032487P.pdf   06/02/2004  Heather Burton  v.  Patricia Richmond
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  03-2487
   Western District of Missouri   
   Civil case - civil rights. Division of Family Services employees were 
   entitled to immunity on claims their failure to conduct a background 
   check or act to remove children following allegations of sexual abuse 
   violated plaintiffs' civil rights, as the agency never had custody or control 
   of the children and the danger to the children was created by the family 
   when they made the custodial arrangements which placed the children; 
   DFS's role was to help the family obtain legal recognition of custody 
   arrangements the family had already made, and recommending to the 
   juvenile officer the placement agreed to by the family was not sufficient 
   to create a duty to protect the children while they were in the placement; 
   under the circumstances, defendants' failure to investigate the allegations 
   of abuse was not so outrageous or egregious that it shocks the conscience 
   and amounts to a violation of plaintiffs' substantive due process rights; 
   failure to conduct a home study was no more than negligence and could 
   not serve as the basis for a claim that constitutional rights were violated; 
   even if plaintiffs had shown a constitutional violation, defendants were 
   still entitled to qualified immunity because the alleged rights they assert 
   were not clearly established in 1985 when the complained-of conduct 
   occurred. 
   [PUBLISHED][Bowman, Author, with Loken, Chief Judge and Fagg, 
   Circuit Judge]