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Family caseworker loses custody of son for abuse
Friday, April 07, 2000 By Barbara White Stack, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A caseworker whose job is to protect children from abuse and neglect has lost custody of her 9-year-old son after an incident in which police say she choked and punched him until he was bloody and bruised.
Lisa Carter, also known as Lisa Crowley, 31, of Oakland, has not been back to work as a family services caseworker in the Mon Valley office of Allegheny County's office of Children, Youth and Families since the incident Sunday evening at an Oakland laundry.
Relax-N-Wash employees and patrons called 911 reporting that Carter was slapping and choking the child, the police report says. When patrons tried to intervene, she yelled at them to stay away, and when they warned her they were calling the police, she dragged the boy outside to the parking lot and continued beating him there, the police report says.
Carter told one officer she was defending herself after the boy had become violent. But the police report quotes witnesses as saying the boy was helpless as Carter pinned him to the ground and repeatedly struck him. And after police arrived and separated Carter and her son, she reached into a police car where the boy was sitting and struck him in the mouth, causing his lips to bleed, the police report says.
The boy told police, "She choked me. She punched me in the face. This is the third time she hit me like this."
CYF director Marc Cherna said last night, "If these allegations are true, I am disturbed that any of my workers would treat their children that way. It is the antithesis of everything we stand for."
Cherna said if Carter abused her child, she will not be able to work for the agency. State law prohibits child welfare agencies from employing as caseworkers anyone against whom there is a substantiated report of abuse.
The incident now is under investigation by two different agencies. One is CYF, which will determine whether there is sufficient evidence to substantiate abuse. If there is, CYF will report it to a state agency that catalogs it so employers such as schools and day-care centers may determine if job applicants are abusers. Based on its findings, CYF will recommend to a judge whether the boy should remain in foster care and what Carter would have to do to rehabilitate herself and get him back.
The other investigating agency is the sex assault and family crisis unit of the city police. That unit will determine whether to file criminal charges.
Police took the boy to Children's Hospital, then turned him over to CYF caseworkers. They placed him in emergency foster care, and a judge determined Monday that he should remain there until a full hearing, tentatively set for May 3.
The police report says officers did not immediately arrest Carter Sunday night because she had her 4-month-old daughter with her. It is not clear whether CYF later placed that child in foster care.
Carter did not return phone calls last night.
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