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Second Child Welfare Caseworker Accused Of Falsifying Documents

A second child welfare caseworker bonded out of the Orange County jail on Friday afternoon. Department of Children and Families administrators said Luanne Bronson falsified documents saying she'd made home visits on at-risk kids when she really did not.

Administrators caught her when they learned the family from one of Luanne Bronson's cases had never received the social services referrals she'd documented they had. Investigators audited all 11 of her open cases and found phony documents in at least three of them.

Bronson held back tears as she raced for her ride from the Orange County jail Friday. She'd just put up $5,000 bond after her arrest for official misconduct.

Bronson worked for Kids Hope United, a non-profit subcontractor that handles ongoing child protection cases for DCF. Between January and March, she'd been handling 11 cases and was supposed to visit each child at home at least once a month.

But, investigators said, Bronson lied about meeting at least three kids five different times and even forged names of the parents and her supervisor on home visit records.

Ultimately, it led to her arrest on ten different counts of misconduct.

Less than 24 hours earlier, another caseworker bonded out for almost the same crime. Christopher McDonald, who worked directly for DCF, was caught in the act allegedly falsifying records of his own.

Agency administrators insist neither caseworker had too many cases to handle and both were fired immediately, their cases forwarded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for criminal prosecution.

Agency administrators insist the fact that both cases were discovered internally points to strong protection against fraud within the DCF ranks. And, since Bronson's investigation, her organization now requires managers to make random calls to families to make sure their caseworkers are making the home visits they're supposed to.
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