No wrongdoing found in DCFS investigation

The head of Utah's child welfare agency said the results of an independent probe into possible wrongdoing within the agency are "pretty anticlimactic."

Richard Anderson, director of the Division of Child and Family Services, asked for the independent review after allegations that administrators in his office handled the recent Kingston abuse case poorly. The Office of Child Protection Ombudsman finished a draft copy of its findings last week.

"Nothing stood out to say we've got some horrible thing here like illegal behavior — the things I always worry about," Anderson told the Deseret Morning News. "But it's more just transactions, poor communications, that kind of stuff that maybe happened between people."

The probe stems from a case in 3rd District Juvenile Court against John Daniel Kingston and one of his polygamous wives, Heidi Mattingly.

Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Valdez in June ruled that Kingston abused his children and that Mattingly failed to protect the children from that abuse. The judge then ordered 10 of the couple's 11 children into state custody.

Sources close to the Kingston case said certain top-level DCFS officials have been hesitant to investigate reports of abuse and neglect against members of the polygamous Kingston group.

Anderson said the complaints he heard were not based so much on a "slow-moving" agency or reluctance, but rather a lack of communication and concerns about the administrative process working effectively. He said he would have investigated the concerns himself if he had the time.

"I was looking at how do we team to make decisions, who's involved in that, how do those discussions go," Anderson said. "These were administrative things that I was questioning."

Historically, DCFS officials have pursued and filed abuse petitions against members of the Kingston group for abuses ranging from dirty homes to physical neglect. That all changed in February, when DCFS officials did not substantiate abuse claims on two separate occasions.

Instead, the Office of the Guardian ad Litem filed an abuse petition, a "rare" move, Anderson said.

"That doesn't happen real often because normally we always agree," he said.

Critics claim DCFS has bent over backward with the Kingston family, delivering home services for an inordinate amount of time. DCFS has provided services off and on to the Kingston/Mattingly family for 54 months, according to court testimony.