Claimant: DCS’ lack of vetting enabled sex abuse

Child was placed with offender; $22M sought

In May 2016, a 7-year-old girl was sexually abused while in foster care.

The man who assaulted her, known to her as “Papa Joe,” was convicted last year of sexual conduct with a minor and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Now, the girl’s attorney is seeking $22 million from the state for the failure of the state Department of Child Safety to properly vet her foster-home placement and keep her from harm.

A new notice of claim — a precursor to a lawsuit — filed with the state Wednesday describes that harm in graphic detail. Attorney Robert Pastor says DCS officials knew or should have known that the child was living in a home west of Phoenix where Jose Egurrola, a registered sex offender, was living.

“In fact, the State of Arizona did know because the Arizona Department of Motor Vehicle (sic) and the Arizona Department of Public Safety documented that Jose Angel Egurrola was a convicted sex offender, living with the foster mother,” the claim reads.

The child is not identified in the claim, to protect her privacy and that of her family.

Pastor said the girl has since been reunited with her biological mother. Now age 8, she has been acting out, getting into fights with other children at school, showing fear of sleeping in a dark room and exhibiting anxiety and depression, Pastor said.

The filing comes after a notice filed last week on behalf of a former foster

child in Tucson who alleged more than a decade of abuse from his foster father.

That claim, which seeks $15 million in damages from the state, says the boy was repeatedly physically and sexually abused by his foster father over the 12 years he was in the home. He also was pimped out by his foster father to a pedophile ring that operated out of Sierra Vista, the claim states. His foster mother also beat him, and the family continually neglected the boy’s needs, the claim states.

The DCS has declined to comment on the claims, citing the potential litigation.

Both claims allege failings in how the DCS administers foster-care licensing.

In the case of the young girl, records show Egurrola registered as a sex offender, listing the foster-home address, two days after the child was placed there. The DCS is required to check the backgrounds of all adults in a foster home and to do periodic checks.

Although Egurrola was not on the registry — in violation of his parole — when the placement was made, Pastor said his presence should have been noticed in follow-up visits.

Motor Vehicle Department records included with the claim show Egurrola moved along with the foster mother from Surprise to Avondale, changing his address to the Avondale location in April 2016, one month before the abuse.

The claim alleges that when DCS workers arrived to do periodic checks on the foster home, they did not enter the house to check out the living conditions, did not verify who was living there and did not interview the home’s occupants.

The foster mother reported the abuse to Avondale police as soon as the child told her about it, and ordered Egurrola to leave the home. Egurrola pleaded guilty to sexual conduct with a minor last April. A forensic examination conducted as part of the criminal investigation found his semen on the child’s mouth, anus and vagina, according to the complaint.

In the Tucson case, the claim alleges the DCS did not pursue more than three dozen police reports involving the home of David Frodsham, the foster father, over a period of 12 years. Those reports included calls made by the foster child himself.

“John Doe (the pseudonym used for the child in the claim) complained to CPS/DCS over 16 times and nothing was done,” attorney Lynne Cadigan wrote. “Even more shocking, there were at least 10 abuse and neglect complaints documented by CPS/DCS between 2002 and 2015.”

These reports brought no change to the boy’s welfare, Cadigan wrote. It was only when Frodsham was arrested by federal officers for operating a pornographic pedophile ring out of his home that the DCS removed the boy from the home. That was because the complaint by the federal investigators identified the boy as a victim of the pedophile operation.

The back-to-back claims come as the state Legislature is considering a bill that would drop the requirement for foster and group homes to renew their licenses after their first two years of operation. Rather, Senate Bill 1046 would make the renewal process complaintdriven: If a complaint were filed against a home, the state would be obliged to investigate if the operator wanted to keep the license valid.

The bill passed the state Senate on a unanimous vote Monday; it now moves to the House of Representative for consideration. Meanwhile, the state has 60 days to review the claims and decide whether to accept them. If denied, the claimants can take their cases to court.