NJ SCHOOLS REQUIRED TO SHOW CHILD ABUSE HOTLINE FOR KIDS TO CALL

New Jersey has a new law that requires all schools to post information about the state child abuse hotline in their buildings starting this fall.

“It’s an additional tool for children if they’re suffering abuse and neglect at home or elsewhere. They will then have the information themselves and can make the phone call,” said Christine Norbut Beyer, commissioner of the state Department of Children and Families.

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One Family's Journey Through Guardianship Hell

The last time Patricia Femia saw her mother, Ada Vocino, was February 14,  2013 — Valentine’s Day. But this was anything but a heartfelt meeting. The two women were in the Morris County Courthouse in Morristown, N.J. and were there for war.

Patricia was Ada’s only child. Until a few months before that day in court, Ada’s life had revolved around Patricia and her family. They’d lived together in an apartment Patricia built into her home in 2007, as Ada — a wartime immigrant — wanted. Previously, Ada helped raise Patricia’s sons and daughter.

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Police: Man accused of assaulting social worker during evaluation in Garden City

A Bethpage man is accused of attacking a social worker during an evaluation in Garden City.

Police say 63-year-old Richard Schipani was being evaluated at the Nassau County Social Services building around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, when he suddenly began to attack the female social worker.

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Nurse was fired for reporting child neglect, disgusting conditions at group homes, suit claims

A former nurse who complained about “disgusting and unsanitary” conditions and inadequate staffing at several South Jersey group homes for children claims in a new lawsuit that she was fired for being a whistleblower.

Doreen M. Romalino, of Franklinville, filed suit against the Center for Family Services, Inc. in Superior Court of Camden County Friday afternoon under the state’s Conscientious Employment Protection Act, known as CEPA.

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N.J. caseworker with ‘direct access to children’ produced child pornography, feds say

A caseworker with New Jersey’s child welfare agency - who was previously fired from a teaching job over allegations about his conduct with students - was charged Friday with producing images of child sexual abuse, according to court documents and officials.

Kayan Frazier faces federal charges of producing visual depictions of a child engaged in sexually explicit conduct, receipt of child pornography and distribution of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced. The 27-year-old was already in custody at the Atlantic County jail since his April arrest on state child pornography offenses.

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Judge: Teen accused of rape deserves leniency because he’s from a ‘good family'

An appeals court reprimanded a New Jersey court judge last month for refusing to try as an adult a 16-year-old boy accused of raping an intoxicated girl and sharing a video of the alleged assault with friends, according to several media reports.

Judge James Troiano claimed the boy was “from a good family,” was an Eagle Scout and attended an “excellent school.”

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DCF worker ordered detained on child pornography charges

A Department of Children and Families caseworker charged with child pornography will remain in jail, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Ka’yan Frazier, 26, had more than 1,000 images and videos of children engaged in sexual acts on his cell and email, Assistant Prosecutor David Ruffenach told the judge.

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DCF caseworker jailed on child pornography charges

A caseworker for the Department of Children and Families is jailed on child pornography charges.
Ka’yan Frazier, 26, of Somers Point, was arrested Monday following an investigation sparked by a tip from Tumblr, according to the affidavit obtained by BreakingAC.

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Too many N.J. teens leave foster care homeless and unemployed

Too many young adults who “aged out” of the New Jersey’s foster care system in the first half of 2018 had not yet enrolled in school, landed a job or found a reliable place to live, according to the latest report by a national expert evaluating child welfare services in the state.

The latest report, delivered to U.S. District Court Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark Tuesday, reflects the first six months of the Murphy administration’s work toward improving New Jersey’s child welfare services, which was once considered among the nation’s most dysfunctional.

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Ex-New Jersey Child Welfare Worker Who Extorted Sex From Female Clients Sentenced

A former New Jersey assistant family services worker who last year admitted to extorting sex from two women he was responsible for supervising during court-ordered child visits was sentenced to three years in prison, the state’s attorney general announced Friday.

