What's The Big Deal? (and thanks to the great ER staff at Elmhurst Hospital)

Q- Okay, so Vargas was the manager on duty and also the Instant Response Team coordinator when the Whitick case came in to ECS, so he didn't send a case worker to the kids, he did have someone make a phone call, didn't he?
A- Yes, well someone did, and Vargas was in charge under two different hats, that of manager on duty and of IRT coordinator. Question- were the kids beaten to a pulp before, during or after the brilliant telephone call?

Q- Okay, so Vargas sent a teenaged sex abuse victim out of the shelter system with her mom back to where the guy that the kid and mother had run to the precinct away from thirteen hours earlier. You hadn't done a home assessment, Weixel. (Ask Vargas, he said you needed to do a home assessment). Also Adegbola wrote into the case record that that you only provided second hand information on this case. Not to mention that veteran supervisor George Baird was the "night administrator" that night and he thought it was fine to send the kid back, right?

A- This is where it is hard to say that Adegbola is not an idiot, but truth is he is not an idiot. He has a Master's Degree. Even if his lie were true, and I had only got information from cops, detectives, social workers, nurses and doctors of Elmhurst Hospital (who were very helpful in this case by the way, - thanks) that night and not one word from the mom or kid (a bald faced lie by Adegbola and he can take me to court if he wants to) the information was clear that the kids and mom needed to get away from that step father. That's why next day Zeinab Chahine, number two at Administration for Children's Services, (skipped over twice, now that's not nice) and her buddies were at ECS trying to fix Vargas' blunder. Don't forget, this was not even a removal. The mother agreed to bring her children to the shelter system as domestic violence victims, which all of them were. I wonder who Vargas' rabbi is. Do you?

Q- What's this thing about the four month old? What did Adegbola and Vargas do in that one?

A- A young mom and her seventeen year old baby daddy had a fight at paternal grandmother's Bronx apartment, cops came and they decided that the mom had attacked the dad, and that the house looked fine and so they locked up the mother and left the baby at the grandma's apartment not calling ACS to see if there was any child abuse record and definitely not checking to see if grandma was a criminal herself.

As they often do (when they bother themselves to do it at all) the cops called CPS hours after they had taken their own action regarding a child's well being.

When mom got released from jail with charges dismissed, she called in a CPS report that I was assigned to. I found in the record that baby's daddy was a child himself who had been removed and ordered by a judge not to return to grandma's house because she had brought baby daddy and her other kids upstate to a prison and tried to smuggle some heroin to her man and got caught. So baby daddy was not allowed to be where he was, let alone the baby. A Bronx ACS worker had come there, looked around, liked the furniture and left. So I told Adegbola that I needed to go there and get that baby out of there, and if possible baby daddy too. I told him it would be good to go there with cops as there had been violence and grandma is a felon and I would be there to take her kid and grandkid. Adegbola blew his stack, got defensive of his turf as boss and well, I went to Vargas who backed Adegbola up. Only by writing my opinion into the case record and by emailing the honchos was this assinine decision reversed.

I have a question. Okay a lot of people know about the Whitick case but the two other ones. They just involved me alone. How many other caseworkers have stories they feel too afraid to tell anyone about idiotic decisions by Vargas and Adegbola? Probably quite a few.

The public needs to consider the caliber of people in charge at ACS before they make a mistake and put a family into their hands by making that phone call. Think about it. If it's an emergency call the cops, they won't do any worse at least than ACS does, and maybe they'll do better. If it's not an emergency leave the family alone. For God's sake we all have problems and not every problem has a neat clean solution. Foster care by God surely isn't one.

PS to the people at Elmhurst Hospital. This sex abuse/domestic violence case was an ACS case on the night of 2/10/05 into the morning of 2/11/05. You can see how I tried to get the attention of the higher ups at ACS to take action about the irresponsibility of Vargas and Adegbola and how I tried to get ACS to repair the damage they had done HERE.

While Vargas is no moron he has put children at serious risk, not that that would bother anyone at ACS.

Oh, yes, the Whitick Case was called in to Child Protective Services on Superbowl Sunday, 2005. What with the television sets on bosses' desks, is it any wonder that no one went to see those kids that day???

Would You Believe It? No Reply! Why I do not trust the Inspector General's Office, or if you'd rather think so, it's just fiction.....

Whatever happened to the investigation of the Whitick case ?

Eugene Weixel, Child Protective Specialist
Administration for Children’s Services
Emergency Children’s Services
492 First Avenue Unit 579 Ground floor
New York, New York 10016-9103

BEN W. DEFIBAUGH
ACTING INSPECTOR GENERAL
180 Water Street, 2nd Floor,
New York, N.Y. 10038
Fax: 212-331-3308
Dear Mr. Defibaugh:
I am writing you first in regards to an ACS case that I believe your office is investigating, the (media case that faded away prior to the election Whitick case ) case. I communicated to the ACS Commissioner that there were memos sent by management to certain supervisors that set arbitrary limits on the number of cases that Emergency Children’s Services would classify as “visits” per shift. ----Whitick case ) case came to Emergency Chidlren’s Services and may account for why a telephone call was made to Ms. XXXXXXX rather than a visit to her home to assess her children’s situation. My communication with the Commissioner also regarded another case that you might want to look at I am including the relevant e mail communications between Mr. Mattingly, Ms. Chahine and me:
Subject: From Eugene Weixel re: IRT case of this morning
Date: 2/11/05 1:18:42 P.M. Eastern Time
From Eweixel (@AOL>COM)
To: John. Mattingly@dfa.state.ny.us
At the risk of receiving additional disciplinary charges I am bringing a case to your attention that demonstrates the extreme of irresponsible casework decisions by those who issue directives in ECS. Rather than name this case here in the Internet email I will simply say that I worked on an IRT case last night (this morning) and I carried out directives that left three children in a dangerous situation.
1. I have documented the case thoroughly, and I have sent a memo to Mr. Jean - Philippe as well as the supervisors and managers involved.
I must say also that I have followed the recent media case. I would hope that you are aware of the memos regarding limitations of case visits that were sent by management to the supervisors who were involved in that case, both before and after the media "blowup."
In my humble opinion these kinds of fiascos will continue as long as ECS supervisors and managers enjoy the impunity they are accustomed to. (End)
I received a reply from Ms. Chahine which I answered (both are included):
Subject: Email Sent Commissioner
Date: 2/12/2005 12:37:56 A. M. Eastern Standard Time
To: Eweixel@aol.comMr. Weixel,
It would be helpful if you could forward to me the memos that we mentioned in your e-mail to the Commissioner for follow up. Thanks
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

