Bush vows action in new child welfare scandal

Caseworker charged in toddler's death

Alfredo Montez was beaten to death on July 1.

TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has promised to take action against a case worker who lied about visiting a toddler and reported him alive and well on the very day he was beaten to death.

The case worker with the Department of Children and Families, Erica Jones, has now been fired because of the incident and charged with third-degree felony for falsification of records, said the agency's secretary, Kathleen Kearney.

It is the first such charge under a new law signed by Bush in May, following the April disappearance of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson, a child who was supposed to be under DCF supervision.

"We're going to prosecute now that the law has been changed," Bush said at an event here Friday night. "We're going to prosecute a case worker who, for whatever reason, as an investigator did not tell the truth and put the child potentially in harm's way by that action."

The murder victim was 2-year-old Alfredo Montez, whose body was discovered in the woods after days of searching. The accused killer is an adult babysitter who told police he got outraged after the boy soiled his pants, so he slapped the boy repeatedly and then wrapped his dead body in a blanket.

The boy's body was discovered Thursday in woods near the northbound lanes of Interstate 275 east of Tampa. Authorities said the boy was killed July 1 and ditched there as the child's babysitters fled the state.

The babysitter and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Richard Chouquer and 22-year-old Amandy Lawrence, fled to Utah after disposing of the body. They had been looking after Alfredo and his sister since late June.

Chouquer is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse and could face the death penalty if convicted. Lawrence is charged with being an accessory after the fact.

Authorities began investigating the case Monday after a relative of the babysitters called and said she suspected something was wrong. Polk County Sheriff Lawrence Crow said investigators quickly noticed discrepancies.

Records shows that July 1, Florida authorities received a call on a child abuse hotline that the boy and his 4-year-old sister, Rheyna, were exposed to harm from their mother.

The children's mother, Jeanna Lynn Swallows, told authorities she had last seen her children June 28, when she left them with the sitters -- but Jones had written a July 1 report describing a visit with the children and their mother.

Jones wrote that the mother denied using drugs, as the caller to the hotline had suggested, and said she was being harassed and that was why DCF was getting calls on its hotline.

The agency had received five phone calls, dating back to August 2000, that accused Swallows of abusing the children.

Jones described the children as being happy, clean, and apparently well cared for when in fact, Kearney said, there was no contact at all.

"It is hard to express my feelings upon learning that the actions of a Department of Children & Families employee led to the endangerment of this child," Kearney said in a statement.

She promised that any employee who endangers a child will be fired and prosecuted "to the full extent of the law." The actions of Jones and her supervisor, she added, remain under investigation.

Swallows was arrested Tuesday for alleged parole violations involving bounced checks. Rheyna, who was not harmed during the ordeal, is in state custody.

Kearney said the boy's death is yet another blow for the already-shaken agency.

"Employees throughout the department have expressed both anger and grief to learn of what happened to little Alfredo. There are good, hardworking and honest workers at Children & Families whose hearts go out to this child whose life was cut short by his caretaker," she said in a statement.

In the months since Rilya Wilson was discovered missing, about 140 child welfare workers across the state have been fired for various reasons, including failure to visit children in their care.