Lamont King, 42 and of Trenton, pleaded guilty on July 30, 2018 to a second-degree charge of conspiracy to commit a pattern of official misconduct.

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No. 8 story of 2018: Child dies in care of foster parent, man indicted for murder

A 5-year-old boy died in the care of foster parents who were in the process to adopt him, and one of the parents was indicted for murder and involuntary manslaughter.

According to a 911 call placed on June 2, Nathaniel Gard had been wrestling with one of his foster parents and a 6-year-old brother. Gard had "started breathing weird" and then become unresponsive, the caller said. He then stopped breathing and CPR was started by Gard's other foster parent, 30-year-old Kenneth Schulz.

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New Jersey Republican urges Trump administration to crack down on international parental child abduction

House Foreign Affairs subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith called on the Trump administration to take concerted action to stop international parental child abduction.

“The Trump administration can and must use current law, especially the tools embedded in the Goldman Act, to more aggressively bring American children home to their families,” Smith (R-N.J.) said at a hearing on Monday that featured testimony from parents whose children were abducted abroad.

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Murphy says it's 'too early to tell' how N.J. will deal with facility where 11 children died

Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday his administration hasn't yet determined how it will hold a Passaic County health facility accountable for the 11 children that have died in recent months from a viral outbreak.

"It's too early to tell," Murphy said during an unrelated news conference in Paterson.

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Foster Father Indicted on Murder Charge in Boy's Death

A man whose 5-year-old foster son died after sustaining severe head trauma and bruises has been indicted on charges of murder and involuntary manslaughter in the boy's death.

Thirty-year-old Kenneth Schulz, of Newark, was indicted in June on child endangering charges after Nathaniel Gard was hospitalized and died a few days later. Licking County prosecutors had the boy's autopsy results reviewed by an independent expert and recently presented additional evidence to a grand jury, which indicted Schulz last week on the latest charges.

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Newark foster father faces murder charge in death of child

One of the foster fathers caring for a 5-year-old boy who died in June has been indicted on charges of murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Kenneth Schulz, 30, of Newark, was indicted by a Licking County grand jury last week. In June, Schulz was indicted on two endangering children charges, one a second-degree felony and the other a third-degree felony, in Licking County Common Pleas Court.

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Teaneck Social Worker Charged With Collecting On Bogus Claims For Kids' Mental Health Services

A clinical social worker from Teaneck falsely billed the Medicaid program for mental health services she claimed she provided to at-risk children and adolescents, a state grand jury has charged.

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NJ Family Court Judge Reprimanded for Involvement in Friend's Custody Case

The New Jersey Supreme Court has publicly reprimanded an Essex County judge for violating ethics rules by becoming involved in a friend’s child custody case.


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Regulations Needed on Therapeutic Foster Homes

Tort judgments concerning duty and liability, typically compensatory and tied to the facts of the particular case, provide a weak and inefficient regulatory mechanism. But individual actions do provide an opportunity to inform regulators by surveying the experience of others in comparable cases. Through precedent, broader rules may evolve. Thus the Appellate Division in the recently published Broach-Butts v. Therapeutic Alternatives, LLC surveyed the gradual extension of duty rules by New Jersey courts. Reversing a grant of summary judgment, the court declared that a private social welfare agency has a duty to prospective therapeutic foster care families to fully inform them of the problems a youth may present.

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Child services employee shoots and kills herself inside Paramus office

 A Division of Child Protection and Permanency employee shot and killed herself inside the state office Monday morning, police said.

The unidentified 57-year-old woman was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, said Paramus Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg.

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• Child Services Worker, 57, Commits Suicide At Paramus Office; 'Sister' Offices Assisting
• Child welfare worker kills herself inside office

Man threatens to kill cops, social worker, police say

A man who in 2015 scuffled with Easton police threatened to kill three officers and a Northampton County Children, Youth and Families worker on Monday night in his Easton home, court papers say.

Joshua Michael Clark, 27, of the 100 bock of North Eighth Street, was told by officers just before 9 p.m. that his 4-month-old daughter was being placed into foster care for the night, city police said.

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