Indiana County Commissioner Mike Baker and the head of the county’s Children and Youth Services office respond to an investigative report from a Pittsburgh TV station that accused the CYS office of errors that allegedly lead to the deaths of three children.
On Monday, WTAE-TV’s Paul Van Osdol reported on the deaths of Malachai Patterson, Ryden Thomas, and Colby Jozefczyk, which all occurred within a span of two years. Van Osdol’s report blasted the CYS office saying lack of assessments and errors in investigations were indirectly responsible for their deaths. Van Osdol also confronted Indiana County Commissioners Chairman Mike Baker at the end of a commissioners meeting, catching him off-guard and questioned him on details about the investigation. At the end of his report, Van Osdol did mention briefly that there were changes made at CYS in the time since the deaths.
In an interview on Indiana in the Morning, Baker said the changes were made because they were not happy with the agency’s leadership at the time.
Current CYS Director Sarah Ross said that the reporting done by Van Osdol was “unfair” as confidentiality pledges protect a lot of details from being released.
