Dyan Neary

He would have missed his chance to speak up.

So he pushed ahead.

He gave the county leadership a heads up.

The report was coming, along with a press conference.

He also gave them advance notice of his recommendations for changes he hoped they'd make at CYS.

Chiefly, require caseworkers to get a second opinion from a doctor when considering whether to remove a child based on a medical finding.

And he wanted them to hire an outside firm to investigate CYS procedures.

Before he published his report, Mark had a few questions for the solicitors, the county's lawyers.

His lawyers, in a way, since he was a county official, too.

He had all these records containing sensitive information about kids' medical issues and family court proceedings.

So he asked them, what could he legally include in a public-facing report?

When the response came back, it was short.

Basically two words, C-attached.

Mark didn't have a great feeling about this.

He made a cup of tea, printed the PDF, and settled down to read it.

That's after a break.

The PDF from the solicitors was long.

It was on county letterhead, and the subtext, to mark at least, was clear.

His report was dead on arrival.

One of the first lines of it read,