Humboldt County Man Who Has Fostered Over 30 Children Arrested and Accused of ‘Lewd Acts Against a Minor’
Scott Peugh
Late on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 23, an ongoing investigation led Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies to arrest 46-year-old William Scott Peugh of Hydesville “on charges of lewd acts against a minor (PC 288(c)(1)),” confirmed Samantha Karges, spokesperson for the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department by email.
Peugh posted a bail bond the same day he was arrested.
Peugh, who works for the City of Eureka, was a well-known foster father in the Humboldt County system. According to an article in the North Coast Journal, between 2012 and 2019, he and his wife have fostered over 30 children as of September 2019. They even adopted two siblings.
When we requested information about the number of children including those in more recent years who were fostered by the Peughs, a spokesperson for the County confirmed that the “county is aware that William Scott Peugh was arrested on May 23 and charged with committing lewd acts against a minor.” However, they declined to release information about the number of children fostered by Peugh.
“As with any case involving criminal allegations involving minors, the safety of the children is and will always be the county’s top priority,” Catarina Gallardo, a spokesperson wrote us. “Child Welfare Services officials and law enforcement are taking the necessary steps to ensure all children in the home are in a safe environment and provided with necessary services and care.”
She explained, “As this is an ongoing investigation, the county must preserve the integrity of that process and the identity of any potential victims. As such, we will not be able to discuss this case further with the press at this time.”
Please remember that Mr. Peugh should be presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
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Well surprise surprise. No surprise. The foster care system is corrupt as hell. Courts blind as a single celled amoeba “Oh the kids deserve more”…buying their complacency with clothes and gifts, Study after study on fostered kids what do the kids want??? THEIR FAMILY AND PARENTS!!! . 3k a month to 4 k a month or even more.If you child gets labeled “delayed” while in care or “emotionally ” challenged. Parents speak up it is not respected. Concerns dismissed “your the crappy parent we dont have time to listen.” MEANWHILE THIS. When parents have concerns HEAR THEM INSTEAD OF DESTROYING THEM.
A parent can be and, in the case of children in foster care, frequently are the first abusers. That they are wanted by the children does not change that. It puts such parents in a poor place to be respected when they speak up later. Especially with parents themselves drug addicted or mentally ill.
So what is the solution? Orphanages can be places of abuse, parents can, foster care, schools…
I will beg to differ with you on at that most of the cases that go into CPS are vengeful people calling on their neighbors cuz they’re pissed at them insignificant things such as not having a baby gate and your child falls and then they are removed from your care because you’re negligent. There are numerous cases that the children are removed for supposed abuse and then they face worse abuse in the system. The solution is getting ahead of this before there’s problems breaking the cycle. Giving people positive things to look forward to is CPS does need to be involved stop by the house everyday check in on the kids. Mandatory doctor’s appointments other things like that those are the things that are supportive. I’ve seen children removed because the parents refrigerator was broken and then one of those children died in foster care. Not all are wealthy povery is not a crime. Young parents are called stupid because they are young lack of knowledge is not a crime. Have seen DV with children taken then given to the person who comitted the DV because they have more than the parent they abused. Investigations never happen. Reports 6 months overdue in court never submitted. Children still removed with no reports. Its a mess. Not the answer. Once you are soiled in the eyes of CPS that is never overcome. Mendo sits in a 30% rate for giving kids back to families. Meanwhile while we send kids to foster care in SanDiego. Parents cant vist to poor hard to travel cant get time off work will loose job oh well. BAD PARENTS BYE BYE KIDS
You mean that a child is typically removed from the parent’s home because of one complaint? They may investigate because of a complaint, but does it go to placing a child in foster care without some evidence that the child is in danger?
CWS took my daughters 2 young boys and she was NEVER charged with any crime.
we moved back from another state to adopt our grandsons out of the CWS ultru corrupt system….its worse than you can ever imagine.
I’m a mandated reporter and I can say from my personal experience of reporting cases of abuse and neglect, it is mind blowing how little the county can actually do.
