Joy Brown was listed on the child-abuse registry in her home state, Iowa, after her 5-year-old son wandered outside into the street while she was putting her baby down for a nap.
The little boy was uninjured, but the family may never recover. She has been waging a tireless national battle to get her name off the registry ever since she received the notice in the mail that she had been branded an abusive, neglectful parent.She was lucky. Had she lived in Utah, she would not have received a notice in the mail and likely would never have found out that she was even on the registry.
About 5,400 Utahns are listed on the data base, which tracks cases where abuse or neglect have been substantiated. Of those, about 1,290 were taken to court; the other 4,100 have never had due process hearings. It's unknown how many of them even know they're on the list.
Estimates are that at least hundreds and perhaps a few thousand would appeal if they knew about it.
Utah law does not require the state to notify people it's putting in the data base. Those who find they are listed usually learn it after they've been turned down for a job that uses the data base as part of its background check.
In a land whose laws are based on the premise that one is innocent until proven guilty, the data base carries no guarantee of due process. And someone who wants to clear his name must go through a cumbersome process that may ultimately require a lawsuit - with no guarantees that will work, either.
During testimony at the Legislature last year, a man said he had been placed on the state's oficial list of child abusers a full five years before he learned about it. In 1991, a neighbor accused him of child abuse. An investigation cleared him, but his name is still on the list.
A woman said she didn't learn she was on the list until she applied to host youths who would be visiting Utah for a few days. She was turned down. She told lawmakers she was never able to determine what allegations led to her placement on the list.
Last week, the Administrative Rules Review Committee asked members of the Judiciary Interim Committee to support recommendations that would change the way Utah takes names. The committee will decide in its next meeting.
The group recommends that Utah create two data bases. The Division of Child and Family Services would have access to a registry like the one that exists to track child-abuse cases and help determine, for instance, whether a home would be a good, safe environment in which to place foster children.
But people would not be denied business licenses until they were at least informed that they were in the registry and have a right to an appeals process.
When a child-abuse allegation is "substantiated," the person who is accused of the abuse would be notified by mail that the state intends to put his or her name into the data base - and explain the appeals process.
When a case is referred to court action, that notification and appeals process would not apply. The court action itself would serve as the appeals process.
Child abuse is a pervasive, ugly thing that is ruining a lot of young lives and destroying many futures. The state has to be able to keep track of abusers.
But listing people as abusers on an official list without letting them know about it is just as ugly, and it, too, can ruin lives.
Last year the Legislature was asked to fix the data base registry. Division of Child and Family Services officials stood united with some of the people who had been accused of abuse and all requested the change. That in itself was striking, since the two are not known to love each other.
There was no opposition to the bill, but it didn't pass.
If the abuse registry is to mean anything, it must include a chance for people to clear themselves. As Rep. Byron Harward, R-Provo, asked: How are you supposed to know you have to prove your innocence if you don't know someone thinks you're guilty?