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Oliveaux v. St. Francis Medical Center12/15/2004
the outlined qualified immunities contained in Articles 611 and 612 of the Louisiana Children's Code and the provisions of R.S. 9:2798.1 are not applicable to the defendants in this matter and that these issues should have been presented to the civil jury trying this matter for valid consideration.
The matter before the trial court jury and the matter presently before this court is one concerning extremely serious issues of child abuse. Indeed the issues were and are so serious that they resulted in the murder of the child. The record clearly reflects that on the date of November 29, 1993, the child Haley Oliveaux, age 23 months, was brought to the offices of Dr. Russell Bulloch, a pediatrician then practicing in Monroe, Louisiana. Haley was brought to the office by one Jimmy Duncan, the live-in boy friend of Haley's mother. Duncan brought the child to the office because the mother was working at the time. Upon examination it was discovered that the child has a swollen scalp and forehead. Dr. Bulloch, after conducting the examination, immediately referred the child to the St. Francis Medical Center where she was placed into the PICU. As part of the treatment process a CT Scan was done on the child wherein it was discovered that she had skull fractures on three parts of her skull and a subdural hematoma. At the trial of this matter several physicians testified that injuries this serious could not have happened in the manner presented by Jimmy Duncan. Skull fractures of these types are classically consistent with Shaken Infant Syndrome. The PICU staff set forth with a treatment plan at that time.
The child was hospitalized for a total of six days. During this time the child's family grew increasingly suspicious of Duncan's account of how the injuries occurred. Realizing the obvious friction between the family and Duncan the treating pediatrician at the PICU consulted with a social worker at St. Francis Medical Center about the situation. After this consultation the decision was made to call CPS concerning the situation. CPS was then contacted and requested to intervene in the matter.
CPS was contacted and advised of the situation. Mrs. Griffon was assigned to the initial investigation. She soon went to St. Francis to begin her investigation. It is apparent from the record that Mrs. Griffon was a Crises Intervention Investigator. This is the normal first step in a possible child abuse investigation. It must be noted that CPS investigators are trained professionals and not someone who walked into the office out of the cold winter rain.
After the initial inquiry the case was assigned a Level III status, unspecified abuse, in spite of the serious and obviously suspicious injuries the child has suffered. CPS has claimed that the investigation was treated as a Level I case and the investigation was conducted accordingly. There is simply no evidence in the record which supports CPS's claim in this area. Obviously a fractured skull, together with all the other matters going on which were surrounding this injured child should have aroused the suspicion of a trained investigator and the case level should have been raised and a much more intensive investigation conducted.
The families were interviewed and the majority of the complaints were attributed to disputes amongst the family. However, the West Monroe Police Department was contacted and a further investigation was commenced. During this period of time Duncan's story began to change as to how the events happened. There were also other overt signs that a deeper problem was present than was being told.
As previously stated, Duncan's story about the incident had begun to change. Additionally, an inspec
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