Owl: Realizing reporters need a catchy title "Secret report rips DHS" is unjustly misleading.
When in fact this report gives DHS leadership a clean bill of health. Exactly what DHS leadership
task the group to give.
Secret report rips DHS
The Oklahoman, July 1, 2007
Nolan Clay and Ryan McNeill
A secret report on the Kelsey Smith-Briggs tragedy reveals the Oklahoma Department of Human Services
made a series of mistakes in the abused child's case, such as failing to contact police when she
broke both legs.
Simple things like checking with a possible witness to an injury weren't done, according to the
33-page confidential report obtained last week by The Oklahoman.
The report by a state oversight agency faults DHS workers for not fully investigating why the
2-year-old was injured repeatedly before her death. DHS workers may not have considered "the danger
to Kelsey to be sufficiently significant to warrant a thorough investigation," it said.
The Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth said the 2005 tragedy revealed "major systemic issues"
with how the state deals with child abuse. Among the changes needed is better training for police,
prosecutors and child-welfare workers.
The commission sent the report to key state leaders after finishing it June 22 but did not release
it to the public because of child-abuse privacy laws.
DHS officials on Friday refused to make a public statement about the findings. "To do so would be a
violation of the law," spokesman George Johnson said.
The report is the latest example of strict secrecy laws that critics say too often protect DHS from
public scrutiny.
Kelsey died on Oct. 11, 2005, at her home east of Meeker from "blunt force trauma" to the abdomen.
Her stepfather was charged with murder but went to prison instead for enabling child abuse.
DHS Director Howard Hendrick said the recommendations in the report speak for themselves.
"The main change in our future practice will be that when we cannot determine which of several
possible persons is the perpetrator, we will request the services of the" Oklahoma State Bureau of
Investigation "to supplement our investigations," he said.
DHS can request OSBI assistance because of a change in the law prompted by Kelsey's death, the
Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth noted in the report.
Kelsey's case has attracted widespread attention because she was abused for months and who killed
her remains a mystery.
Her death came four months after a judge returned Kelsey to her mother 's care despite accusations
the mother was the abuser. The judge ruled the perpetrator was unknown.
Kelsey had been placed with her paternal grandmother after breaking her collarbone in January 2005
and later with her maternal grandmother but still was able to visit her mom. Former Associate
District Judge Craig Key said he gave Kelsey back to her mother in mid-June 2005 after being told
the mother had completed all DHS conditions to be reunited with Kelsey.
Kelsey's mother, Raye Dawn Smith, 27, was charged with child abuse and child neglect after Kelsey
died. She faces trial July 9 in Bristow.
Kelsey's stepfather, Michael Lee Porter, 27, had been charged with first-degree murder and child
sexual abuse. Those counts were dismissed when he pleaded guilty in February to enabling child
abuse. Porter is serving 30 years in prison.
He and Smith married in April 2005 and divorced after Kelsey died.
Kelsey's father, Lance Briggs, sued the Department of Human Services, its director and workers after
her death but a federal judge has thrown out most of the lawsuit. Lance Briggs was returning home
from military duty when Kelsey died.
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