch, May 17, 2007, pg. B3.
The state attorney general has gone to court to shut down an agency entrusted with the care of nearly 400 foster children in Ohio.
Marc Dann says in a lawsuit that one child was murdered and two boys reported being raped by foster parents affiliated with Lifeway for Youth Inc., based in New Carlisle in Clark County.
The agency has violated state laws and rules of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, and the children in its care can't be assured of safety, the suit says.
Yesterday, Dann's office tried to obtain an emergency order to remove all children from the care of the agency and the foster parents affiliated with it.
A state law that took effect in September gives common pleas judges authority to take emergency action when children are at "imminent risk," lawyers for Dann told Judge Richard S. Sheward in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
Assistant Attorney General Jesse Cantrell said inspectors with Job and Family Services have substantiated six complaints of substandard care or criminal behavior involving Lifeway foster parents. The agency also has 55 violations involving lack of criminal background checks, fire inspections of foster homes and other rules, Cantrell said.
The state has been trying to revoke the agency's foster-care license for six months, but Dann says the process isn't moving quickly enough, the lawyers said.
Lisa P. Reisz, an attorney for Lifeway, said yesterday, "This has been going on for five or six months, so I'm not sure how you get to imminent risk."
A hearing with the state department is set for June 4.
Sheward agreed.
"I do not feel comfortable finding that children are in imminent risk by equating risk with administrative deficiencies, which have not been proven," he said. He set a hearing for next Thursday.
Franklin County Children Services stopped referring children to Lifeway in December, a spokeswoman said. Lifeway, which employs 70 people and has been licensed to provide foster care in Ohio since 1994, has an office in Hilliard.
The lawsuit and request for a court order are "a result of Lifeway's continuing refusal to comply with state law," Dann said in a statement. "Children placed by this agency are at imminent risk because (state inspectors) do not have appropriate assurances to believe these children are safe."
About 10,000 children are in foster care statewide; nearly half of their cases are managed by private agencies. Ohio legislators are trying to strengthen background checks of foster parents.
Lifeway came under fire last summer when a 3-year-old developmentally handicapped boy in its care died after his foster parents, Liz and David Carroll Jr. of Clermont County, bound him, left him in a closet and went to a family reunion for the weekend.
Both parents were convicted of murder and other charges in the death of Marcus Fiesel. Lifeway was accused of failing to monitor the Carrolls.
In another Clermont County case, two boys were reportedly raped by a foster father in October. That case is pending.
