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Randy Burton: Founder and President, Justice for Children, Houston, TX [by Charisse Dengler] A Southern boy with a heart of gold, Randy Burton has devoted his career to advocating on behalf of those too young to fight their own battles. As Founder and President of Justice for Children (JFC), Burton is striving to make the world a safer place for children.
Burton founded JFC, a national nonprofit
“This poor child was learning disabled—
“overcoming bias and ineptitude concerning
organization headquartered in Houston, TX,
something that’s not all that uncommon
child abuse.”
in 1987 in order to open people’s eyes to the
in these situations, because this is her
problems with the way the government was
stepfather and people tend to take advantage
“A lot of lawyers, prosecutors, people
dealing with abused and neglected children.
of children that it’s more difficult for them to
in the family court, and judges really do
Since then, the organization has expanded
outcry—and there was a beautifully written
not understand the dynamics that are
to include offices in Arizona, Michigan, and
letter in the D.A.’s file using terms of legal
involved with child abuse,” he said. “They
Washington, DC.
art and so forth, where she had recanted her
don’t understand the problems with child
testimony,” he said.
witnesses. They don’t understand why children recant. They don’t understand how
“My first job as a lawyer was with the D.A.’s office here in Houston, and I worked my
“I believe that it was something that her
all the dynamics work, and they don’t want to
way up to the Chief Prosecutor of Family
stepfather’s lawyer put her up to and helped
believe—I think a lot of people in the general
Offenses,” he said. “It was during that
her write, and I didn’t believe it. It not only
public don’t, a lot of lay people—that a parent
experience that I saw something that really
flew in the face of all the evidence, but
or someone in a position of trust with a child
disturbed me, and that is that the system
there’s a very well accepted theory called
would take advantage of that for their own
that’s designed to protect children is failing
the child abuse accommodation syndrome,
selfish interests.”
that task horribly.”
where children recant because of all the tremendous pressure they’re under from
Burton’s very first case for the D.A.’s office
family and others to not go through with this
involved a little girl who had been raped by
for lots of bad reasons like, in this case, the
her stepfather for four years; and when she
mother didn’t want to lose the income string
reported the abuse to her school nurse, the
from her husband, who was not the father of
nurse contacted Child Protective Services
the child.”
(CPS). However, CPS told the nurse to go ahead and send the child home with her
As soon as Burton realized what had
stepfather and said it would conduct an
happened, JFC issued a warrant and had her
interview the following week. The nurse, not
picked up.
supporting this course of action, took it upon herself to bring in officials, who removed
“She broke down on the stand the next day
the girl from the home and put her into
and tearfully disclosed what had happened
protective custody.
to her, and her stepfather went to prison for a lengthy term; but that experience was so
Burton, who began working on the case
outrageous,” he said. “I asked the nurses if
after it had been in the system for a couple
they’d ever had any other experiences like
years, was dismayed one day upon arriving to
that, and they said this is the rule, not the
question his client to discover that the little
exception.”
girl had recanted her testimony and been released to her stepfather.
Burton said one of the major challenges he faces is “overcoming bureaucratic inertia with the various governmental agencies” and
PAGE
It was after the death of Jesse Wheeler in 1987 that Burton vowed to create an organization that would do all it could to protect the nation’s children. Wheeler, who was two years old at the time of his death, was murdered shortly after being taken out of protective custody and put back into his mother’s home. “CPS had a lengthy history on the family, and he was kind of the poster child for how the system was failing to protect children,” Burton said. “So, I called the community together and wrote an op-ed and said, ‘Let’s formulate some kind of grassroots response.’ When the system fails children, there’s got to be a safety net or some sort of organization that advocates for their protection. And that’s how Justice for Children got started.” JFC currently handles around 10,000 calls a year and goes to court or does other intensive work on about 500 cases a year.
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