Why did the system fail Ricky?: Officials sort through lessons of brutal case

If the chilling death of 7-year-old Ricky Holland is to have any meaning, prosecutors and children's advocates say, it must prompt child welfare reforms and a commitment to better funding for a struggling system.

The Holland case yielded more than 20,000 documents, countless hours of court hearings in two counties and a four-year trail of lies from Ricky's killers -- his state-licensed foster and adoptive parents. So finding out what went wrong in Michigan's child protection system -- and fixing it -- won't be easy.

State officials, prosecutors and police agencies already are dissecting the case, looking for the lessons it may yield on ways to detect and prevent child abuse.

"It was a learning experience, and if it's going to be of any value at all, it's going to have to equate into some kind of change," Ingham County Assistant Prosecutor Mike Ferency said.

Ferency presented the complex, gut-wrenching case to the Ingham County Circuit Court jury that on Friday convicted 33-year-old Lisa Holland of first-degree felony murder and first-degree child abuse in her son's death. Her husband, Tim Holland, 37, earlier pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified against his wife.

The Michigan Department of Human Services and the Office of the Children's Ombudsman have completed investigations into what happened to Ricky and other foster children the DHS placed in the Hollands' care between October 2000 and January 2006, when the couple's deceptions about Ricky's disappearance in July 2005 came to light.

But results of the investigations won't be released immediately to the public or to a legislative committee headed by Rep. David Law, R-Commerce Township, which has been trying to find out what went wrong. Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said the criminal case is still open because others may be charged with contributing to Ricky's death.

State law prohibits releasing information from child protection cases until criminal proceedings are complete.

Still, DHS reports and court documents from Jackson and Ingham counties that were obtained by the Free Press -- augmented by testimony and evidence presented during the Hollands' preliminary examination last spring and Lisa Holland's murder trial -- point to instances that should have raised red flags but did not.

Ricky entered the child welfare system on Sept. 30, 2000, when his mother, who was homeless and jobless, asked Child Protective Services to place her 3-year-old son in temporary foster care.

He was placed with the Hollands in Jackson on Oct. 2, 2000. At first, according to the records, he had frequent visits with his mother and displayed some behavioral problems, but his problems intensified in October 2001 when his father won a court order to visit his son.

After those visits, one counseling report said, Ricky's development regressed.

"His emotional state is currently very fragile," the report said. Finding a permanent home for Ricky "is urgent, as the child's future is in limbo, and he lives with the fear that he will be removed from the only family he has ever known."

Based partly on the counseling reports and his mother's inability to find suitable housing, the Jackson County DHS office petitioned a judge to terminate his biological parents' rights. After a judge did so on Feb. 4, 2002, Ricky's visits with his biological parents ended.

A short time later, Ricky made statements to Susan Honeck, his therapist at Catholic Social Services of Jackson, that seemed to indicate he was being abused in the Holland home.

On Feb. 21, 2002, Honeck reported to Child Protective Services that, "Ricky has a rope burn on his left wrist. I asked how he got it. He said it's from the dog rope they use to tie him in bed at night. They put cold handcuffs on my legs, too. Because he peed in his room."

A CPS investigator interviewed Ricky immediately outside of the presence of Lisa Holland.

"When asked how he hurt his wrist, Ricky said that he was playing a game with his mom and dad," according to a report. "He said that he doesn't like the game, but that 'they keep doing it.' Ricky reported that his mom and dad tie up his hands in his bedroom while he is on his bed.

"He reported that the Hollands tie his arms with the red dog rope and handcuff his feet together with his dad's handcuffs. Ricky said that he had his own handcuffs because 'I'm a junior policeman.' Ricky reported that this happens every night."

Lisa Holland told the CPS investigator that the allegation was untrue and, despite the apparent consistency in the 4-year-old's statements, the investigator did not substantiate maltreatment, apparently because she could not definitively say what caused the injury.

The investigator never contacted Honeck directly but sent a letter saying the complaint wasn't substantiated.

The records show other instances of inaction and missteps by DHS workers:

• There is no documentation that a foster care worker visited Ricky in the Holland home between Oct. 2, 2000, and Sept. 24, 2002.

• A foster care worker consented to Lisa Holland's request in April 2002 to stop counseling for Ricky, even though a psychiatrist had prescribed psychotropic medications. • Even after the Hollands reported on July 2, 2005, that Ricky had run away -- and a police task force was trying to find him -- a Jackson County DHS adoption worker asked Jackson Family Court Judge John McBain to approve the adoption of Ricky's youngest sibling, a 1 1/2 -year-old boy, without a formal court hearing.

McBain was not told in the that the Hollands had reported Ricky missing.