Judge demands records, says CPS failed to adequately investigate kids locked in Sissonville shed

A federal judge says Child Protective Services failed to respond and perform an adequate investigation in a case where children were found locked in a shed without access to water or a toilet last fall in Sissonville, W.Va. (Rafael Barker | West Virginia Watch)

A federal judge says Child Protective Services failed to respond and perform an adequate investigation in a high-profile case where Kanawha County children were found last fall locked in a shed without access to water or a toilet.

“As a result, the children were left to suffer at the hands of their adoptive parents for months, until law enforcement officers eventually found the children locked in their house or in a detached shed, deprived of food, water, bathroom facilities, hygiene products and beds,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Eifert wrote in an order .

Additionally, Eifert said that the state health department must turn over records related to the case as part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit about the state’s overwhelmed foster care system.

Eifert filed the order Feb. 12 after the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources objected to turning over information about the children found in a shed . The family lived in Sissonville.

In November, West Virginia Watch obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act showing CPS was aware of the children’s condition in August. The state had no travel records showing that CPS workers went to the house to check on the kids.

Attorneys for the state argued that the children found in a shed weren’t relevant to the lawsuit and that collecting the information would be “burdensome.”

Eifert disagreed, explaining that how the state handled the case was relevant to a key allegation in the suit — that DHHR regularly failed to protect foster children from physical and mental abuse. The lawsuit was filed in 2019.

“The court agrees that information regarding the children found in Sissonville is relevant to show the DHHR’s general response to allegations of abuse and neglect, as well as to establish that caseworkers are understaffed and overworked,” she wrote.

She set a Feb. 26 deadline for DHHR, now the Department of Human Services, to respond to the records request.

Attorneys who sued the state on behalf of foster children said they have struggled for years to receive information from the state about how it manages its foster care system.

Eifert is also considering sanctions against the state for its role in failing to keep emails from former health department officials who could have responded to foster care problems.

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