April 28, 2010

Man fired for falsifying child abuse investigations was unit's 'senior investigator'

County Executive Bill McReynolds and Racine County Human Services Director Debra Jossart dropped a bomb in the JT's lap Wednesday when they announced a child abuse investigator had been making up reports about cases he never investigated.

Read the story here.

The employee, who was fired Tuesday, is Todd O'Brien. O'Brien's LinedIn profile lists him as "the senior investigator on the unit and has handled more that a thousand investigations over that span."

30 comments:

  1. This story is very upsetting -- especially if he is a senior investigator. My personal opinion is that you really should take this picture down or block the faces of the children. If he has shown he didn't care about the children of others -- people in this community are nuts. Please cover those cute little faces. I'm assuming they belong to him.

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  2. I agree, block the children's faces you goof balls!

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  3. No kids pictures please!

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  4. OK, picture is gone. Thanks.

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  5. I find it "interesting" that right next to Todd O'Brian's LinkedIn profile was an ad for Mark Neumann, claiming that he did (or will) reduce taxes. The County Human Services Dept. may not have internal review procedures to detect fictitious activity (how was this alleged instance discovered again?); the RJT blog responses claim a couple additional instances of abuse that could/should/might be investigated, which suggests that the HSD is understaffed. Mac pretty much held the line on the County budget. If we really _do_ care about reducing child abuse cases, then we'll just have to cut spending somewhere else; maybe Highway maint.

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  6. The Racine HSD is a joke for the most part. Especially west of the interstate for the most part. Some people out there actually do their jobs.

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  7. This so called man should be prosecuted!

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  8. 1:08 - so more tax money equals better services & performance?
    Interesting public policy economic theory.
    I guess because it has been proven so many times.

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  9. Time for new management in HSD in every area. Word is that the director is retiring. The new director should be allowed to hire all new managers and conduct a complete review of the whole operation. There seems to be new surprises every month in that department.

    I would guess that this will be an election issue next April for the County Exec race.

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  10. Rumor is, the new Director has already been pick by McReynolds. He is a "political buddy" with little management experience. Nothing will change.

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  11. There is always two sides of a story. You are only hearing one side. Before you find Todd guilty, make sure you know the whole story. What about his supervisor, don't they check the cases?

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  12. Yes, a new Director was picked and YES, he is a political buddy of his. So this is no rumor.

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  13. Jonathan Delgrave

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  14. Keep sending your tax dollars in to support government! (Sarcasm)

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  15. This isn't the time for the political buddy system. Can't the County Board refuse to confirm the selection and force a professional hire? All these cases prove new leadership is needed from a new outside perspective.

    Clearly Jossart is leaving under a cloud of her making. Without a fresh start it will be the same news a year from now. Rumor has it that the position pays well. They should be able to find an experienced Human Services director to come in and clean house.

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  16. They love their puppets

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  17. Only ones that suffer are the kids. This entire city/county is disgusting

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  18. Jossart's assistant called me. She was VERY nice and apologetic and they are very sad about what has happened, she said. She took my information and said she will find my file and call me by the end of tomorrow. What this man did was worse than just cronyism or laziness. People have committed suicide over things like this. People have murdered over things like this. He had the power to ruin lives and he did just that. The DA's office at the time was no better I might add.

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  19. Everyone should take a second before buying this accusation against O'Brien hook, line, and sinker, especially now that we know McReynolds has hired yet another one of his cronies to replace O'Brien. It is my opinion that McReynolds is a dishonest man and I know for a fact he has lied about people in the past to get them fired. So my advice to everyone is not to rush to judgment and let O'Brien defend himself.

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  20. Racine County how can you accept the hiring practices of McReynolds? He only hires his political cronies. How can that be fine with Racine County? Do you realize if he is able to surround himself with people who are his political cronies, heading up all of Racine County's departments with his political cronies, Racine County is basically under a dictatorship? Wake up Racine County.

    By the way, one of McReynolds' political cronies is running for Sheriff and hopefully Racine County will wake up before they elect him Sheriff.

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  21. Better a crony of Mac than a puppet of Jeff Neubauer

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  22. Are you kidding? Are the picking so slim in Racine County it has to be a choice between a crony or a puppet? What is the relationship between the Sheriff candidate Gonzalez and Jonathon Delagrave besides both being McReynolds' cronies?

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  23. 11:11 - I'm not if what you say is true, but apparently you have never worked in the corporate world. Mangement often times pull in their friends for positions. You know what you are getting and you know they'll give you support - so is there something wrong with this. Should they take the risk of hiring someone who may not work out, someone who does not live up to his or her resume? You don't understand how the business world works.

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  24. County govt is NOT business. Business plays with private money - Mac plays with OURS.

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  25. Anon: 11:11

    You have to be kidding! The "corporate world" is not a model that government should be modeling after. The corporate world has taken our economy to the edge of collapse.

    Government should be hiring the most qualified applicants possible- not a friend, not a political supporter, not a campaign contributer.

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  26. "Government should be hiring the most qualified applicants possible- not a friend, not a political supporter, not a campaign contributer."

    Right on! But this is Racine: Mac and Dickert run their offices like fiefdoms.

    Nothing will change, nothing.

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  27. To those that think you can't change things read the other article on the front of Racine Post about Mt Pleasant. Mt Pleasant changed over the majority of the Board and now the queen is the only one that votes for her appointments. Things can change but it takes effort over a period of years and people getting out to vote for new candidates. Mt. Pleasant can't ease up on the pressure otherwise the old guard will return.

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  28. Caledonia is another example. They need a new police chief in Caledonia who is NOT an insider.

    Racine Post, have you heard if the investigation into the misconduct at the Caledonia PD is done? It's been awhile.

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  29. What he did was against the law. Termination was not enough.

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