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	Another Screw-Up on Spence's Watch Boston Herald May 17, 2007 http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/view.bg?articleid=1001619&srvc=home Another day, another investigation by state officials of how the Department of Social Services fell down on the job - and in doing so delayed a criminal probe that allowed a self-confessed sexual abuser to remain in the community for two years. P. Edward Harrison, now 18, says he was molested by the Rev. Lawrence Brown more than a dozen times between early 2004 and February of 2005, when Brown served as youth minister of the Mount Calvary Baptist Church and the Emmanuel Gospel Center. On May 6, 2005, the gospel center faxed a 51-A child abuse report to the Hyde Park office of DSS. Records produced by the gospel center indicate Brown himself called the DSS Child-at-Risk Hotline to report himself for inappropriate contact with Harrison. Brown was fired that day. Four days later a gospel center staffer sent another copy of the 51-A report to the same DSS office. For the next 18 months the case against Brown apparently goes into the black hole that is DSS. Then on Oct. 31, 2006, Harrison is hospitalized for severe depression. A Somerville Hospital staffer files another 51-A report to DSS. This is what DSS spokeswoman Denise Monteiro had to say: "The Hyde Park office began an investigation and found out that the child was not in contact with the alleged perp anymore and the abuse had happened a while ago. We knew then that the child was safe in a hospital." Is your blood boiling yet? "We knew we needed to pursue criminal charges," Monteiro said. Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley's office has since opened an investigation. Brown did a stint at Living Waters, described as "a Christ-centered program for people seeking healing in areas of sexual and relational brokenness." And was recently welcomed back as a youth minister at Mount Calvary Baptist. The church and its congregation can look into their own souls on that score. But that doesn't excuse the fact that DSS fell down on the job - again. That a possible sexual predator has remained free to return to working with young people. Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby has ordered up her own investigation into how DSS processed the case. Two weeks ago the governor's chief of staff asked a number of department heads, including DSS Commissioner Harry Spence, to reapply for their own jobs, raising the question how many child-threatening screw-ups is one commissioner entitled to make? It's beyond time for a fresh team at DSS.
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