Social service worker files whistleblower suit

A Northern Kentucky social service worker has filed a whistleblower lawsuit, claiming he experienced retaliation and harassment from supervisors after he reported problems, including that 93 cases of alleged child abuse or neglect had been misplaced and not investigated for months.

Tim Williams, a 14-year employee with the Cabinet for Health and Family Service in its Northern Bluegrass service region, had an exemplary record but began experiencing retaliation — including an abrupt job transfer — immediately after he reported management problems, according to his lawsuit filed Tuesday in Boone Circuit Court.

His lawyer, Kelly Wiley, said Williams is most disturbed over the 93 cases of alleged child abuse and neglect that sat untouched for months. While social service officials have since assigned the cases to investigators, some of the families and children can no longer be located, Wiley said.

“His main concern is to find out what happened and to make sure it never happens again,” Wiley said.

State officials with the cabinet’s social service agency, the Department for Community Based Services, say they have launched an investigation into the missing cases and other matters in the Northern Kentucky region.

The lawsuit comes as the state’s 12-county Northern Bluegrass region has been roiled by other controversies, including the recent case of a worker who was suspended for checking on a child whose case had been closed even as another worker who closed the case was suspended for failing to act on serious allegations of abuse and neglect involving the same child.

Lisa Prewitt, the regional supervisor, has been temporarily reassigned while the state investigates allegations of problems in the region, cabinet officials said.

Meanwhile, the region has been plagued by soaring caseloads and high turnover of workers, the lawsuit said.

Wiley herself has a lawsuit pending against the cabinet, where she previously worked as a lawyer, claiming she was wrongfully fired after raising concerns about high caseloads, staff vacancies and frequent turnover of social workers.

Cabinet officials declined to comment on Williams’ lawsuit, said spokeswoman Jill Midkiff. But she said the cabinet has taken no disciplinary action against Williams and temporary reassignments are allowed to meet the needs of the agency

Williams has since returned to his original work site in Gallatin County, Midkiff said.

Williams, who worked as a supervisor in the region, alleges in the lawsuit that his problems began after he sent a detailed letter on April 27 to top officials at the cabinet outlining his concerns over the 93 missing cases, an “atrocious” employee turnover rate and a backlog of more than 1,000 “past due” cases that had missed deadlines because of staff shortages.

Among the 93 cases the cabinet misplaced were reports that two children were present when an adult suffered a fatal heroin overdose; that young children living with drug-impaired adults had been locked out and were going to other apartments in search of food and shelter; and that in two cases, newborns tested positive for drugs in their system, his letter said.

Williams also alleged that some social workers had lied in court about investigations and made serious errors, citing one case where a worker identified the subject of a case as a male with no disabilities when in fact the subject was a female with Down’s Syndrome.

In another case, a worker reported false information in court that prevented relatives from obtaining custody of children removed from their parents. Instead, the children entered foster care, Williams’ letter said.

“I am concerned for the families and the ethical practices in the Northern Bluegrass Regions,” Williams said in his letter. “If the management or workers cannot be accurate or truthful, if the leadership cannot ensure families are protected, if reports are not initiated and addressed, then the public must demand better.”

All of these problems, his letter said, occurred under the management of Prewitt, the regional supervisor.

His letter was sent to Teresa James, commissioner of the department, the cabinet’s Office of Inspector General and the cabinet’s ombudsman office. The Inspector General declined to investigate and referred the matter to social service officials in James’ department.

Three work days after Williams filed his complaint, Prewitt notified Williams he was being transferred from his usual office in Gallatin County to Boone County and demanded he fill out a request for a voluntary transfer, the lawsuit said. Williams refused, saying the transfer was not voluntary.

His lawsuit also alleges Prewitt directed an employee to search Williams’ office while he was away, repeatedly accused him of wrongdoing and began transferring excessive numbers of cases to him and workers he supervised that already were past deadlines and in violation of state policies.

On May 19, the lawsuit says, Prewitt attempted to solicit complaints about Williams from two social workers he supervised. The alleged plan apparently backfired when the two workers produced a memo praising Williams as a good supervisor, it says.

“Tim is a follow policy type of supervisor and we learned a lot from him,” the workers said in the memo.

But the two workers, who had been brought into Boone County temporarily to help reduce high caseloads, noted the excessive numbers of cases they were asked to take on made the job very stressful.

“It has overwhelmed us to the point where we feel like we need a break to continue working this job,” their memo said. “We feel like we work for people who believe that we are just pawns and what we say has no bearing.”

The lawsuit asks for unspecified damages for Williams, that all his supervisory duties be restored and that the cabinet’s Inspector General investigate his complaints.

It also asks that the cabinet be ordered to provide an accurate count of social worker caseloads to determine whether the agency is complying with state law that requires it to notify the General Assembly if caseloads rise above a statewide average of 25 cases per worker for more than three months.

Reporter Deborah Yetter can be reached at (502) 582-4228. Follow her on Twitter at @d_yetter.