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         MindNet Journal - Vol. 1, No. 93B * [Part 2 of 2 parts]
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         V E R I C O M M sm                 "Quid veritas est?"
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    [Continued from part 1]
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    Appendix A.
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    The 1992-93 Grand Jury Report:

    From the San Diego Union Tribune, January 30, 1993, p. A-1:

    Grand Jury Says Child Protection Off Course

    Mary Curran-Downey, Staff Writer

    A shift in the county's child-protection philosophy to emphasize
    keeping families together, rather than forcing them apart when
    abuse is alleged, has left social workers confused and some
    children vulnerable, a new grand jury report says.

    In the report released yesterday, the panel says that policy
    changes by the Department of Social Services -- in part the
    result of recommendations from the 1991-92 grand jury -- have
    made social workers unsure of their jobs and unclear about the
    department's mission.

    The current grand jury "found that (county) Children's Services
    Bureau workers and supervisors, as well as other professionals,
    felt anxious and concerned that the new department philosophy of
    'family preservation' was taking precedence over the primary need
    to protect children."

    Unlike the 1991-92 grand jury, the current panel did not provide
    a detailed list of suggested changes. Instead, it recommends that
    county social service officials work toward developing a balanced
    system that treats each case individually.

    Ivory Johnson, who heads the Children's Services Bureau, said she
    has always tried to steer her department on a middle course.

    "I haven't read the complete (grand jury) report in detail, but
    to strike a balance has always been my personal goal, always
    looking to protect the child and, when possible, to protect the
    family bond," Johnson said yesterday.

    "I think the issue is how you go about doing it. It's not always
    easy to get it right from the community's point of view."

    Thomas W. McNamara, foreman of the current grand jury, said
    recent tragedies -- notably the deaths of 13-month-old Tiffani
    Cook and 4-month-old Patricia Glasgow -- raised concerns over how
    some social workers may be interpreting department procedures.

    In both cases, social workers had contact with the family when
    previous abuse was suspected, but the children remained in their
    homes. Tiffani Cook was beaten to death in February, and Patricia
    Glasgow, according to preliminary reports, starved to death
    earlier this month.

    In both cases, the children's parents have been arrested and
    charged in connection with the deaths.

    Neither family, however, was part of the county's Family
    Preservation Program, which targets certain families for
    intensive in-home services, such as budgeting, parenting classes
    and counseling.

    McNamara said the report was written to assure county social
    workers that they should put the much-publicized problems of the
    past behind them.

    "People were afraid to act because they would be criticized if
    they did and criticized if they didn't (remove a child from a
    home where abuse was suspected)," McNamara said during a news
    conference.

    Many of those problems were outlined in the 1991-92 grand jury's
    report, which touched off a firestorm of media attention and led
    to many changes within the social services department.

    One of the most significant changes was the September 1992
    decision by the county Board of Supervisors to shift to a
    family-centered philosophy, which offers an array of services to
    keep the family intact rather than place the child in a foster
    home.

    While praising the previous grand jury for helping to institute
    some changes that were "clearly beneficial," the current grand
    jury says the 1991-92 panel's investigation caused county workers
    "unneeded difficulty in performing their jobs" and damaged
    morale.

    "The principal effect of these reports, ultimately, was to create
    an environment in which many front-line social workers had the
    perception that they must carry out a 'family reunification at
    all costs' policy, with the result that a child's welfare could
    be subordinated to that perceived policy," the new report says.

    The report also expresses concern that cases cited by the 1991-92
    grand jury did not paint an accurate picture of the facts and did
    not represent the majority of cases handled by the social
    services department. The previous grand jury reports focused on
    sexual-abuse cases, according to the present panel, even though
    sexual-abuse cases make up only 22 percent of all cases handled
    by the department.

    Carol L. Hopkins, a member of the 1991-92 grand jury, said she
    was saddened by the report released yesterday. She said the
    social services department should have been given an opportunity
    to fully institute some of the recent changes without coming
    under any more criticism.

    She said the department has been "in chaos" in the past and has
    only recently had strong leadership.

