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Trumbull CSB to public: Reserve judgement on toddler's rape
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The head of the Trumbull County Children Services Board has asked the public to withhold judgment about the agency’s practices “until all the facts are in.”
The agency has come under fire after videos surfaced showing a 1-year-old child in its custody being raped by her parents during a visit at the agency’s offices on Reeves Road.
“Trumbull County Children Services is devastated by this tragedy,” Nick Kerosky says in a letter released Friday. “We find it hard to believe that anyone would do something like this to their own child. We share your disgust and sadness at this unspeakable act.”
The letter adds, “We want to assure you we are doing everything we can to protect children.”
Meanwhile, Cliff Evans, special-agent supervisor for the Youngstown office of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, confirmed that BCI will conduct a criminal investigation of CSB employees’ actions regarding the alleged rapes.
Evans said a BCI agent from either the Richfield or Bowling Green office will conduct the investigation, and the agent’s work will be supervised by personnel in that field office.
BCI is using personnel from outside the Warren area in an added step to ensure an independent review, Evans added.
Kerosky also released a copy of a letter from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services that outlines the review JFS will conduct to determine whether Trumbull CSB was in compliance with the visitation statute of the Ohio Administrative Code with regard to the visitation.
Police and a family member say the assaults took place in July during a two-hour visit. The child was never in the parents’ custody, having been taken from them just after her birth.
“The case activity logs will be reviewed for information that would also inform decision-making regarding the safety and risk to the child as it pertains to visitation,” said the memo, written by Jennifer Justice, acting deputy director of the Office of Families and Children.
The girl’s biological parents, Cody Beemer, 22, and his wife, Felicia Beemer, 21, both of Austin Avenue Southwest, Warren, have been charged with rape and are in the county jail.
Police said the alleged rapes were discovered because the Beemers tape recorded the offenses on a cellphone, and family members turned in the videos to police.
Kerosky, at the suggestion of county Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, sought the JFS review during a phone call to JFS on Monday.
The review began Wednesday and most likely will be complete by Nov. 14, the JFS memo says.