Short On Resources, 'Stretched Too Thin': RivCo's CPS, Public Guardian

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — The Board of Supervisors Tuesday directed Executive Office staff to develop an action plan based on two reports that identified deficiencies in how child and adult welfare cases are handled, seeking to prevent ongoing failings and protect the county's most vulnerable residents.

The board's 4-0 vote followed testimony by former federal Judge Stephen Larson, founder of the Los Angeles-based Larson Law Group, hired by the board in October to conduct sweeping analyses of the Department of Public Social Services, specifically Child Protective Services and the Office of the Public Guardian.

The $868,000 probe resulted in a 630-page report. At the same time, the 19-member county civil Grand Jury conducted a separate investigation, but focused entirely on CPS, producing a 22-page narrative.

Supervisors Karen Spiegel and Kevin Jeffries, who serve on the board's Ad-Hoc Committee for Inter-Departmental Systems Improvement, had sought the Larson probe based on revelations that case workers mishandled the needs of 13 children from one of the county's most notorious abuse cases — the Turpins.

"You have a lot of great people working in your departments, but with a 40 percent vacancy rate, people are going to make mistakes," Larson told the board, noting the existing hole in CPS staffing. "You need incentive structures, legal structures in place so that people can do their job."

Larson said that "high caseloads and high staff turnover" were undermining CPS' operations, leaving the agency without the "institutional knowledge" to ensure efficiency and responsiveness.

However, in spite of the challenges, Larson said there was positive momentum, with dedicated "professionals going above and beyond their prescribed roles" to do what they can to rescue children from hostile, abusive environments. Too often, they're short on resources and "stretched too thin" to prevent tragedies, he said.

Of the 93 pages of the Larson report submitted to the board concerning the Turpin children, more than 80 percent was redacted, or blacked out, due to apparent privacy concerns.

Seven of the nine Turpin children, whose parents were convicted three years ago of inflicting severe abuse in their Perris residence, are now adults, and their welfare management shifted from CPS to the Office of the Public Guardian.

The Larson probe uncovered that nearly $2 million in private donations were made after the Turpin case received widespread media coverage, with people sending varying amounts to help the victims, whose parents, 59-year-old David Allen Turpin and 52-year-old Louise Ann Turpin, were each sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison in 2019.

The children were sent to foster homes and other facilities, but life did not improve much, as noted in an ABC News broadcast last November.

Jordan Turpin, 22, and her sister Jennifer Turpin, 33, as well as their 29-year-old brother Joshua Turpin, told interviewers they were finding it virtually impossible to access the money for their needs. Joshua Turpin said he wanted to purchase a bike for basic transportation and was denied access by the Office of the Public Guardian.

Jordan Turpin said when she was taken out of extended foster care and designated an independent adult, she had no immediate shelter or ability to purchase food, without life skills training from years of being subjected to lockdown by her parents.

"The unsealed records indicate that there remains a significant amount of money that was donated for the benefit of the Turpin siblings, but which the Office of the Public Guardian has not marshaled and distributed," according to the Larson report.

The money was placed in trust with different entities, including the Corona Chamber of Commerce, the SAFE Family Justice Center and the JAYC Foundation.

The report identified repeated conflicts with the attorneys hired by the OPG to represent the children, as well as the District Attorney's Office and the Office of County Counsel. Some of the difficulty stemmed from alleged denials of access to the victims by the attorneys, creating animosity between them and prosecutors.

Larson said the conflicts point to broader communications challenges impacting multiple agencies.

"The information-sharing protocols must be changed from a 'need to know mentality,' to a 'need to share mentality,"' he said. "There is an overly conservative approach that restricts information."

The report did not directly address what happened to two of the Turpin girls, who were allegedly tormented by the foster family with which they were placed in Perris after they were taken from their parents.

Larson said that managing child welfare cases is complicated by a lack of "high-quality foster homes" countywide.

The grand jury identified the same problems at CPS, noting each case agent is trying to juggle an average 40 cases on any given day. The preferred case ratio is 1:18.

Larson said OPG personnel are managing an average 98 conservatorships per staffer.

The grand jury investigated CPS in 2012 and released a series of recommendations for improvements.

Jurors discovered training manuals had been properly amended, and meetings with county attorneys to iron out legal challenges were proving beneficial. But the county remained plagued by ghastly examples of failures to ensure kids' well-being.

In one instance, agents barely investigated complaints from a 13-year-old girl in 2017 that she was being sexually abused by her mother's live-in boyfriend — until the child became pregnant with his baby.

In 2019, agents were assigned to investigate reports of abuse on 8-year-old Noah McIntosh of Corona. The special needs boy's father had been accused of tying him up and submerging him in cold water. CPS workers failed to identify anything amiss. Noah disappeared months later. His father, Bryce McIntosh, is charged with murder.

"CPS workers have to root out evil," Jeffries said, noting that it's no simple task, especially when they're overwhelmed with cases. "Vacancy rates, (inadequate) compensation, lack of employees — we can begin to work on those meat and potato issues."

Spiegel said legislation authored by Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, R-Beaumont, was progressing through hearings, and if passed, would loosen the regulatory hurdles preventing agencies from freely sharing information.

After the EO completes a detailed review of the reports' recommendations, which number close to 100, staff will begin advising the Ad-Hoc Committee on what policy changes should be considered to improve CPS and OPG operations.