Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Sexually trafficked girl recounts litany of horrors under DCF’s watch
Miami Herald ^ | July 3, 2015 | By Carol Marbin Miller

Posted on 07/03/2015 6:02:53 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee

Neglect and abandonment landed the girl in foster care. But it’s what happened next, she said, that nearly destroyed her.

In a hushed courtroom in Miami’s gleaming new downtown Children’s Courthouse, a teenage foster child inventoried the traumas she had endured at the hands of those who were assigned to protect her: She had been starved and beaten, molested and forced to fight during her two years in foster homes and group care. As a runaway, she was trafficked into prostitution.

And, just as her life appeared to be mending, the girl was raped by a driver in whose care she was entrusted by a privately run child welfare group, records say. Earlier this week, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia allowed the girl to read a long letter in court, detailing her many grievances against the state.

The Department of Children & Families “has messed me up mentally and emotionally. I know I can never get my childhood back,” the girl said in court, reading from the letter she had written to Sampedro-Iglesia, who is overseeing her case. “But I refuse to let my past take my future.”

(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: dcf; florida; fostercare; fosterchildren; mariasampedroiglesia; miami; miamidade; sexslavery

1 posted on 07/03/2015 6:02:53 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

If all this is true, it’s a tragic story to be sure. Problem is, how do you know? For instance the driver that is mentioned, is there a way to back up her story there?

Did the guy quit because he felt guilty, or did he quit because he was threatened with being fired and registered if he didn’t?

People who get mired in the system can be as tragic as this young woman appears on the surface to be, or they can be some of the biggest manipulators known to man.

First off, I think you take special care to make sure she isn’t abused from this point forward.

Then you have to do a systematic investigation to determine if the allegations are true.

Any allegations to be found true, I hope the folks who did them never see the light of day again.


2 posted on 07/03/2015 6:13:31 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Conservatism: Now home to liars too. And we'll support them. Yea... GOPe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

I have just become a Guardian ad Litem volunteer so I could be a court advocate for children in the foster care system. This story breaks my heart.


3 posted on 07/03/2015 6:13:55 PM PDT by Cowgirl of Justice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

Assign a newly hired young male driver, without any background check, to drive a young girl hundreds of miles, alone.

What could possibly go wrong?


4 posted on 07/03/2015 6:13:58 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

“I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.


5 posted on 07/03/2015 6:14:00 PM PDT by albie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne

As you say, these are all allegations, not necessarily facts.


6 posted on 07/03/2015 6:15:15 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

Very sad to read stories like this. It makes me much more angry than my candidate losing ground in the primaries. People responsible for these crimes on children should be locked up for life in harsh prisons. May be export them to Mexican jails. Tax payers would save 75% of cost.


7 posted on 07/03/2015 6:16:05 PM PDT by entropy12 (I always see glass half full. I see something good in all people, even the crappy RINO's!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne

its a damn litany of horrors. If even a part of its true she deserves all the help she can be given. I have no doubt the drivers guilty quitting like that.


8 posted on 07/03/2015 6:45:41 PM PDT by wiggen (#JeSuisCharlie)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

And now with legalized sodomizing, foster parents will get better. NOT.


9 posted on 07/03/2015 7:06:23 PM PDT by George from New England (escaped CT in 2006, now living north of Tampa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne

Tragedy? hm.. more like a catastrophe.


10 posted on 07/03/2015 7:12:11 PM PDT by lavaroise (A well regulated gun being necessary to the state, the rights of the militia shall no)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

Anyone who thinks the government is the answer to any social problem is an imbecile.


11 posted on 07/03/2015 7:20:33 PM PDT by Spok ("What're you going to believe-me or your own eyes?" -Marx (Groucho))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

Consequences of the Parens Patriae doctrine.


12 posted on 07/03/2015 7:22:37 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cowgirl of Justice

If it is true, it breaks mine too.

If it is true.


13 posted on 07/03/2015 7:24:42 PM PDT by RinaseaofDs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: wiggen

Think about what you said. If only part of it is true, she is lying about all the rest. That means the people she is giving testimony about are innocent and she’s causing them serious trouble.

We both agree that if what she says is true, it is tragic. Parts of the story seemed a bit much. The part about where she was forced to put a gun to someone else’s head caused me to scratch mine.

I make no determination if she is truthful or not, but if she is not being totally truthful, it’s for power and it’s an extreme case of being at someone (a number of people and organization’s) elses expense.


14 posted on 07/04/2015 8:59:55 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (Conservatism: Now home to liars too. And we'll support them. Yea... GOPe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: lavaroise

If true, I agree. And hey, it may be true. I just don’t know.


15 posted on 07/04/2015 9:01:37 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (Conservatism: Now home to liars too. And we'll support them. Yea... GOPe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson