DHR ALTERS POLICIES IN WAKE OF DEATH

BIRMINGHAM -- Department of Human Resources officials have changed
some procedures following the death of a 1-year-old who was returned
to his mother despite her positive drug test. The agency also denied
a former worker's claims that DHR could have prevented the death.

Janet Justice, a former Jefferson County DHR child abuse and neglect
supervisor, said the department's mistakes helped put Dominic Ware in
harm's way. The baby died one month after a Family Court judge
returned him to the custody of his mother, Sandra Ware, at DHR's
request.

On March 11, emergency workers responding to a call found Dominic
unconscious at an Ensley home. Police noticed bruises on the child's
face. Dominic never woke up, and he died the next day in Children's
Hospital.

Ware's ex-boyfriend, 24-year-old Jorge Latrice Carter, goes on trial
Nov. 27 on a charge of capital murder. A Jefferson County grand jury
indictment in June alleges Carter killed Dominic by beating him with
an unknown object.

DHR Commissioner Page Walley told The Birmingham News in a story for
Friday's editions that the agency has improved procedures for
verifying drug tests and now requires that all potential perpetrators
of abuse be listed on the Child Abuse and Neglect report.

Walley also disputed some of Justice's claims and questioned her
credibility as a disgruntled former employee.

Justice's comments were included in a four-page affidavit filed in a
long-running federal court case that placed DHR under a consent
decree to improve services to abused and neglected children.

DHR has asked the federal court to lift the decree because it says it
has made improvements required by the court.

Justice's affidavit is part of the plaintiffs' argument to keep the
decree in force and outlines findings from her investigation after
Dominic's death.

DHR sent Dominic to live with his great-grandmother in July 2005
after he suffered an unexplained black eye. Ware was ordered to take
a drug test and three older children also were removed from the home.
Those children were returned to Ware after a hearing and Dominic was
returned in February at DHR's request.

However, the department had never gotten Ware's test results to
provide to the court. Justice said she requested the results after
Dominic's death and it indicated cocaine use.

"If the protective services unit (of DHR) had obtained the results of
the drug test as required in a timely manner in advance of the
February 2006 court hearing, the court would have possessed
additional relevant information and likely would not have returned
custody of the children to the mother," Justice said in the
affidavit. "As a result, in my opinion, Jefferson County DHR could
have prevented the toddler from dying."

Justice started work with DHR in February 2003 and resigned in April.
According to DHR, a complaint she filed with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission was dismissed. Justice said she decided not to
pursue it.

Her affidavit says DHR also failed to make monthly unannounced visits
to Ware's home, and failed to interview Carter.

Ware said DHR required her to take a drug test, but she never learned
the results. She said she did not use cocaine.

But Carter, her boyfriend at the time of Dominic's death, used
cocaine regularly before his arrest, according to a motion filed in
Carter's criminal case by his lawyer, John Robbins.

Ware said DHR made one or two unannounced visits to her home, but she
did not know whether DHR talked to Carter before returning Dominic to
her custody.

She said she would not have allowed Carter to be around Dominic if
she had considered him dangerous.

"I would have put him in check," Ware said. "He would not have been
around my child."