Police search for foster parent accused of abusing foster child

Marvie Hill was once recognized as an outstanding foster parent by a nonprofit that advocates for children's rights.

Now, the 37-year-old is accused of abusing at least one foster child in his care, according to North Las Vegas police.

Hill ran a halfway home for people convicted of sex crimes, the kind of charges he now faces.

Police are searching for Hill, who is wanted on 20 counts of open and gross lewdness and one count of child abuse. The Clark County district attorney's office approved the charges Tuesday. Hill was a licensed foster parent, but his license has been revoked, and all foster children have been removed from his home.

Police said on Aug. 21, a 19-year-old man told detectives that when he was in Hill's custody as a 15-year-old in 2008, he was abused by Hill several times.

The previous year, Hill was president of United Family Transitional Homes, a nonprofit organization that ran a group halfway home for sex offenders at 3009 Colton Ave., near Cheyenne Avenue and Simmons Street in North Las Vegas. That facility opened in 2005, the same year Hill won the CASA Foundation's outstanding caregiver award, and housed up to eight sex offenders who had been imprisoned on a variety of charges including statutory sexual seduction and sexual assault on a victim under 16.

Hill told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2007 that the home was "doing a service for the community."

At that time, Hill also said he and his business partner, Eddie Wormwood, chose to open the home in North Las Vegas because real estate prices were lower than in other areas of the valley. He said the pair received only social services housing vouchers from some of the residents and did not make a profit.

Wormwood at that time told the Review-Journal that with or without the transitional facilities, sex offenders will "get out, and they'll be next-door neighbors."

It was a point of contention for neighbors and city officials, whose complaints to the state Division of Parole and Probation had it moved out of the city. As a result, North Las Vegas officials tightened restrictions for halfway homes and business licenses.

LICENSE REVOKED

According to District Court records, Hill filed a lawsuit last year against the Clark County Department of Family Services for restricting his foster care license with the intent to revoke it. According to a July 29, 2011, Department of Family Services letter to Hill, the allegations in the complaints involved physical abuse, threats of harm, sexual abuse, neglect and lack of supervision from 2006 to 2011.

Hill has had some type of foster home license since 2006. However, Family Services officials determined at least 10 of the complaints were unsubstantiated, according to the lawsuit.

Hill's lawsuit, which is still pending, argues that between investigators concluding misconduct had not occurred in each complaint filed against him and having his foster care home pass annual inspections, his license should be left alone.

"Spite and revenge are not a proper basis to restrict Mr. Hill's license," the lawsuit reads. "He is offering a valuable service to Nevada's youth and should be allowed to continue his work."

The Department of Family Services released a statement Wednesday regarding the allegations against Hill.

"Foster parents are called upon to care for our most vulnerable, making the alleged actions of Marvie Hill all the more horrendous" the statement read. "It is important to acknowledge, however, that the actions of one man do not characterize the many citizens who have stepped forward to fill a vital role in our community by caring for the abused and neglected children."

All licensed foster parents in Clark County are subject to federal and local criminal background checks, including reviews in each state they have lived in for the past five years. They are subjected to a home study that evaluates the family dynamic and are required to complete at least 30 hours of training specific to the needs and issues of abused and neglected children.

Hill serves as president of Unity Family Services, Inc., a mental health and behavioral treatment foster care agency, according to the Nevada secretary of state's website. According to the company's website, the group deals with the "placement of children whose intensive individual needs cannot be met through regular foster care."

PRIOR ARREST

North Las Vegas police arrested Hill July 21 on similar allegations involving a second victim, but Hill was released as part of a paperwork issue that might have been involved with the city's jail merger with Las Vegas.

North Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Stephen Dahl said he released Hill after police submitted a report with few details to determine probable cause within 48 hours of the arrest.

"It was four lines long and had no real supporting information, and so that in my mind was not enough to establish probable cause," Dahl said.

The next day, police sent over a more detailed report "which would have sufficed," Dahl said. But it was too late.

"You get more or less one shot, and at the bottom of what I got the first day it said, 'Report not complete,' " Dahl said. "They didn't have to submit it. They were only 24 hours in. ... It's unfortunate because there was more information. But once it's submitted, and you don't find probable cause, it's not like they can come back the next day."

Hill is a black man just over 6 feet tall and weighing about 215 pounds. He has brown hair and eyes. Police said he frequents the area of Craig Road and Commerce Street. He probably is still in the Las Vegas Valley, police said.

Anyone with information on Hill's whereabouts is urged to call North Las Vegas police at 702-633-9111 or Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.

Review-Journal reporter Brian Haynes contributed to this report. Contact reporter Kristi Jourdan at kjourdan@ reviewjournal.com or 383-0440.