Unless the case is pretty extreme with obvious signs of severe physical abuse, the kids are not being taken away and the investigations are quite minimal.
Your daughter should be grateful she was not charged with a crime, but I have to believe that for 2 children to be taken away- they were not safe in her care. They’re blessed to have you to adopt them.
I’ve seen homes where trash is piled up, drugs being used in the home, children eating nothing more than dry ramen packs and not being bathed or cared for and the county did nothing.
I’ve seen mothers in complete mental breakdowns, on drugs and threatening to harm themselves and their children and the county did nothing.
They are understaffed and only the most extreme cases are given any attention at all.
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/4-children-sale-1948/
Also google: 60 minutes austrailia usa rehoming
or San Francisco orphanages including: https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/sf-foundling-asylum-history-orphanges-california-15068898.php
Having lived in the Foster System and the worked in it ..it is very difficult to remove a child from parents given children are seen as property of their parents and the system is underfunded and also because generally people want families to stay together. My bio family would have likely killed me …the foster homes were horrible for the most part too; the last one was custodial but at least not abusive and being in it was somewhat of a life saver however why our species/culture expects adults to be able to recover from heinous abuse during formative years with the shoddy and even damaging mental “Health” system is beyond my comprehension.
All it takes is one complaint and it’s at the discretion of whoever responds to the incident. I’ve seen children removed from the home within 10 minutes of contact without a lot of Investigation or anything else that came down.
usually poor families
who can’t afford a high priced liar…oops, I mean LAWYER
Yep weed growers of the past.
I am a foster parent. The tier one rate is about $1,100 a month. Yes, there are abusive people at every level, but a child is not being removed from a loving home because they have a broken refrigerator. The number one objective is to have the children stay with their biological parents.The parents are given up to 18 months or longer to get things straightened out in their lives. The system helps the parents get clean and helps them financially. If a parent takes the necessary steps to clean up their life, they get to keep their children. The child is removed immediately if their life is in danger or the abuse is extreme. If they are taken away, the parents are given multiple opportunities to get them back. It is a lengthy process for the child to be permanently removed. The elephant in the room here is drugs. Drugs are at the center of a high percentage of these cases. If the parents stay clean, they are well on their way to getting to keep their children. The case files always show a long history of calls to CPS before the authorities remove the kids. For the cases I am familiar with, CPS had been called in excess of 30 times before removal. The reports are for everything imaginable: filth, drug abuse, sexual exposure, starvation, unfit living conditions, wandering door to door begging for food at 3 years old, being left alone for hours unsupervised and even with all these calls, the child remained with the parent. A broken refrigerator? That is absolutely unbelievable. You can find so many faults along the path of each of these cases, but someone telling you it was because of a broken refrigerator is not true. Maybe the refrigerator was broken and the child didn’t have any food to eat and was living in a drug house. Of course the druggie would say it was because of a broken refrigerator, but that isn’t why the child was removed. Until you have a 4 year old child dropped off at your house, covered with bed bug and flea bites, with lice and fleas in their hair, with a poopy diaper that hasn’t been changed in a very long time, who is so angry they demolish everything in their sight and is so hungry they devour anything and everything you give them, then you don’t have any right to complain about what a foster parent is getting paid and to believe someone who told you the child was removed because the refrigerator was broke.
Quit complaining about what is wrong with the system and be a part of the solution.
They don’t tell the foster parents everything and they paint the parents in a really bad picture to the foster parents to create a division. Foster parents can not LIKE parents and reunification thats not best for the system. There is very poor communication between the foster parents and the parents. Parents rarely know what is happening to their child when they are in the foster care system. And if you don’t complain nothing is going to get fixed. Rarely do foster parents meet the biological parents and collaborate with them in a positive way. This he said she said dividing populations it’s not always the most therapeutic tool for reunification. 4-year-olds and diapers yeah that’s definitely an issue. No 4-year-old should be in a diaper unless there’s other challenges to their mentation. One would think before the babe is taken to a foster placement the CPS staff would have the care to change the diaper before a long car ride.
