County Owes Dad Break, Apology

The story of Carl Dick very nearly defies credulity (“Dad Must Pay Despite County’s Lapse,” Jan. 25).

A father whose children were stolen from him, for whom he wanted to be responsible, is now asked to pay $17,000 for foster care his poor daughters received when their unworthy mother failed the children. Somehow Dick, the wronged party here, is considered the absent parent.

And, oh yes, Orange County, the same Orange County that didn’t see the value of reuniting children with a father who was seeking them, needs that $17,000, doesn’t it? More than Dick, supporting his family on $20,000, right? Perhaps that $17,000 will help defray the many millions we’re sending to the lawyers and financial wizards who aided our supervisors after the bankruptcy debacle.

Perhaps it will fund a putatively chic little get-together for the agents of the Superior Court some day, at a local watering hole, where there will be flowers on the table and drinks in the glasses and money in the budget. But over at Dick’s house, there will be a family, four children and two parents who want them, trying to make it on some $20,000 a year, less the installment payments he’ll have to make on the $17,000.

Call it blood money, those payments, and then say a prayer for all of us.

PRISCILLA MAYFIELD

Orange

* I am outraged. Carl Dick deserves better than this. The man lost his family through no choice of his own. Now he is being punished for wanting to give his daughters a loving and secure home. The powers that be should be ashamed and embarrassed at this entire situation.

HOLLY GORDON

Fountain Valley