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September 23, 2004
DCS to give police all sexual abuse reports
By Ian Demsky -- Staff Writer -- tennessean.com
All allegations of child sexual abuse in Tennessee will be forwarded to local law enforcement as a result of controversy over the case of a child who police say was molested, the Department of Children's Services announced yesterday.
The change in policy comes after a year-old complaint surfaced after last week's arrest of a Hermitage game-store manager on charges of child rape and aggravated sexual battery. The charges and the 2003 complaint involved the same child, who was 12 at the time of the complaint.
The anonymous complaint made against Jeremy Paul Duffer, 33, last year accused him of saying something about the boy such as, ''He was too tired to undress himself, so I undressed him,'' detective David Zoccola said at Duffer's preliminary hearing yesterday.
Davidson County General Sessions Judge Bill Faimon agreed with Zoccola that the complaint to DCS deserved to be investigated.
''This should never have happened,'' Faimon said in court.
DCS officials, however, said the complaint did not meet the criteria to be investigated by their Child Protective Services Division.
''Several people who have years and years of experience reviewed the referral that we received, and they all agreed it did not meet the minimum requirements,'' DCS spokeswoman Andrea Turner said yesterday.
Turner said she couldn't discuss the specifics of the complaint or say why it didn't meet the criteria for investigation because it was part of a continuing criminal investigation.
According to DCS policy, posted on its Web site, the following criteria are considered when deciding whether to conduct an investigation (the policy had not been updated with yesterday's changes):
• The child's age. Allegations involving sexual abuse of children under 13 or those involving the abuse of children 13-18 by a caretaker, such as a parent, relative or educator, should be investigated. Reports of the abuse of children 13-18 by a non-caretaker are referred to law enforcement, the policy says.
• The perpetrator's relationship to the child. ''DCS shall accept reports of sexual abuse of children under thirteen (13) regardless of the relationship between the child and the alleged perpetrator,'' the policy says.
• The nature of the allegations. Allegations of sexual abuse are to be considered ''allegations of severe abuse,'' the policy says.
''Substantial risk of sexual abuse is also sexually explicit conversation between an adult and child and may or may not include sexually suggestive touching,'' the policy says.
The state's child-abuse-and-neglect hot line has received about 65,000 phone calls this year, Turner said. About 30% are screened out initially, she said.
It remains to be seen what effect on law enforcement agencies an influx of potentially thousands of additional cases might have.
Posted by Nealus at September 23, 2004 12:38 PM
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