Father: Social Services unresponsive to complaints in Bristow abuse case

No comment.

That’s exactly what Daniel Tincher said he received from the Prince William County Social Services Department when he called to check on the complaints he lodged against Christina Dawn Moore — the mother of his twin boys.

Ditto for a family friend, who did not want to be named in this story. She claimed she often took care of Tincher’s 7-year-old twins and Moore’s three other children by another relationship.

This weekend, police charged Christina Moore and John Michael Robey with three counts of felony child abuse and three counts of child neglect after finding “deplorable” conditions inside their Bristow home, according to court documents. Police discovered needles, smoking devices, and several prescription pill bottles in the parents’ bedroom and urine and feces on the walls of the children’s bedroom.

They also found a drywall barricade — which documents described as a half-wall – that partially covered a bedroom doorway that had the door removed. It was apparently nailed up to prevent the three girls who lived there – ages 4, 2, and four months — from leaving.

A neighbor initially discovered the room when the 4-year-old escaped to her house Saturday night.

In the past few years, Tincher estimates he made three or four complaints to Social Services – including one alleging physical abuse – regarding his twin boys. The boys live with their father in Bealeton but go to Moore’s house on selected weekends due to a visitation agreement.

After the latest incident, Tincher learned from his twins that they also had been barricaded in the house. Tincher said his children had been warned by Moore not to tell him about the conditions of the home.

The family friend, who attended Brentsville High School with Moore in the early 2000s, said she made close to 10 calls from 2007 to 2010 to the Prince William and Fauquier Social Services departments regarding the situation. She said she heard nothing from anyone other than a brief phone conversation with a social worker.

Prince William County Social Services Director Jeanine Sewell said Tuesday she would not comment on the Moore case, stating that it was a criminal matter.

Sewell said there are two types of cases opened by her department.

One is an assessment, which usually involves some lower level of neglect, like a dirty house or a child staying outside for long periods of time.

An investigation is a higher priority that usually involves claims of sexual or physical abuse, or severe neglect. Sewell said the goal is to get to those cases within 24 hours.
Sewell said unannounced visits only occur when there is a serious claim being made or there is physical evidence such as bruising on a child that would warrant immediate intervention. In those cases, the department would place a child in a relative’s care or in a temporary foster home, said Sewell.

The friend said the one time she got a call back from a social worker she was told  that the home looked nice.

“Obviously, they didn’t go through the front door,” said the friend. “That house was disgusting.”

Tincher attributes most of the troubles to his former girlfriend’s drug habits, which he believes exacerbate a medical condition.

She was charged with possession of a controlled substance in February, but the case was dropped just two days before police arrested her for child abuse, according to court records. Prince William County prosecutor Paul Ebert said Christina Moore has a substance abuse problem.

Moore lost custody of her then 22-month-old twin boys after they were found wandering in diapers on Va. 234 near the county landfill in June of 2005. She was convicted of felony child neglect and was sentenced to probation.

Tincher said Moore would often either mix up visitation dates or just not come at all. On several occasions, the friend said Moore would drop off two or three of her children on her front porch and text her that she was leaving them there.

On other occasions, the children’s diapers would be so soiled they would be literally falling off when she came to pick up the children, said the friend. Over Mother’s Day weekend and after she testified against Moore in the visitation hearings that spring, the friend said she found Moore’s children unattended at a mutual friend’s house with the grill on and Robey passed out.

That prompted another call to Social Services, which scheduled an appointment with Moore the next day, said the friend.

Prince William Social Services was the subject of a critical state investigation in 2009 after the death of 13-year-old Lexie Glover. The case, which ultimately led to the conviction of her adoptive mother — Alfreedia Leona Gregg-Glover — for felony murder, shed light on the department’s inadequate staffing and poor communication with the police department.

Lexie’s body was found in a shallow creek in a neighborhood next to the McCoart Government Center in Woodbridge, two days after she was reported missing by her mother in January of 2009. The medical examiner said Lexie died of drowning and exposure to cold.

Prosecutors said her mother dumped her there after a medical emergency.

Since the state’s inquiry, the department  added an after-hours shift and it performs what’s called a recidivism review. That review starts after the department receives more than one call on a particular child, said Sewell.

“We do a review of the case to assess the current situation and where we should go from there,” Sewell said.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-530-3904.