Foe Accuses Garcetti of Neglecting Child Abuse

Continuing his assault on Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti’s record, challenger Barry Groveman on Monday accused the top prosecutor of failing to take on thousands of child abuse cases, thus putting children at risk of continued abuse.

He demanded that Garcetti stop waiting “until children are killed” before prosecuting abusive parents.

A Garcetti spokesman defended the incumbent’s record, while declining to respond to Groveman’s charges in detail.

“Like a lot of the things he’s put out, it just isn’t very detailed or very specific, and hangs on one little noodle of an idea rhetorically,” Bill Carrick said of the attack.

Garcetti’s other challenger, veteran prosecutor Steve Cooley, essentially agreed, saying the district attorney’s office has a good record in child abuse matters and that Groveman’s criticism betrays a lack of experience in law enforcement. Groveman served as a special assistant to former Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, but has been in private practice since 1986, specializing in environmental law.

“He’s sort of a Barry-come-lately on a lot of these issues, and it shows,” Cooley said. However, he criticized Garcetti--who has refused to debate his challengers--for failing to answer Groveman. “This is something where Mr. Garcetti has to at least respond to Mr. Groveman’s criticisms, misplaced as they might be,” he said.

At a news conference outside Children’s Court, Groveman said the Department of Children and Family Services investigates about 92,000 reports of neglect and physical and sexual abuse each year.

In about 15,000 cases, he said, a family court judge rules that the children should be removed from their homes. Groveman wants the district attorney’s office to review those cases for possible criminal prosecution, a job he said could be done by two full-time deputy district attorneys.

“If you go in early, you can protect the child by getting control of the abusive parent,” he said. “This is not about successfully prosecuting a child’s murder. It is about using the tools and resources of the D.A. . . . to see that a child’s death is prevented.”

He compared his proposal to prosecutors’ approach to domestic violence cases in the 1980s. “They made it a crime, instead of a social issue,” he said.

Carrick said Garcetti has already created a family violence unit, with a specialized group of attorneys to handle child abuse and neglect. “That’s a first in L.A. history,” he said. He added that Garcetti chairs an interagency council on child abuse and neglect, and has worked to strengthen ties between child dependency courts and criminal courts.

Randy Pacheco, a lawyer for children in dependency court, said he thought that Garcetti had done a good job, and that many child abuse cases simply don’t warrant prosecution.

“I haven’t noticed the D.A.’s office to be shy about prosecuting these cases,” Pacheco said.

Also Monday, Cooley announced that he had been endorsed by 10 former presidents of the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys.

“Basically, we think that he is the most experienced and knowledgeable candidate, and the most respected candidate,” said former Municipal Judge Larry Mason, a former prosecutor who twice served as president of the deputies’ association.