AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) Maine’s social worker licensure board revoked the license of a caseworker who placed a 4-year-old girl in a home where she was murdered.
The Portland Press Herald reports it has obtained an August decision from the state Board of Social Worker Licensure that concluded Heather Campbell “exhibited gross negligence, incompetence, or misconduct.” Campbell says she’s being scapegoated for the death of the girl, Kendall Chick.
The board’s decision says proper background checks would have turned up assault convictions on the record of Stephen Hood, Kendall’s paternal grandfather. That could’ve led the state to place Kendall somewhere else.
Hood’s fiance, Shawna Gatto, was convicted in April of murdering Kendall. Gatto was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Campbell told the Press Herald supervisors knew about Hood’s record and signed off anyway.
