Foster child’s death prompts soul-searching by state DHS

CHELSEA – The high chair was tipped over in an unfinished part of the basement when detectives arrived. Strips of duct tape, clumps of hair stuck to it, were strewn about. Blood smeared the high chair and red droplets splattered the concrete.

The horror chamber described by police is where 5-year-old Logan Marr spent the final hours of her life, taped to her high chair and, evidence suggests, her mouth covered with tape. Cause of death: asphyxiation.

It’s not just the grisly nature of the case that’s given it such a high profile since Logan died on Jan. 31. The woman charged in Logan’s death, her foster mother Sally Schofield, is also a former caseworker for the state agency that monitors foster parents.

Schofield, who is 39, is free on bail as she awaits trial for manslaughter. But it’s not just Schofield who’s on trial.

The Department of Human Services is now doing some soul-searching as it feels scorching heat from lawmakers and child protection advocates, not to mention Logan’s biological mother, Christy Mae Baker.

The Dover-Foxcroft woman said her case isn’t the only one in which the state moved too quickly, or without sufficient justification, to take away a child.

“Mine is just one of many. Logan’s case just happened to turn deadly,” said Baker, who brought a small, white box containing Logan’s ashes to the State House as she unsuccessfully sought permission from lawmakers to sue the state.

Lawmakers say the case has opened the floodgate for complaints that are pouring in from parents who claim the DHS is placing their children in inappropriate foster homes. Rep. Julie Ann O’Brien, R-Augusta, publicly apologized for being part of the system she said lets it happen.

The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform has entered the fray, accusing the state agency of endangering children by taking too many of them from safe homes and placing them in foster care.

“This is a problem all over the country. Maine is simply worse,” said the nonprofit group’s Executive Director Richard Wexler, whose attention was drawn to the state by the Logan Marr case.

Citing federal figures, Wexler said Maine has one of the five highest rates of children in foster care in the country. Maine’s rate of placing children with relatives is also lower than the national rate, he said.

“Maine’s entire approach to child welfare can be boiled down to a single sentence: Take the child and run,” he said.

In Maine, DHS caseworkers are responsible for overseeing roughly 3,000 foster children who live in more than 1,400 foster homes.

Caseworkers who must make quarterly checks at foster homes should have no more than 15 homes to monitor. But some caseworkers say they have caseloads nearly twice that size, with children living in as many as three states.

The Logan Marr case follows an eerily familiar pattern, according to Wexler and other critics.

In January 1990, 4-year-old Ricky LeTourneau died while in the care of his foster mother, Deborah Wolfenden. Ricky suffered a concussion and choked on his vomit after being disciplined for urinating on the floor.

Wolfenden, who had been an educational consultant for the state, was accused of excessively spanking Ricky and raking his genital area with her nails. The Durham woman, then 39, was sentenced to a year in prison for assault.

The DHS acknowledges lapses in quarterly visits to foster homes, but says improvements are being made almost daily.

At the time of Logan’s death, the goal of quarterly visits was being achieved in 77 percent of the foster homes. The number had risen to 89 percent by late March, 93 percent by the first week in April, and was expected to be at nearly 100 percent by the end of last week, spokesman David Winslow said.

The department acknowledges lax oversight of some foster parents who – like Schofield – have more expertise or training than others.

Court records show a friendly, collegial banter in e-mails exchanged between Schofield and her caseworker before Logan’s death. The state confirmed later that the caseworker missed a December quarterly visit to Schofield’s home.

The state also confirmed that the caseworker failed to tell her supervisors that Logan had reported being squeezed in the face by Schofield.

While Winslow disagrees on the exact numbers, he agrees with Wexler’s larger point that Maine has a relatively high rate of children in foster care. But there’s a reason for that, the spokesman said.

State officials decided to intensify their child-protective efforts in response to the 1984 killing of 4-year-old Angela Palmer, who was stuffed in the kitchen oven of the Auburn apartment where she lived with her mother and mother’s boyfriend, Winslow said.

Like the latest case, the October 1984 killing sent shock waves across the state.

In the Logan Marr case, her mother claims the child was taken away because the state thought she moved residences too often. Winslow declined to say why Logan was removed from her mother’s care but said the decision was made through the courts, and with Baker’s lawyer present.

Schofield, who is to be arraigned on May 2, told investigators questioning her about Logan’s death that the child needed a “time out” after waking up from a nap in a rage.