Very little of what you’ve posted is true. Kids in care these days are usually placed with appropriate family members if they are able to provide care and if the child(ren) are placed in a foster home, foster families generally meet parents during supervised visits. I have grandchildren in foster care, and we know exactly where they are, who they’re with, and we all see them often. The only reason why my son doesn’t have custody is he doesn’t make enough money to afford a place of his own to live and my house isn’t big enough for us all. So come into the current decade, dear. This ain’t the 50’s anymore.
So get a bigger house for Christ’ sakes, Your grandkids should mean more to you..Some people really lack compassion..Your son doesn’t have his kids because he’s houseless? Got to be more to your story than this..
My aunt did foster care for a while. She once got 3 year old twin girls that had been sexually abused by their moms boyfriend (their mother knew it been going on). Long story short, they ended up going back to their mother (which was still with the same boyfriend).
Truth!
Right on, and thank you for all you do for children in dire need. As far as I’m concerned, the county doesn’t pay foster parents enough. My parents took in foster kids back in the 60’s and I know things haven’t changed all that much. Foster parents are subject to intense investigation before they’re licensed and are inspected at least annually by the supervising agencies. Again, thank you for all you do.
Lived and then worked in the system and what i experienced is in line with what you describe.
CPS is understaffed and underfunded and it is difficult to remove children even from highly dangerous abusive situations. “Getting ahead of this” and more oversight of suspected families, yes and good luck funding that when our culture would rather fund the elite and extravagances.
This is pure BS. Yes, kids want their parents, but the parents need to safely parent or yes, the Court will step in. And foster parents do NOT get 3-4 K per month. Not even close. Not even if the child is disabled.
Sloth from Goonies
Well…. As if we needed any more proof that CWS in this county is pure evil.
san paku
Wow. You’re right 😳
Kym link to ncj article details the foster /adopt efforts of a George and Tiffany Strango not this guy ScottPew. ….
Scroll down or search their name. The second picture is of their family.
This, everyone, is what a child predator ACTUALLY looks like. He looks like your brother. Your grandpa. Your clergyman. The nice neighbor down the street always helping out overworked single parents. They’re not flashy drag queens… the last thing a predator wants is to be noticeable. They groom (look the word up and stop misusing it) parents right along with the children. There are plenty of wonderful and safe adults who fill all the roles I’ve mentioned but they are also full of those who crave access to children for malicious reasons. Why do these people keep getting away with it?? BULL SHIT distractions by hysterical people obsessed with drag queens and who’s using what bathroom. This misdirected obsession is not backed up by ANY statistics, it’s only running unhinged with unfounded fear of being adults feeling “uncomfortable” and taking advantage of that to create unfounded and misdirected fear.
Or not- the problem with drag queens interacting with children may or may not be worse than the problem in other groups. The basic issue is normalizing hypersexual displays to children who haven’t the experience to know that it shouldn’t move on from being a display to being a reality.
At the very least, it encourages ridicule of women as acceptable. There seems a serious glitch in thinking that blackface is a vile insult to black people while drag is not the same towards women.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/award-winning-drag-queen-lgbtq-youth-adviser-charged-with-25-counts-of-child-pornography
https://nypost.com/2023/04/25/mom-who-mentored-drag-queen-11-sentenced-for-child-sex-crimes/
Drag is not hypersexual. That sounds like a you issue, bruh.
I’ve been to at least a dozen drag shows and they have all been more sexually provocative than i would feel comfortable with my children experiencing.
What is a low sexuality drag show like? Just people walking across the stage like fashion week?
huh?? by it’s very nature…you must be smokin something strong!
it’s WOMENFACE
Which would be okay if the entertainer is truly clever and artistic enough to be really funny in an acid sort of way. For adults who can both appreciate the humor even if it is corrosive and mean and acknowledge the bits of real social comment even if it is mostly narrow in scope, it can be entertaining. But it does belong in clubs for those who can and want to deal with its bitterness in an adult way. But not for children. Without truly creating the humor, which it takes experience to understand, it’s just a bunch of pathetically squirmy men doing their usual misogynistic adolescent acting out. It is after all just an act. Not reality.
