Elmont Online

ALBANY -- Sixteen employees of the state Office of Children and Family Services have been suspended for allegedly snooping in confidential files relating to a co-worker.

The victim of the alleged snooping, Kristen Trapalis, was arrested in May and charged with possession of marijuana and endangering the welfare of a child, but those charges were later dropped.

Ironically, Trapalis works as a child protective specialist for OCFS, and helped run a phone center that receives tips about people who may be abusing or maltreating children.

It wasn't known if Trapalis was put on this list of suspected abusers, known as the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment, following her arrest. She remains on suspension from the agency.

New York state has a controversial history of cases in which parents caught with even small amounts of marijuana have faced dire consequences, from landing on the abuse register to potentially losing custody of their children to child welfare officials.

The 16 OCFS workers who allegedly accessed the information may have simply wanted to know if their fellow employee had landed on the register after her arrest.

OCFS spokeswoman Elizabeth McCabe wouldn't name the employees who were suspended or specify precisely what they were allegedly looking for, citing privacy rules regarding personnel. Nor could she disclose information about Trapalis.

The 16 employees "have been suspended for breaching the confidentiality law," McCabe said.

They will face disciplinary hearings in the next several weeks, she said, and could face penalties ranging from a loss of pay to dismissal.

"We do take any allegations of breaches in confidentiality extremely seriously, investigate immediately, and take prompt action," McCabe said.

This isn't the first time state employees have eyeballed sensitive data that's supposed to remain private.

In 2009, a retired clerk at the state Office of Taxation and Finance was charged and later convicted of stealing the identities of taxpayers when he was scanning documents to be used for audits.

Using Social Security numbers and other data, Walter Healy ran up more than $200,000 in fraudulent credit card bills in other people's names. He got six months in jail and five years probation, and had to make restitution.

Also in 2009, another Taxation Department veteran, Susan Mackey, pleaded guilty to computer trespassing when she accessed tax records of a friend's ex-husband, so her friend could use the information against her former husband in a family court battle.

Tax information is some of the most sensitive data the state has on individuals.

But child abuse records can be just as sensitive and are frequently ripe for both institutional and individual abuse, said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection and Reform, which is critical of such databases.

It's often too easy to be listed on a child abuse registry and very difficult to get off of it -- even if the allegations prove to be unfounded or so minor as to be meaningless, Wexler said.

"The criteria for reporting is low. The database is filled with cases that are substantiated when they shouldn't be," he said.

Being on the list can block employment in fields such as teaching or child care, so it's important that the accused are accorded due process. While not open to the public, the list can be accessed by certain employers.

The safeguards haven't always worked. In 2010, the Times Union reported that thousands of New Yorkers listed in the child abuse registry won a class action lawsuit in which they secured the right to hearings on the allegations against them.

Lawyers found that the state in many cases had simply closed people's files without the hearings -- tantamount to what Wexler described as a "shredding party" that precluded the possibility of a fair hearing.

Marijuana use has also prompted removal of children from the home, even if the cases were minor.

A recent report in The New York Times found that hundreds of New Yorkers caught with marijuana were reported as being suspected child abusers. In some cases, social service agencies removed the children.

Trapalis couldn't be reached for comment.

But according to court records, a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child was dismissed in Glenville Town Court in October. Trapalis also paid a $200 fine for disorderly conduct, which is a violation -- below that of a misdemeanor -- and doesn't end up one's criminal record.

Trapalis was arrested in May at her Glenville, Schenectady County, home with another person, Richard Dickenson. Police said three children, aged 7 months, 4 years and 6 years, were in the house. But it turned out police were more interested in Dickenson.

"She was cooperative," said Glenville Police Chief Mike Renali. "It was our belief she knew about the presence of the drug, but it wasn't hers."

Renali said he didn't know whether Trapalis was still on the abuse registry. Typically, police notify the register and child protective workers in the event of a case such as the initial charges in Trapalis' case. But from then on, child protective services deal with the abuse registry.

Wexler wasn't familiar with the Trapalis case, but he's expecting a spike in calls to child abuse registries in the wake of the scandal that has engulfed Pennsylvania State University. The school's fabled football coach Joe Paterno was forced to step down last week amid charges that he didn't do enough to halt alleged sex abuse by defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

High-profile cases, Wexler said, tend to make people more vigilant for a while, and that could lead to more charges -- some well-founded, others less so.

Reach Karlin at 454-5758 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .