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Head of state family agency grilled in closed-door House session

DCF Commissioner Olga Roche.Wendy Maeda/Globe staff/file/Globe Staff

Members of a House committee investigating the troubled state Department of Children and Families spent nearly two hours grilling the department’s commissioner at an unusual closed-door session Thursday.

One attendee said the secret meeting of the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight is not an indication that lawmakers are preparing to call for the resignation of Commissioner Olga I. Roche.

Gail Garinger, the state’s child advocate, declined to discuss what was said at the meeting, but confirmed that lawmakers fired some 90 questions at Roche, who had already testified for four hours at a public hearing held by the committee last month.

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“She was very forthcoming in trying to provide whatever additional information the committee wanted,” Garinger said after the private meeting. “But in no sense did I get a feeling this was somehow a vote of confidence or nonconfidence. I think she was very respectfully treated and did a very good job of responding to questions.”

Roche spoke to reporters after the meeting, but declined to discuss what was said.

The committee chairman, Representative David P. Linsky, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Roche and her agency have been under intense scrutiny since December, when the agency acknowledged that it had lost track of Jeremiah Oliver, a 5-year-old Fitchburg boy who had been under supervision by the department since 2011.

Jeremiah was last seen by a relative in September and is now feared dead. His mother and her boyfriend have been charged with abusing him. Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges.


Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@
globe.com
. Follow him on Twitter @mlevenson.