Court documents filed against Arkansas
Department of Human Services employees allege that the department placed
several children in the home of a known sexual predator. The complaint
was filed June 5, 2017 in Fort Smith.
The complaint alleges that DHS approved Clarence “Charlie” Garretson
and his wife to be foster parents despite the fact that one year prior
to the approval DHS had substantiated a report that Garretson had
sexually assaulted two children at knifepoint.
According to the complaint, the DHS employees approved Garretson to
be a foster parents despite knowledge of his history of sexual assault
upon children, failed to conduct a proper background check prior to
placing children in their care, failed to thoroughly investigate the
fitness of the foster home, deliberately ignored repeated warnings and
signs of abuse, failed to promptly investigate allegations of abuse and
failed to promptly remove victims from the home after notice that
children were being sexually abused.
The lawsuit claims that at least 18 of the 35 children placed in the
home were sexually abused. DHS received several victim complaints about
Garretson’s sexual abuse between 1998 and 2004 and failed to remove any
children from the home, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, DHS employees obtained knowledge on
different occasions that children were being sexually assaulted in the
home and no action was taken. Reports were not made to authorities or
the child abuse hotline and the children were left in the home.
The Arkansas DHS revoked the Garretson’s foster status in 2004. In
July 2014, Charlie took the 10-year-old daughter of his former foster
child and victim on a road trip and raped her repeatedly. He was
arrested in 2016 and pled guilty to multiple counts of interstate
transportation of minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual
activity.
Garretson was sentenced to life in prison on May 31th - see our previous post.
