Another DCF Horror Story

Three boys were in the care of the Floirda's Department of Children & Families. They were caged like animals and raped in foster care. The children were adopted by Debbie and Jorge 1998.

The couple were unaware of the maltreatment the boys had suffered, and had told DCF officials they did not want to adopt children who had been sexually abused.

Not only did the department keep Debbie and Jorge in the dark, it even instructed a treatment center not to release records to the parents.

Meanwhile, the boys ran afoul of the law, set fires, were expelled from schools, attempted suicide and tried to poison Debbie.

Current Florida law forbids adoptive parents from seeing their children's medical records. The stupidity of that is beyond words.

Gov. Charlie Crist signed SB 58. The bill awards $9.5 million to Debbie and Jorge. Florida is infamous for refusing to pay lawsuits. Courts can decide a settlement. The idiotic tort reform law calls for any settlement over $500,000 to be approvedf by the legislature. This case is so shameful the legislature and Crist had no choice but to pay.

Under the bill Crist signed, the boys each will receive $256,666.66 a year for the next 10 years. Each parent will receive annual payments of $90,000.

It would be cheaper to run the DCF properly. However, that would intervere with Republicans goals to make government small enough to drown in a bath tub.