Lee Rood

lrood@dmreg.com

© 2017, Des Moines Register and Tribune Co.

The principal and school nurse at the West Des Moines alternative high school where 16-year-old Natalie Finn begged for food had reported months before she died of starvation that they suspected child abuse, a state senator said in an exclusive interview.

Sen. Matt McCoy told Reader's Watchdog he’s also learned that West Des Moines police went several times last summer to the West Des Moines home of Natalie's adopted mother, Nicole Marie Finn, after being told her adopted children were being abused.

But school officials and officers both had difficulty getting child-protective workers to take their concerns seriously — until late last summer, when a worker and police pushed their way into the Finn house Aug. 16, McCoy said.

One of the Finns' neighbors, Becca Gordon, previously told Watchdog that she alerted authorities May 31 that Natalie had been begging for food and appeared to be neglected. But Gordon said no one from human services ever followed up with her.

Natalie suffered cardiac arrest and died Oct. 24 from emaciation. Her adopted parents, Nicole and Joseph Finn, have pleaded not guilty to multiple felony charges in Natalie's death and the alleged torture of two younger siblings, 14 and 15, who had to be hospitalized when discovered by authorities.

Two Department of Human Services workers lost their jobs in the wake of the case, McCoy said.

McCoy, a ranking Democrat on the Legislature's Oversight Committee, said he has asked to convene oversight hearings on the Finn case and another abuse case involving 18-year-old Malayia Knapp of Des Moines that Watchdog reported last week.

"What I want to understand, and what I really wish I could do, is sit down with the two employees who were fired over this," McCoy said, releasing more to Watchdog this week of what he learned in recent briefings with Human Services. "I want to know more about what was the culture at the department. And is that the same culture that allowed that kind of abuse to happen at Malayia Knapp’s house?"

McCoy already has introduced legislation this session that would require quarterly welfare checks on home-schooled children who are not working with local school districts.

In a letter Wednesday to state Sen. Michael Breitbach, the Republican chairman of the oversight committee, McCoy said he also has concerns about how parents are being vetted before being allowed to adopt children from state care and how seriously Iowa’s Department of Human Services is taking abuse reports from mandatory reporters.

"National child-welfare experts have warned us that they cannot assess whether a child death from abuse is an anomaly or part of a more systemic failure without transparency," he wrote.

Breitbach hadn't responded to McCoy's request as of Wednesday afternoon.

McCoy said he's become more concerned about systemic problems after learning about Malayia Knapp, 18, who, like Natalie, was reportedly being home-schooled in her Urbandale home.

The 18-year-old Des Moines Area Community College student said she was beaten for years and locked up with her sister behind a steel door in a small basement room — once for as long as a week without food.

She ran away and reported the abuse Dec. 1, 2015. But seven children, including four of Malayia's half-siblings, were returned by a judge to the home.

Human Services officials confirmed multiple counts of abuse against Mindy and Andy Knapp, the couple who adopted Malayia and five half-siblings out of foster care. Mindy Knapp also was convicted last year of misdemeanor assault.

In Natalie Finn's case, McCoy said, Walnut Creek’s principal complained to child-protective workers that the teen was arriving at school dirty, hungry and with no shoes. Neighbors made similar reports.

He said the school nurse reported last spring that Natalie weighed only about 112 pounds and looked malnourished.

Human Services initiated an investigation, which came back unfounded, but the child protective worker and supervisor assigned the case never sought a physical examination of Natalie by an independent physician to verify if she was malnourished, McCoy said.

McCoy said he’s also talked to West Des Moines police, who told him they were frustrated because they made several trips to the house and couldn’t get inside.

"And nobody at the DHS would be like, 'We’ll meet you out there.' And so in August, they got the county attorney involved," McCoy said.

DHS officials have declined to comment on the Finn case while a criminal investigation is underway. Nicole and Joseph Finn are scheduled to go to trial March 27.

Palmer admits wrongdoing

McCoy says Human Services chief Charles Palmer told him the child-protective worker and supervisor in the case did not give appropriate weight to the concerns voiced by the officials at Natalie's school, who were obligated by law to report suspected abuse.

They also failed to make sure the Finn case was being monitored during a critical time last summer when a worker was out of the office and another was on medical leave, he said.

"The big failure was that nobody was working the case when there was a time lapse of about 21 days," he said. "The supervisor and employee were gone at the same time. But when somebody's got 12 cases, and one is a five-alarm fire, you've got to pass that one off and make sure that gets worked. That was the supervisor's responsibility, and that didn't happen."

Kim Davis, principal at Walnut Creek Campus, where Natalie attended school last spring, declined to comment.

A district spokeswoman has said Natalie did not return to school last fall. Nicole Finn indicated to school officials that Natalie and her two siblings, ages 14 and 15, were being home-schooled.

A child-protective worker sent Nicole Finn a letter on Polk County Attorney letterhead in early August, trying to compel the divorced mother to let officials see the children, McCoy said. When the letter was ignored, a Polk County attorney sought permission from juvenile Judge Colin Witt for a formal visit to be conducted at the home.

Witt said he couldn’t speak about the case, but the process is used "pretty infrequently" when there's cause to believe children are in danger.

The burden of proof in such cases in similar to that needed for a search warrant, he said. It is used when children are at risk but have not been deemed children in need of assistance by the state.

On Aug. 16, Nicole Finn refused to let police and a child-protective worker in her home, so they had to push their way in, McCoy said. He said he's been told there were disturbing signs in the house but that the child-protective worker noted there was sufficient food at the time.

It was still unclear Wednesday whether the worker saw Natalie during that visit and what the worker observed.

After the visit, the worker called a Polk County attorney, who determined insufficient grounds existed to begin a child-in-need-of-assistance case or try to remove the children, McCoy said.

"The biggest mystery is: What did they report to the county attorney afterward?" McCoy said. "Did it say they looked at each of the kids, or did they see two of the kids? I want to see what they wrote formally. DHS won’t give that to me."

McCoy said he also asked Palmer during his briefing: "Am I supposed to believe that all this abuse occurred after Aug. 16? Palmer said, 'Yes.'"

Gov. Branstad still mum

A child-welfare redesign years ago placed more emphasis in Iowa on protecting young children, as well as those subject to physical and sexual abuse. In June 2014, Human Services began funneling thousands of more cases of neglect toward informal services and away from formal court oversight.

Some child-welfare attorneys since have complained that too many children, especially older children, are not being protected, while family preservationists complain too many are being removed.

Gov. Terry Branstad has said state law currently requires that the record of fired public employees be sealed, and that Democrats such as McCoy have blocked changing that law. As a result, Branstad is prohibited from explaining how and why the two Human Services workers were disciplined in the Finn case, his spokesperson said.

"Gov. Branstad wants that to change and has fought in the past to have it changed, but Senate Democrats and Sen. McCoy fought against allowing these records to be opened," spokesman Ben Hammes wrote in a statement. "Keep in mind … they should NOT become public when there is an allegation. But once the full appeal process has been exhausted, Gov. Branstad believes these records need to be opened."

But McCoy said he only fought to assure due process for employees on a state do-not-hire list.

"We had people on the do-not-rehire list who never got notified, and then they would apply for a job and were told, 'You're not eligible for rehire,'" he said.

McCoy contends that nothing in state law prohibits the governor from discussing why the child-protection workers were fired.

"He's either doing that intentionally, or he's been misinformed," McCoy said. "But as long as those employees have had due process, there's nothing that prohibits him from talking. I assume they would have immediately been placed on the do-not-hire list."

Hammes said Branstad is reserving judgment on any legislative proposals designed to improve the system until after they are reviewed and changes are made.