System blamed in death of boy

MINDEN, Neb. — A failure of the system.

That’s what former neighbors say contributed to the death of 4-year-old Landon Payne of rural Kearney County.

Landon’s aunt, Sharon Payne Turnell, 37; her husband, Charles Turnell, 38; and her daughter, Katie Payne, 19, each have been charged with aiding and abetting child abuse that led to Landon’s death Dec. 22.

The family lived in Pleasanton, Neb., from September 2006 to October 2009. During that time, neighbors say they called law enforcement and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services numerous times to report suspected abuse and neglect.

“No one ever really watched after them,” former neighbor Bernadine Dauel said of the children in the home. “They just took care of themselves. You never saw affection like you see with parents and children. They were just all there. They didn’t have a ball or anything. The kids’ biggest pastime in the summertime was just the hose and running water. That was their one thing to do for fun.”

Cooper Village to close

An Omaha center that provides psychiatric treatment for adolescent boys will close next May, raising concerns about the availability of such care.

Officials of Cooper Village — one of just three organizations in Omaha providing residential care for that population — confirmed the decision to The World-Herald.

Uta Halee Girls Village, which runs Cooper Village, and the Omaha Home for Boys, which helps pay for it, informed their staffs on Wednesday.

Uta Halee’s management agreement with the 47-bed Cooper Village will end next May. Uta Halee provides residential psychiatric treatment for adolescent girls, along with a range of community-based programs for girls and boys.

Nebraska Courts Celebrating National Reunification Day

The Tenth Judicial District County Court is joining Douglas and York Counties to celebrate National Reunification Day 2010.

Both the Nebraska Supreme Court and The Eyes of the Child Initiative have encouraged county and juvenile courts to join other courts across the nation to celebrate the reunification of families who have had their children removed from their custody within the juvenile court system.

Nebraska ordered to let parents give up rights

By ERIC OLSON

OMAHA, Neb. — The Nebraska Supreme Court has ordered the state’s Department of Health and Human Services to allow parents of a 12-year-old to relinquish their parental rights and make the child eligible for adoption.

The Douglas County Juvenile Court had ruled in November that the agency should accept the parents’ decision to terminate their rights, because they said they wanted no contact with their daughter.

The girl has been in foster care since she was dropped off at an Omaha hospital in November 2008 under the state’s old safe-haven law. That law, since amended, allowed anyone to leave a child of any age at a hospital without fear of prosecution for the abandonment.

Once the parents volunteered to give up their rights, the juvenile court decided the best outcome would be for the girl to be adopted.

Child welfare overhaul: Rough start

LINCOLN — A few bumps in the road are expected when states turn over large parts of their child welfare systems to private agencies.

Tell that to Debbie O’Shea’s grandchildren.

Three of them spent an extra month away from home. They were moved through three foster placements in four months this spring. They missed Easter weekend and other court-ordered visits with their parents.

And the middle child was delivered two hours late to his 4th birthday dinner.
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“It’s been a horrible, horrible thing,” the Bellevue woman said.

O’Shea’s family became entangled in the turmoil that followed Nebraska’s latest effort to overhaul its child welfare system.

The effort involved contracting with five private agencies to take on many responsibilities previously handled by state workers.