THE FAMILY COURT PROJECT HAS COME TO A CLOSE.
Effective 6/1/08, Family Court Chronicles has become inactive (announcement), and
no new information will be added. The page below is retained for
archive purposes, but it could be out of date. Upon request,
the webmaster will
continue to correct significant errors and will consider
removing information that is destructively obsolete.
(Email: FamilyCourtGuy (at) gmail.com) See
Glenn Campbell's home page for his still-active websites.
In his appeal, Mejia contended that Natalie Guesman, who works for Child Protective Services, should have given him a so-called Miranda warning before she questioned him about his actions.
Mejia was married in 2003 and moved in with his new wife, who had two daughters, 13 and 12, from a prior marriage. Within a month, he was accused of molesting both girls, the court said.
Guesman spoke with Mejia twice during her investigation, and the second time, he admitted touching one of the girls inappropriately.
The children were removed from the home until Mejia could find another place to live.
Mejia received a life term with parole eligibility after 20 years.
"We've got to find a way to strengthen families before they disrupt," said Tom Waite, president of Girls and Boys Town of Nevada. "Right now we are seeing kids floating down the river, and we're jumping in to save them.
"Nobody is going upriver to see who is throwing the kids in."
Morton's hiring has drawn fire from child advocates and members of the Blue Ribbon Panel assembled by the state to follow up on child death review findings. Several people, including Donna Coleman of the Washington, D.C.-based group Demanding Justice for America's Children, thought a national search should have been held.
Morton counters by observing that managers at both local and state levels are often hired without a national search process. At the time of Morton's hiring, Reilly also said he thought it was important to move quickly to fill the vacancy.
Morton has been touted as an out-of-the-box thinker with a track record of bringing about meaningful reform. But his earlier work in Clark County raised questions for child advocates like Coleman.
"I decided to run because I saw what was happening at the district attorney's office, specifically the mass exodus of experienced and talented prosecutors like Ed Kane, Melissa De La Garza and Gary Booker," Ferguson said.
"When you see the brightest and best not only jumping ship, but actually going across the street to join the public defender's office, you know something is wrong."
The Clark County Department of Family Services is
getting a new Director, Thomas Morton. He was
recruited in secret, with no opportunity for
other candidates to apply. Judges, DFS staff
and affected agencies were not consulted.
There was no opportunity for public input
and apparently no background investigation.
Reilly pointed out that Morton's appointment will not be official until ratified by the County Commission, which he hopes will happen in June. In the meantime, he encouraged anyone with questions about Morton or his appointment to come forward and express them: "If people are concerned, I really encourage them to sit down and meet with him."
Morton, in fact, has several meetings scheduled in Las Vegas this week, including one that Coleman will attend.
Morton also may face questions about criticism of him by detractors at two Midwest child service organizations. The criticism has been highlighted on Campbell's Web site.
Clark County commissioners complained during a budget hearing this week that the state keeps creating new jobs that the county has to fund....
The state pays the judges' salaries, but the county has to fund courtroom positions such as clerks and bailiffs.
Please tell us about this
Thomas Morton, who is supposed to
be our next Director of Family Services. Good? Bad? Indifferent?
If you want to comment anonymously, you can use the link at the
bottom of the page, but we need your input.
This is a very important position, and it feels like
we are getting this one candidate shoved down our
throat whether we want him or not. Is this the best
candidate for the job?
After a Google search, we've got some preliminary concerns.
Some people in the world of child welfare don't like him.
(See the here for
some quotes.)
"Despise" comes to mind, although we haven't actually
heard that word from anyone.
We don't understand the substance of the disputes,
but we can compare websites. Morton's site is
here. His opponent's sites
are here
and here.
Upon superficial review, Morton's writing strikes us
as multi-layered bullshit, but maybe that's because
we don't grasp the underlying concepts. He writes in
consultant-speak. His opponents
at least have clear, accessible sites.
We're scared, but we're not sure why.
Can you give us some help? Any dirt you can dig up
would be most appreciated. (Or perhaps you can lay
our fears to rest.)
Is this something we ought to try to derail at
an early stage?
6 am, 5/5:
We just woke up in a sweat after a night of nightmares.
"Bork!" we cried out.
"Bork, Bork, Bork!" we chanted at breakfast.
It's just a dream. It may not mean anything.
You remember Bork? Saturday Night Massacre?
The whole borking phenomenon? For a while, women
were borking Bork, all the time. Blacks and
gays, too. Once you've been borked or seen it happen,
it's something you never forget.
Still don't know what we're talking about?
Where were you during the 20th Century?
Specifically, where were you during the 1970s?
Don't give us that lame excuse: "Not born yet."
Our point is, Is Morton a Bork, and if he is, should
we bork him?
