Tuesday, July 18, 2006
GIRL REUNITED WITH FATHER SUES COUNTY FOR FAILURE TO LOCATE HIM
The Associated Press has filed a story about a teenage girl in California who is suing Los Angeles County for taking ten years to locate her father while she was in foster care. "County supervisors had said in September that the reunion of Melinda Smith, now 17, and father Thomas Marion Smith was the result of a 'groundbreaking effort,' and congratulated county agencies for locating the father." However, the lawsuit alleges that the Department of Children and Family Services failed to use “due diligence” to locate Thomas Smith. The teenager also alleges that the agency never notified Smith, who had continued making child support payments, that his daughter was in foster care and never gave him a chance to claim her.
