Faced with the allegation that a city swimming coach may have molested a 4-year-old, the Atlanta Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs decided not to file a report with police and instead conducted an administrative investigation, which was hampered by personality conflicts within the staff, according to a city report.
City employees following up on a complaint from the girl’s grandmother, a decades-long city of Atlanta employee, characterized the episode as alleged “sexual harassment of a 4-year-old” instead of a possible molestation case.
The girl told her mother and grandmother that the coach allegedly touched her genitals during a swimming lesson a year ago.
A report by the city’s Department of Law on the initial investigation noted that an assistant human resources commissioner told investigators “he saw no need for [the Atlanta Police Department] to be notified or involved . . . since the parks department only needed to rely on the city’s sexual harassment policy to resolve the matter.”
That was a mistake, said Duriya Farooqui, the mayor’s chief operating officer.
“The administration takes this extremely seriously,” Farooqui said. “The safety and security of the child is paramount and we wanted to do everything we possibly can to ensure there was due diligence . . . in handling the matter and [that] appropriate action is taken to send a clear message that this is not going to be tolerated.”
The coach was not charged with a crime, and a Fulton County grand jury declined to indict him. But this week the city notified him that he will be fired, Farooqui said.
The commissioner of the parks department, George Dusenbury, was suspended without pay for five days, beginning Monday, for “failure to timely report allegations of sexual abuse.”
Dusenbury did not respond to telephone messages left at his home on Thursday.
Charlene Braud, director of recreation, will also be moved to another agency, Farooqui said.
According to the Department of Law report, city employees following up on the sexual abuse allegation complained that Braud, who also did not return telephone messages, pressured them to “finish the investigation quickly,” even though all the evidence had not yet been collected.
City workers are bound by state law and city policy to report cases of criminal wrongdoing.
The child’s family filed a report with APD on Feb. 22, 2011, two days after the girl told her mother she had received a “bad touch” from a coach at the indoor pool at the Adamsville Recreation Center. The family informed the parks department of the incident the day before they went to police.
“It is important to note that the Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs never contacted the Atlanta Police Department to initiate a criminal investigation,” according to the report which was discussed by the Atlanta City Council this week.
According to the law department report, one of the obstacles in the agency’s efforts to follow up on the complaint was the personal animosity between Dusenbury and Braud. Braud and Dusenbury told an investigator that they do not directly talk to each other.
“The city took immediate steps to tighten the protocols and procedures,” Farooqui said. “We instituted a child protection policy in April . . . and the training now takes place twice a year. The department’s [policies] were also updated to include child protection policies. A safety officer was hired to review all unusual incident reports so the department can be proactive in escalating any concerns.”
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