Death prompts lawsuit

When Christopher Charles learned that his newborn grandson had been placed in the foster care system, the Indiana native promptly embarked on the proper procedure to become the boy's legal guardian.

Then he waited for the Clark County Department of Family Services to deliver the baby.

After five months of pestering the department, he received a phone call from county officials: Baby Boy Charles had died in the care of a Las Vegas foster parent.

"It seemed like someone was playing a joke," Charles said Friday, adding that it is unknown how long the child was dead before he was notified. "They called and said he was hurt and then they said he probably wouldn't make it."

Charles never met his grandson and he has no photographs, but he is keeping the baby's memory alive as he battles Clark County in federal court.

"We are seeking some kind of recompense, but we would also like to see the system change," Charles' attorney, David Gibson, said. "We would be willing to negotiate."

Attorney Felicia Galati, representing the Department of Family Services, declined to comment Friday.

Charles claims that the county put Baby Boy Charles in a dangerous situation when he was placed in the home of foster mother Melanie Ochs. The 7-month-old died Aug. 4, 2006, of head trauma.

Gibson believes the child was abused; Ochs told police that the baby had slipped and fell in the bathtub days before he stopped breathing.

Ochs was arrested in August 2006 and faces a charge of first-degree murder by child abuse.

In his federal lawsuit, Gibson claims the county failed to properly supervise the boy or ensure he would be returned to his family.

"Defendants failed to exercise acceptable professional judgment and instead departed extremely from the exercise of acceptable professional judgment," according to the lawsuit.

It claims the county failed to develop guidelines for the selection and supervision of foster parents or to ensure that social workers supervise the foster children.

The boy should have been delivered to his grandfather in March 2006, when Charles completed the required background check and foster parenting seminars.

"We are talking unreasonable delays," Gibson said.

Charles sought custody of the child after his daughter, 26-year-old Morgan, gave birth and decided she could not care for the baby. Morgan Charles is serving a three-year prison sentence for burglary, Gibson said.

Charles has since taken custody of his granddaughter, who was born while Morgan Charles was in jail.

"She is devastated that her decision to leave the child in the care of people who were supposed to care for him resulted in his death," Gibson said.

Gibson and Galati appeared in federal court Friday to discuss the pending court case. The county has yet to answer the complaint, filed in September. A trial date has not been set.

Two lawsuits have been filed against Clark County, one by the nonprofit California-based National Center for Youth Law, alleging that the county places children in unsafe environments without adequate supervision, and one by the natural parents of Everlyse Cabrera, the 21/2-year-old girl who disappeared in June 2006 while in foster care. Everlyse has yet to be found.