New claim against ex-social worker accused of stealing funds
Credit to Author: Matt Robinson| Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2019 22:53:10 +0000
A former B.C. social worker is facing a new legal claim by another young adult once under his care who is alleging he stole funds intended to feed, clothe and house her.
The young woman, now 19, alleges in her civil claim that Robert Riley Saunders opened a joint bank account with her in 2017, then used money that was intended to cover her necessities to pay for his family’s trips, vehicles and mortgage. In 2018, Saunders closed her account and took the remaining funds in cash, according to the claim, filed in B.C. Supreme Court earlier this month.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development, its director of child, family and community services, another two social workers, a pair of unnamed supervisors with the ministry and the Interior Savings Credit Union were also named as defendants in the claim.
Saunders is no longer an employee with the ministry, and none of the allegations have been proven in court.
Staff at the ministry declined to comment on the matter because it was before the courts. But the ministry previously responded to an earlier lawsuit launched by the public guardian and trustee that had alleged Saunders defrauded dozens of youth — many of them Indigenous — out of government support money. In its response to that lawsuit, the ministry admitted vicarious liability and agreed that general damages and court-ordered interest for the plaintiffs were appropriate.
K.L., 26, photographed in downtown Kelowna on Nov. 30, alleges he was a victim of social worker Robert Riley Saunders, who allegedly skimmed the cheques for youth in care.
A different former youth in care had also sued Saunders alleging similar things about a year ago.
The latest plaintiff’s claim details a long history of interactions she had with ministry officials. She was born in 2000 and removed from the custody of her mother three years later.
The plaintiff alleges she was abused and exposed to risk while under the care of her first foster family. Violence and excessive force was used against her, she was exposed to alcohol and to another child under their care who “engaged in a pattern of sexually inappropriate behaviour” in the presence of, or with her, she claimed. It was several months before she was removed from the family and placed in the care of an immediate relative, who she lived with for more than a decade.
While there, she experienced emotional and physical abuse, according to her claim. She was punched or hit in the face, pinned to the floor, kicked out of the house and threatened with violence, among other things, the claim stated.
After the plaintiff was removed from her relative’s custody in early 2015, it was several months before she was assigned to new foster parents. She was homeless for several months. Later that year, she was placed with a family whose members had chronic substance use disorders, she alleged. She ultimately ran away.
After the plaintiff gave birth to her first child, they were taken from her care and placed with the same foster family from which she had fled. But when a member of that family overdosed on injection opioids, the child’s placement was cancelled, according to the claim.
Saunders was assigned to be the plaintiff’s social worker in 2016, and he is alleged to have opened the joint bank account a short time later.
Jason Gratl, the plaintiff’s lawyer, said in a written statement: “The Ministry lacks policy and funding to require social workers to make reasonable and persistent efforts to locate and find housing for children in care who have, sometimes for good reasons, left their foster homes and become homeless.
“Ministry policy just designates these children as (away without leave) and requires a call to police — but there is nothing in proportion to the risks that these children face on the streets.”
The plaintiff is seeking general, aggravated and punitive damages, financial, safety, health, therapeutic and education supports, tracing and accounting of misappropriated funds, a restraining order against Saunders, costs and other relief.