By Steve Mayes
A Clackamas County jury concluded Wednesday that the Oregon Department of Human Services was negligent and partially responsible for the death of Astrid Ash, an infant who died while in foster care four years ago.
The jury also found the child's father partly at fault, but awarded him $432,300 in damages.
The father, Sam Driessen, filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking more than $1.5 million.
The testimony highlighted two contrasting and troubling versions of the events preceding the death of 10 1/2-month-old Astrid.
Driessen had twice been convicted of drug crimes before he met Emily C. Ashby through a Craigslist ad where she offered to trade sex for methamphetamine, said Dirk Pierson, a state attorney representing DHS.
Ashby became pregnant and gave birth to twins -- born almost two months prematurely -- in late June 2007. Several weeks later she was found passed out in a car at a fast-food restaurant. After she tested positive for alcohol and drugs, DHS took custody of the twins and placed them in a West Linn foster home.
Astrid failed to thrive and had difficulty gaining weight. She suffered from reflux and sometimes vomited her meals. The foster mother compared the child to "a stopped-up sink."
Driessen's attorney, David Paul, said the foster parents were overwhelmed with their own children and financial responsibilities and did not have the skills to deal with medically fragile babies. DHS workers and others praised the foster parents as well trained, diligent and capable of caring for the twins.
On May 11, 2008 -- Mother's Day -- the foster mother discovered Astrid unconscious in bed. No one had checked on the baby for several hours. The foster parents unsuccessfully tried to revive her. A hospital doctor who examined Astrid after death reported her body temperature was 103 degrees, a sign of serious infection.
"This baby did not have to die," Paul said. Had DHS done its job and involved Driessen, "he would have pushed the right button" and immediately hospitalized the baby, Paul said.
DHS took a blood sample from Driessen in mid-March 2008 and knew he was the father almost two weeks before Astrid died. The agency, however, did not tell him until after Astrid was buried. The death certificate listed the cause of death -- and the name of the father -- as "unknown."
Pierson, the DHS attorney, said Driessen showed no interest in the twins or their welfare during Astrid's short life "and now he wants a million and a half bucks."
Although Ashby told Driessen he was probably the twin's father, he took no action to protect or support the children even though he knew Ashby used illegal drugs while nursing the infants, Pierson said.
The jury agreed up to a point. It found DHS was 56 percent responsible for the death.
DHS bears more blame because it was responsible for Astrid's care but failed to adequately address her on-going medical problems, said a juror, who spoke on condition he not be identified. The jury found other DHS actions troubling, said the juror: the delay in telling Driessen that he was the father, the lack of an autopsy that could determine the cause of death and burying the body the day after the death.
Driessen said he has changed since Astrid's death. He quit drugs, is employed and engaged to be married. He was given custody of the surviving twin, Axel, who reportedly is doing well.
Source http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2012/03/state_must_pay_432000_after_in.html
CPS corruption hurts and destroys families worldwide. Please use caution posting about CPS here or anyplace on the internet. For your protection, using your full, real name and precise location is not advised. CPS has eyes everywhere and CPS is notorious for taking what people say, twisting it, embellishing on it and then using it against them in CPS "investigations" and at court proceedings.
Showing posts with label child death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label child death. Show all posts
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
No autopsy of Monroe child despite police requests
Police say examiner's office ignored their concerns about child's death
By Noah Haglund, Diana Hefley and Rikki King
MONROE -- Police say they repeatedly tried to tell the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office that a 7-year-old boy who showed up dead at a Monroe hospital had a history of mistreatment and neglect.
Police wanted an autopsy and called at least three times to make their case. They were given "a dismissive 'no,'" Monroe police spokeswoman Debbie Willis said Tuesday.
State officials confirmed that a social worker witnessed at least one of those conversations, and the detective mentioned Child Protective Services' past involvement with the boy's family.
Still, the medical examiner's office ruled the boy's death "low suspicion." His body was released and cremated without an autopsy. Two weeks later, toxicology tests ordered by the medical examiner came back showing the boy died with lethal amounts of what appears to be over-the-counter painkillers in his system.
