Trumbull County Children Services policy changes

WARREN, Ohio - The alleged rape of a nine-month-old baby during what was supposed to be a supervised visit inside Trumbull County Children Services is leading to changes at the agency.

Although Trumbull County Children Services Executive Director Nick Kerosky says the agency already had one of the most secure visitation policies in the state when the alleged rape took place, they've decided to make some changes.

"This could have happened anywhere. This was unforeseeable. I've talked to directors across the state and they said it could have happened anywhere. Our actual visitation was more secure that it is across the state," Kerosky said.

CSB is adding a visitation coordinator position to help supervise and oversee all of the visits scheduled by case workers.

They're also upgrading their existing video system and making sure every visitation room is equipped with a camera.

The room Cody and Felicia Beemer allegedly raped their nine-month-old daughter in did not have a video camera.

And despite the fact that the agency allegedly knew Beemer was a sexual offender as a minor, nobody supervised the visit.

The agency is reviewing all of the current visitations occurring at CSB, especially those involving sex offenders, who still have the legal right to visit their children.

The agency is also adding sexual abuse training for all workers who monitor visits.

Attorney David Engler is representing the baby's maternal grandmother. She's the one who turned in the cell phone memory card with the alleged rape on it to police.

She is fighting for visitation rights with her granddaughter.

Engler says the changes in policy are great, but there's a systemic problem at Trumbull County Children Services that a few changes won't fix.

"There seems to be sort of a blank spot, an inability to recognize the depths of the dysfunctionality. And it's not going to be remedied with just, you know, a few changes," Engler said.

Engler points to the death of Tiffany Sue Banks back in 2009 while she was in foster care and two more deaths in 2003 that he says children services could have prevented.

He's also filed a suit for the wrongful death of Tiffany Sue Banks and he'll be filing another lawsuit claiming a CSB employee falsified records.

But he says instead of going to court, he'd like to see CSB admit its mistakes and accept responsibility.