DHS Caseworker Blames Impersonation For Controversial Facebook Post

An Oklahoma Department of Human Services caseworker is under fire after a Facebook post under her name revealed a disturbing perspective of one of her ongoing cases, but the caseworker claims she never wrote the post.

Both DHS and Cleveland County detectives are working to determine where the post originated, but many people say the words in the post are just another example of the DHS mindset. “Plain white trash,” “hicksville Lexington” and “druggie mom” are just some of the phrases used to describe an outstanding case of a mother losing her four children.

News On 6 first reported last August that the mother and her now-estranged husband had no charges filed against them after an AMBER Alert was issued for their 18-month-old daughter. The mother still has not regained custody of her children.

This week's Facebook post under her caseworker's name and profile picture says "if its (sic) up to me she will never finish the program" and that "the judge...does what the department says."

“The way it’s written is pretty much the kind of people in the know who know who it involves,” says State Representative Bobby Cleveland (R-Slaughterville), who has been following this case from his district since last year, "so to me it can only be done by two people."

Cleveland does not believe the mother would have reason to jeopardize a court decision by impersonating her caseworker on Facebook, but the caseworker tells News On 6 someone must have. The caseworker said on the phone this week that she has no idea how this happened and that she takes the confidentiality of her cases very seriously.

A DHS spokesperson tells News On 6 the agency has never dealt with allegations of this nature, and in a statement says,

The worker whose name appears in the post promptly brought it to our leadership’s attention. She vehemently denies making the post, and believes that her identity was stolen and someone created this post in her name and used her social media profile picture. She quickly filed a police report to this effect and this situation is now being investigated by local law enforcement as well as our DHS Office of Inspector General. The worker is fully cooperating with the investigation. She has turned over her personal phone and opened her social media account to the sheriff to aid in the investigation. Because of how easy it is to steal an identity and imitate someone on social media, we caution on a rush to judgment until the investigation has been completed. The message in this post most certainly does not reflect the values of our agency, nor do this worker’s colleagues believe it reflects hers in any fashion.

“It’s typical DHS,” Cleveland replies. “It’s everybody else’s fault. That’s their typical situation over there.”

Cleveland County detectives say the caseworker has been cooperative, and so far they have not found evidence of the post on her personal account, but they have filed a preservation order with Facebook, which will reveal a more detailed history of account activity.

If the post is found to be fraudulent, the question remains, who was the author?