Minors Taken From Foster Care Advocate : Social services: County removes five children from home after allegations of abuse. Executive and husband, who await hearings to regain custody, deny accusations.

The county has removed five children from the South Los Angeles home of a prominent foster care advocate after the youngsters complained of physical abuse in the home.

Lupe and Bennie Ross, the legal guardians of four of the children, are awaiting hearings to determine whether they can regain custody of the youngsters or care for other foster children.

The county Department of Children’s Services removed the children in June after county social workers alleged that the Rosses subjected four of the children--all boys--to “inappropriate discipline (and) corporal punishment” that included beatings, push-ups and deep-knee bends, according to a report the social workers filed with the Children’s Services Department.

The report was based on interviews with the children and the Rosses. No allegations of abuse were made regarding the fifth child, although the report noted that her dental and personal hygiene were neglected while she lived in the Ross home.

The Rosses have denied any physical abuse or having used belts, hands, fists or sticks when disciplining the children, all younger than 18, the report said. Lupe Ross said in the report that the boys “did get exercises to do for punishment. The number and duration depended upon the infraction.”

Lupe Ross, a foster parent for 10 years, has been vice president for the past two years of the Los Angeles County Foster Parents’ Assn., a support and information group. She also has supported providing additional services and information for foster parents, including mandatory training in child care.

No criminal charges have been filed against the Rosses, but removing children from a home and not permitting any other children to be placed there is the most serious action the Department of Children’s Services can take, said department spokesman Schuyler Sprowles. He declined to comment on the case.

Lupe Ross referred questions concerning the child-abuse allegations to her attorney, but said she has not left her position with the association. Bennie Ross could not be reached for comment.

“I did think about it,” Lupe Ross said when asked in a brief interview why she did not take a leave from her post. “When I presented it to the (association’s) board they all said the same thing, that allegations don’t mean anyone is guilty.”

Susie Ellis, president of the group, said Ross never mentioned stepping down to the association’s executive board. Ellis added that the board did not suggest that Ross give up her post. The president said she did not believe Ross would be reelected to the board in January.

Repeated calls made to Rosses’ attorney, Lisa Izola, were not returned.

The Rosses were the legal guardians--not the foster parents--of four of the five children, according to the report. They cared for the fifth child in their small group home, but were not the child’s legal guardians. Four of the children in the Ross home were developmentally disabled.

The couple held a small-family home license, which allows them to care for developmentally disabled children, even after they turn 18. Foster parents temporarily care for children and are no longer responsible for the children after they turn 18.

Since the allegations, the Rosses’ case was referred to the state Department of Social Services, which has the power to revoke their license. No hearings have been scheduled on whether the license will be revoked.

As legal guardians, the couple still received monthly payments to care for the children, according to the report. The couple was paid about $3,180 a month to care for the children--$634 a month for each child older than 15 and $636 for children ages 12 to 14, said Renee Towers, director of policy for the county children’s services. The regular per-child payment, in cases that do not involve disabled minors, is $345 for each child 12 to 14 and $509 for each child older than 15, Towers said.

Closed hearings are scheduled within the next month and in February to determine guardianship of one of the children and to receive additional reports from the county about the allegations of abuse, according to the report. It did not specify when hearings would be conducted concerning the other four children.

If any of the allegations against the Rosses are substantiated, the couple could lose guardianship of the children and the county would not place anymore children in their care, county and state officials said.

Lupe Ross said one complaint of abuse already has been dismissed. But the Department of Children’s Services and county officials could not confirm that. Ross would not reveal which child was involved.

Complaints against the Rosses were made in late May, when one child told his school counselor of the alleged abuse. County social workers investigated the complaint and conducted interviews with the children in which they reported being hit with sticks, belts and fists for “goofing off,” misbehaving, or for minor incidents, such as forgetting to cover a sugar bowl.

The county removed the children soon after the initial complaint was made and took the Rosses off the list of families eligible to care for foster children, the report said.

According to the report, the child who received the most abuse was allegedly struck in the face by Bennie Ross, causing his head to hit a steel fire door. The child also told a social worker that he had been picked up by the ears, hit with a ruler, a billiard stick and an aluminum pipe, the report said.

The boy said he never mentioned the abuse to anyone at school, the report said, because “he was afraid of more beatings, that he would be ‘whipped to death.’ ”

The children were hit if they broke “a valuable or prized possession. They get mad, yell and beat. Mrs. Ross uses her hand mostly but when she hits with the belt, she hits hard,” the report said.

According to the document, another child, who had been under the Rosses’ care for five years, told a social worker that Bennie Ross allegedly hit the most with “anything he can get ahold of,” or his fist or foot. “Mrs. Ross is right there, sees him hit but never says anything,” the child told social workers in the report.

It said the child also told them, “Things were all right at the Rosses’ at first, but ‘got bad’ after the first two to three months of placement.”

Ross said in the report she used to have the children stand in the corner as punishment, but stopped that practice two years ago after one child’s knees popped and he could no longer stand. Punishments for another child included pulling weeds from the side of the house or not watching TV.

Ross said she did not understand why attention was being placed on her case when other problems exist within the foster care system.

“With all the stuff that’s going on out there against foster parents . . . the way social workers place children in foster care without informing parents of the problems the children have, why focus on this?” Lupe Ross asked.