These people don’t know the difference between all ages drag and drag shows intended for those over 21, usually performed in nightclubs. I doubt if they’re even comfortable enough with their own sexuality to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race.
🤣
There is zero all age drag suitable in a field that exaggerates and stereotypes female characteristics for sexual titillation as it’s only attribute. Whatever is the purpose of reading a story in drag if not? Without the costuming and make up it’s just a story. No. Drag is a promise of entertainment far outside of a child’s understanding and done not for the child’s benefit but for the drag queen’s.
What is being confused is calling it suitable for all ages if it’s not a burlesque strip act in front of a child. Drag has literally no other purpose but to promise salacious humor. Mrs. Doubtfire was trying to pass as a woman. Drag Queens are making a living out of in-your-face not passing. Okay for adults but not for children no matter how disingenuous the support. It is what It is.
“The basic issue is normalizing hypersexual displays to children”
Drag queens are not the only ones to do it of course. But they are the only ones tolerated today who are not members of the group they hypersexualize to ridicule. And that makes them just mean. Cruel and mean. Which a whole lot of people find entertaining.
Which child pageants do and are accepted which i find disgusting
Seems a lot more likely that people like this get away with their crimes for so long because they operate within a system that is chronically understaffed and their victims are among the most disempowered members of society.
It’s not like these sorts of crimes didn’t happen before the recent drag queen flap. Some people actually just believe that intentionally provocative burlesque shows aren’t magically all ages appropriate just because the participants are larping as the opposite gender.
clearly you’ve never been to an all-ages drag show. They’re lip syncing performances mostly
No, I wouldn’t go to an all ages drag show because it would be either grossly inappropriate or incredibly boring.
But from the video clips I’ve seen, including from the one in eureka a couple months ago, they are clearly more than just lip syncing performances. At least sometimes.
They do something other than lip sync. They do not lip sync Johnny Cash or even Elvis Presley. That’s not in the repertoire. They dress as women. And not in a respectful imitation. Otherwise they’d just be Elvis impersonators.
Always someone to distract from the issue at hand to bring up their favorite entertainers!
Serra brought it up. In a very mistaken way. There have been very flamboyant pedophiles throughout history. From Tiberius Caesar to Gary Glitter. Post clear rebuttal and suddenly the Progressive faithful howl in chorus, attack the commenter and bring up Trump.
Yep, and the people who are obsessed with drag shows and gender issues zeolously follow a man who has admitted assaulting women, been found civilly liable for defamation after disparaging one of his victims, and was buddies with Jeffrey Epstein. And so were a signficant percentage of the world’s wealthy and well connected males it seems.
Its called projection, and it’s working very well as a diversionary tactic.
Baloney. 90% of the comments about Trump are from people whose sole reason for posting is to dismiss any comment they don’t like by saying they must lbe just like Trump. It’s a boor. And that is what “projecting” looks like. Talk about a deliberate distraction. Talk about parroting internet mindlessness.
Sigh. I meant to say It’s a bore, although it does contain boorish attributes.
I think you’re wrong to generalize about “the people who are obsessed with drag shows” etc. being Trumpians. There are a lot of people who are simply wondering what’s going on with this proliferation of constant sex and gender references and confusions around children. Many people who are perfectly fine with gayness and gender non-conformity of any degree, and are in no ways Trump-followers or fundamentalist Christians or any of the things they’re called by people whose main agenda is to divide us all into two camps– many of these people are okay with adult transsexualism, too. I mean what some people call transgenderism, but with the medical interventions– surgeries and lifelong drug addictions. You’re an adult, you think that’s fun and the highest way you can define yourself, well, you do you. But many, many people at any point on the political spectrum do not think it’s a good idea to promote sexual confusion or the attractiveness of such medical intervention to young people. There’s a lot of evidence that the medical trade-offs of hormonal drugs, delaying puberty, removing healthy organs, etc., are a poor deal for the patient, especially when that patient is a minor who later regrets a decision heavily influenced by the fad. Several European countries have reversed previous positions approving of and even funding such treatments for minors in the face of the medical evidence. I think it’s very disingenuous for defenders of drag shows for kids to pretend this is good clean fun that’s been happening forever. The timing of this onslaught is suspiciously coincident with the fad for transsexualism. The usual suspects are behind it, and the usual victims are falling for it.
