Weeks after 3-year-old’s homicide, Kansas child services yet to release her records
Kansas’ child services has declined to release records about a 3-year-old Kansas City, Kansas, girl, whose body was found covered in bruises, despite a 2018 law that aimed to make such documents more transparent.
Kansas Department for Children and Families’ documents are public records in the event child abuse or neglect results in a child fatality or near fatality, according to that law. But the agency declined to release to The Associated Press records about Olivia Ann Jansen, saying it was still investigating whether she died of abuse or neglect.
Wyandotte County prosecutors this month charged Olivia’s father, Howard Jansen III, 29, and his girlfriend, Jacqulyn Kirkpatrick, 33, with felony murder and other crimes in the girl’s death.
“Much to my dismay DCF continues to handle protective services as a confidential undertaking and it shouldn’t be,” state Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat, told the AP. “The safety of our children is something all Kansans are entitled to know details and, if there has been malfeasance on the DCF, people need to know that.”
Olivia’s remains were found in a shallow grave in a wooded area July 10 after her father reported her missing. She was badly injured and it would have been apparent to anyone that saw her that she suffered great physical abuse, according to a probable cause affidavit. She had a small cut on the back of her head and died of a brain bleed, court records show.
Olivia’s grandparents have said they had raised concerns about her well-being to the state agency in June, after not seeing her since March. Her grandmother expressed fear that drugs were in the home Olivia lived in.
“She’s gone,” her grandfather said in mid-July, “because of him, and her and the system that wouldn’t help us.”
Then during a rally that week, protesters marched near the agency’s building in Kansas City, Kansas, holding signs that read: “DCF failed her” and “Hold DCF accountable.”
The Associated Press filed a request with the Department of Children and Families on July 13 seeking copies of any records concerning reports of alleged abuse or neglect about the girl.
In a July 27 email, the agency told the AP the records are not open to the public because it has not completed its investigation of whether Olivia died as a result of child abuse or neglect.
The Star has also requested information from DCF regarding any involvement it may have had with Olivia’s family, but nothing has been released at this point.
Ron Keefover, president of the Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government, called the refusal to release the records based on the agency’s own ongoing investigation “a shameful attempt to dodge public scrutiny.”
“Clearly, law enforcement, the district attorney and a judge who signed the warrant in the court case have made a determination of child abuse,” Keefover told the AP.
Department spokesman Mike Deines said in an email to the AP Monday that the agency was working with law enforcement to investigate. Deines said the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office recently released redacted affidavits that the child welfare agency will use to complete its investigation and “render a finding in the very near future.”
If the agency makes a finding substantiating that Olivia’s death was the result of child abuse or neglect, the agency will release a summary and begin the process for the records release, he said.
“The intent (of the law) was to as quick as reasonably possible release that information so that we could do our best as a state to try to put in place procedures to prevent future cases of abuse and neglect,” state Rep. Fred Patton, of Topeka, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told the AP.
Carmichael, who also serves on the judiciary committee, said it appears the agency is “stonewalling once again” and lawmakers can try next year to impose more strict legislation. The Legislature had passed the open records law after several high-profile deaths of children.
“It sounds like now we have a new bag of tricks and that even though law enforcement has brought charges the agency claims it has not completed its investigation,” he said. “We thought we had solved the problem, but obviously we haven’t.”
When Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree announced charges in the case, he called on anyone with information about child abuse to speak up.
“I ask you to make the call,” Dupree said. “To try to help some child so that we, I hope, will not have to come to this place again in such a horrible situation.”
The Associated Press’ Roxana Hegeman contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 12:51 PM.
