Utah lawmakers question DCFS response time in Franke child abuse case
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Why did it take so long to stop the abuse being suffered by Ruby Franke's children? It’s a question many are asking. Family members said they were calling for help for years, and the police and the Division of Child and Family Services seemed to do nothing about it. Whose job is it to make sure DCFS is doing their job?
There’s a panel on Utah’s Capitol Hill that oversees DCFS, and members of that panel said they’ve wanted answers about this case for months. However, they weren’t really able to get a lot of details from the division until now.
“Finally.”
One word posted on Shari Franke’s Instagram story over a video of police trying to arrest her mother, Ruby, at her home in Springville. In another post, she stated, “We’ve been trying to tell police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up.”
A group of lawmakers tasked with overseeing DCFS have been wondering the same thing: why did it take so long?
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“The report that I saw said that they went to their home, nobody would answer the door," District 67 Rep. Christine Watkins said. "So, there was never anyone that had eyes on those kids once they forced the father out of the home.”
Watkins is co-chair of the Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Panel, which oversees the Utah Division of Child and Family Services. In June, the panel will meet with DCFS officials, and Watkins said she expects them to talk specifically about the Franke/Hildebrandt case for hours.
Watkins was asked, “Do you expect a pretty good grilling of DCFS during your meeting in June?” She responded, “Yes.”
Watkins said they’ve wanted information about this case for a long time, but DCFS couldn’t talk about it before.
“We did ask some information about it, but we got very limited information because they said that it was a pending court case and they weren’t allowed to speak about it,” she said.
Things are different now that the trial is over. DCFS director Tanya Myrup said they still can’t tell the press any specific details of the Franke/Hildebrandt investigation for confidentiality reasons, although they will be able to provide more information about the case to the panel.
More in the 8 Passengers case
- Newly-released body cam shows Ruby Franke, Jodi Hildebrandt led away in handcuffs
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However, she said the division can’t always remove a child from a home.
“Just like law enforcement, we have a limited authority to be able to intervene. We do have a certain standard of evidence that we would need to be able to be able to justify an intervention with a family,” according to Myrup.
If anyone believes DCFS isn’t taking a case seriously, Myrup said they can call the case supervisor, the division’s constituent services specialist, or the Utah State Child Protection Ombuds.
“That’s actually an office that’s outside of DCFS, and they’re charged with investigating complaints against DCFS," she said. "So, that’s another option for that have concerns and may feel like DCFS isn’t responding or reacting the way that seems appropriate.
KUTV has also heard complaints about DCFS downplaying what they’re told by local police departments about abuse cases.
“If it’s law enforcement, I would really encourage them to go to our regional administration to be able to talk about those concerns because we always want to make sure that we are taking those concerns seriously,” Myrup said.
If the Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Panel doesn’t get the information they want about the Franke/Hildebrandt case, Watkins said they may ask for an audit of that regional DCFS office.
“Our state auditors are allowed to get into anything that they need to to find out exactly what happened and where it went wrong," Watkins said.
The meeting in June will not be open to the public for confidentiality reasons. Myrup said they would actually welcome an audit, saying it’s just another way to make sure they’re using the best practices possible.