News Summary

Despite ongoing efforts to overhaul children services across Ohio, officials say they can't fully prevent the type of alleged sexual abuse that recently befell a 16-year-old Middletown boy at the hands of a 25-year-old foster care worker in Warren County.

Since 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel of Middletown died in foster care in 2006, new laws and local efforts have increased screening and training for foster parents. Legislation that goes into effect in August broadens the list of offenses that disqualifies someone from working with foster children.

But Carolynn Hatcher — who is pleaded not guilty to sexual battery against a teen in her care at the Mid-Western Children's Home in Pleasant Plain — had no criminal record.

"This is a Christian woman who had no criminal background of any kind," said Butler County Children Services spokeswoman Denise Winkler. "She was married, working in the home with her husband."

Officials said Hatcher, who is free on $30,000 bond, is now 10 weeks pregnant by the teenager.

Hatcher, a teacher from Florida, passed required criminal background checks, and would have passed the increased level of scrutiny required by the new legislation, Winkler said.

Hatcher's Cincinnati-based attorney, Jay Clark, said he didn't want to comment about the case this early. An Aug. 19 pretrial hearing is set in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

All employees at Mid-Western Children's Home are screened before they are hired, and the Christian group home meets all the requirements set by the state, said administrator Barry Boverie. The facilities, which include six homes that house up to 36 children, were inspected by state officials in February or March, and will be again in the fall, he said. Midwestern's two-year license is up for recertification by the end of the year.

Boverie said Hatcher left June 3 before the allegations surfaced, and that as a housemother she had the opportunity to be alone with the boy, because she and her husband lived in the same home with him and five other children.