Child Care Records Are Seized : Social services: State agency impounds files as part of investigation into county’s alleged failure to protect foster children.

State officials seized 15 filing cabinets full of county foster care records Friday while probing the alleged failure of the Los Angeles County Children’s Services Department to protect foster children from molestation, abuse and neglect.

Armed with an administrative subpoena and accompanied by two police officers, state officials supervised the loading of the green metal cabinets containing 3,000 case files onto a truck. The documents were hauled to the State Building downtown for analysis, officials said.

Earlier this week, Lawrence Bolton, assistant chief counsel for the State Department of Social Services, said he found files involving particularly “sensitive” foster care cases. Bolton found the files as he was looking into allegations that the county had mishandled a molestation complaint involving a foster home.

A sampling of files in county offices on West 6th Street showed that county officials were improperly allowing foster parents to keep their licenses despite serious allegations, Bolton said.

Bolton said most of the roughly 15 cases pulled as samples contained serious questions about their handling by county officials.

“Our staff . . . found a pattern of very serious allegations involving molestation, neglect, abuse and criminal activity without legal action taken (by county officials),” he said. “Everything from drug addiction to shoot-outs in homes.”

Bolton said that in some cases county officials had allowed foster parents accused of abuse to continue to operate. In other cases, he said, such foster home operators were allowed to surrender their licenses without any revocation action.

By failing to pursue license revocation, county officials had neglected to compile a legal record to prevent these foster parents from reapplying for foster care licenses or from obtaining licenses in related fields of care, Bolton said.

Robert Chafee, director of the county Children’s Services Department, said it was unnecessary to seize the records.

“We had agreed with them to go back through our files for as many years as it took to review all our actions to see if they were appropriate,” he said.

He also said that state officials were reacting prematurely to their sampling of case files.

“I don’t think anybody can shoot from the hip about this,” he said.

Donna Mandelstam, regional manager of the state Department of Social Services, was accompanied by a state policeman and a departmental officer when she presented an administrative subpoena to county officials.

Police had been asked to accompany Mandelstam to assure that state officials would be given access to the county building, according to Fred Miller, deputy director of community care licensing for the state agency.

Albert May, deputy director of county children’s services, downplayed the significance of the state seizure. He said state officials probably were interested in reviewing the files because they are in the process of taking over from the county responsibility of licensing foster homes.

“It wasn’t really a surprise for us,” he said. May said that about one-third of the documents seized were investigative files and that most of the others were cases that did not contain sufficient evidence to pursue license revocation.

The county turned over the files in a “cooperative spirit,” he said.

With respect to foster home care, the relationship between the state and the county has been contentious, however. The proposed new state budget transfers responsibilities for foster care licensing from the county to the state. Legislators made the budget recommendation after hearing renewed allegations that county officials have failed to protect foster children.

Loren Suter, deputy director of state social services, said the files removed from the county would be analyzed in Los Angeles.

“If there is any indication that any of the people (accused of abuse) continue to have licenses (and) have kids placed with them, that will be the top priority (for legal action).”

Suter said state officials were baffled over the county’s alleged failure to take action in the sampling of cases they have reviewed.