A national children's advocacy group struck back at Democratic gubernatorial nominee Martha Coakley Friday, saying she has leveled "irresponsible" charges against the group with her statement that it is suing the state's troubled child welfare agency in order to collect hefty publicly funded legal fees.
"Very frankly, any suggestion that the lawsuit is motivated by legal fees is irresponsible,'' said Sara Bartosz, lead counsel for Children's Rights which filed the 2010 federal lawsuit.
"The suit is not about fees, it is not about politics, it's about the state's most vulnerable kids being harmed by the very system that is meant to protect them,'' Bartosz said in an interview Friday.
Her comments were prompted by Coakley's strong denunciation this week of a television ad by a Republican-funded super PAC that accuses her of ignoring the mismanagement of the state's Department of Children and Families and implied her inaction resulted in the abuse and neglect — and even death — of scores of foster children. The ad refers to the Children's Right's lawsuit.
Bartosz also said Coakley's claim that the federal judge found the suit "meritless" badly mischaracterized his ruling, noting that he had some harsh conclusions about the way DCF is carrying out its mission of caring for foster children.
At a press conference Thursday, Coakley called on her Republican rival Charlie Baker to disavow the ad that is currently being aired by the Commonwealth Future Fund, a group organized and funded by wealthy Massachusetts GOP backers of Baker. In response, Baker criticized the tone of the ad but defended its theme: that Coakley had mounted a legal battle against the Children's Right's efforts to force changes at DCF.
The Globe reported earlier this year that Coakley was on the campaign trail strongly criticizing DCF and its management, saying its social workers were so overworked they could not properly protect foster children. But at the same time her office was vigorously battling the Children's Rights suit that seeks to force DCF to tighten up its operations and procedures.
While US District Court Judge William G. Young ruled against the suit in late 2013, he issued a caustic opinion in which he agreed that Children Right's had documented a strong case that DCF had failed to meet national and state standards and is rife with management problems caused by legislative underfunding.
"DCF has failed not only to comport with national standards of care and state and federal requirements, but also comply with its own internal policies,'' Young claimed.
He said, however, that the suit had not proven the "substantial deviance'' from those norms that is required under case law for a court to force changes. Children's Right has appealed the case. It is expected to be heard in early November.
"That is far from a meritless lawsuit,'' said Bartosz. It is an explicit court finding that evidence in the case established there are many defects in the system that exposes children to harm."