Couple Give Up License in Foster Care Abuse Case : Children: Whittier man is accused of molesting 2 girls. He and wife proclaim innocence and complain of discrimination.

A Whittier man accused of child molestation and his wife have agreed to give up their foster home license.

But Steve and Becky Brown insist the accusations are false and contend they are victims of racial discrimination because they are white.

In an agreement with the state Department of Social Services, the couple’s foster home license was revoked and the Browns agreed never to seek relicensing.

The couple continued to deny allegations by state social service officials that Steve Brown repeatedly molested two black foster children--sisters who are now 3 and 8--and that Becky Brown “knew, or should have known” of the abuse.

“We are innocent and have never done anything to hurt a child,” the couple said in a written statement shortly after the agreement was announced at a state license revocation hearing Monday. “This entire proceeding was initiated because some government workers believe that black children should not be placed with white families.”

Carol Heard, state social services attorney who handled the case, said that, to the contrary, the Browns may have received preferential treatment because they are white. She pointed out that a Juvenile Court referee granted the couple guardianship of the 3-year-old girl last fall, despite unresolved allegations of child molestation.

Heard stood by the state’s allegations that the children were molested by Steve Brown.

“We did an investigation,” she said, “and we found the allegations to be correct.”

Allegations of molestation in the complicated case were first made in February, 1989, when the sisters were removed from the Browns’ foster home after medical examinations indicated they had been sexually abused. The Browns and the girls’ relatives accused each other of the molestations. Police investigated, but no one has been criminally charged.

Last fall, Los Angeles County Juvenile Court Referee Elizabeth Horowitz put the 3-year-old girl back in the custody of the Browns, despite warnings from a county children’s services worker that the child might be in danger there.

Horowitz placed the 8-year-old with the girl’s relatives, and the child allegedly told authorities that Steve Brown had molested her repeatedly when she lived in the home. Based on those accusations, the Browns’ foster home license was suspended April 18 and the 3-year-old girl was removed.

State officials subsequently accused Steve Brown of also molesting the 3-year-old when a new medical examination indicated that the child had been suffering sexual abuse, according to a county report.

The Browns face a challenge to their guardianship of the 3-year-old at a closed Juvenile Court hearing Friday. A hearing to decide whether to place the child under court supervision is scheduled for June 11.

In the meantime, Juvenile Court Referee Elisabeth Krant, who took over the case from Horowitz, has been allowing Becky Brown unsupervised visits with the 3-year-old girl for eight hours a day, three times a week. State officials complain that under the arrangement the child might be dissuaded from giving information regarding the alleged molestations.

Both Krant and Horowitz have declined to discuss the case.

The Browns’ two-page hand-written statement lashed out at the county foster home program as “a system that does not protect the best interests of children.” The couple also complained of legal expenses connected with the case and maintained that they wanted to protect the children from publicity and from giving duplicate testimony in the revocation hearing and the Juvenile Court proceedings.