$6M city fund for lost boy

Vanished in 2010

The city has agreed to set aside $6 million for a Staten Island boy who vanished eight years ago after he’d been ripped from relatives and thrust into foster care.

Patrick Alford (inset) was 7 when he disappeared while taking out the trash at his foster home in January 2010.

City Administration for Children’s Services workers and foster-care agency St. Vincents Services inexplicably rushed Patrick and his younger sister into foster homes rather than leave them with loving relatives, and then ignored the special-needs boy as he spiraled into despair, according to his family’s Brooklyn federal-court lawsuit.

Patrick, who spoke only English, made repeated attempts to escape his foster home, where Spanish was the primary language, and had violent outbursts and suicidal thoughts, papers state.

After nearly a decade without word of Patrick’s fate, “we have no information that would dissuade us from searching for him,” said Jonathan Lerner, a lawyer appointed pro bono to represent the boy’s legal interests.

The settlement is being held in a trust for Patrick, and some of the funds can be used to aid in the search for him.

“There will be procedures to make sure any money spent will be spent wisely,” Lerner said.

After the city “seized” Patrick and his sister in 2009 from “the safe and loving care” of aunt Blanca Toledo without a court order, officials refused to let other relatives take the kids, then gave “false and misleading statements” to a Staten Island family court judge about the case and failed to get him the emergency psychiatric care he needed, according to court documents.

A city Law Department spokesman said the resolution of the case was “in the best interest of all parties.”