In early February, Gov. Rick Scott picked Carl Littlefield to run the Agency for Persons With Disabilities. Littlefield quit 17 days later. He stepped down on Monday, February 22, the day before a Senate panel was supposed to question him about sexual abuse allegations at a group home for disabled men, which Littlefield once oversaw.
Littlefield, 62, emailed Scott's office seeking a "new assignment" within a week of his resignation, according to the St. Petersburg Times. On March 7, he followed up and wrote, "As you know, tomorrow begins week three and I am more than ready to get back to work."
By mid-March, Scott had given Littlefield an unadvertised, newly created, $78,000-a-year job with the Department of Children and Families.
Littlefield was the Tampa Bay-area administrator of state developmental disabilities services for almost a decade. Allegations began to surface that staff at one of the group homes that Littlefield was in charge of encouraged the mentally disabled residents to have sex with each other. The activity was known as "quiet time."
Eileen Taylor, a St. Petersburg nurse, had raised concerns about "quiet time" and was subsequently fired by Littlefield. The Florida Commission on Human Relations concluded that the firing was retaliation.
Littlefield failed to respond to complaints about "quiet time" from a mother of one of the residents. "Quiet time" continued until the mother took her complaint to state Sen. Ronda Storms, who called for an investigation.
Now, Littlefield is director of community outreach at DCF, a new position that is part of the department's Family Safety program. Among other services, it provides independent-living services for young people who are also clients of the Agency for Persons With Disabilities.
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