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Almost 40 Years Later: Key Takeaways from the McMartin Preschool Trials
As parents return to work, children across the nation are going back to school and back into the hands of caregivers, which creates an atmosphere ripe for abuse allegations (not to mention the continuous rise of QAnon). It is important for parents and caregivers to be reminded of the McMartin Trials as things return to […]
An Abuse Allegation Against You Has Been “Substantiated”: Now What?
A DCS Investigation Crystal is the mother of three-month-old Michael and six-year-old Grace. A few months ago, she was the subject of a Department of Child Safety (DCS) investigation when Michael fractured his leg after a fall in the park. The attending physician at Phoenix Children’s Hospital believed the x-ray showed a previous, healing break […]
So You’ve Given Birth to a Substance Exposed Newborn
Imagine you have a friend, Chloe, a lawyer who was prescribed pain meds after a car accident four years ago and ever since suffers from an unfortunate addiction to oxycodone. Chloe is also pregnant with her first child. When Chloe starts to go into labor, she arrives at St. Joseph’s Hospital and the nurses notice […]
10 Years Post-Sandusky: CAPTA and Mandatory Reporting in Arizona
After Jerry Sandusky’s arrest for child sex abuse in 2011, states across the United States began paying attention. Sandusky was a well-respected assistant football coach at Penn State and the founder of a non-profit charity dedicated to helping at-risk youth [1]. At the same time, he was molesting boys, some of which occurred in the […]
So DCS has invited you to a Team Decision-Making Meeting (TDM): Now what?
In the grand scheme of nearly indecipherable acronyms in child welfare investigations, one particular abbreviation stands out as being part of nearly every case but nonetheless being misunderstood by most parents. The “TDM,” or “team decision-making meeting,” is an important step in the resolution of child welfare investigations that proceed beyond initial screening. In nearly […]
How the Medical “Code of Silence” Affects Child Abuse Litigation
By Gregg Woodnick and Isabel Ranney Despite being the fifth-largest city in the United States, Phoenix only has seven board-certified pediatric orthopedic surgeons, five of whom work at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Because of their specialty, it is safe to presume that the surgeons all know each other from their professional community and any conferences they […]
Suspected child abuse during a trip to the emergency room
By: Gregg R. Woodnick I have been practicing law for over 20 years. Throughout that time I’ve lectured for Yale on issues of child abuse and neglect and I have also been a guest instructor at medical schools and PA programs where I would teach about mandatory reporting laws. Mandatory reporting requires that certain individuals […]
QUARANTINED CHILD ABUSE
Since COVID-19 forced schools to close, reports of child abuse in Arizona have decreased by about twenty-five percent (25%). At first, this seems like one of the few silver linings of the pandemic (outside of Tiger King and attending business meetings without having to wear pants). However, after 20 years of litigating child abuse and neglect cases, I don’t believe this statistic is cause for celebration.
Rumors & Mandatory Reporting: Zamora reminds us the reasonableness standard is opaque warranting caution when dealing with any allegation of abuse
Brittany Zamora has garnered nationwide attention for her nefarious sexual relationship with her 13-year-old student. Zamora recently pleaded guilty to several sexual abuse charges and is now facing a lengthy prison sentence. However, a lesser known civil suit also surfaced, claiming Zamora’s school district[1] knew about the abuse months before the parents discovered it and did nothing to intervene.[2] Given a failure to report child abuse constitutes a class 6 felony under Arizona law,[3] we ought to be curious whether the district’s officials could be criminally liable, too.