[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9557-9558]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            CHILD ABUSE REPORTING LOOPHOLE ON MILITARY BASES

  Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, I rise today to enable my colleagues to 
become aware of the tragic circumstances that led to the untimely death 
of 5-year-old Talia Williams and an amendment I have submitted that 
seeks to close the loophole that allowed Talia to slip through our 
child abuse safety net.
  In 2005, Talia Williams moved to Hawaii to live with her father, 
Naeem Williams, and his wife, Talia's stepmother, Delilah Williams. Mr. 
Williams was in the military, stationed at Schofield Barracks. Mr. 
Williams' defense attorney argued that Mr. Williams was ill-equipped to 
care for his daughter. That may be true, but what we know for a fact is 
that Talia Williams suffered 7 months of near constant abuse at the 
hands of her father and stepmother. This torture ended on July 16, 
2005, when Mr. Williams hit Talia so hard it left his fist imprinted on 
her chest and killed her. Mr. Williams was convicted of murdering his 
daughter last year, and he was sentenced to life without the 
possibility of parole. Her stepmother, Delilah Williams, was given a 
reduced sentence of 20 years in prison for providing testimony against 
her husband.
  Tarshia Williams, Talia's mother, sued the military in 2010 for the 
death of her daughter. Her case was settled earlier this year, with the 
Department of Defense agreeing to a $2 million settlement for not doing 
enough to save Talia Williams.
  In the course of those two proceedings, it became clear that Talia 
Williams could have been saved if one thing occurred--reporting the 
abuse to Hawaii's Child Welfare Services branch or CPS. Through a 
memorandum of understanding--MOU--with the State of Hawaii, the 
Department of Defense established a system in which Hawaii's Child 
Welfare Services would be ``the agency primarily responsible for 
intake, investigation, and the provision of protective services as 
deemed necessary to abused children within the State of Hawaii,'' 
including the children of military families both on and off base.

[[Page 9558]]

  Under statute and reiterated in the MOU, only Hawaii's State agencies 
have the authority--not the military--to take emergency custody and 
order foster care placement for children without the consent of a 
parent. But this could only happen if officials in Hawaii knew about 
the abuse.
  In Talia's case, a number of people were aware of her maltreatment. 
Yet no report was received by the report point of contact, who was the 
person on base mandated to report to Hawaii's Child Protective 
Services. The court in Tarshia Williams' civil suit found that military 
law enforcement, the doctors who treated Talia, and at least one or two 
family counselors had reason to suspect that violence was occurring in 
the Williams home. At least one person on base directly reported to the 
family advocacy program her concerns for Talia's well-being. No action 
was taken. Talia remained in the home while time and again law 
enforcement personnel and others were called to investigate or received 
reports of abuse. Not enough was done to remove her from her home. This 
lack of action was and is unacceptable. No one followed up on Talia's 
case to the degree we all should expect. Information about the abuse 
she lived through never reached the Army provost, who, under the MOU 
with the State of Hawaii, was the single person required to alert Child 
Welfare Services. And Talia died.
  This loophole, which puts us in a position of hoping and trusting 
that information of abuse makes it to the reporting point of contact, 
must be addressed. My amendment would fix this problem by establishing 
a legal requirement that any federally mandated reporter with credible 
evidence or suspicion of child abuse notify both the DOD's Family 
Advocacy Program and the appropriate State's child welfare department. 
This amendment would eliminate the bottleneck of having only one 
reporting point of contact. Instead, mandatory reporters--which include 
teachers, doctors, law enforcement, and others--must directly report 
such evidence or suspicion both up the chain of command and also over 
to the appropriate State authorities. I am hopeful that by requiring 
such dual reporting, no military-connected children will remain in 
abusive homes because information never made it to the right person.
  There were many mistakes made in Talia's case. Some of those mistakes 
are of the type that no law might rectify--a reluctance of people to 
get involved in the affairs of others, the reluctance to implicate 
abuse, perhaps fear of repercussions or out of respect for a member's 
service and personal affability. However, in a case such as Talia's, 
more should have been done and could have been done if only the right 
people were made aware of the situation.
  I hope we do not continue to ignore this one glaring reporting 
loophole, leaving in place a hole in our safety net wide enough to miss 
the torture and untimely death of a child like Talia.
  I recognize that time on the Defense authorization is short. I am 
sure the Department of Defense shares my concerns on this issue. I look 
forward to working with the Department and my colleagues to close this 
reporting loophole.

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