Wellington, FL - DCF Worker's Anti-Semitic Tirade Caught on Tape

Wellington, FL - A state child abuse investigator spat out a string of expletives about a Jewish family without realizing the family's voice mail was recording.

Daniella Arnold, a Department of Children and Families employee since 1989, was following up with a Wellington family after the father of two young children was charged with domestic battery. She left her cellphone number on the couple's home voice mail, and then seemed to think she had hung up. But the voice mail was still recording when Arnold said, "F——— Jew. That's what she is. She's a g—d—- Jew. Got to go to the g—d—- temple to see her g—d—- kid."

The father played Arnold's message for a DCF attorney and Arnold resigned after she was confronted with the department's concerns.
The children's mother who grew up in a heavily Jewish neighborhood in New York, said she had never met Arnold in person. She said Arnold may have been frustrated because they were having trouble finding a time when the investigator could interview the mother at home, she also said that she had never encountered such anti-Semitism and was shocked by the voice message.

The couple said DCF opened its case two weeks ago when the father was charged with domestic battery. The arrest affidavit says the father put his hands around his wife's neck in front of their son.
Arnold wanted to see the children at home, but the mother was busy at work and asked if Arnold could visit them at school instead, and Arnold agreed to see him there.

Earlier this week, the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office decided not to file charges in the misdemeanor domestic violence case. Arnold called the mother on her cellphone to say she still needed to finish her child safety investigation. She asked when she could visit the home.
The mother said she was driving home from work and needed to check her schedule. She asked Arnold to leave the information on her home phone. Arnold seemed irritable, saying she had her own children to take care of and a long commute home to Port St. Lucie.
A few minutes later, the mother arrived home and discovered Arnold's unintended message. It is scary, she said, that the insults came from a state employee with the power to take children from their parents. "I'd hate to think that this is the sort of person who would be making decisions in a child custody case," she said.