Teen in Cuyahoga County care ended up in human trafficking investigation: I-Team

CLEVELAND (WJW) – Video released to the FOX 8 I-Team shows how a teen girl in the care of Cuyahoga County social workers ended up in a human trafficking investigation.

Her mother is also speaking out.

Again and again, we’ve shown you problems tied to kids living in a Cuyahoga County office building for social workers. The teen in this case had been in that building under watch.

Yet, police found the girl far from there.

Back in February, Independence police found two teen girls stranded at a hotel.

One, a 16-year-old foster child who had been staying downtown inside the Jane Edna Hunter Building, the headquarters for Cuyahoga County social workers.

But, after Independence police asked some questions, they took steps to get a human trafficking task force involved.

The 16-year-old claimed she had been sexually assaulted.

Police body camera video shows she told an officer, “that’s not a good thing.”

“No, it’s not. What happened?” the officer responded.

We showed the police video to that teen’s mother. She told us her daughter had spent months living in the office building waiting for the county to find the right foster home.

But, her daughter had gotten into trouble inside the building and she often left to run the streets.

“That makes you sick. That makes you scared,” her mother said. “Seeing that, knowing that that’s what’s been happening. They told me that my daughter would be in better care in the Department of Child and Family Services.”

The police video also shows, on the way back to the county building, the teen asked police if she was listed as “missing.”

“When you punched up my name, does it say I’m missing?” she said. “I stay on the west side.”

“She’s had the freedom in there care to do whatever it is to live an adult life,” her mother added.

For years, the I-Team has reported on violence and other problems with kids in county care at that office building.

For this story, we found, in six months nearly 120 cases tied to that address with juveniles reported missing. All missing for some period of time.

The county issued a statement:

“Jane Edna Hunter is not a locked residential facility and is the last resort for youth whose parents cannot or will not care for them. DCFS’ employees have no legal authority to physically restrain, detain, and/or prevent a child in its custody from leaving the JEH building, with the exception of when imminent threat of substantial harm to the child, employee, or visitor exists. At times we are put in a position where we cannot say no to sheltering a youth when they are brought to our building. We have created a youth care and wellness team to provide various enrichment and diversionary activities for youth awaiting placement and continue to partner with multiple child-serving systems to find more placement options for children and youth in need. In addition, Cuyahoga County is moving forward on plans to open a Childhood Wellness Campus to better serve the needs of kids in the care of the county.”

The teen in this case is now going into a program to help juveniles who may be victims of human trafficking. The teen had been charged with crimes, but she may have been a victim, too.

Her mother admits she had struggles with her daughter at home, but she never expected this with the teen in county care.

“They can call me angry. They can reference things that have happened in my past. I am not angry. I am an excellent mother. You shouldn’t be taking and removing people’s children and setting them up for failure,” she said.

The county considers the kids staying in that office building the most troubled, very difficult to find a foster home for them. Although, the county has told us most of the kids living there only stay there for a few days at most.

We also asked the county when the new facility might open.

By email, we were told, “A cross-systems planning committee is scheduled to meet in the coming weeks, with the goal of establishing additional timeline details, operational protocols, partnership opportunities, and child-centered best practice models. The project is expected to come online in phases, with varying levels of care and treatment being incorporated over time.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW.