Sen. Joanne Brown was furious during today's Department of Public Health and Social Services oversight hearing on the foster care system.

"We had someone in our community who lives here and this slipped through us," she said. "This is a pretty serious issue. I don’t think we are going to wrap this up in a nice little bow today and go home and feel a sense of comfort. This to me shows a failure in the processes that we had in place to protect a child.

Senators grilled the local health department’s division of children’s wellness following the February arrest of a foster parent indicted for repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy in his care.

Patricia Mafnas, acting chief for the Division of Children's Wellness, said she couldn't provide details on the incident.

"Because it’s an active case that’s going through the judicial system, we can’t comment specifically on that case," she told senators.

The defendant is 33-year-old Ryan Joshua Cruz. Cruz has since been released from prison on bond and is set to answer to the charges in court next week.

"That’s the particular case that brought us here today," Brown said. "I don’t want to get too generic about it, too vanilla because this is very concerning. If this was any one of our children, if it was my child, I’d be banging your door down and having attorneys left and right and up and down."

The community was outraged to learn Cruz was arrested for molesting a child last November, and again on similar allegations back in 2018.

"We don’t get to mess up on stuff like this. We just don’t get that privilege," Brown said. "I think a lot of people have those questions and I don’t think that is anything we should smooth over with this new process that hopefully will resolve it."

Since the case surfaced, child protective services had the Guam Attorney General’s Office run checks on 105 names to include the licensed foster families on island. All names were cleared.

Charlene San Nicolas testified as Public Health’s acting director.

"The system has been relied on for years," she said.

That was until this year.

"The systems used did not and do not provide cases of alleged child abuse," San Nicolas said. "The data systems we use provide convictions."

Officials have since reached out to local and federal law enforcement to enhance background checks.

"We are faced with weekly if not daily challenges to place our children in a safe home," San Nicolas said. "What we need to own as a community is it is a process that requires time. Time we believe we don’t have."

It's time that led to an apparent break in the system - failing a little boy.

Sen. Telo Taitague also aired her frustrations over the incident.

"Just googling him, it was as simple as that to put up that red flag," she said. "One of the most important things Public health needs to do is regardless of the background checks is as simple as going on Google. We all know that.

They rely on you and I know you are hurt because of what happened but let's take that pain and energy and focus on how can we make this better."

Senators also briefed that the foster parent application process now includes more than a dozen background clearances and requirements.