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Sheila McLaughlin reports:

The former executive director of Butler County Children Services who got the boot in an immediate reorganization of the embattled agency will be paid through Jan. 18 as part of a settlement with county commissioners.

Jeff Centers. Photo provided.

According to an agreement obtained by The Enquirer, the county also will continue Jeff Center’s health insurance and will allow him to cash in any unused sick time.

In exchange, Centers has promised not to sue the county and will not file an age discrimination complaint against commissioners.

Centers, who made $86,000 a year and has headed the agency since 2009, was stripped of his title in September after commissioners called for reform in the wake of a case involving a 12-year-old girl who was locked in her parent’s Middletown basement on July 3.

The agency’s director of intake also was suspended for three days for ignoring an earlier complaint regarding the 12-year-old a month before caseworkers found her.

Centers has been on paid leave since Sept. 18 while commissioners appointed Jerome Kearns, executive director of the Butler County Department of Job and Family Services to lead both departments.

Centers was the agency’s third director in five years after commissioners called for improvements following the death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel in foster care.

Posted in: News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Children Services, Butler County Children Services Director Jeff Centers, Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Butler County Juvenile Court, Ched Peck, Cindy Carpenter, Jeff Centers, Joanna Blackston, Shawn Blackston

Social workers accused of ignoring calls about girl locked in basement

Sheila McLaughlin reports:

Butler County Commissioners on Thursday appointed a new leader to manage the children services agency after social workers were accused of ignoring calls that a 12-year-old Middletown girl was being locked in a basement.

Jerome Kearns, who is director of the county’s department of job and family services, also will head the children services agency.

• Butler County Children Services director placed on paid leave

Children Services Director Jeff Centers has been on paid leave since Monday when commissioners said a reorganization of the agency was critical in the wake of the case involving the 12-year-old girl. Commissioner Cindy Carpenter indicated that Centers is expected to leave the county and a separation agreement is in the works.

Commissioners on Thursday also approved a three-day suspension of Julie Gilbert, an intake supervisor at children services, who ignored an earlier complaint regarding the 12 -year-old a month before an investigator found the girl in the basement following an anonymous tip on July 3.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Children Services, Butler County Children Services Director Jeff Centers, Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Butler County Juvenile Court, Ched Peck, Cindy Carpenter, Jeff Centers, Joanna Blackston, Shawn Blackston

Sheila McLaughlin reports:

A Middletown couple accused of locking their 12-year-old daughter in the basement for weeks as punishment for being unruly pleaded not guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor charges of child endangering.

Joanna and Shawn Blackston appeared in Butler County Juvenile Court on the charge after a grand jury declined to indict them on felony charges of felony kidnapping.

The court hearing came a day after Butler County Children Services Director Jeff Centers was placed on paid leave from his $86,000 a year job in the wake of trouble in the agency. A more definitive decision on his job could happen as soon as Thursday, County Administrator Charlie Young said.

“We’ve taken a look at children services and we are making some decisions on changes that are necessary. I would not attribute it to the Blackston case particularly, but the Blackston case is one of many issues,” he said.

The Blackstons are scheduled to go on trial Nov. 12. The couple faces up to six months in jail if convicted or they could receive probation. They had faced up to 10 years in prison on the kidnapping charge.

The girl and five other children – ranging in age from 2 to 16 – were placed in foster care after a children services investigator, working on a tip, checked the home and found the girl locked in the basement on July 3.

A 15-year-old was removed from the home several months earlier after reporting that she was punished by having to stay in the basement and watching the other children open Christmas presents.

Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, who has called for changes in the county’s child welfare system, has said the children services agency failed to check on the other children or respond to complaints about treatment of the children after the 15-year-old was placed in foster care.

With the threat of felony charges gone, Joanna Blackston’s attorney, Ched Peck, said his client can focus on getting her children back.

“These allegations are very serious. But without the threat of prison being there any longer, the focus turns very quickly to the children – getting some or all of these children back home,” Peck said.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Children Services, Butler County Children Services Director Jeff Centers, Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Butler County Juvenile Court, Ched Peck, Cindy Carpenter, Jeff Centers, Joanna Blackston, Shawn Blackston