County OKs Controversial Child Abuse Crisis Center

Following an emotion-charged hearing that focused on allegations that county officials have coaxed children into falsely claiming they were molested, county supervisors on Tuesday approved the creation of a crisis center to evaluate possible victims of child abuse.

The board’s approval came despite demands by Supervisors Kenneth Hahn and Ed Edelman that the center’s staffing should await the results of an investigation into the claims. The board last week voted to ask Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp to probe the charges, which were leveled at several county officials by parents opposed to the choice of veteran county Health Services Department nurse Mary Logan to head the unit.

Logan, an acknowledged child abuse expert, was singled out by several South Bay-area parents at a board meeting two weeks ago for allegedly mishandling interviews with several suspected child abuse victims. Logan interviewed some of the children whose statements led to the indictments in the highly publicized McMartin Pre-School case, which is now in the preliminary hearing stage.

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Several parents also accused representatives of the district attorney’s office and the Sheriff’s Department of participating in attempts to falsely charge parents with child abuse. Last week, in a lengthy closed-door session, the board was briefed by Sheriff Sherman Block on his department’s view of the charges. That meeting was followed by a call for an investigation by Van de Kamp.

A number of parents returned Tuesday to renew the allegations before the board.

Claudia Krikorian, owner of two Montessori schools in the South Bay area, said county officials were rushing to approve the crisis center without precise operating guidelines in place.

“Before we give these people free rein to be abusing more children--mentally abusing, I’m saying . . . I think we better look into their backgrounds a little bit more and make sure we feel comfortable with the policies and procedures that they’re doing,” Krikorian said.

Hahn said Tuesday that the new crisis center would operate under a cloud of suspicion if Logan headed it before the attorney general’s review is completed.

Health Services Director Robert Gates told the supervisors that Logan had only “limited participation” in the McMartin case. Gates said that while he had not personally reviewed the charges made against Logan, Logan’s supervisor had assured him that “there is no substance to those allegations.”

In response to a question from Hahn, Gates said there are probably others in his department who could head the crisis center, but he added, “I don’t know if it would be fair to Mary Logan. . . .”

“Would it be fair to the children not to?” Hahn shot back, adding that he was not saying he believed the allegations.

While Hahn and Edelman joined in supporting the creation of the crisis center, they voted against naming any staff pending an investigation. But the board’s conservative majority, Supervisors Mike Antonovich, Deane Dana and Pete Schabarum, defeated their attempts to delay a final decision.

“If the attorney general does come back and says something is wrong, (Logan) . . . will be removed,” Dana said.

The crisis center adopted Tuesday probably will not be implemented until early next year, officials said. Operating out of a trailer at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, the unit will involve child abuse experts from the county’s health services, children’s services and mental health departments.

According to a project description, the pilot program would provide initial services to determine whether a child has been sexually abused. These would involve doctors, social workers, nurses and psychologists.

If the pilot project is effective, officials hope that it can be expanded countywide.