Police are investigating the death as a potential manslaughter. The case is complicated by a lack of evidence from a body, little cooperation from the boy's parents and possible missteps in how his death investigation was handled. National experts say there aren't clear-cut policies for when a child death investigation requires an autopsy.
The boy, identified in court papers only as "A.J." of Monroe, was pronounced dead Jan. 30. His father brought the boy into the hospital emergency room unresponsive, nearly 40 minutes after he said he found the boy "ash white," the documents showed.
In the days after the boy's death, a detective called the medical examiner's office at least twice to request an autopsy, Willis said. A sergeant called, as well.
The detective attempted to explain that he'd investigated the boy's parents in a reckless endangerment case two years before, she said.
"It was a dismissive 'no,' they were not going to do an autopsy," she said. "They asked if we had documentation of any physical abuse, and we said no."
The medical examiner representative reportedly told the detective that if police wanted to send documents, they'd be reviewed, Willis said. They asked for no additional information.
"The detective felt at that point that we'd had three dismissive phone calls, they're not listening, and we have an investigation to continue here, and did not send any reports to them," Willis said.
The Snohomish County Executive's Office, which oversees the medical examiner, has declined to discuss any specifics of the case, citing the ongoing police investigation.
Police look into deaths that may involve crimes, but the medical examiner's office determines how someone died and whether the death was natural, an accident or the result of someone else's actions.
A determination on the boy's manner of death is pending, meaning there's not enough information.
State toxicologists reported finding lethal amounts of salicylates in the boy's blood. Salicylates are common in aspirin and other over-the-counter drugs.
The tests determine the presence and amount of the drug in the blood, not how it was ingested.
An autopsy would have answered important questions, such as whether there were pills in the boy's stomach. Even without that evidence, authorities still should be able to investigate, said Janice Ophoven, a Minnesota-based pediatric forensic pathologist who has consulted on cases nationally and abroad.
"In this particular case, we have a cause of death -- that's not going to be in dispute," Ophoven said. "Then the question becomes how did that stuff get in there, and is there a reasonable explanation for that?"
Salicylate poisoning generally causes noticeable symptoms that last hours before death, she said. Those include breathing problems, nausea and vomiting.
"Assuming that the numbers are reported accurately and this is a fatal dose, somebody is going to have to answer the question of what the family thought when they saw signs of salicylate poisoning," Ophoven said.
The case ultimately will come down to "good police work in the days and weeks to come," she said.
Job defies policy
There are no policies to tell forensic pathologists in Snohomish County, or anywhere else, exactly when to perform autopsies. Instead, death investigators must rely on their training and experience to make the right call.
"The almost infinite varieties in ways that people die makes it impossible to write a policy to deal with every kind of death," said Dr. Andrew Baker, spokesman for the National Association of Medical Examiners and medical examiner for Hennepin County, Minn.
Baker added: "Whether one is done is only a piece of the much larger puzzle. Whether you do one or not depends on what historical information is available to you."
A former associate pathologist for Snohomish County said the information from Child Protective Services should have made a decision on the Monroe boy's case an easy call.
"To me, it's obligatory to do an autopsy in this case if the medical examiner knew of the CPS reports," said Dr. Carl Wigren, who left Snohomish County in 2009 and now consults with coroners, attorneys and families.
The child's father pleaded guilty in 2010 to reckless endangerment after police discovered his children living in deplorable conditions. The children, then 10 and 5, were removed from the home for three months. Before then, state social workers investigated numerous allegations of mistreatment involving the couple's two sons, including a report that the older boy, now 12, had been given a double dose of anti-seizure medication on at least two occasions.
Both boys were severely developmentally delayed, but doctors haven't found genetic or neurological reasons. The older boy has been removed from the home.
Timeline still unclear
What also remains unclear is the timeline of events between the younger boy having medical trouble and the hospital declaring him dead, police said.
His father said the boy was breathing and alive when they left the home, but the emergency room doctor said when they arrived, the boy appeared to be in the early stages of rigor mortis, which happens hours after death.
