Date of Offense
Complaint
Statement
On 05/01/24, I was assigned to a child abuse investigation that was called in by Deputy Vanarsdale. I was working as a children's social worker. I am an African-American woman. Deputy Vanarsdale is White. I was recovering from a partial mastectomy that I had had only three days before on 04/28/24. I received the call to respond to the Lancaster Sheriff's Station around 11:30 p.m. I lived an hour away at the time. Deputy Vanarsdale said the Child Abuse Hotline told him I would arrive at the station at 1:30 a.m. I arrived at 1:57 a.m. Considering that I lived an hour away from the station, I was still recovering from a major surgery, I had to review the case, get gas, take a shower, get the paperwork together, and drink some coffee. . .I don't think the time I arrived at the station was that bad.
Deputy Vanarsdale and his partner, Carlos Camargo, did not help me during the investigation at all. They mostly acted as babysitters and complained that I was taking too long to investigate. The deputies wanted me to pick the children up from the station and just throw them in foster care without investigating or even attempting to talk to the parents just to satisfy their own time constraints. As a social worker, I am obligated to try to interview at least ONE of the parents and see the home. I'm not supposed to just throw the children into foster care without investigating. I didn't have any information for the father so I was obligated to at least attempt to make contact with the mother who was the alleged perpetrator. The mother lived in another town that was 30 to 40 minutes away. Law enforcement would not accompany me. The mother's town was poorly lit and it was very late at night at this point. It took me some time to locate the residence and I was consulting with my supervisor, Jacqueline Alvarado. I was instructed to knock on the door, wait for a response, and call the mother three times. I also left the mother a message. This all took time. By the time I got back to the police station, Deputy Vanarsdale and Deputy Camargo had gone home.
I did not leave Lancaster until 11 a.m. the next day. This is at least partly due to the fact that law enforcement refused to let be borrow a car seat for the 3 y/o boy who was on the case. I had to wait until the morning when the local DCFS office opened to borrow a car seat. I'm assuming law enforcement had a car seat when they transported the child to the police station. I don't know why I couldn't have used the same car seat and brough it back. There was absolutely no teamwork or support. When I came back from the local DCFS office with the car seat, the deputy at the front desk told me to wait in a room instead of taking me straight to the back of the station where the children were resting. I don't know why I was told to do this, but I was simply following directions. Then after about an hour, a deputy came into the room where I was sitting and started yelling at me and asking why I was waiting in the room.
The deputies wanted me to detain the children and put them in foster care. That is exactly what I did. Since I couldn't get in contact with the mother, I had no choice but to detain the children. Plus, I was the one who drove them to their foster home. This is all why I didn't complete my duties until 11 a.m. No one was helping me.
Soon after this, Deputy Vanarsdale sent a three page email to my immediate supervisor, Jackie Alvarado, and upper management. If the deputy had sent the complaint to just my immediate supervisor, she probably would have discussed it with me and that's it. But Deputy Vanarsdale included two upper managers in the email which automatically escalated the issue. I was immediately placed on desk duty and I wasn't given an opportunity to refute the allegations. Management took Deputy Vanarsdale's word for what happened just because he is in law enforcement. It'd like to add "abuse of power" to my complaint. Everyone has the right to complain, but my issue is that most of what Deputy Vanarsdale said in his email was not true.
Deputy Vanarsdale said that I told him and his partner that I got into a car accident in the field during the investigation. And they thought this was weird because there was no damage to the car. I DID NOT SAY THAT I GOT INTO A CAR ACCIDENT THAT NIGHT. What I told the deputies was that someone hit my car a few days before and I was in a rental car. I explained that I didn't have a car seat because my County-issued car seat was trapped in my normal car that was in the repair shop. Deputy Vanarsdale complained that me not having a car seat was unacceptable, even though me not having a car seat was not due to any fault of my own and I did not have an extra car seat at my house (which is where I was dispatched from). Deputy Vanarsdale said SEVERAL TIMES throughout the email that I "rolled" my eyes at him. This is not true. Plus, I feel like him repeatedly saying that was code for identifying me as "another Black woman with an attitude." In the email, Deputy Vanarsdale said that he tried to "reason" with my as he walked me and the children to the car. This is not true. I don't remember either deputy talking to me at all while they walked me to the rental car the next morning. Deputy Vanarsdale complained that the children were forced to sleep on the floor since I took so long to investigate. IT IS NOT MY FAULT THAT THE SHERIFF'S STATION DOESN'T HAVE A PLACE FOR CHILDREN TO REST OR SLEEP. I can't believe he tried to blame me for the police station's lack of accommodations. Plus, I'd like to point out again that NO ONE WAS HELPING ME DURING THE INVESTIGATION. Deputy Vanarsdale told my office that I "traumatized" the children by saying that there was a possibility that they may be returned to their mother's home. Deputy Vanarsdale IS NOT A MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. He doesn't have the expertise to say that I "traumatized" anyone. Deputy Vanarsdale complained that I was sending threating text messages to the teenage girl who was on the case. THIS IS NOT TRUE. While I was in the mother's city, trying to locate her home, I was texting the mother in an attempt to get her to answer my messages. I was texting that if she wanted the children returned to her, she needed to contact me as soon as possible. It turns out, the phone number I was texting belonged to the teenage girl and not the mother. I DID NOT KNOW THIS. When the mother was not answering me that night, I suspected that I may not have the right phone number for the mother. While I was in the mother's neighborhood, I called that Lancaster Sheriff's Station to see if either of the deputies had an alternative phone number for the mother. I was told the deputies had already gone home for the night. Deputy Vanarsdale also told my office that I lacked "compassion." Deputy Vanarsdale does not know me and had not right to assassinate my character. He worked with me for ONE NIGHT. He didn't know me well enough to say I was a person who lacked compassion. Deputy Vanarsdale overreached in a variety of ways. He also said I did not believe what the teenage girl was telling me. THIS IS NOT TRUE. I never said I didn't believe her, plus Deputy Vanarsdale is not a mind reader. All I ever said what that I wasn't sure of whether or not I could legally detain the children. Ultimately, I detained the children and put them in foster care (which is what the deputies wanted me to do). I did exactly what they wanted me to do and they complained, anyway. I didn't deserve to be complained about just because I didn't tap dance and smile the whole night. The real reason why the deputies complained is because the children were at the station longer than they wanted and they didn't get to go home as soon as they wanted to.
Because of Deputy Vanarsdale's complaint, I was put on desk duty and subjected to an investigation. Deputy Vanarsdale made me look so bad, management started harassing me after that. I was forced to leave my job suddenly and cash out my retirement to survive. It's a year later and I still haven't found another job. I had just had major surgery and was four years from retirement. Because of Deputy Vanarsdale's false accusations, I am unemployed and no longer have a financial future. In addition, Deputy Vanarsdale named "witnesses" in his complaint who were people I didn't even have any contact with. He doesn't even care that he sabotaged my career and disrupted my ability to support myself. But most importantly, most of what he said in his complaint was not true. And my life has been devasted by his false statements.
