A Sierra Vista toddlerβs prolonged abuse and near starvation is the focus of a critical 10-page memorandum the stateβs new child welfare director sent to the former director.
The document offers a possible glimpse at why Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey replaced Charles Flanagan with Greg McKay earlier this month.
In the Nov. 15, 2014, document, which was released by the state Wednesday, McKay β then director of the agencyβs Office of Child Welfare Investigations β criticized aspects of Flanaganβs newly implemented process to address inactive, or backlog, cases.
Flanagan was appointed director of the newly named Department of Child Safety in January 2014 by then-Gov. Jan Brewer and was charged with re-creating the beleaguered agency, then called Child Protective Services, and addressing over 6,000 backlogged reports.
The Sierra Vista case McKay discusses, which was not made public on the agencyβs fatality/near fatality Web pages until Monday, involves the near-starvation of a 3-year-old child in September 2014. The Arizona Daily Star is withholding the childβs name to protect his privacy. The childβs mother and the motherβs boyfriend have been charged with child abuse.
βIt is not my intention to simply undermine good-faith efforts to confront a daunting task,β McKay wrote to Flanagan. βHowever, if the spirit and intent was to address and ensure child safety, I offer you this analysis and hope you share my concerns.β
McKay, who has declined interview requests, then details the DCSβs failures in addressing the toddlerβs case, including failing to notify law enforcement about the coupleβs alleged criminal conduct, additional allegations going uninvestigated and a failure to check back on the child.
In March 2014, the most recent call before the September report, a caller told the DCS that the child was βskin and bonesβ and had not been fed for three days because he couldnβt say the word βeat.β
All of this occurred, McKay wrote, before a review team under Flanagan looked back on the case, in August 2014, and found the βinvestigation had been completed.β
Overall, the DCS received at least seven reports of neglect about the child beginning in September 2011, when the agency β then CPS β was notified about the childβs mother using marijuana during her pregnancy.
In September, one month after the review teamβs meeting, the child was described as βa skeleton with skin draped over him.β
He spent several weeks in the hospital, in critical condition, and is now living with a relative.