    Hopkins also took the present grand jury to task for attempting
    to subpoena former jury members to question them about files that
    were missing from the grand jury office. Hopkins said the files
    were in the safekeeping of the state Attorney General's Office.

    "The grand jury looked at systems, it was not personal," said
    Hopkins. "But the district attorney was so critical of us after
    the release of (the 1991-92 report) that we were very concerned
    about the level of defensiveness and rage.

    "There was some concern also that the district attorney was
    being sued over some of these cases, and so we felt it was not
    appropriate for those files to be left in a place that the
    district attorney or county counsel would have access to the
    complaints," Hopkins said. "We told the (current) grand jury
    where they were ... there was no attempt to hide anything from
    the grand jury."

    Although at least three files are still missing, but McNamara
    said he will not ask the District Attorney's Office for an
    investigation.

    The District Attorney's Office was criticized by the 1991-92
    grand jury, but the new report supports District Attorney Ed
    Miller's answer to the earlier report.

    Miller called the new report a morale booster and said it helped
    restore "some balance back in this subject matter which was
    lacking."

    One point that both grand juries agree on is that the county's
    budget problems and dwindling funds will make the job of
    protecting children and families more difficult, no matter what
    the philosophy.

    The county's shift in emphasis was due not only to the 1991-92
    grand jury report but also to a critical report by the Juvenile
    Justice Commission and a $175,000 study by the Child Welfare
    League of America, which concluded that county child-protection
    officials were referring too many cases to court.

    In its report, the league, a child-advocacy group, concluded that
    the county relied "much too heavily on legal proceedings as a way
    of protecting children. It has become unnecessarily adversarial,
    complicated, time-consuming and expensive."

    The report pointed out that San Diego spent nearly $11 million in
    1991-92 to pay for attorneys in Juvenile Court proceedings, a
    threefold increase from 1987-88, even though the number of court
    cases increased only 15 percent during that period. It compared
    San Diego's costs to $1.2 million spent in Minneapolis, $2
    million in Dallas and Phoenix, and $2.4 million in Philadelphia.

    Michael Petit, the league representative, recommended that the
    county shift millions of dollars from Juvenile Court and foster
    care into a family preservation program.

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    Appendix B.
    -----------

    Carol Hopkins, 1991-92 Grand Jurist, and her Own
    "Family Troubles"

    From the San Diego Union-Tribune, December 4, 1994, p. E-1:

    She RIGHTED WRONGS -- But Former Grand Juror Carol Hopkins,
    Credited with Saving Families, Struggles with Her Own

    Clark Brooks, Staff Writer

    Carol Hopkins

    Jim Wade was about to lose his family when he found Carol
    Hopkins. Wade stood accused of raping his 8-year-old daughter,
    and the county was trying to find her a permanent new home.

    Hopkins was investigating child abuse cases for the 1991-92 San
    Diego County grand jury. On Oct. 1, 1991, Wade wrote her a letter
    asking for help.

    At the time, Wade's daughter was in a foster home. The county
    Department of Social Services, through its child protection
    branch, was taking steps to keep her there. Citing evidence that
    eventually cleared Wade, Hopkins convinced the agencies to back
    off.

    "Carol Hopkins saved my family," Wade said. "She has a huge
    heart. She gave -- and still gives -- so much of her time to lost
    causes."

    But the lines separating her public and private lives began to
    blur. While seeking justice for others, Hopkins became
    romantically involved with her adviser on the grand jury, and her
    own marriage started to unravel.

    Hopkins, 50, headed the much-publicized grand jury health and
    social services committee that produced a series of blistering
    reports charging that many of the district attorney's child-abuse
    cases were marred by false accusations and faulty investigations.
    The jurors reported a pattern of leading questions that appeared
    to uncover abuse where none existed.

    The reports drew attention in the national media. Grand jury
    coordinator Joanne Lord was besieged by requests for copies from
    doctors, reporters, lawyers, psychologists and children's rights
    organizations all over the country. The cost of the copies
    exceeded her budget, and she finally had to stop printing them.

