MONTICELLO – Sullivan County District Attorney Brian Conaty says he wants to return the legal responsibility for child protective services cases back to the Department of Family Services (DFS). Several years ago, the County Attorney’s office was assigned to handle these cases and Conaty believes Child Protective Services (CPS) will be better represented by attorneys assigned to their division.
The DA’s decision came from a 107-page report drafted by a grand jury following the death of a 16-month-old girl.
Conaty said there many aspects of DFS’s responsibility and that he would like to see responsibility over CPS reverted to their original jurisdiction under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services and Commissioner John Liddle.
“The grand jury recommended the following legislative executive or administrative action to be taken in the public interest. The county attorney’s office should be divested of all responsibility of CPS’s, legal representation, and DFS’s legal department, should be reinstituted as a previously existed.
County Legislature Chairwoman Nadia Rajsz said that she’d be willing to work with the DA’s office to try to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. “The legislature will do whatever it can to support the DA and the commissioner of Social Services to ensure that these recommendations are addressed and corrected.”
When the DA was asked if he was optimistic about changes in the future he said, “This tragedy cannot be allowed to happen again. I am sure that Sullivan County is put on notice that changes need to be made and calls for new bold ideas and leadership, and I’m optimistic that we can go forward from here.”
