Probes begin into high-level ‘interference’ in Fayette child abuse charge against 2nd-in-command of Fulton County DFCS

The Georgia Department of Family and Children Services state headquarters is facing at least two separate official investigations into whether its employees interfered with a Fayette County DFCS child abuse investigation involving a felony charge against the assistant director of Fulton County’s DFCS office, The Citizen has learned.

Part of the investigation will focus on whether high state officials put pressure on local DFCS officials to make a felony charge against a DFCS official go away, The Citizen has learned.

Among the questions being probed is how Fulton DFCS’s assistant director, Cylenthia Clark of Fayetteville, obtained evidence photos of her 8-year-old child that were taken as part of the Fayette DFCS investigation into the alleged physical abuse of the victim, multiple sources have confirmed.

Possession of such photos is usually limited to local DFCS personnel and to law enforcement officials, but they are not given to the suspects in abuse investigations.

The Citizen also has verified that top state DFCS officials intervened in the Clark case and — in apparent violation of department policy — ordered Fayette DFCS employees to place the victim and her three younger siblings in the custody of their grandmother — Clark’s mother — despite the lack of any criminal background check or drug screening having been conducted on the grandmother.

Both the background check, verified by fingerprints, and the drug screening are required of all potential child custodians before any children can be moved to that residence, according to state policy.

State DFCS spokeswoman Dena Smith said that placing a child with a family member who hadn’t been subjected to the criminal background and drug screening “is not uncommon” and such decisions are made as a judgment call on a case-by-case basis.

“A decision was made based on the circumstances of the situation,” Smith said, adding later than “... certainly, this is not the way it’s always done.”

In this case, the four children already had been placed with a foster family when state DFCS officials forced Fayette DFCS workers to place the girls with the grandmother despite the lack of the criminal background check and the drug screening.

Smith noted that the placement change occurred over the weekend and the following Monday the matter was in court for a judge to make a determination on with whom the children would live.

Clark showed the pictures of the victim’s injuries to TV news crews days after she was arrested by Fayetteville police and charged with one count of felony cruelty to children.

Among the questions to be answered are these: Who gave the official photos of the abused daughter to Clark — the DFCS official accused of inflicting the abuse — and why?

State DFCS spokeswoman Smith refused to comment on how Clark came into possession of those pictures. Smith said she didn’t want to comment because the matter is under investigation by other agencies.

“I was not aware of any of these investigations prior to talking to you on the phone,” Smith said.

According to warrants for her arrest, Clark forced the girl, her 8-year-old daughter, to strip down to her underwear and then struck the victim numerous times with a belt; Clark was arrested on those charges March 10, charges that were filed by the Fayetteville Police Department.

Clark remains on administrative duties in her position as the assistant director of Fulton County DFCS, Smith confirmed.

In her television appearance on Atlanta news stations, Clark showed the photos Fayette DFCS workers took of her daughter, and Clark said she was innocent of the criminal charges, which were filed by Fayetteville Police Department — not by the Fayette County DFCS office.

In a letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue, one of the Fayette DFCS case managers involved in the investigation alleged that state officials “waived” the required drug screening check and a criminal background check so the victim and three siblings could be placed in the care of a grandmother. The children were initially placed in foster care, The Citizen has confirmed.

“They mandated that this be done by our office,” the case manager’s letter stated, specifically referring to “the state office.” That request came from Mary Dean Harvey, head of the state office, sources confirmed this week.

The Citizen is not releasing the case manager’s name nor the names of several sources relied upon for this article because their positions might be jeopardized for coming forward with information on the case. All of the allegations in this story were verified by at least two separate unnamed sources.

Mary Davis, the director of the Fayette County Department of Family and Children Services, declined to comment on the case this week, citing confidentiality concerns about the case.

The Fayette DFCS case manager’s letter to Gov. Perdue, dated March 19, asked the governor to launch an investigation into the state DFCS officials’ conduct relating to the local DFCS inquiry.

The case manager criticizes Georgia DFCS chief Mary Dean Harvey and her boss, Department of Human Resources Commissioner B.J. Walker — appointed by Gov. Perdue to clean up the department in the wake of continuing scandals — for not correcting the impression left by Clark’s TV news appearance that it is acceptable for Georgia citizens to “beat their children.”

Harvey is the acting head of the Fulton DFCS unit, and as such is Clark’s supervisor.

“My outcry is that there has been no representation of DFCS to present to the public that while spanking a child is acceptable, beating a child with no remorse is of great concern,” the letter to Gov. Perdue stated. “... Their lack of support to procedure and policy shows no regard for the safety of this child.”

The results of at least one of the pending investigations could lead to criminal charges being filed against high state officials, according to Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard.

“I smell a rat,” Ballard said, noting that his office will “diligently explore” how the case was handled by DFCS officials outside of the Fayette County DFCS office. “I am livid about what I think I’m going to find.”

In all of this, there is no suggestion that local DFCS officials acted improperly. The investigators’ eyes are being trained on high-level state officials for interference in a local criminal investigation of Clark, herself a senior DFCS official in the Fulton County DFCS office.

Ballard said any information that the police investigation turns up may be used by his office or “any other prosecutor’s office that may have jurisdiction over this case” to seek criminal charges via an indictment.

The second investigation underway involves the Georgia Office of the Child Advocate, which handles inquiries into alleged DFCS policy violations.

Georgia Child Advocate Dee Simms said an investigation had begun from her office, but she declined to get into details of the investigation. Simms, however, acknowledged that there are allegations that top state DFCS officials were using pressure on Fayette DFCS officials to affect the outcome of the case.

“We’re looking into it because those concerns have been shared with us as well,” Simms said.

Lt. Beverly Trainor of the Fayetteville Police Department said last week that the department does not plan to drop its criminal case against Clark because the evidence is solid. According to the case manager’s letter to Gov. Perdue, the victim had “multiple bruises to her back, arms and legs.”

Police confirmed that the initial complaint about the victim’s injuries was reported to DFCS by the Fayette elementary school the victim attended.