    One of the reports looked exclusively at the case of Jim Wade,
    then a Navy chief petty officer. Investigators "brainwashed"
    Wade's daughter, the report said, until she finally -- and
    falsely -- said her father had raped her.

    County Child Protective Services, seeking the power to put Wade's
    daughter up for adoption before he was formally charged,
    scheduled a parental rights hearing. Hopkins went to Lana
    Willingham, assistant director of the Department of Social
    Services, with the results of DNA testing that eventually proved
    Wade's innocence.

    "We really appreciate Carol bringing that to our attention,"
    Willingham said. "As a result of her providing that startling new
    information, we were able to get a hearing with a different
    focus. That began the process of getting his child back to him."

    Wade has since been awarded more than $3.5 million from various
    government agencies and individuals. He lives now with his wife,
    Denise, and their daughter and son raising beef cattle in
    Missouri.

    Hopkins was frequently interviewed by newspaper and television
    reporters about Wade and other cases. Seeking to counter the
    negative publicity, District Attorney Edwin L. Miller issued a
    report disputing the grand jury findings. It was published Oct.
    30, 1992.

    By then, Hopkins was a private citizen again, looking into the
    plight of Dale Akiki, the Sunday school aide charged with 52
    counts of child abuse and general mayhem at the Faith Chapel in
    Spring Valley.

    "How many times in your life do you get the chance to stand up
    against something that's wrong? You have to fight against that
    kind of injustice, even if you're not on the grand jury anymore,"
    she said.

    Hopkins was a fixture in court when Akiki went on trial in April
    1993. She was joined almost every day by another Akiki supporter,
    Rose Marie Royster, who admired Hopkins for her work on the grand
    jury.

    "Carol was kind of a hero to me," Royster said. "She is a very
    dear person with a big heart. And she's one of the most
    intelligent people I know."

    'We shall overcome'

    Carol Hopkins was a Navy brat who grew up in Coronado and came of
    age during the '60s. She moved into a commune in San Francisco's
    Haight-Ashbury district in 1968, along with her two daughters --
    ages 1 and 3 -- by two naval officer ex-husbands.

    While attending UC Berkeley, Hopkins began protesting the Vietnam
    War and marching for civil rights.

    "The first song my kids learned to sing," she said, "was 'We
    Shall Overcome.'"

    But as a young rebel, Hopkins set limits. She never used drugs,
    she said, and she didn't confront the police. When the cops
    started spraying tear gas at student protesters, Hopkins came
    home to San Diego.

    She worked as a teacher and married three more times during the
    '70s. She and husband Sam Winner (1978-85) adopted a son, also
    named Sam. He is 15 now and lives with Hopkins.

    "I wish I would have been able to marry someone and stay married
    for 30 years," she said, "but it just didn't work out that way."

    She married David Hopkins, her sixth husband, in 1987. Both were
    triathletes. They exchanged vows on Valentine's Day then set out
    with some 200 guests for a 10K run. To be with his new bride,
    David Hopkins left a law practice in the East and started anew in
    San Diego.

    "Up until recently," he said, "it was a very romantic story."

    'Something wrong'

    A grand jury is a group citizens nominated by judges to monitor
    local government agencies. Hopkins wasn't sure she wanted to
    serve on one, but once selected, she threw herself into the job.
    Since she was not employed, she could -- and often did -- devote
    12 or more hours a day to her grand jury work.

    "The thing that has always concerned me most is justice," she
    said.

    When she started examining child abuse cases, Hopkins assumed she
    would side with county prosecutors. "But right away," she said,
    "we knew something was really wrong."

    Many parents accused of abusing their children were considered
    "in denial" and therefore guilty if they claimed to be innocent.
    And when children said their parents didn't abuse them, it was
    often considered a symptom of "child abuse accommodation
    syndrome" and one reason they should be kept away from their
    parents.

    Miller was not a fan of Hopkins or the work she was doing. In one
    meeting, she said, "He yelled at me, 'Who the hell do you think
    you are, lady, criticizing my child abuse unit?'"

