2 sentenced to combined 108 years in prison for sexual abuse of children

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2 sentenced to combined 108 years in prison for sexual abuse of children in Rockbridge
By Laurence Hammack laurence.hammack@roanoke.com 981-3239  Jun 6, 2017

http://www.roanoke.com/news/crime/sentenced-to-combined-years-in-prison-for-sexual-abuse-of/article_4ed8f624-4385-5eb4-a574-47215de7f78c.html



another fail by child services, CPS in every state whole country
needs a big overhaul

As disturbing as the sex crimes were, the case also pointed to lapses at a social services department that had been asked to investigate conditions in a mobile home park where the girls lived in the remote Arnold Valley section of Rockbridge County.
 
A special grand jury investigation of the department concluded last month that the agency’s Child Protective Services unit took action only after repeated pressure from the county sheriff’s office, which became concerned about the home after responding to a neighbor’s call.
 
But with the grand jury unable to bring charges against any social services employees, attention turned Tuesday to Robert Eugene Clark and his half-sister, Samantha Simmons.

In September 2015, when Sigler approached the home to investigate reports of child abuse that had twice been ignored by her department, she found what she called deplorable conditions — preceded by the stench of urine and feces and confirmed when she stepped on a kitten that she first took for dead.
 
Despite what one attorney called “subhuman” conditions in the home, Rockbridge social services workers were slow to respond to complaints from concerned neighbors.

A former supervisor at the agency refused to enter the reports into a computer system as required by state policy and told caseworkers not to be bothered with the case, according to the special grand jury’s report. The Roanoke Times is not naming the supervisor because she was not charged with a crime.

“We don’t do it that way … because that’s the way I want it,” the woman reportedly said when asked to explain her inaction.
 
The former supervisor, who was accused of shredding some reports of child abuse that were made to the agency, also expressed little sympathy for the plight of the two young girls.

“They’re used to living that way so what’s the big deal?” she was quoted as saying in the grand jury report.

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