When caseworkers investigating possible child abuse don’t tell the truth, the state lacks a clear process to repair the damage and to ensure it doesn’t happen again — both problems in urgent need of solutions, Colorado Child Protection Ombudsman Stephanie Villafuerte said.
The question of what to do when caseworkers lie came to the fore again after police last week arrested a worker in the Denver Human Services office for allegedly writing reports that referred to calls and at least one home visit she never made.
Christina Gray, of Wheat Ridge, faces eight counts of attempting to influence a public servant, which is a class four felony that carries a penalty of two to six years in prison if a jury finds her guilty.
The problem goes beyond one caseworker, though the state ombudsman’s office has struggled to determine exactly how many cases may exist since the Colorado Department of Human Services hasn’t cooperated with its records requests, Villafuerte said.
“We’re looking, frankly, not just at Denver, but at a half-dozen similar cases,” she said.
The Department of Human Services has shared as much data as it legally can, because state law doesn’t allow it to turn over confidential information to the ombudsman’s office, except in response to a Colorado resident’s complaint, spokeswoman AnneMarie Harper said.
“CDHS has always and continues to work in full cooperation with the Child Protection Ombudsman to the fullest extent possible, while still following privacy laws. This includes meeting to brainstorm and offer alternative, appropriate solutions to their requests,” she said in an email.
If a caseworker writes inaccurate reports, a child could be taken from their parents unnecessarily or left in an unsafe home, Villafuerte said. As such, the state needs a clear action plan if it finds out that a caseworker lied, but, right now, each county can decide whether to even tell families, she said. Villafuerte referred to intentionally false information, not to misunderstandings or situations where two people’s interpretations of events might differ.
“This really hurts children and families,” she said.
The Department of Human Services certifies caseworkers, so they don’t face discipline before a licensing board in the way that a doctor or lawyer would for violating their profession’s ethics, Villafuerte said. Managers often hesitate to say why a former employee resigned or was fired, so someone who got caught making up information but didn’t face criminal charges could get a job doing the same kind of work in the next county over, she said.
New regulations that took effect in September now require counties to notify affected families, law enforcement and court officials if they determine a caseworker lied, Harper said. A group is meeting to develop a decertification process so that counties can check if a caseworker committed misconduct at a previous job, she said.
In a summary prepared for an interim legislative committee in the summer of 2023, the ombudsman’s office reported it knew of four caseworkers in Colorado charged with submitting false information since 2015. In most cases, they claimed to make visits they hadn’t, the summary said. One of the caseworkers took a job at another county human services office before facing charges.
A bill that would have created a task force to study problems in the child welfare system didn’t pass last year, but Villafuerte said she hopes lawmakers will take up a revised version in the coming session.
In the arrested Denver caseworker’s situation, false information may have delayed the resolution of a case of child sexual abuse, according to a Denver Police Department arrest affidavit.
According to the affidavit, Denver police received a report of sexual assault on a child in 2022, but the district attorney’s office didn’t prosecute because its attorneys didn’t believe they had enough evidence. In March 2024, a supervisor at Denver Human Services called the child abuse hotline and asked that someone take another look at the case.
Police did, and attorney Jessica Peck, who was representing the victim’s mother, raised concerns that Gray had filled out reports with false information in 2022. They couldn’t find any evidence that Gray had visited the victim’s home or contacted the victim’s therapist, as she allegedly reported she had.
Detectives also learned that Denver Human Services had started investigating Gray after the ombudsman’s office received a tip in December 2023 and raised concerns about possible false information in 11 of 78 cases she had worked on since 2022.
Police said they found evidence of falsified records in seven of the 11 other cases flagged for review. The affidavit, however, didn’t specify if any harm occurred in the other seven cases.
Gray couldn’t be reached for comment. She didn’t yet have an attorney listed with the courts, and the phone number in her court records was no longer in service.
Adriana Lopez, marketing and communications director for Denver Human Services, said the office has “zero tolerance” for falsified records and is cooperating with Denver police. Gray no longer works there, she said.
“We also want to acknowledge that the unfortunate actions of some are not a reflection of the vast majority of caseworkers, in Denver and across Colorado, who work diligently every day to provide necessary interventions for children and youth who require our protection and to ensure that children, youth and families receive the services and support that they need,” she said in a statement.
Denver Human Services’ policy requires supervisors and other staff to report if they believe someone is falsifying records. If the office’s quality improvement team receives a report of possible falsification, they are required to verify the records and to suspend the employee if they can’t. If they confirm falsification, the office’s director will notify law enforcement and affected families, it said.
In the case of Peck’s client, the mother received full custody of the child, who is safe from the abuser, the attorney said. But the incorrect information, including at least four reported calls and visits that never happened, could have led to a worse outcome, Peck said. The Denver Post isn’t identifying the mother to protect the victim’s privacy.
“It worked out for my client, but that doesn’t mean it worked out for the other families,” she said.
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