Innocent until proven guilty. Hope the investigation shows him truly innocent for the sake of the children. If guilty this is as bad as it gets and CPS is accountable for dropping the ball. If guilty, how could his wife not know after 30 years of fostering children? If guilty he deserves to swing from the yardarm. If innocent he is stained from this and his life will probably be at risk for always.
His wife is an amazing women who loved every single child that was brought into the family home. I know she had no idea about this or he would’ve been out a long time ago.
The wife is accountable for every child brought into the family home, just as her husband is. Being amazing and clueless doesn’t exonerate her from protecting those children . Still, innocent until proven guilty.
This is so sad. There’s always the possibility that this person could be innocent, I’ve seen innocent people lose absolutely everything from false accusations, even when it turns out that it is false, the reputation is totally destroyed.
To the people on here complaining about the system, do something about it. Be that better foster parent! Help make changes!
Love to any child ever abused to grow past this.
Charges were never brought against him and he has lost everything
I love how no one cares to read the final statement saying he should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. People not involved in the system have no idea how difficult it is to be a foster parent and at any time a biological parent or other family member or really anyone for that matter can report a fake accusation and without any warning somebody shows up at your doorstep and who knows what is done after that depending on the severity of the accusation.
How frequently does that happen? Do you have any links to stories about it?
Well, this will ruin his and his wife’s life. On the other hand this is not the first time CWS has screwed up with foster parents. CWS destroyed my grandson’s childhood. I found out about the abusive family he was with. CWS never let me know. The Neighbor told me. I took him into my home. He came with a lot of baggage. Although, this foster family did lose their license and moved out of Humboldt county., there are some good foster families out there. It is definitely CWS fault. They don’t do enough background checks and visits. Sometimes, I think of them as the “Child Stealers” some of those kids would’ve been better off staying in the homes they were at. Judge what you will. I’ve been there.
Far too many grandparents have stories exactly like yours that are never given any credibility. Stand up in court and try to speak up for your grandkids your called ridiculous and out of touch. Um yeah take the kids and split the family NO REASON TO BE ANGRY says the judge who had no report or a boiler plate worded warrant! It is a HUGE PROBLEM. The Hart kids…
Far too many grandparents are more interested in defending their children than being honest about family problems. This is not simple nor do grandparents have a right to be considered as more accurate because they are related. In fact it’s just the opposite. All people need to prove their contentions. And proof is never just saying so.
By the way, some of these foster families get really good money, and the children that need extra help? Well, they just don’t receive that help.
Yes 3 to $4,000 a month per kid. Then if your child is labeled delayed or emotionally challenged the rates go up from there. Oftentimes foster parents have multiple children in the home while also working full time. Extremely lucrative business.
This is not the case. It’s around $33 per day ($1000/month) here in Humboldt. In almost every case, people don’t become foster families because it’s “lucrative.” If it was, there wouldn’t be such a need in our community for more foster families.
Don’t let single men adopt or foster children. *duh* I hate this place.
Since the article refers to “the Peughs”, it’s not likely he was single,
He and his wife fostered the children.
Imagine a world where everyone is fighting to be equal and you got individuals like this saying single fathers or men in general cannot be a foster parent. Big yikes.
Creepy bastard!
There’s a special place for scum bags like this, those children counted on you for protection and you chose to violate them.?
The fellas will give him a warm welcome. 👿👹👺
Before commenters turn into an online vigilante, consider that this man, and his wife, put themselves as targets for false accusations. They (seemingly) did a heroic thing by helping all those kids. So give it time. Let the process play out. Resist judgement. Accusations like this can, and often do ruin a persons’ life. If proven true, he’s in the system, and will be punished accordingly.
