Saturday, May 06, 2000
Separate lawyer sought for kids
Conflict argued in adoption suit
By Lucy May
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Lawyers for the Hamilton County Department of Human Services asked a federal judge Friday to appoint an independent advocate for county children waiting to be adopted.
The lawyers argue the county has a conflict of interest because it represents both the children and the employees who are being sued over transracial adoption practices.
“We don't want the children to suffer because we are embroiled in this lawsuit,” said Mindy Good, an agency spokeswoman.
But a lawyer for the social worker and parents who are suing the agency over the way it handles transracial adoptions said such a request is unnecessary.
“If anything, the county's motion is almost an admission that it is no longer representing the interests of its children at all, and that's too bad,” said lawyer Scott Greenwood.
The lawsuit, filed in April 1999, accuses the county of keeping black children in fos ter care rather than letting white people adopt them.
Federal laws passed in the mid-1990s make it illegal to use race, culture and heritage as factors in adoptive placements, with rare exceptions.
Last week, the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services office in Chicago resumed its investigation of the county agency.
Lawyers for the federal agency have warned that if the investigation finds the county has broken federal laws, the Ohio Department of Human Services could be fined as much as $15 million. That fine could then be passed down to the county.
Over the past few months, various county employees named in the lawsuit have argued the federal laws are wrong and that race should be considered when making adoptive placements.
Earlier this week Jacqueline Poignard, the senior supervisor of the county's adoption units, answered the lawsuit by arguing she hasn't done anything wrong and sued the United States, saying the federal law doesn't meet the needs of black children.
“My client has been fol lowing good social work practice and believes she was following well-established Ohio state and federal law,” said Johnathan Holifield, Ms. Poignard's lawyer.
But lawyers for the plaintiffs argued in a motion filed Friday that Ms. Poignard and other county employees are essentially asserting that they have a right to discriminate.
“There is no such thing as a right to discriminate based on race,” Mr. Greenwood said.
Also on Friday, the county asked U.S. District Judge Herman J. Weber to dismiss the lawsuit because the Ohio Department of Human Services and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are not listed as defendants.
The county's lawyers said the county had an “agreement in principle” with the plaintiffs but county policy changes can be made only if state officials agree.
Unless the Ohio Department of Human Services is a party to the lawsuit, the county can't ensure it can comply with federal laws in a way that doesn't conflict with state laws, wrote Glenn Whitaker, an attorney for the county.
“You have a federal organization trying to get us to do certain things while sort of ignoring the state is our overseer,” Ms. Good said.
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