AG's Office Had Address of Girl's Kin
CPS couldn't find family until police found child living in filth
By Steve McGonigle
Originally published in The Dallas Morning News, July 9, 2001
Had Child Protective Services workers checked with the Texas attorney general's office, they could have learned in 1996 where to find the family of a young girl believed to have spent the last four years imprisoned in her parents' homes.
But the contact was not made because the attorney general's office, which was handling two child support cases involving the family in nearby East Texas counties, was not on a list of public agencies that caseworkers routinely check, CPS officials said.
"That would have been a logical avenue to go through, looking back. But it was one we did not go through," said Stacey Ladd, a CPS spokeswoman in Arlington.
A spokesman for the attorney general's office said that if CPS had asked, the attorney general's office would have turned over its records on the family.
CPS did not learn Barbara Atkinson's whereabouts until she and her former husband, Kenneth Atkinson, were arrested in Hutchins last month on charges of forcing her 8-year-old daughter to live in a filthy closet in their trailer, Ms. Ladd said.
According to Dallas County prosecutors, Ms. Atkinson told CPS workers that the emaciated girl had been confined in small space since at least 1997. Siblings have told caseworkers that "the girl in the closet" was bad and ate too much.
The girl weighed only 25 pounds when a neighbor found her. She has undergone surgery for an undisclosed problem and remains in serious condition in Children's Medical Center.
Ms. Atkinson, 30, and Mr. Atkinson, 33, are jailed in Dallas on felony child abuse charges that could send them to prison for life if they are convicted. They and their defense attorneys have declined to discuss the case with reporters.
Doctors who examined the 8-year-old have reported that she was also sexually assaulted, but no sex-related charges have been filed.
Defending caseworkers
Marla Sheely, a CPS spokeswoman in Austin, defended the handling of a neglect complaint lodged against Ms. Atkinson in Wood County in November 1996. The information provided to CPS was sketchy, Ms. Sheely said, and caseworkers followed standard search procedures before closing the file.
"I believe our caseworkers did what they are supposed to do," Ms. Sheely said. "They checked what they were trained to check."
She declined to cite the specific checks that were made but said that caseworkers typically review public records and contact other family members and friends.
The attorney general's records of child support cases such as the one involving Ms. Atkinson are not among those caseworkers are taught to search, Ms. Sheely said. She could not give a reason. But she said caseworkers have a limited amount of time.
"We don't keep those investigations open indefinitely," she said. "Our caseload would be unimaginable."
Last year, CPS reported receiving 175,328 allegations of child abuse or neglect, an average of 480 per day. The agency investigated 121,732 complaints. Case records are supposed to be entered into a database that is accessible to all CPS offices.
Cheryl Sutterfield, president of the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center, said that CPS workers do their best to investigate complaints and should not shoulder all blame for missing years of abuse that could have been reported by others familiar with the family.
"It's absolutely tragic, but it wasn't like they blew it off and said, 'We don't have the time,'" Ms. Sutterfield said.
'An easy fix'
But a Travis County judge who has criticized the thoroughness of CPS investigations in the past said last week that it would make sense for the agency to add the attorney general's office to the list of agencies whose records it checks.
"That's an easy fix," said state District Judge Scott McCown. "From now on, before you close a case, check with the attorney general because there is a lot of crossover in these two populations [of clients]."
CPS has said in court documents that the agency received two previous complaints about the Atkinson family. The first report originated in Jasper County on June 9, 1995; the second in Wood County on Nov. 15, 1996.
The 1995 complaint alleged that an unnamed child was being left tied to a bed. "The case was closed 6-30-95 due to the family moving," the affidavit said.
The Wood County complaint said that Ms. Atkinson's children were constantly playing in the street and were seen eating moldy food. "The case was closed on 11-15-96 as the family moved. Their location was unknown," the affidavit said.
Both complaints were logged into the statewide database and came from people who wanted their identities to be kept confidential, Ms. Sheely said.
AG lawsuits
In between the complaints to CPS, records show, the attorney general's office filed two lawsuits to order support payments for two of Ms. Atkinson's children. The first suit was filed in Jasper in April 1996; the second in Longview in August 1996.
The first suit was consolidated with a divorce petition filed by Mr. Atkinson less than a week after Ms. Atkinson gave birth to a child which genetic tests showed was not his. The child's father was Billy Bowers, a man who once shared Ms. Atkinson's address in Jasper.
Mr. Bowers, who is trying to gain custody of his daughter with Ms. Atkinson, declined to be interviewed.
In June 1996, a Jasper County judge ruled that Ms. Atkinson should receive $190 per month from Mr. Atkinson to help support another daughter. The payments were to be distributed by the attorney general beginning that month, court records show.
Two months later, the attorney general's office filed its second lawsuit to order support payments from Mr. Bowers. The suit listed Ms. Atkinson's residence as the Kilgore Community Crisis Center, a shelter for victims of domestic violence.
Nancy Lofton, the center's director, said privacy laws prevented her from confirming or denying whether Ms. Atkinson had been a client. She did say that Ms. Atkinson had never been an employee of the center.
Neither the Gregg County nor Jasper County sheriff's office said it had a record listing Ms. Atkinson as a crime victim. There was also no record in those counties that Ms. Atkinson had sought a court protective order from any alleged abuser.
Gregg County sheriff's deputies said that Ms. Atkinson was no longer at the shelter when they tried to serve her with the lawsuit in September 1996, but she appeared with her daughter for genetic testing in Longview the following month, records show.
In December 1996, a family court judge ordered Mr. Bowers to begin making $220 in monthly support payments to Ms. Atkinson the following month.
Matt Winslow, a spokesman for the attorney general's office in Austin, said he could not discuss whether Mr. Bowers made the child support payments but noted that the state agency had not filed any further action to enforce the court order.
"So that ought to tell you something," Mr. Winslow said.
Because the attorney general's office mails all child support checks generated by its lawsuits, it keeps current addresses on the recipients, Mr. Winslow said. He said he could not say whether Ms. Atkinson had been receiving her checks.
The attorney general does not investigate for child abuse and does not routinely share information on child support cases with CPS but would have cooperated if state protective workers had requested information on Ms. Atkinson, he said.
"There is not a computer linkage, but per state law, if [CPS] had contacted us to ascertain any information, we would have on the whereabouts of a family they were investigating, we would turn that over," Mr. Winslow said.
