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Riverview Man Arrested, Charged With Falsifying DCF Records

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By HOWARD ALTMAN and MIKE WELLS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 22, 2008

Updated: 05/22/2008 05:49 pm

TAMPA - Two former child welfare workers were arrested today on charges they lied in official state records about having face-to-face meetings with children and foster parents, officials said.

Andrew Joseph, 36, of Riverview, was arrested today at his home on 33 counts of falsifying records – a third-degree felony, according to officials. Robert Matthew Vilardebo, 34, of Brandon, turned himself in at Orient Road Jail and was charged with two counts of falsifying records.

Both men claimed to have conducted in-person interviews with children and foster parents at their homes, Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Trina Reddick said.

Joseph was to conduct the interviews for Youth and Family Alternatives, a subcontractor providing case management services, said Hillsborough Kids Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Rainey. Hillsborough Kids is a contractor for the state Department of Children & Families. Youth and Family Alternatives is a subcontractor for Hillsborough Kids.

The investigation was sparked after Youth and Family Alternatives noticed some irregularities, Rainey said.

"As soon as it was discovered, Youth and Family Alternatives immediately notified the DCF inspector general's office," Rainey said.

Joseph, he said, had about 20 cases.

Staff and supervisors from Youth and Family Alternatives, with help from Hillsborough Kids, immediately went to see the clients to ensure that safety was not compromised, Rainey said.

"We can't tolerate putting children at risk," he said. "We took every measure to ensure that would not happen. There are tons of checks-and-balances in place. This was caught, though it did happen."

Joseph worked as a case management coordinator for Youth and Family Alternatives for only two months – Sept. 5 through Nov. 8, 2006, said Judith Bromberg, the agency's senior vice president for human resources. He resigned to take another job.

His duties as a case management coordinator included making monthly visits to the foster children on his caseload. The children ranged in age from infants to 5 years old, though a few older children who were siblings to the younger ones were included, as well, she said.

When Joseph resigned, a case manager with another organization went to one of the homes on his caseload to do a wellness check, Bromberg said. The caregiver told the case manager that Joseph hadn't stopped by since August.

A check of the Youth and Family Alternatives' computer records showed Joseph had falsely reported that he had recently visited that home, she said.

Youth and Family Alternatives notified the other appropriate agencies and filed an incident report with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Bromberg said.

The case has been under investigation ever since, she said.

Though no children were found to be adversely affected, the organization is "very disappointed," Bromberg said.

"Youth and Family Alternatives has been in existence since 1970," she said. "We have zero tolerance for any behavior that would put any children or the families we serve at risk."

As a result of the investigation, the organization instituted a system of checks and balances to avoid a repeat occurrence, Bromberg said. Supervisors now make random phone calls to the homes to ask about recent visits and make random co-visits with the case coordinators.

Joseph was arrested at his 13716 Gentle Woods Ave. home this morning, Geraghty said. He was being held at Orient Road Jail. Bail was set at $25,000, according to jail records.

Vilardebo worked as a care manager at Children's Home Society, another subcontractor of Hillsborough Kids Inc.

In October 2007, the Children's Home notified DCF's Office of the Inspector General of suspected potential criminal activity involving Vilardebo, according to a news release prepared by Reddick.

The Office of the Inspector General then requested the FDLE conduct an investigation, which found that Vilardebo falsely recorded two face-to-face visits with children and caregivers, Reddick said.

Vilardebo worked as a care manager from November 2004 through March 2006. He resigned on March 28, 2006. He was booked into Orient Road Jail and bail was set at $4,000.

The Tampa Tribune reported in April 2007 about the longstanding problem of caseworkers lying about visiting children after the FDLE formally charged a Tampa woman, Robin Schofield, with two counts of falsifying child welfare records.

An internal review found two other cases in which Schofield, with three months on the job, falsified reports. Schofield claimed to have visited a client on a day she didn't work. She did not file mileage forms - a red flag to managers that someone might be falsifying a report.

It took a year for the charges to be filed against Schofield, who was fired from the Children's Home on March 9, 2006.

Her firing soon was followed by another. An internal review uncovered that Margaret "Peggy" Haq, a onetime supervisor in Tampa who had four years on the job, made 12 false entries into a computer system designed to monitor children's care.

One of the children, who hadn't been seen by a caseworker in three months, landed in juvenile detention for 21 days. A month later, he ran away from his sister's home. Tampa police charged Haq with one count of falsifying records.

Haq told the Tribune she was fired because she spoke out against a supervisor. She also said she had 50 cases at a time and an impossible mandate to see every child at least once a month. Haq soon went to work for another child welfare agency in Pinellas County, where she was again accused of falsifying records and fired.

In June 2007, the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office accepted Schofield in a pretrial intervention program that called for monthly reports to a probation officer and 50 hours of community service to be completed within 18 months. Haq, also of Tampa, received a similar pretrial deal in August.

After the recent cases in Tampa came to light, Rainey asked the Inspector General's Office to help train workers on catching false records.

Often, workers said they were overburdened with too many children to visit or trying to meet unrealistic expectations set by their employers.

Lying about visiting children in state care became a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison in July 2002, following the disappearance of Rilya Wilson, a little girl in Miami whom DCF lost track of for more than 15 months.

But convicting violators was rare due to a loophole in the law made prosecution difficult; consequently, charges often were downgraded to misdemeanors. A crime was committed if a worker altered, destroyed, overwrote or deleted an existing record.

Nowhere, though, did the law mention that it was a crime to create the false record, which happens almost every time a worker lies about a visit.

In October 2007, a new law went into effect that altered the language. If workers do not see a child or an elderly person in state care and say they did, it is a felony.

Reporter Sherri Ackerman contributed to this report. Editor Howard Altman can be reached at (813) 259-7629 or haltman@tampatrib.com. Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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