Pubdate: Wed, 16 Jun 2004
Source: Athens Banner-Herald (GA)
Copyright: 2004 Athens Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.onlineathens.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1535
Author: Joe Johnson

O'LOONEY-DFACS CASE: SEE NO CRIME, DA SAYS

Marijuana Flushed

No crime was committed when former Clarke County Department of Family and 
Children Services Director Gwen O'Looney flushed marijuana found on a 
juvenile DFACS client down a toilet, Western Judicial Circuit District 
Attorney Ken Mauldin said Tuesday.

"We've had nothing referred to us," Mauldin said, responding to a story in 
Monday's Atlanta-Journal Constitution which stated the matter was being 
probed by Mauldin's office.

O'Looney, who headed the Athens DFACS office since 1998, was fired May 18. 
No one from DFACS would comment on the reason for her termination, citing 
the secrecy of personnel records.

In an interview Tuesday, O'Looney said she had been at loggerheads with 
DFACS for some time concerning the agency's operations, and that she 
believed the marijuana incident was a "convenient excuse" to get rid of her.

O'Looney said the juvenile client was found in possession of marijuana on 
two occasions, and both times she instructed subordinates to dispose of the 
drug by flushing it down the toilet.

According to O'Looney, the decision to dispose of the marijuana was made 
after consultation with other Clarke County DFACS officials, including its 
legal affairs expert, who found there were no policies requiring the 
incidents to be reported to Clarke County Juvenile Court officials.

"When I was informed that the marijuana was already at the office, my 
concern was the best interest of the child and the integrity of the agency, 
so my decision was to dispose of it," O'Looney said.

She said both marijuana incidents, in October and February, were documented 
in the girl's DFACS files and would have been issues to be considered when 
her case came up for a routine six-month review. That review, scheduled for 
March, was never held for a variety of reasons, O'Looney said, including 
the fact that the same month as the scheduled review the girl entered 
counseling and had been placed into a new foster home.

"I never talked about it with the court, but I did speak informally with my 
superior at DFACS," O'Looney said. "I was not trying to hide it. I said 
that if you want to develop a policy (regarding DFACS children caught with 
drugs) I would be glad to work with them."

Even prior to the marijuana incidents, O'Looney said she believed she was 
falling out of DFACS's good graces because an employee filed a formal 
complaint charging that O'Looney failed to report that a DFACS client had 
made "terroristic threats" for having cursed at the employee.

"We wanted our employees to be respected by the kids, but this was a child 
with some very serious problems" that could have been dealt with outside 
the juvenile justice system, O'Looney said.

Mauldin said his staff researched the law and found that while there are 
reporting requirements within DFACS for certain infractions, such as the 
possession of drugs, "I don't see penalty provisions in that law for 
failing to meet that requirement."

O'Looney, a former Athens-Clarke County mayor, said many of the differences 
DFACS had with the way she ran the Athens agency was because under its 
current leadership, "there is much more emphasis on adolescent behavior 
interpreted as criminal behavior."

"I really don't think it was the marijuana," she said. "A lot of things 
happened between October and my dismissal. I think I was just being the 
squeaky wheel."

Since being fired by DFACS, O'Looney said she has done some traveling, but 
would like to once more involve herself in "improving the lives of children."

Before being elected Athens-Clarke mayor, O'Looney was director of the 
Youth Division of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency and 
assistant director of program services for the Boy Scouts of America. Prior 
to that, under then-Gov. Jimmy Carter, O'Looney assisted in the 
deinstitutionalization of patients when the state mental institution in 
Milledgeville closed, and she originally came to Athens to help develop 
alternatives to suspending children from public schools.
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