County Lawyers Push to Seal Foster Care Suit in Boy’s Death

Los Angeles County attorneys Monday argued that a lawsuit alleging social workers contributed to the death of a 9-year-old boy in foster care should be sealed from public inspection.

Despite a decision by the Board of Supervisors earlier this month to push for openness in records of children who die while under government supervision, county lawyers at a hearing said that not only should the court file of a lawsuit by the boy’s mother be kept private, but all court proceedings as well.

“It is impossible to argue the merits of this action without disclosing confidential information,” a county lawyer wrote in court papers.

The motion was opposed in court by attorney Carl Douglas, who represents Debra Reid, the mother alleging that her son was improperly taken from her by social workers. The boy later died while in foster care, and Reid has become a vocal critic of the county’s Department of Children and Family Services.

“They want to close everything,” Douglas said. “They want to silence Ms. Reid.”

Superior Court Commissioner Emilie H. Elias required Douglas to resubmit the lawsuit after the hearing Monday and is expected to rule on the county’s motion by the end of the week.

It is the county’s second attempt this month to seal lawsuits questioning its handling of children’s issues. County lawyers also sought to seal a federal lawsuit alleging that social workers favored another county employee in a custody dispute and that the employee later killed her two children.

After that motion was denied by a federal judge, the Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to ask county lobbyists to seek changes in state law allowing public inspection of files of children who die during Dependency Court proceedings.

But County Counsel Lloyd W. Pellman said that until the law is changed, his office must press to keep Juvenile Court records--which will be at issue in the Reid lawsuit--confidential.

“The law is still the law,” Pellman said.

Douglas said that the county is using the law to hide its abuses and that alternatives exist to sealing court proceedings.

“It’s not just Jonathan Reid and Debra Reid,” Douglas said. “There are problems with the Department of Children and Family Services that must have the light of public scrutiny.”

The juvenile files expected to be produced in this case also involve Jonathan’s surviving younger brother.

Earlier this year, the county lost an effort to keep records relating to the death of Jonathan Reid confidential when The Times succeeded in opening court records on how Jonathan was taken from his mother and traversed a child welfare system that may have led to his death.

Those records showed that allegations that social workers lodged against Debra Reid were largely dismissed or found to be unsubstantiated after a series of Juvenile Court hearings.

The lawsuit alleges that after taking the asthmatic Jonathan from his mother, the county failed to monitor his medical condition or supervise the people who cared for him.

The initial autopsy report by the county coroner’s office said Jonathan died from asthma and a lethal dose of Albuterol, an asthma medication. The death was listed as a homicide.

But that listing was later changed to “undetermined” after officials learned that the coroner’s wife, Vijay Lakshmanan, was among the pediatricians who treated Jonathan while he was in foster care.