Marti was jailed Wednesday on multiple counts of falsifying reports, records show.
“The falsification of official records, and the potential risks that
any kind of falsification could pose for children, will not be
tolerated,” said Dennis Miles, the regional managing director for the
state’s Department of Children and Families’ Southeast Region.
Marti submitted the falsified records involving the five children
between Dec. 1, 2011, and June 30 this year, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Detectives found that those children are doing well, sheriff’s
spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion said.
“We have gone back and made sure that all of those kids were safe, and the original allegations had been addressed,” she said.
An investigation into Marti’s actions began in June when a child’s
mother phoned the Broward Sheriff’s Office. The mother said she planned
to send Marti a photo of her son, but couldn’t because she had lost
Marti’s phone number, an arrest report said.
That was a red flag for Marti’s supervisor, Concepcion said.
Detectives from the Broward Sheriff’s Public Corruption Unit reached
out to several parents who each similarly detailed Marti’s
instructions to send her photos of their children. They all said their
sons and daughters did not meet with her on instances when she
indicated they had, according to an arrest report.
Marti, a civilian employee, is currently suspended without pay,
Concepcion said. Marti, 57, of Coral Springs, has been employed with
the Sheriff’s Office for nine years.
She previously worked in pre-trial services and community control
supervision of offenders, and later began working as a child
investigative specialist.
Detectives have reviewed all of Marti’s cases since July 2010 — when
she began working in the Child Protective Investigations Section — and
only found five cases “in which she acted inappropriately,” Concepcion
said.
Marti, who was freed from jail on a $5,000 bond, could not be
reached for comment Thursday despite several attempts to contact her
via a relative.
As part of their role, child protective investigators take a look at
allegations of abuse, neglect or abandonment that come into the DCF
hotline. Those cases range from neglecting to offer a child medical
attention, to leaving minors who cannot care for themselves home alone,
to sexual abuse, DCF spokeswoman Paige Patterson-Hughes said.
However, it was not known Thursday what circumstances led Marti to each of the cases for which she allegedly falsified reports.
“It’s important for there to be the appropriate contact with the
potential victim and other people involved,” Patterson-Hughes said.
“Not following through clearly is a problem.”
In the case that helped start the investigation, Marti filed a
report indicating she met a child on June 13 this year, authorities
said. But in a sworn statement, the boy’s mother said Marti did not
meet her son and instead asked the mother for a cellphone photo.
According to the arrest report, investigators found that Marti filed
a report in January 2012 stating that she had met with another child.
But that boy’s mother also gave a sworn statement that said Marti
didn’t see her son.
The scenario repeated itself in December 2012, when Marti said in a
report she visited a 7-year-old girl at Croissant Park Elementary
School in Fort Lauderdale, an arrest report said. But the school’s
assistant vice principal said she had no record of an investigator
visiting the child at the time, the report said.
Marti allegedly also asked that girl’s mother to send a cellphone
snapshot of her other child, a 2-year-old girl. The mother, in a sworn
statement, said she did as instructed.
In April 2013, Marti gave a 16-year-old boy’s mother her business
card and asked that his photo be emailed to her, the report said. The
boy told investigators that he never met Marti, but did take a photo of
himself on his cellphone and emailed it to Marti.
Patterson-Hughes said meeting people is essential: It offers
investigators clues to anything else that should be taken into account
during their investigation.
“Clearly, when you’re talking to a person, you’re oftentimes taking
in more than the words. You’re looking at other aspects, the behavior,
the demeanor and the circumstances that brought you to the person in
the first place,” Patterson-Hughes said.
Marti also is accused of falsifying a report that said she had met with a parent, authorities said.
In May this year, Marti allegedly filed a report stating she had met
with the father of a child who had an open case, authorities said. The
father told detectives that he had a telephone conversation with a
child protective investigator, but did not meet the investigator in
person, the arrest report said.
Miles called the allegations against Marti a “serious matter” and
commended the Sheriff’s Office for investigating. In an emailed
statement Thursday, he said that DCF “will work with [sheriff's]
investigators to ensure the integrity of other cases which involved
this investigator.”
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-10-10/news/fl-child-protection-arrest-bso-20131010_1_broward-sheriff-five-children-falsifying-reports
