Agency president stays in charge despite conviction

Juvenile justice's confidentiality blanket covers record

Bruce Maag, the founder and president of a private foster-care agency responsible for 1,300 children in seven states, surrendered his license to take kids into his own home just before he pleaded guilty in 1987 to contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Maag was charged in 1986 with two misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for allegedly giving alcohol to his foster daughter and her friend, and with one misdemeanor count of abuse alleging he had improper contact with his foster daughter.

The abuse charge and one of the delinquency counts were later dropped, according to interviews and documents from the state of Ohio.

BRUCE MAAG, SAFY's founder and president, pleaded guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor in 1987.

Maag has been able to continue as president of his agency because Ohio law at the time did not specifically bar anyone convicted of crimes against children from working in a foster-care agency. Although the law was changed in 1993, by then Maag's conviction had been expunged.

Maag was also shielded from public scrutiny by the blanket of confidentiality that is supposed to protect children. Because his case involved a minor, it was heard in juvenile court where the details were kept secret. Even the Ohio department that licenses his agency had no record of the conviction.

"The whole thing is disturbing," said Cheri Walter, deputy director of the Ohio Department of Human Services, which licenses Maag's agency. "The system is designed so nobody has to own it. A number of times we seem to have passed the buck onto someone else.

"Someone with a history of abuse or neglect is not a person we want running a foster-care agency."

Maag declined to talk about his case, saying his attorney told him, "Anything I say can be used against me." Maag's attorney said his client couldn't comment because his agency, Specialized Alternatives for Family and Youth (SAFY), is currently in litigation: a sexual-harassment lawsuit brought by one of its employees.

Although a SAFY caseworker in 1986 told officials in Logan County that Maag admitted kissing his foster daughter, who was 16, the charges involving her were dismissed after she refused to take the stand. Maag pleaded guilty to the remaining count of giving alcohol to her friend.

A year after Maag's 1987 conviction, Allen County Judge David Kinworthy ordered the records expunged. The judge's order sealed the records forever.

About Bruce Maag Name: Bruce Charles Maag. Age: 51. Position: Chief executive officer/president of Specialized Alternatives for Youth of America Inc., a management company providing administrative, fiscal, personnel, development, evaluation and other services to foster care agencies in Ohio, Oklahoma, Indiana, South Carolina, Nevada, Alabama, and Texas. He is also founder and executive director of the National Institute for Alternative Care Professionals (NIFACP). NIFACP is in the business of conference/seminar development at the national, state and local level. Education: Ohio State University, 1966-70, bachelor of science; major: psychology; University of Dayton, 1974-75, master of science; major: counseling.

Details about Maag giving alcohol to a minor are still secret, but the Dayton Daily News has pieced together from state and county documents and numerous interviews the following series of events that led to Maag's plea bargain.

The girl Maag took in as his foster daughter was put into SAFY's care by Logan County officials because she had been repeatedly sexually abused, starting when she was a young child.

Anna (she asked that her real name not be used) said the first time Maag saw her she was living in a SAFY home with a foster parent who was an alcoholic. A short time later, Maag, then a licensed foster parent, moved her into his home.

Anna, now 30, said Maag showered her with attention, gave her credit cards and took her shopping. He encouraged her to be a model. The two talked for hours. "He gave me everything I wanted," she said.

For a girl who had grown up in poverty, starved for attention, it was heady stuff.

But she said the attention also came with a price.

She declined to give details about the year she spent in Maag's home. But she did say that when she arrived there she felt vulnerable. She felt intimidated by Maag, she said, and her caseworker had just given her some devastating news: Her mother never wanted to see her again.

Sexually abused since the age of 4, moved from one foster home to another, Anna said she got "to a place that you just didn't fight anymore. If you wanted to live peacefully, you would just yield."

After roughly a year in Maag's home, Anna said she told a SAFY caseworker, Dru Whitaker, that she had to get out of Maag's house.

