Wednesday, September 9th 2015, 11:30 pm
Foster families are coming forward after police arrested a foster care worker on distributing child porn allegations.
Timothy Cheatwood was a respite foster parent - like a babysitter for foster kids – and one Broken Arrow foster mom said Cheatwood babysat her two foster children, who have special needs, and now she's concerned.
Cheatwood went through the same extensive background check she did. It's done by the FBI and requires references from a pastor, boss, friends and neighbors, it also requires 48 hours of training, including sexual abuse training.
9/3/2015 Related Story: Former Tulsa Foster Care Worker Arrested For Child Porn
The woman said, “We were floored. Sickening, and, I guess it just…the longer I thought about it, it makes sense that somebody wanting to do evil will go to great lengths."
Cheatwood has not been charged, only arrested for distributing child porn.
But the Broken Arrow foster parent said she feels betrayed.
"Just thinking that he groomed these kids, that he prayed not over these kids but on these kids," she said.
He was trained by the Bair Foundation in Tulsa, the same nonprofit the woman went through to become a foster parent. It's a foundation for Christian special needs children in DHS custody.
She said Cheatwood babysat her two foster children with special needs eight times over eight months at his Tulsa home. She even asked him why he became a respite foster parent.
"He said that he'd been divorced and had two little boys and he missed being around the kids. Okay, I get that. (nervous laugh)"
If Cheatwood is found guilty she knows DHS and the Bair Foundation were not to blame. Cheatwood has no criminal history; she said there's nothing DHS and the Bair Foundation could have done.
"Just being vigilant, just keeping your eyes open, paying more attention. That's all we can do to protect these kids," she said.
She said, looking back, she believes Cheatwood was grooming them - taking them to fun places, buying them ice cream, those sorts of things.
Cheatwood has not been charged and has bonded out of jail.
The Bair Foundation declined comment, saying they don't want to interfere with the investigation.
September 9th, 2015
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