LA County DCFS Continues to Allow Corruption in Foster Care System
Prosecutors have charged two executives of a Los Angeles County group home for youth in the juvenile delinquency system and foster care with misuse of public funds, embezzlement and filing false tax returns. The charges against Gary O'Neil Batchelor and Steven Bryan Smith, the financial officer and executive director, respectively, of Moore's Cottage, mark the second time in a year that the district attorney's office has alleged criminal wrongdoing within the multimillion dollar industry that county officials entrust with the care of some of Southern California's most vulnerable youth. As in the district attorney's recent case against leaders of the Little People's World group home, the alleged wrongdoing at Moore's Cottage may have festered for years as county officials ignored signs of financial mismanagement, records show.