The girl was removed and placed in a group home, then a juvenile detention center. When Anna ran away from the center, she called a musician she knew in Michigan.

The musician said he first met Maag and Anna at a bar near Maag's vacation home in Michigan. He said Anna was very upset when she called him, so he drove to Ohio and picked her up. Shortly after Anna's 17th birthday, the two got married.

Meanwhile, a letter from Whitaker about the alleged contact between Maag and Anna moved county officials to investigate Maag.

Whitaker, who is now SAFY's chief operating officer, wrote Logan County Children Services on Sept. 22, 1986, saying that her boss, Maag, admitted to her that he became involved with Anna. Whitaker interviewed Maag and Anna together in Maag's home.

"Bruce began to tell me there were now complicating factors that would make it impossible for (Anna) to remain living in his home," the letter says. "Bruce indicated he and (Anna) made a mistake. One evening when everyone was gone, Bruce came in after having a few beers and went to his room. (Anna) gave him a back rub and he gave her a back rub. She rolled over and they kissed twice."

Maag then admitted that he felt uncomfortable about what happened and said the incident was "not appropriate," the letter says.

Rachel Gillespie, a Logan County Children Services worker, later told state officials the county's case files show, "Maag admitted to drinking beer and (Anna) rubbed his back, he rubbed her back and they kissed." Gillespie also said the county records contain "information that would lead one to conclude that more than back rubbing was involved."

Caron Vernon, executive director of the Logan County Children Services agency, confirmed Gillespie's account and said she immediately removed Anna from SAFY's care. She still refuses to place children there today. "When I get their stuff (SAFY's), it goes right in the trash can," she said.

Vernon said a caseworker in Allen County, where the alleged abuse occurred, investigated the complaint and reported his findings to the sheriff's department. A sheriff's detective did his own investigation and charges were filed Jan. 13, 1987.

That same month, SAFY board chairwoman Rose Watts wrote a letter to the state human services department's Toledo office, saying Maag was being investigated and was "directed to have no further contact with the youth in the program." Maag offered to take a leave of absence, but Watts wrote that the board refused because the "program could not be without his services."

What followed, as one prosecutor acknowledged, is "Megan's Law" in reverse - a series of official decisions that shielded the charges against Maag from the public and eventually caused the allegations, his conviction, the sentence and any reference to the incident to disappear. While the purpose of closed hearings in juvenile court is to protect children, Allen County Prosecutor David Bowers said there was an unintended result in this case: For the public, it "never did happen."

Bowers said he couldn't talk about a case that had been expunged but recalled Maag's hearing because the agency president has a "high-profile name" in Allen County.

Vernon said a Logan County caseworker found the girl's report of abuse to be credible and was prepared to testify on her behalf. But the day of the hearing, she received a phone call saying the caseworker's testimony wasn't needed because Maag had pleaded guilty to one charge.

Maag's sentence remains a secret, but when he stepped out of the courtroom in May 1987 following his conviction, he was still firmly in charge of SAFY.

Maag, 51, a tall, heavyset man with a booming voice who stands out in a crowd, founded SAFY in 1983 after working at another large foster-care agency. SAFY is, by all accounts, his passion. His former accountant described him as a hard-charging manager who dreams of making SAFY the biggest foster-care agency in the country. In fact, one official from a national child-advocacy group said Maag liked to tell others that he handpicked his board members to make sure SAFY would always remain under his control.

Certainly, SAFY board members have demonstrated loyalty to Maag.

A letter on file with the Ohio Department of Human Services shows Maag's board chairwoman sought to minimize the damage after the 1987 conviction. Rose Watts, who first notified state officials in Toledo about the investigation into Maag's conduct, sent a follow-up letter that said, "Things have been satisfied to what we, the board, feel is a satisfactory resolution. The allegations made by the foster daughter were dismissed. We, the board, feel there is no reason Bruce should not continue to work in the capacity in which he has been."

