State officials are saying little about a $2.5 million wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the state by the parents of a mentally handicapped girl killed in a 1993 garage fire allegedly set by her foster parents.
Foster parents John and Tonya Vosburgh have been charged with setting the blaze March 3, 1993, that killed Bobbi Jo Womack, 18, to collect on a $100,000 life-insurance policy the Vosburghs took out on her four months earlier. The Vosburghs have been charged with first-degree murder, arson and insurance fraud.The parents of Bobbi Jo Wo-mack say officials in the Department of Human Services had received complaints about Vosburghs' care of Bobbi Jo before the girl died, as well as complaints about others the state had placed in the Vosburgh's care.
The allegations include: Officials were told the Vosburghs had mistreated people in their care prior to Bobbi Jo Womack, had stolen money from people in their care, were mistreating Womack, had plotted to obtain legal guardianship of Womack to get her government benefits or her trust fund, and had plotted to drown Womack to get her government benefits or insurance proceeds.
A $147,000 trust fund was created for Bobbi Jo Womack with the proceeds from an insurance settlement after she was injured in a car accident. The injury left her with the mental capacity of an 8-year-old and only partial use of her left side.
Eileen Womack, who is divorced from William Donald Womack, gave up Bobbi Jo to state care after the accident.
After Bobbi Jo Womack died, the state convened a fatality review board to review the state's care of Womack, but the results of that review won't be made public, said Jack Green, director of Human Services' Office of Liability Management.
"Recommendations of the fatality committee were put into place," Green said, but he declined to discuss those recommendations. "With a lawsuit pending, we really can't say anything."
Green said the committee looked for employee error as well as inadequate policies, but he wouldn't say if any employee error had been found.
The parents have named the Vosburghs, former Human Services Directors Norman Angus and Michael Stewart, social services officials Ron Stromburg and Earl W. Bassett and 30 John Does as defendants in the suit filed last week in 3rd District Court.
Some of Eileen and William Donald Womack's allegations against the Vosburghs surfaced in the murder investigation two years ago.
Tonya Vosburgh was charged with forgery for allegedly forging the signature of a blind, mentally handicapped man while the two were at the bank. The man claimed he told Vosburgh he only wanted to withdraw $70 from his account, but he discovered the next day that $500 was missing.
Police verified a $570 withdrawal from the man's account and that a teller had given that amount to Vosburgh. However, a judge dismissed the charges because the blind man couldn't say for sure whether Vosburgh did or didn't give him all of the money.
Womack did nearly drown in the Pine View Reservoir during an outing with the Vosburghs a year before her death, according to police reports. The Vosburghs took out a life-insurance policy on Womack a few months later, forging the girl's signature on the policy, according to criminal charges.
John Vosburgh has previous criminal convictions: a 1992 assault conviction stemming from a dispute with his wife and a 1982 conviction of forcible sodomy of another woman, according to remarks made in a 1993 custody hearing for Tonya Vosburgh.
Tonya Vosburgh suffered a brain injury and stroke a month after charges were filed against her and her husband. Vosburgh, who allegedly now has the mentality of an 8-year-old, has been placed in her parents' custody.
However, Tonya Vosburgh's condition is in dispute. A court-ordered evaluation by a psychologist found that Vosburgh may be faking her disability.