Race Is On to Save South County Child Abuse Facility : Bankruptcy: CAST must raise $80,000 by month’s end to keep Laguna Hills branch, which assists in child abuse investigations.

One of Orange County’s most highly touted programs for assisting child abuse victims and helping prosecute molesters soon may fall victim to the county’s financial troubles.

The South County Child Abuse Services Team (CAST) provides a comfortable place for police, social workers and counselors to interview an abused child at the same time--rather than forcing a young victim to repeat the story over and over to strangers.

But since the bankruptcy, the county has halted its financial support to the Laguna Hills center--one of two CAST programs in Orange County. The center is slated for closure unless its staff can raise $80,000 by the end of May to pay for the next year’s rent.

“The fact of the matter is, we have to make reductions. We had to make tough choices,” said Gene Howard, county director of child services. “What we hope to do is keep together our centralized core of services.”

CAST originated in 1989 at the Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange. When workers with the county’s Child Abuse Registry saw a jump in child abuse cases in South County in 1990, the Laguna Hills branch was established in 1992. The central CAST facility in Orange, which handled 700 sexual abuse cases last year, will remain open.

County Supervisor William G. Steiner, who was Orangewood’s director for 15 years, agreed that eliminating South County’s CAST would be a “major blow” to law enforcement and children.

The Laguna Hills center was a victim of the Board of Supervisor’s decision to cut local social services programs by $18.2 million, he said.

“It’s one of the programs that suffered the budget cuts,” Steiner said. “Fortunately the main campus program is still available for these kinds of cases.”

In 1994, 10,600 abuse complaints were reported in the coastal and south Orange County areas, the regions South CAST serves, said Barbara Oliver, director of Child Abuse Prevention Council, which provides therapists for CAST.

The Laguna Hills CAST staff handled 139 sexual abuse cases in 1994, Oliver said.

Oliver and other CAST supporters are concerned that young victims and their families will lose sorely needed assistance if the program folds.

“This is not about the roof over our head or the bread on the table. We’re not worried about keeping our jobs. Most of us would be transferred to the Orange site,” Oliver said.

“But there aren’t a lot of services like this in South County. Some parents travel by bus to bring their children here.”

A Mission Viejo woman said she was referred to CAST by authorities after her 4-year-old son told her he was molested by a teen-age neighbor.

She said the close location of South CAST made it easier for her to visit the facility, although she was skeptical about going there.

“At first, (CAST) sounded like a place I didn’t want my son to get into, like he would get incriminated or something,” said the woman, who asked that her name be withheld to protect her son. “It was the exact opposite.”

Volunteers showered her son with care and toys at their first visit, while the district attorney, therapist, social worker and police prepared to interview him, she said. The boy was brought into an interviewing room where the team watched and videotaped the questioning through a double mirror. Her son eventually disclosed the entire sexual assault, the mother said, and later returned to the center for counseling.

“I don’t know what repercussions are going to come from this,” she said. “It’s not something that will go away. We’re still going to need help.”

Steiner said he is optimistic that the county would reopen the Laguna Hills center “when the bankruptcy passes.”

In the meantime, law enforcement agencies fear that the loss would weaken investigations for South County victims.

“We utilize CAST on just about every child molest case that we receive,” Orange County Sheriff’s Detective Mark Simon said. “When cases are done through CAST, we get better disclosure. If the south office is eliminated, it would make our job a lot harder.”

Tracy Jacobson, an investigator with the Sheriff’s Department in Mission Viejo, said South CAST’s video and medical exam equipment and teams of experts help authorities prepare more complete cases.

“Before CAST, I would interview the child at . . . home or school, which are not ideal places because often times that could be where the child was molested,” she said.

The interviews also would be on audiotapes, which don’t capture the child’s facial expressions, she said.

“Children tend to be more animated than adults because they lack the language skills, so they compensate through facial expressions and body language,” Jacobson said. “In reducing trauma, it’s the best thing the county has done. The kids win in this.”

Additionally, budget cutbacks in the district attorney’s office have hurt CAST. Before county cuts, a deputy district attorney was permanently assigned to Orange CAST to be available for any child abuse interview at either CAST location. But a full-time staffer is no longer available, so the interviews will be shuffled among other prosecutors, said Chuck Middleton, supervising deputy district attorney.

“We’ll be able to cover half or two-thirds of the interviews now,” Middleton said. “Without the deputy being there, there’s a lack of teamwork and the integrity of the information is threatened.”

Still far from reaching their $80,000 goal, the South CAST staff is spending every free minute to raise money. Staffers said they are battling to keep the Laguna Hills facility that is stocked with stuffed animals that are given to young victims.

“This is a place where children come in broken and walk out whole,” Oliver said.