Investigation says state mishandled complaints about mother

OLYMPIA – State child protection workers ignored or mishandled complaints about a mother whose two baby boys starved to death, according to an independent investigation whose report was released Tuesday.

Sixteen-month-old Justice and 6-week-old Raiden Robinson were found dead of malnutrition and dehydration on Nov. 14 in their Kent apartment, south of Seattle. Police found their mother, Marie Robinson, passed-out drunk in a bedroom littered with more than 300 beer cans. Her 2-year-old son, who survived by foraging in the kitchen, helped police open the door.

Robinson pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and criminal mistreatment and is awaiting trial.

“The agency failed to adequately investigate,” said Mary Meinig, director of the Office of the Family and Children’s Ombudsman. “If they had properly investigated the referrals on a timely basis, the outcome for these children may well have been different.”

State child protection workers investigated only two of six complaints they received about Robinson in the two years before the boys’ deaths, and the ombudsman’s report said they failed to investigate those complaints thoroughly enough.

The regional administrator for Children and Family Services did not dispute the ombudsman’s report. Chris Robinson, who supervises child protection in Pierce and Kitsap counties, said the state Department of Social and Health Services knows of the problems and is working to fix them. Child protection workers are part of DSHS.

“There were obvious flaws in the timeliness and the thoroughness of our investigation,” Robinson said. She is no relation to Marie Robinson.

The ombudsman is funded by state government but operates independently of DSHS. Meinig’s report said child protection workers failed to follow up on important clues that the children were in danger. For example, state social workers investigating complaints that the children were filthy and starving in 2003 never obtained medical records that confirmed the children weren’t gaining weight like they should.