Dead Girl's Kin Sue Adoption Agency
By Jennifer M. Fitzenberger
Originally published by The Fresno Bee, March 15, 2002
Five siblings of a murdered child on Wednesday sued the agency that placed them in the home of Angela Thompson.
The children suffered years of physical and emotional abuse because Family Connections Adoptions didn't properly supervise their placement in the Thompson home or investigate her background, according to a lawsuit filed in Tulare County Superior Court.
"They went ahead and certified a home, placed five children there and now one is dead," said Visalia attorney Mary C. Jarvis, who filed the suit on behalf of the children.
Alison Foster, executive director of Family Connections, said her agency made a clerical error resulting in the improper certification of Thompson, but was never told the details of prior cases of abuse.
"What was presented to us was a very ideal family," Foster said. "Had we seen any of the things we know now went on, the placement would have been terminated immediately."
Jarvis is seeking punitive damages for her clients, who range in age from 5 to 10. "But there is no amount of money that could be awarded to make up for the horrors they've endured," she said.
Those horrors include "beatings, physical restraints, smothering, eating restrictions, threats, humiliation and other forms of physical and mental abuse," the lawsuit states.
One of Thompson's children, 5-year-old Rachel Joy, died Sept. 7, 2000, of asphyxiation after her mother ordered an older sibling to sit on Rachel's hunched back as punishment.
Past allegations of abuse
Thompson's other 10 adopted children listened to Rachel's muffled cries during the van ride from Travis Air Force Base in Northern California to Porterville. They witnessed futile efforts to revive the girl.
A jury in October found Thompson, 42, of Springville guilty of second-degree murder, assault on a child younger than 8 causing death and felony abuse of Rachel. She is serving a 25-year-to-life prison sentence.
Questions about Thompson's treatment of children span more than 10 years.
Family Connections placed five children with Thompson after the California Department of Social Services in June 1997 forbade it to do so because abuse allegations were ruled true in 1992.
Thompson inflicted "corporal punishment, threats, intimidation and humiliation" that interfered with the "daily living functions" of nine children, according to an accusation filed in 1992 to revoke Thompson's license.
Abuse included pulling the children's hair, pulling their fingers, spanking, bending their arms behind their backs and making them stand in the corner for inappropriate amounts of time.
Thompson forced them to eat food they didn't want and ordered them to finish their meals before a timer went off. On at least one occasion, Thompson allowed some of the children to hit or kick other children, according to the accusation.
Thompson failed to respond appropriately to the allegations, so the state ruled them true and revoked her license.
State letter misplaced
After Thompson filed an application with Family Connections to operate a certified family home near Springville in 1996, the state sent a sharply worded letter to Family Connections ordering that it not certify the Thompson home for foster care.
That letter puzzled officials at Family Connections because Thompson had passed fingerprint clearances, Foster said. The state wouldn't detail what prompted the letter, Foster said.
After receiving letters in support of Thompson, Family Connections approved Thompson for adoption. Once the case was closed, the state's letter was placed in the "correspondence" section of the Thompson file rather than the "fingerprint and clearance" section, Foster said.
When Thompson came back to Family Connections to adopt more children, no one saw the state's letter, so Thompson was approved for foster care, Foster said.
The agency placed three children from Sacramento County, including Rachel, with Thompson in February 1999. Rachel's adoption was finalized in November 1999.
"We had a do-not-certify letter—that absolutely, no question, was our error," Foster said Wednesday. "We violated an order by the state, but it was absolutely not intentional on our part."
Licenses on probation
Jarvis, however, alleges that Family Connections officials knowingly took matters into their own hands. "This agency imposed their own judgment over that of the Department of Social Services," Jarvis said. "They knew the Thompsons, they had a history with the Thompsons and they were very fond of the Thompsons."
Foster said one of her social workers, Phyllis Reed, had worked with the Thompsons for years. Reed believed Thompson when she said the abuse allegations were false and the social worker didn't go through the entire Thompson file before the most recent adoption, Foster said.
Reed "was our employee, and it was our job to make sure she was doing her job right," Foster said.
Reed, contacted Wednesday at her Fresno home, declined to comment: "It's one of those things that needs to be done with a lawyer present." Reed is retired and no longer works for Family Connections.
In response to Family Connections disobeying the state's order, the Department of Social Services filed paperwork in November to revoke the adoption agency's license.
The two parties agreed on a settlement Feb. 13, according to Foster. State officials said Wednesday the settlement is not finalized and they would not release details of it. "It's just a matter of getting all the appropriate signatures," department spokesman Andrew Roth said.
Foster, however, said the settlement "reflects that we have an excellent reputation and this was a fluke error that will never happen again."
Foster said Family Connection's Foster Family Agency licenses are on probation for three years. Each of Family Connection's five offices has its own Foster Family Agency license.
Working to avert trouble
The agency's adoption license, however, is not affected because Family Connections did not violate any adoption regulations, Foster said.
As part of the agreement, Audrey Foster, former executive director of the adoption agency, was banned from ever regaining the top post and is on probation for three years.
Audrey Foster, Alison Foster's mother, still works at Family Connections. Alison Foster took over as executive director in September. She said her mother wanted to work directly with children.
Family Connections also agreed to adhere to its Plan of Compliance, which, for the most part, was drafted before the state began to investigate the adoption agency, Alison Foster said.
"We started some [of the changes] before Rachel died because we were growing so fast as an agency," Alison Foster said. "We had to get tighter controls in place so we knew what was going on."
Family Connections hired a full-time Foster Family Agency director, a file auditor, a fingerprint specialist, a child-search coordinator and another full-time social worker.
The agency adopted a new policy of switching social workers once they have worked twice with a family. Previously, there was no limit to how long a social worker could supervise a family.
Reed, Thompson's social worker, "had known this family for years," Alison Foster said. "If there were signals [of abuse], she would have missed them because she became part of their family."
Jarvis, the Visalia attorney, said she hopes her lawsuit will prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
"They have to treat every child as a new case regardless of their familiarity with the families," Jarvis said. "If they don't do that, I predict we will see some other tragedy."
