State manager on leave from $110,000 job earlier resisted conclusion in infant’s death
A state child welfare manager put on leave last month for an undisclosed issue once tried to shield her office from criticism following an investigation into a 2-month-old’s death.
The ensuing wrongful death lawsuit in the 2016 death portrays the Dallas field office of the state Department of Human Services as having a “deep-rooted culture conflict” with its Salem headquarters.
Stacey Daeschner, program manager at the field office, has been on leave since Feb. 14 while the agency investigates “concerns of your conduct in the workplace.”
Her hiatus came two months after the agency put two of her subordinates on paid leave while the state investigated them for child abuse in an unrelated case. State prosecutors elected not to charge them, but they remain on leave while the agency completes an internal investigation. A Salem attorney alleges they had sex in a motel while a foster child slept in a bed next to them.
READ: State investigated Polk County child welfare workers for child abuse
Robert Oakes, DHS communications director, couldn’t confirm whether Daeschner’s leave is connected to that alleged incident.
Daeschner, paid $9,177 a month, couldn’t be reached for comment.
According to the lawsuit, the infant died May 11, 2016, of suffocation while sleeping on a couch with her mother. The mother of five had been addicted to methamphetamine, battled mental health issues and had considered suicide, the suit said.
The state logged 22 reports of neglect by the mother before the infant’s death, including one complaint three weeks earlier that said the home was unsanitary and there was ongoing substance abuse, according to an agency report released publicly after the death.
The pending lawsuit, filed in Yamhill Circuit Court, seeks $3 million from the state for not acting on concerns about the mother prior to the child’s death.
The lawsuit said that Daeschner’s staff concluded the death wasn’t the result of neglect, a finding challenged by the agency’s headquarters. Internal records showed that top agency officials concluded that the infant’s death was due to neglect.
Daeschner said in a deposition May 23, 2018, that no neglect or abuse should be found because the case didn’t meet the state’s standard. When attorneys asked what an internal agency review meant for her office, she said it would have “a negative effect on me and my supervisor.”
DHS automatically investigates child deaths in homes that have previously been reported for potential abuse or neglect. If neglect or abuse is found, a process is triggered that, among other things, reviews all the actions prior to the death to identify any lapses. The review is done by a critical incident review team.
“There is a process where you go through a file review and the consultant really picks apart all the errors that you made in a case,” Daeschner said in her deposition.
An internal email reported that “Stacey Daeschner is refusing to change the disposition” from unfounded.
The email said, “It has been reported that Stacey has directed staff to unfound the disposition to avoid” a critical incident review.
In her deposition, Daeschner said, “We are scrutinized for making decisions when we have to make decisions based on the information we have. And Monday morning quarterbacking is pretty easy to do.”
A worker from the agency headquarters wrote Daeschner an email asking her to explain how she concluded a claim of neglect was unfounded because “there appear to be some discrepancies.”
Daeschner forwarded the email to a colleague, writing, “This makes me want to throat punch her.”
Daeschner also told attorneys that employees in the agency’s headquarters were “mucking with the assessment” and that she felt “disrespected,” according to excerpts of her deposition.
Oakes said he couldn’t address Daeschner’s statements, but said the agency continues to work professionally.
“We continue to provide high-quality service in our areas and we expect our employees to hold themselves to the highest standards at all times,” he said.
Salem attorney David Kramer, representing the estate of the 2-month-old baby, said in a court filing last November that the state agency was trying to “walk back accountability” for the child’s death. He noted the agency has vowed to change.
“One would like to think that DHS was serious about a culture change,” wrote Kramer, a former assistant attorney general in Oregon. “But if that were the case, DHS obviously would not tolerate the active resistance or the self-serving motivations of mid-level managers like Daeschner.”
Kramer is taking on the agency again, recently notifying the state he intended to sue over agency failures related to the juvenile who woke up in a motel room to the two state workers having sex.
READ: Investigated child welfare workers had sex near juvenile, lawyer says
Kramer’s tort claim said a state supervisor arranged to take a child in state custody to a Dallas motel for safe keeping as pretense to have sex with a colleague. The claim said the child woke up to find the workers having sex in the bed next to him. The juvenile was put in a detention facility and remains in state custody, according to the claim.
The workers were placed on paid administrative leave Nov. 30. The state Justice Department investigated them for official misconduct, endangering the welfare of a minor and private indecency but declined to prosecute, according to records obtained by Salem Reporter.
DHS officials say they couldn’t release information about the matter because of a continuing personnel investigation and it involves confidential child abuse reports.
Kramer said the two cases underscore the agency’s problem with accountability.
“My biggest issue is that nobody is making an effort to determine how many kids have been hurt by DHS negligence or how to make it right by those kids – and that has to happen,” he said. “I don’t think lawsuits are the answer but it seems like lawsuits are necessary to motivate a culture that doesn’t want to change.”
Late Friday, DHS Director Fariborz Paksersht said in a written statement that his agency is working on fixing the child welfare system while endorsing “accountability and transparency.”
“We believe it is our responsibility to provide facts and appropriate context for our programs and our problems. When we make mistakes, our intent is to correct them, not hide them,” he said in the statement.
Have a tip? Contact reporter Troy Brynelson at 503-575-9930, [email protected] or @TroyWB.
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