Fla. Foster Children At Risk?

Vicki Mabrey Reports On How State’s Foster Care System Led To Death Of Child

(CBS) 
She says, however, that she doesn't feel the same about her mother, "because she left me in the park."

By the age of 9, Yusimil was suicidal and sometimes violent. She and Tasha were both locked in psychiatric facilities. According to DCF's own investigator, Yusimil, who may have needed some medication, was often overmedicated to the point of near incoherence.

Florida Sen. Skip Campbell looked into the case after a study showed that statewide some foster kids were being medicated inappropriately with psychotropic drugs and weren't properly monitored.

"Psychiatrists don't necessarily know what dosage to give children. They don't know necessarily what the side effect will be," says Campbell. "And one of the things that concerns me the most is that when we have kids in the process and they age out at 18 years old, not in foster care. What happens to them? Who's gonna take care of them?"

Before Yusimil and Tasha aged out of foster care, child advocates filed suit on their behalf against the state of Florida for negligence for the years of physical and sexual abuse, as well as “excessive amounts of medication.” The department argued that the damage had been done by the girls’ parents, and says it did the best it could to protect two kids who came into foster care already troubled.

But the jury disagreed. The sisters were awarded $4.4 million dollars and became a symbol of a foster-care system out of control. But before Yusimil and Tasha ever received a dime, the state appealed and the verdict was overturned. The sisters eventually settled, and each ended up with just $90,000. Mark Eiglarsh, Yusimil's attorney on her criminal case, says the money did not improve Yusimil’s life.

What should the state have done for her when she turned 18?

"They failed her by not giving her the ability to read, to write. But, I mean, to open up a bank account. To be able to write a check. To be able to go into a store and purchase something," says Eiglarsh. "The state set her up for failure."

The Department of Children and Families would not agree to an interview. From the records, we know the department was concerned about Yusimil’s history of anger problems and instability, and tried to keep her on her medication. Yusimil was 17 when she gave birth to Angel Hope, who was the second baby she had while she was in foster care.

Despite documented reports that Yusimil was an unfit mother – so many that DCF had taken away her first child and put her up for adoption -- Yusimil was allowed to retain legal custody of Angel.

But even Yusimil recognized she couldn’t care for Angel and gave her daughter to her friend, Ann Mitchell, and Ann’s son Ronald to raise. "[She was] bright all the time," says Ronald Mitchell. "Happy. Wasn't shy at all. She was really smart for someone her age."

"Grandma, that's what she knew me as," adds Ann Mitchell, who says Angel didn't know her mother well, because Yusimil didn't visit that often.

Two years later, Yusimil got married and decided to take Angel back. Ann Mitchell and the department fought it in court. But when the judge ruled in Yusimil’s favor, DCF failed to follow up with home visits to make sure Angel was safe. Yusimil soon got pregnant again and was off her medication. A few months later, calls began to come into the child abuse hotline.

Tasha says she called DCF and told them that Yusimil was hurting Angel: "I was concerned, because I have, you know, that's a flashback when you see somebody doing this type of stuff. And it hurts, you know, it bothers you."

She says she was afraid for what would happen to Angel "because she [Yusimil] wasn't stable on her medication. I wasn’t trying to hurt my sister. I was just trying to help, because I knew she needed help."

Ann Mitchell says she saw Angel bruised and called the abuse hotline, which led to another court hearing in March 2004. But DCF presented little evidence and no witnesses to show that Angel was being abused. Ann Mitchell waited to testify by phone, but no one called.

The department told 60 Minutes Wednesday in a statement that “responding to signs that Angel had been abused, (we) tried to shelter the child … but a Florida court denied our request.”

But even their own internal review suggests they didn’t try hard enough, finding “there was a significant lack” of evidence presented. The judge returned Angel to her mother.

Ann Mitchell says she can’t forget handing Angel over for the last time: "She cried for 30 minutes. 'Grandma, please, I don't wanna go. Please.' My daughter had to pick her up and put her in the car, and I can hear that screaming leaving the driveway. She don't wanna go in the car."

Seven weeks later, police were called to Yusimil’s apartment. Angel lay in the hallway unresponsive, her arm broken, her skull fractured, her body covered with bruises. Yusimil told police Angel had fallen in the bath, but according to police reports, she soon admitted she’d hit Angel, knocking her against the wall. Her lawyer wouldn’t let her talk about the details of that day.

What kind of mother was Yusimil to Angel? "I was a good mom. I was the best mom to her," says Yusimil. "But she didn’t understand me. … Because she was at Ann's house all the time, she wanted to be at Ann's house. I couldn't talk to her. She wouldn't talk to me."

Yusimil is pleading not guilty, and her case is expected to go to trial later this year. But the question remains: With so many warning signs, why didn’t DCF take Angel away?

Sen. Campbell says although Yusimil is the only one facing charges, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

"Yusimil's case became a symbol of everything that was wrong within the system," says Mabrey. "Is her daughter's death a sign that things have not changed?"

"It's the textbook example of how a system fails," says Campbell.