Judge has ‘huge concerns’ over handling of Brandon group home case

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This article was published 30/04/2016 (3542 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon judge has questioned how police and managers of a city group home handled a case in which it’s alleged a teenage resident held staff captive while armed with scissors.

Judge John Combs was told that Specialized Foster Homes didn’t report the incident to Brandon police for seven weeks. He also questioned why it then took Brandon police nearly four weeks to act on the complaint with an arrest.

“I have huge concerns about what happened here,” Combs said. “Not only from the way this matter was handled by Specialized Foster Homes and the police, but I also have concerns about what seems to be an inconsistent pattern of reporting these offences to the authorities.”

Specialized Foster Homes social worker Jenn Sherb admitted there was a breakdown in reporting the incident, but vouched for her employer when it came to staff safety.

“I can vouch that SFH will always take the drastic measures to keep our supports safe, and we will continue to do that,” Sherb said.

Specialized Foster Homes is a series of group homes for troubled youth run under the direction of Dakota Ojibway Child and Family Services. The province describes SFH as a third-party foster home manager licensed by DOCFS.

The operation has come under scrutiny in recent years, and it was under scrutiny again in Brandon provincial court on Friday during a bail hearing for the teen accused of wielding the scissors.

Crown attorney Marnie Evans outlined the following allegations in court. At this point, they remain allegations and haven’t been proven in court, and the teen is presumed innocent.

Evans said that, around 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 14, a teenage female confronted three staff at a city Specialized Foster Home, accusing them of stealing her iPod.

While armed with the scissors, she threatened to hurt the staff if they didn’t find the missing device.

She ordered one staff member to search a locked cabinet as she stood behind him. When he couldn’t find the iPod, he went to sit down and the teen threatened to stab him if he sat.

Evans said there appeared to be a “racial” element to the crime.

The teen opened all the windows and doors to let in the cold. She then got a jacket and a blanket for herself and a Caucasian worker, but not the other two workers who Evans said are from Africa.

Evans said one of the workers later quoted the teen as saying:

“Just let these n—–s freeze, you bitches are going to freeze … If you don’t like the cold, then go back to Africa where you’re from, you n—–s.”

When one of the workers tried to remove his cellphone from his pocket, she threatened to stab him. He then tried to leave the room, but she again threatened to stab him.

Evans said that during the 40-minute ordeal, the teen made numerous racial slurs and comments toward the staff members from Africa.

The incident ended when one of the captive staff managed to secretly text message a supervisor who arrived and de-escalated the situation.

None of the staff were harmed.

Evans said the staff involved provided Specialized Foster Homes with written statements in March, but SFH officials didn’t report the matter to police until April 4, when they had a “sit-down” meeting with police.

The Crown attorney backed the actions of police.

She suggested police were ensuring the investigation was thorough, and investigated from April 4, the day they received the report, right up to Wednesday, the day before the teen was arrested. She’s also accused of assault for spitting at a jail guard in March.

Evans noted that the teen is accused of assaulting another group home worker on April 23 by punching her in the mouth, while police were still investigating the incident with the scissors.

In deciding whether to grant bail, Combs focused on the safety of staff at the home and the risk the accused may pose to them.

Evans said two of the staff members said they feared the teen, and one believed she wasn’t bluffing with the scissors, but court heard that no panic button was pushed.

Sherb said all the staff were wearing panic buttons around their necks at the time. She suggested the fact the buttons weren’t pushed may mean staff didn’t feel in imminent danger.

She added that shift reports didn’t highlight the incident, and the staff involved didn’t bring it to the attention of SFH officials.

“In this case, there was a miss in regards to reading of the reports,” Sherb said. “But in no way was it highlighted or brought to our attention by these supports until we approached them.”

It was only when a “community liaison” officer approached the staff that the matter came to light and was forwarded to police, Sherb said.

Defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn argued that, as SFH didn’t report the matter right away and police didn’t arrest the teen sooner, it shows both organizations believed the teen could be handled in the community.

Combs also questioned the consistency with which incidents at SFH are reported police.

Court hearings have shown that SFH has quickly reported previous assaults to police in the past, and been quick to report when youth are breaching their court-ordered conditions.

Yet based on what he was told of this incident, which Combs described as an “escalation” in violence, it wasn’t reported quickly.

Besides panic buttons, when asked about staff safety, Sherb said staff are aware of the teen’s persistent mental health challenges, and she has access to psychiatric staff. Staff who don’t feel safe in one home can work in another.

Combs, however, denied bail because he wasn’t confident that group home staff were safe from this particular accused and her case has been put to May 9.

What court wasn’t reminded of on Friday was that the same accused was previously convicted for the beating and hospitalization of another SFH worker in May 2014.

Later that same month, after another incident in which two other SFH girls burned down a barn, Dakota Ojibway Child and Family Services announced it would partner with Manitoba Family Services to review Specialized Foster Homes.

A provincial spokesperson said on Friday that the review hasn’t started.

Meanwhile, the number of SFH homes in Brandon has expanded from six or seven to 12.

In recent months, Brandon courts have heard other cases in which young SFH residents have assaulted and threatened staff, other residents and corrections officers.

In one such case, Combs’ Brandon colleague, Judge Donovan Dvorak, said that group home workers are entitled to be protected by the courts and assault is not an acceptable part of their job.

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