One day Kym will again post updates and/or a verdict about this case.
Old school: Innocent until proven guilty.
WTF!!! He looks like he played a character in the movie Wrong Turn. IF, this guy is guilty, execute!! Praying on children in anyway should be a death sentence!!!
No! We need to study such offenders and try to learn how to prevent, identify and perhaps even treat the problem and killing them off will mean that isn’t possible.
Time to invoke the death penalty.
Again wow wow wow..I just said hydaville hwy 36 is loaded with this..bet hale and cws worked it all out..thank you for all ur hard work…will be in court for hale ..please come if your concerned everyone 830 court 8 June 5….we will be there lets get these children safe..as a sw that worked there my stomach turns and I saw them do wrong things others were fired and I’m talking xo
Innocent until proven guilty. Maybe he didn’t do anything wrong. I know how he looks. Mug shots make absolutely everyone look awful. I think that the law enforcement staff that do the photos go to class to learn how to make people look their worst.
Super sad thing is although so many commenters will be all up in arms about killing or whatever perpetrators: #1 There is zero help for adults who are still suffering from heinous abuse that occurred in childhood. The County Mental Health has an equal chance of doing harm and in fact a higher chance of doing harm than good because of lack of funding and moreover lack of oversight. To undo years of damage done in formative years can take more years than the original damage did to inflict. Takes seconds to break a leg and far longer than that to heal but we don’t aknowledge that with mental health. We don’t fund the foster system, family supports nor comprehensive care for adult and meanwhile our streets, parks and jails fill with broken people . Oh and yet we can afford a big fat new jail right in the middle of town..tourist attraction? Please spare me the stories of people who have survived despite “Abuse” because while that is of course nice it all depends on so many factors and even the ones you think are OK you might find out much later were not or become not when one more thing tips them over the edge. The ones that didn’t make it aren’t writing books or talking about their experience and neither are the ones slowly dying from drugs or alcohol . We’d not have believed the illnesses and injuries we can cure now compared to 100 years ago so lets hold out some hope at least for future generations to make some progress. #2 We can’t learn to try and prevent, identify and treat perpetrators if we kill them (that’s aside from the basic wrongness of violence and that they were likely victims themselves).
Oh and why doesn’t it say up top, instead of at the very end “Innocent until proven guilty”? By the time they make it here i can’t help but presume likely guilt, subconsciously I’m guessing though consciously i tell myself the little sentence they put at the end, and i know I’m not the only on.
Despite the common belief, sex abuse as a child does not lead to becoming a pedophile. And pedophiles have been studied. “Specifically, individuals with histories of physical abuse (AOR, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.02-4.16) and neglect (AOR, 2.21; 95% CI, 1.39-3.51) were at significantly increased risk for arrest for sex offenses, whereas for sexual abuse, the AOR (2.13; 95% CI, 0.83-5.47) did not reach significance. Physically abused and neglectSpecifically, individuals with histories of physical abuse (AOR, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.02-4.16) and neglect (AOR, 2.21; 95% CI, 1.39-3.51) were at significantly increased risk for arrest for sex offenses, whereas for sexual abuse, the AOR (2.13; 95% CI, 0.83-5.47) did not reach significance. Physically abused and neglected males (not females) were at increased risk and physically abused males also had a higher mean number of sex crime arrests compared with control individuals. The results did not provide support for sex crime specialization.” And furthermore childhood sexual abuse did not even lead to increased levels of chronic depression-“Childhood sexual abuse was not associated with elevated risk of MDD.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17199054/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25561042/
IMO a drive to sex is innate but the limits of indulgence in it is in large part taught. If it is not taught by parents, it can be taught, although less well, by society. If a person isn’t imbued with a standard from parents and refuses the standards imposed by society, it can’t be healed by medicine.
any updates on this case?
Not yet
So the update is all charges have been dropped by C.W.S. because what the child had said wasn’t true and every time they talked with her the story kept changing, but it’s good to see how everyone is so quick to judge someone before the investigation has been complete. So since you’re so quick to post and ruin someone’s life maybe should post the update.