LEXINGTON, VA – A Grand Jury report released in Rockbridge County tonight is calling for major changes to laws governing social services in Virginia.
That report was unsealed after a seven month investigation into the Rockbridge County Social Services Department.
That investigation came after several children died and were sexually abused in foster care.
"Gross negligence", "dysfunctional dynamic", "rank incompetence".
Those are the words the Grand Jury used to describe the Rockbridge Social Services Department.
But in the end, the Grand Jury did not find anyone at the department criminally responsible, and for that reason, we have redacted all names from our report.
In the 25 page report, the Grand Jury found reports of child abuse ignored and a complete lack of accountability on numerous levels.
The report focuses largely on the actions of the Supervisor at the Department of Social Services, who resigned last year.
It details "reports of alleged child abuse were reported to child protective services, but were not entered into the system", meaning the family was never followed up on and investigated.
When employees asked why these cases were being ignored, the Supervisor is quoted as saying "because that's the way I want it."
Beyond questioning employees, the report also holds accountable the Social Services Board of Directors.
It says "even after infant deaths, the board members asked no probing questions. The... investigation revealed a Board of Directors willing to routinely receive reports... with no way of verifying the completeness or accuracy of these reports."
Finally, the report holds the Piedmont Regional Social Services Director at the time accountable.
It details the Sheriff's Department calling for a review in 2015 and the Piedmont Regional Director not acting for more than a year.
The report states during that time, one child was abused, and shortly after, another died in foster care.
With all of this information, the report says the employees involved got off on what amounts to technicalities.
There were three charges considered, one for destroying documents, one for forging documents, and one for child neglect and abuse.
The document charge was dropped because it couldn't be determined that there weren't other electronic copies stored somewhere.
The forgery charge was dropped because the Supervisor only changed dates, which didn't change the content of the document.
As for the child abuse and neglect charges?
The department wasn't shown to be directly responsible for the children, the foster parents were.
The report ends with a call to action.
It asks legislators here in Virginia to "draft legislation creating criminal penalties... dealing with the kind of negligence... by employees uncovered during the... investigation."