    Contacted recently, Miller declined to discuss Hopkins. However,
    Richard Macfie, Hopkins' grand jury foreman, attended that
    meeting and others. Such outbursts from the district attorney
    were not uncommon, Macfie said.

    "I think we left the meetings with the pretty clear appearance
    that Ed Miller was not at all pleased with we who represented the
    grand jury," Macfie said, "particularly Carol Hopkins. He saw her
    as a thorn in his side, and he has since."

    When the grand jury decided to investigate the Wade case and
    others, jurors dismissed their adviser, a deputy district
    attorney, to avoid a conflict of interest. Their new adviser was
    Gary Schons, chief deputy in the San Diego office of the state
    attorney general.

    Schons and Hopkins worked closely together. They saw each other
    frequently as friends, Hopkins said, until their grand jury work
    was completed. Then they started a romance.

    'Inappropriate contact'

    While Hopkins monitored the Akiki trial, the district attorney
    monitored Hopkins.

    Investigators cruised by her house in North Park and copied
    license numbers. They interviewed her housekeeper's husband,
    Carlos Morales, asking pointed questions about Gary Schons.

    "We received information that there was inappropriate contact
    with persons associated with the Akiki case," said A. Craig
    Rooten, a deputy district attorney. Schons was not involved in
    the Akiki case.

    Rooten would not say if the license plate searches turned up any
    suspicious visitors. He said Morales was questioned "because of
    the allegations I previously mentioned."

    Akiki was cleared of all charges in November 1993, and whisked
    home in a limousine rented by 25 sheriff's deputies. With the
    primary election approaching, Hopkins and Rose Marie Royster
    turned their attention to the district attorney's race.

    They both liked candidate Paul Pfingst, a civil attorney who once
    was a prosecutor under Miller. Hopkins had spoken with him at the
    courthouse and assumed he was a Democrat. Royster, a staunch
    Republican, said she and her friends would not cross party lines
    even in a nonpartisan race.

    "Then Paul came to us one day and said, 'Well, I've got some good
    news and some bad news,'" Royster said. He looked first at
    Royster: "The good news is, I'm a Republican." Then he turned to
    Hopkins: "The bad news is I'm a Republican."

    "We both threw our support behind Paul," Royster said, "and
    backed him all the way."

    Their first victory came in the June primary when Pfingst
    qualified for a November showdown with Judge Larry Stirling, and
    Ed Miller lost his job effective Jan. 3, 1995.

    "Ed Miller had to go, and I know I played some part in that,"
    Hopkins said. "But for me, this never was a personal issue. I
    feel sorry for Ed Miller, terribly sorry. He did a lot of good
    for this county for a long time. But he couldn't admit failure,
    and he didn't like criticism."

    'No hidden agenda'

    David and Carol Hopkins separated in February and are divorcing.

    "In my life with David," Carol Hopkins said, "I think, 'How could
    I let this happen?' I do have tremendous regrets."

    She is planning to cut back on her volunteer work and get a job.
    She would run for political office, say a seat on the board of
    supervisors, if she thought she had any chance of getting
    elected.

    "I won't lie about my beliefs," she said. "I don't understand how
    a civilized society can have a death penalty. I would open up the
    borders. Obviously, I could not get elected. But given the tenor
    of the times, being unelectable is an honor."

    Hopkins is still seeing Gary Schons but isn't ready to make a
    commitment to him, she said.

    "Gary is a very nice man, and we've been through a lot together,"
    she said. "I do love him, but I can't imagine right now marrying
    anybody."

    Schons declined to be interviewed.

    The breakup has been very painful for David Hopkins. He did not
    wish to discuss the divorce but said he is proud of what his wife
    accomplished while on the grand jury.

    "She surprised everyone because she got so much accomplished in
    so little time," he said. "Because of that, they thought she had
    a hidden agenda. She did not. She is extraordinarily intelligent
    and energetic, and I don't think anybody in county government
    ever came across anybody quite like her ..."

    His voice trailed off, and he paused to collect himself.

    "The irony," David Hopkins said after a moment, "is that she
    saved the Wade family and perhaps many others, but the cost of
    that was the destruction of her own family."

    [End]
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