Madfloridian's Journal - Florida again. Case of woman covered with "filth and maggots" not "willful neglect".

This sort of lets DCF off the hook. Authorities only visited the home 44 times after complaints. Can't expect too much...right?

Not willful neglect

LOXAHATCHEE - State and local authorities visited an unlicensed South Florida adult group home numerous times before discovering a 66-year-old woman covered in filth and maggots in May, a newspaper reported Sunday.

....""We couldn't show there was willful neglect," Assistant State Attorney Michael Rachel said.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies responded to the home 44 times for a variety of calls in the six months before it was closed on May 24, but did not note unsatisfactory conditions, The Palm Beach Post reported Sunday.

"It doesn't mean that at that particular moment the deputies encountered anything that would have been a violation because we are the ones that did uncover what was going on," said Paul Miller, a sheriff's office spokesman.

A Department of Children & Families investigator also found no signs of neglect in a visit a few weeks before the elderly woman was discovered. "I feel the investigator did his job," Alan Abramowitz, acting DCF administrator in Palm Beach County, told The Associated Press. "When these places go down, it can go bad really quickly."

Governor Crist appointed a Democrat, Bob Butterworth, to head the DCF. But Butterworth is on board with all the privatization, thus oversight is lacking.

This is unbelievable that they are excusing this.