NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga — The father of an autistic teen arrested on a car theft charges said he blames the state for allowing his son to end up in jail.
Sandy Springs police arrested Aaron Rogoff, 17, last month on charges he stole a vehicle from a car dealership, not long after stealing another car from the home of a behavioral aide with whom he was staying for temporary foster care.
“I have to question their competency and whether or not they care about the welfare of those who are in their custody,” Leigh Rogoff said of the Division of Family and Children Services. “They dropped the ball, many, many times.”
Rogoff told Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik he adopted Aaron from a Russian orphanage when he was about 2-years-old.
“I knew something was wrong after he was here three months,” he said. “He was first diagnosed on his fifth birthday at the Marcus Autism Center by a neurologist there.”
Documents Rogoff provided to Petchenik show his son was also diagnosed with having developmental disabilities, ADHD and was prone to behavioral outbursts.
“Repeatedly stealing his mother’s car and not feeling any remorse about it,” he said.
When the problem became too much for Rogoff and his now ex-wife to handle, he said he pressed charges against the teen in juvenile court, and DFACS intervened, eventually sending Aaron to various facilities for treatment.
“We were told he’d be supervised at all times,” said Rogoff.
Rogoff said the aide with whom Aaron was staying with should have known about his history of vehicle theft and should have taken steps to prevent it from happening.
“The people making the actual decisions, some of them need to be let go because they’re not suitable position of great responsibility,” he said.
Adding insult to injury, Rogoff said DFACS dragged its feet in removing Aaron from jail after a judge granted him bond.
“DFACS took an extra day to get him out even though the case worker was at the bond hearing and said she’d have him out of there as fast as possible,” he said.
Petchenik reached out to the Department of Human Services, which oversees DFACS in Georgia and received this statement:
"Laws governing our work restrict the agency from confirming involvement with families to protect the privacy of children, except in the instance of a serious injury or death when DFCS had prior involvement. Therefore, I would not be able to provide you with any specific details regarding any case of this nature."