What the letter doesn't say is that Maag had just pleaded guilty to one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Maag also had surrendered his license to be a foster parent, and the Department of Youth Services had voted not to renew SAFY's license to care for children who had been in the state's juvenile detention center.

Although the stream of children flowing to SAFY was interrupted, it was by no means stopped. In Allen County, where the case was tried, children services officials continue to place children with SAFY.

Jackie Loescher, deputy director of Allen County Children Services, said she doesn't know what results came from the agency's 1986 investigation of Maag. She doesn't recall his conviction, although she vaguely recalled that his case was expunged. Nor could she explain why Allen County officials didn't contact Logan County to obtain its records about the case.

"I don't know what to say," Loescher said. "I could not locate a record of anything happening."

A year after Maag's conviction, Judge Kinworthy ordered the records sealed. Said Kinworthy: "There are no records of Bruce Maag ever appearing before this court."

The impact of the judge's decision became clear in 1995, when a former SAFY official made a number of complaints about Maag's operation, including allegations that SAFY neglected children and that Maag engaged in sexual misconduct. By then, SAFY had grown into a multimillion-dollar agency with hundreds of children in foster homes across the country.

An investigator from the state human services department, looking into the allegations following the 1995 complaint, at first found no indication of charges filed. She later learned from a Logan County caseworker that there had been charges but could find no records. In the end, the state did not substantiate the allegations involving Maag.

The state human services department's Walter said the decision to expunge Maag's conviction means the department has no grounds to investigate whether Maag's past should bar him from working in a foster-care agency.

The allegations surrounding Maag also were turned over in 1995 to the Ohio Board of Counselors and Social Workers.

Beth Farnsworth, director of the board, won't say whether an investigation was launched because all complaints and cases before the board are confidential. But Farnsworth, who was unaware of Maag's guilty plea, said the board may pursue more details. `If he was convicted of a misdemeanor of that nature relating to his practice, we would investigate this,' she said.

Steve Mansfield, SAFY attorney and the agency's executive vice president of operations, said that as president and CEO Maag has no day-to-day contact with children. "He is layers away from children."

Mansfield said he didn't know about the case, but it is legally a nonevent because the records have been sealed. "It's been expunged. I can't tell you a thing about it."

SAFY has no legal liability for what happened to Anna, Mansfield said.

Does it have a moral obligation?

"Morals? Go talk to the church or your priest," Mansfield said. "Everybody has different morals. I can separate myself from those issues. I've had to do that in my years of practicing law."

More than 12 years after leaving foster care, Anna said her memories of abuse are very real.

The slender, soft-spoken blonde, who is now a Christian and helps abused kids through her church, lives in a house at the end of a dirt road on an isolated lake in Michigan and has an unlisted phone number. She's made a fresh start.

"I've learned you don't have to succumb to what people say to you. I'm 30. I have a beautiful life," she said. "Faith in God has brought me as far as I've come."

She said she decided to talk to reporters to show that foster care can destroy the children it's supposed to save.

"A lot of abuse happens in the hands of states which place kids in foster care," she said. "To me, more damage was done in my life in the hands of the state than in my home."

Main Story:

Children often the last to benefit
Difficult kids flood system as government oversight vanishes
By Debra Jasper and Elliot Jaspin DAYTON DAILY NEWS
Published: Sunday, September 26, 1999 ; Page: 1A

Sidebar:

EXECUTIVES DEAL IN CHILDREN AND REAL ESTATE
Officers buy property, sell it to foster-care agency
By Debra Jasper and Elliot Jaspin DAYTON DAILY NEWS
Published: Sunday, September 26, 1999 ; Page: 17A

Part 2:

Living site turned into party house
Former residents say teens had little supervision in foster-care program
By Debra Jasper and Elliot Jaspin DAYTON DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, September 27, 1999 ; Page: 1A