O.C. Grand Jury Lauds Unit That Investigates Sex Abuse of Children

The county’s child sexual abuse investigating team has done “outstanding work,” said a grand jury report issued Wednesday that also questioned staffing a South County office that handles less than 10% of the team’s caseload.

Juror Linda Crum said jurors found the little-known team program one of the state’s best in using a public-private partnership. The team was formed to make the questioning of possible molestation victims less frightening and to conduct better interviews that could stand up in court.

The team approach first began in 1989, five years after the infamous McMartin Preschool case of Manhattan Beach, said Michael Riley, director of Children and Family Services for the Social Services agency.

“The team’s concept is somewhat of an outgrowth from the McMartin fiasco,” Riley said. “In that case kids were being interviewed multiple times, and their stories were changing, not because of the veracity of the children but because of the interviewers’ skills.”

In that case, seven teachers were indicted in 1984 on 115 charges of felony child molestation involving 42 preschool children. No one was convicted.

In Orange County, the child sexual abuse team includes a public health nurse, who examines the child, a deputy district attorney, a social worker, an interview specialist, a therapist, a law enforcement investigator and a volunteer from either Prevent Child Abuse, Orange County, or Court Appointed Special Advocates, both nonprofit organizations.

In years past, child abuse victims would typically have been taken to a police station for questioning. With the team concept, victims are taken to an office with a friendly environment, Riley said.

They are interviewed by one person in a room with a two-way mirror. The interview is observed by a deputy district attorney, an investigator, a therapist and a social worker, and the interview is videotaped as possible evidence.

The approach eliminates the need to interview the child more than once, Riley said.

The Child Abuse Services Team interviews more than 700 children each year, investigations that may lead to criminal prosecution or removal of a child from his or her home, grand jurors said.

Jurors questioned the staffing of 10 full-time employees and the $79,000 annual lease for the team’s South County office, which “has never reached a proportionate” level of use, Crum said.

The team instead should hire more Spanish-speaking interviewers, a nurse, a physician and another deputy district attorney for the Santa Ana office, Crum said.

But Riley said the South County office is “underutilized, not overstaffed. . . . Those workers work on other projects in Orange County, and South County law enforcement agencies like having that facility there because it saves time and expense from having to drive all the way in to Santa Ana.”

The jury also suggested training backups for the team’s only nurse and deputy district attorney.