BOARD APOLOGIZES, OKS $1 MILLION SETTLEMENT.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

After apologizing to a mother whose son died after being placed in a foster home, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a $1 million settlement for the family.

``I apologize for not being more attentive,'' said a tearful Supervisor Gloria Molina in the board's first-ever apology to a parent whose child died in foster care. ``If the Department of Children and Family Services cannot protect children, we should not empower them to do so.''

The four other supervisors joined in the apology and later approved the settlement for Gardena resident Debra Reid, whose 9-year-old son, Jonathan, died of an asthma attack in 1997. He had been in foster homes in El Monte and Pomona.

``This was a murder,'' Reid said later. ``He died due to deliberate negligence. We are not just willing to take their payoff. We want an action plan to really produce an investigation that will stop these child deaths.''

Reid hopes state lawmakers will introduce a bill similar to a law in Florida that makes it a crime for social workers to make false allegations against parents to justify placing their children in foster care.

Reid claims her son was wrongfully removed from her home after social workers accused her of having a condition known as Munchausen by Proxy, a malady in which a parent fakes a child's illness to gain attention.

In February 1997, DCFS received a report from a hospital that Reid was neglecting Jonathan and he was placed in a foster home. The department provided the foster mother with his medical history, Principal Deputy County Counsel Roger Granbo wrote in settlement documents.

But the foster mother said the department failed to advise her of Jonathan's severe asthma and diabetes conditions, Granbo wrote.

On June 9, 1997, Jonathan had a severe asthma attack while sleeping and stopped breathing. He was transported to a Pomona hospital, but he died within hours of his arrival.

The money settles two cases, including $900,000 for the death of Jonathan and an additional $100,000 that will go to the boy's now 9-year-old brother, Debvin, who Reid claims was wrongfully removed from her home for one-and-a-half years. The county spent $324,564 in legal expenses on the cases.

The supervisors also ordered a follow-up investigation out of concern corrective actions adopted after the death were not being followed.