Susan Klein-Rothschild, who has headed the Department
of Family Services during its troubled
absorption of state foster care services, has abruptly
resigned, effective immediately.
Her successor was named immediately by the County Manager.
He is Thomas Morton, a consultant from
Georgia, who is expected to start work in July.
The departure of Susan K-R was not
unexpected, and we doubt that the child death inquiry
had much to do with it. Susan K-R was completely
dedicated to the job, but support for her within
the organization and the court was lukewarm.
In our opinion, she was a good
technical manager, but not a leader. She was not the
kind to "fire up the troops," and provide ideological direction,
which was badly needed.
It is fairly remarkable, given the hot-seat nature of the
position, that SKR lasted as long as she did. Directors
at the state agency, DCFS, tend to last about as long
as Italian governments. We hope we are not starting
one of those cycles with DFS. Given the huge
problems that are building up, heads could roll every
few months.
In the few hours we have known of Mr. Morton's
existance, some red flags have been raised.
See the Morton entry
on the people page for our latest
Google results.
The article itself is a mess. In one paragraph, it says:
"Klein-Rothschild said she was not forced out of the director's job, a position she took in December 2001."
...While another
one states,
"Klein-Rothschild -- who just this week learned that Clark County Manager Thom Reilly was courting a Georgia candidate to reorganize the department she led -- said her resignation is effective immediately."
It stands to reason that if the County Manager
was secretly courting a replacement since December, without telling
the present Director, then the present Director is probably
going to be forced out. The present Director, upon learning of the
negotiation, chose to resign immediately. It sounds like "forced
out" to us.
The reporter displays a common journalistic fallacy:
Whenever something happens, it must be the result of the
last thing the paper wrote about, in this case child deaths.
If the child death issue only got hot in the past couple
of months, but the county manager started talking to Morton
in December, then that issue probably isn't the sole cause.
Here's what the article says about Morton....
Morton, founder of the Atlanta-based
Child Welfare Institute, began discussions with Reilly about taking the job in December....
"We need out-of-the-box thinking," said Reilly, who described Morton as a nationally respected consultant on child welfare....
Morton could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. According to county records, the director's position held by Klein-Rothschild pays an annual base salary of about $135,601. Morton has not concluded contract negotiations with the county, so his annual salary has not been set....
Reilly, himself a former social worker, said the new director will be in Las Vegas later this month to meet his staff and the community. The decision to appoint Morton to the position without conducting a national candidate search was made to secure an excellent candidate and get things moving as quickly as possible, Reilly said.
Checks and balances? Who needs checks and balances?
Who needs community input or — Heaven forbid! —
input from the County Commissioners?
"(Morton) played key roles in reforming the child welfare systems in Illinois and Alabama, two of the most successful child welfare reform efforts of the past decade," Reilly said.
Morton is no stranger to Clark County or Nevada. He's worked as a consultant here in the past. In 2005, the county contracted with Morton's Child Welfare Institute to review 11 child fatalities related to open CPS cases and recommend improvements. The review, which included several recommendations for improving performance, did not find the county to be negligent in any of the child deaths.
"Before Mr. Morton sets foot in Nevada, he needs to explain himself," said Donna Coleman, a former Las Vegas child advocate who is now with Demanding Justice for America's Children, a national advocacy group. "He found there was no wrongdoing on the county's part. Well, we all know now that's not true."
Coleman said she objects to the county manager's decision to forgo a national search, especially since it's a process that could have heightened the profile of child welfare issues within the community.
"This was a huge opportunity for the community to get involved," Coleman said. "I'm very disappointed with the secrecy and the going behind everyone's back to hire this person."
Nationally respected child welfare expert Thomas D. Morton was named today as the new director of the county’s Family Services Department.
Morton, the founder of the Atlanta-based Child Welfare Institute, will assume the post in July, County Manager Thom Reilly announced. Until then, Assistant Director Nancy McLane, who has been with the county since 1982, will serve as acting director with the help of long-time, former county juvenile justice and child welfare executive Adrienne Cox.
Morton’s appointment follows the resignation of Susan Klein-Rothschild from the position, effective today.
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5/19/06:
Child
Welfare Veteran Heads Up Child Protective Services
(KLAS/cm)
[Related articles]
TV interview with Thomas Morton.
5/19/06:
Thomas
Morton Interviews on Face-to-Face with Jon Ralson
(LVone)
[Related articles]
Nominated DFS Director is interviewed at length
on a cable TV talk show.
See our Morton Investigation
for direct video links and partial transcript.
5/19/06:
DA
finds himself in a race:
Roger, once uncontested, draws challenges, criticism (Sun/mp)
[Related articles]
Relevant to juvenile justice, although the
delinquency D.A.'s are not specifically mentioned.
5/17/06:
County manager gets raise
(RJ/ap)
