Kentucky auditor sues governor over access to child abuse database

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky State Auditor Allison Ball filed a lawsuit against Gov. Andy Beshear and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services in an effort to gain access to a state database that houses case information on elder and child abuse.

Ball's office became the new home for the Office of the Ombudsman, the investigative branch for CHFS, which was run previously from inside the cabinet.

"Because it's an investigatory office, it makes sense you want it to be a little bit separate from the office that it was investigating," Ball said this week.

But during the transition, Ball found out the iTwist database, used to store case information on elder and child abuse, wouldn't be accessible outside of the cabinet.

"We need to have access," Ball said. "Before July 1, the ombudsman had full access. You cannot do the job without full access."

The issue is top of mind for state officials. It's been nearly two years since workers began removing some troubled kids from their homes to temporarily live in government buildings because there are not enough foster homes or residential treatment facility beds available.

Since then, those placements have continued. State data obtained in public records requests show 144 children had spent at least one night at a hotel or state office space from July 2022 to July 2023.

And from then until Feb. 1 of this year, 137 more kids stayed in those places for a night or more, amounting to 281 children in less than two years.

CHFS leaders have refused to sit for an interview or answer many questions about the issue. And the cabinet has fought a Louisville judge's ruling that unsealed documents from a particular case and testimony from state officials that show the situation is far more problematic than officials previously revealed.

A spokesperson for CHFS said, in the month of August, no children have had to stay the night at the L&N building in Louisville. In a written statement Friday, the spokesperson said Beshear supports changing the law in the next legislative session in order to give Ball full access.

"In the meantime, the administration has tried to work with the Auditor’s Office to provide them with the maximum access allowed under the current law, but they have refused," the cabinet spokesperson said. "On numerous occasions the cabinet believed a resolution had been reached, only to find the Auditor’s Office had changed its position. Monday’s action shows the Auditor would rather play politics than work with the cabinet on a solution – one that meets the requirements set forth by the General Assembly."

The auditor's office said the cabinet offered partial documents on certain cases if the ombudsman could provide the name and other identifying information about the child. Information the office doesn't have access to in the first place because in Kentucky dependence, neglect and abuse cases are sealed.

Ball said full access would allow an investigation into the foster kids forced to stay at the L&N Building in downtown Louisville and how 8-month-old Miya Rudd was found dead after the cabinet knew she tested positive for methamphetamine in her umbilical cord.

"There are vulnerable Kentuckians that are not being served," Ball said. "... There are questions that are not being answered, and that is the job of the Ombudsman."

Ball's office filed the lawsuit Monday against Beshear's office and the cabinet to force access. But Beshear said it's not that simple, and the current law doesn't allow for the cabinet to release the sensitive information.

"We want every child to be safe. We want oversight," Beshear said. "I support them having full access. But I have a state statute that is clear on what we can and can't do."

Beshear said the General Assembly can amend the law in the upcoming session in January, but Ball argued it's an urgent issue.

"I am very mindful of the fact that every single day we have complaints coming in, and those complaints are not being addressed the way they should be without access to that database," she said.

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