Child Welfare System Blasted

SACRAMENTO —  A state Senate committee on Friday lambasted Los Angeles County’s child welfare system, questioning whether it could have stopped the brutal killing of Lance Helms, a 2-year-old North Hollywood boy who was beaten to death by his father’s girlfriend.

At a spirited fact-finding hearing on how to prevent such deaths, Sen. Daniel Boatwright (D-Concord) said “the law failed this child” and criticized those connected to the case, especially Ernesto Rey, Lance Helms’ court-appointed lawyer.

In an angry outburst, Boatwright turned to Rey’s lawyer and alleged that it was largely at Rey’s urging that Lance was returned to his father’s home, where the boy was killed.

“Senator, my counsel does not deserve this type of treatment,” Rey interjected, who by court order was prevented from talking directly about the Helms case.

“Listen, there’s a child’s death here, mister, and it’s your report largely that the judge acted upon. You were given lots of warnings . . . and we can’t question you with respect to the report,” said an agitated Boatwright.

“There aren’t many people on this planet who want to talk about this case more than I do,” Rey said later as he provided a general sketch of the child welfare system.

Quin Denvir, Rey’s attorney, said Juvenile Court authorities, citing confidentiality laws, would not allow Rey to testify about the Helms matter, so “the Legislature has a very one-sided” view of what happened.

At issue is whether the county’s child welfare system ignored the pleas of the boy’s relatives not to place him in his father’s home and, more broadly, how best to protect the safety of children under court jurisdiction.

The Helms case has spurred debate in the Capitol about overhauling state child welfare laws, including reducing the amount of secrecy surrounding proceedings involving abused children, and limiting the right of blood relatives to custody when the child’s safety is at risk.

Lance was born a drug-addicted baby. County social workers supervised his care and a court dictated where he lived. Several months before Lance’s death in April, his caseworker warned that the boy was at “substantial risk” of suffering serious injury if he was left with his father, David Helms, according to court records.

The father’s girlfriend, Eve Wingfield, 23, of North Hollywood, last month pleaded no contest to child abuse after a murder charge was dropped as part of a plea bargain. She was sentenced last week to 10 years in state prison.

The father was not charged in the death. The father told The Times last year that his problems--including a reputed drug habit and violence--had been exaggerated by his relatives in an effort to keep him from his son.

The Senate panel heard from an emotional Gail Helms about her son David and grandson Lance. She described efforts by her family to keep her son from obtaining custody of Lance. She said she and the boy’s aunt warned the dependency court that the toddler was in danger but were ignored.

“He [Lance] would beg us not to take him back” to his father’s home after a visit, testified the grandmother, who along with her daughter helped raise Lance.

After listening to the testimony, Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), who chaired the inquiry, said lawmakers plan legislation to overhaul juvenile courts.

“We have a system that needs to be reformed, that’s broken down,” Polanco said.