My reply was as follows:
Subject: Re: Email sent Commissioner
Date: 12/12/2005 9:37:27 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
From: Eweixel
To: Zeinab.Chahine@dfa.state.ny.us
In a message dated 2/12/2005 12:37:56 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, Zeinab.Chahine@dfa.state.ny.us writes:
Mr. Weixel,
It would be helpful if you could forward to me the memos that we mentioned in your e-mail to the Commissioner for follow up. Thanks
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld
These memos were sent to supervisors xxxx,xxxxxx Mr. xxxxxx and I believe also to Mr. xxxxxx. I doubt they'd actually give them to me because they'd fear getting into some sort of trouble. They were sent by CPM Mr. xxxxxxxxxx (Spelling?).
Thank you for responding as you did to this concern and also for the speedy action to place one of the children in my IRT case of Thursday night / Friday morning.
The case in which I was involved is summarized in a memo I sent to my supervisor, manager and director:
ADMINISTRATION
for CHILDREN’S
SERVICES
Memo
To: xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx
From: Eugene Weixel
CC: XXXXXX XXXXXX
Date: 02/11/05
Re: Redacted case SCR 214xxxxxx et al.
I must express my grave concerns regarding this case. This is a case in which a xxxxteen-year-old girl alleges that her stepfather sexually fondled her and “attacked” her. This child’s mother believes the child and moved the child into a rented room in someone else’s house to keep her away from the stepfather. This mother however was not willing to cooperate with police in identifying the stepfather in order that he be arrested. In an interview the mother stated her preference to have this xxxxxeen-year-old child taken from the home in order that the marriage to the alleged subject stepfather be preserved.This mother told the CPS that the father had threatened to kill her and had thrown objects around and “talked about killing people” in front of the two younger children.
The child disclosed to hospital staff as well as to her own mother that the father had fondled her vaginal area at least two times. This child, when asked by this CPS if she felt herself safe in the home where she was returned to the stepfather answered, “I don’t know.”
I objected to the decision to take the family out of the EAU gateway to the shelter system where the mother had agreed to take her children and I also objected to leaving the children in the home with this subject father.
The family was being accepted into the shelter system and was taken out of this system abruptly and placed into a high-risk situation.
A false entry was made in the case record: “worker has not obtained any information from child nor the mother to assess risk. All information are from various Sources including social worker and doctor.” This is contradicted by my case entries, it does not reflect anything I told you or any other supervisor or manager, and police and hospital staff can dispute it. While the child could not be interviewed at any depth because she had been asleep (after one in the morning, when her mother had brought her to the precinct at around 3:00 PM) and because of a language barrier, the child would not tell the CPS that is not afraid at her home. (She speaks and understands limited English). The mother had a lengthy interview with CPS that was facilitated by Elmhurst Hospital translation service and there was another discussion with medical staff, police and CPS with the mother that was facilitated by a (Native language) speaking nurse. I had no reason to misrepresent these facts, nor did I do so to you, to Mr. xxxxx, or to Mr. xxxxxxx.

To clarify the situation for you , Mr. Inspector General, I emphasize that I was in telephone communication with my supervisor and with supervisor George Baird, night administrator at ECS, throughout the case from the Elmhurst General Hosptal Pediatric Emergency Room, From the Emergency Assistance Unit, while in transit to the Emergency Assistance Unit and from the home of the subject family. I carried out their instructions to the letter while I made my objections clear.I hope I have helped in shedding light onto the BIG MEDIA CASE THAT WENT AWAY WHILE BLOOMBERG FOLLOWED IN THE POLLS Whitick case and a similar matter that you might wish to look into. (As you may know Ramon Vargas was the Child Protective Manager directly involved with both of these cases).
Thank You,
Eugene Weixel
917-680-5034
CC: John Mattingly
Zeinab Chahine


YES, THERE WAS THIS BIG MEDIA CASE AT THAT TIME, AND THE PRESS WROTE THAT AN INVESTIGATION WAS UNDERWAY AND NEVER REVISITED THE STORY (THE ELECTION WAS IN THE FUTURE AND AT THE TIME THE MAYOR'S STANDING WAS SHAKY) Whitick case



By the way, after Vargas ordered me to drag this teenage sex abuse victim and her terrorized mother back to the home of the terrorizer Zeinab Chahine had to get personally involved in partially rescuing the situation from Vargas' hasty abrupt and uninformed decision. Once again it was not Vargas who incurred wrath, but me, the one who warned via email the higher ups of the disaster Vargas had created. But me, for making the higher ups responsible for what their agency was doing.

Not revised. This is the heart of the problem with Ramon Vargas.