Child Protective Services received notice from the hospital about the younger boy's death, said Sherry Hill, spokeswoman for the state Department of Social and Health Services
A social worker was investigating the case by 10 a.m. that morning. That included contacting Monroe police to ask if they would be assigning a detective.
Generally, hospitals contact CPS or law enforcement when the child's death is unexpected.
The social worker was in frequent contact with the detective. The social worker noted that she was there when the detective called the medical examiner's office. During that conversation, the detective conveyed the family's history with CPS. CPS officials never received a request from the medical examiner to see those reports, Hill said.
"We felt assured that the M.E. was aware of the history of this family," Hill said.
The social worker noted that the medical examiner expected to determine a cause of death that day. The social worker noted that the medical examiner planned to complete a toxicology screen and a full body scan to determine if there were any signs of abuse or neglect, Hill said.
Once the medical examiner concluded that the death wasn't suspicious, the social worker talked with the family about the possibility of doing an autopsy. She advised the family that an autopsy could be helpful to determine what caused the boy's seizures, which could be helpful to their care of their older son. The social worker made it clear that the family would need to request a full autopsy.
The social worker reported that the parents said they would consult with their own doctors and "take care of it."
Officials with the Children's Administration plan to convene a child fatality review. The law calls for a review when a child dies of suspected neglect or abuse and has received services from the state in the past year.
Shortly after A.J.'s death, leaders at his school broke the news to students and families.
A.J. was in a first-grade class.
"He faced many health challenges in his short life and we will miss him," Fryelands Elementary School Principal Jeff Presley wrote at the time. "A.J. was a wonderful member of our school family and our thoughts are with his parents and brother."
Source http://heraldnet.com/article/20120307/NEWS01/703079869/-1/News
By Noah Haglund, Diana Hefley and Rikki King
MONROE -- Police say they repeatedly tried to tell the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office that a 7-year-old boy who showed up dead at a Monroe hospital had a history of mistreatment and neglect.
Police wanted an autopsy and called at least three times to make their case. They were given "a dismissive 'no,'" Monroe police spokeswoman Debbie Willis said Tuesday.
State officials confirmed that a social worker witnessed at least one of those conversations, and the detective mentioned Child Protective Services' past involvement with the boy's family.
Still, the medical examiner's office ruled the boy's death "low suspicion." His body was released and cremated without an autopsy. Two weeks later, toxicology tests ordered by the medical examiner came back showing the boy died with lethal amounts of what appears to be over-the-counter painkillers in his system.
Police are investigating the death as a potential manslaughter. The case is complicated by a lack of evidence from a body, little cooperation from the boy's parents and possible missteps in how his death investigation was handled. National experts say there aren't clear-cut policies for when a child death investigation requires an autopsy.
The boy, identified in court papers only as "A.J." of Monroe, was pronounced dead Jan. 30. His father brought the boy into the hospital emergency room unresponsive, nearly 40 minutes after he said he found the boy "ash white," the documents showed.
In the days after the boy's death, a detective called the medical examiner's office at least twice to request an autopsy, Willis said. A sergeant called, as well.
The detective attempted to explain that he'd investigated the boy's parents in a reckless endangerment case two years before, she said.
"It was a dismissive 'no,' they were not going to do an autopsy," she said. "They asked if we had documentation of any physical abuse, and we said no."
The medical examiner representative reportedly told the detective that if police wanted to send documents, they'd be reviewed, Willis said. They asked for no additional information.
"The detective felt at that point that we'd had three dismissive phone calls, they're not listening, and we have an investigation to continue here, and did not send any reports to them," Willis said.
The Snohomish County Executive's Office, which oversees the medical examiner, has declined to discuss any specifics of the case, citing the ongoing police investigation.
Police look into deaths that may involve crimes, but the medical examiner's office determines how someone died and whether the death was natural, an accident or the result of someone else's actions.
A determination on the boy's manner of death is pending, meaning there's not enough information.
State toxicologists reported finding lethal amounts of salicylates in the boy's blood. Salicylates are common in aspirin and other over-the-counter drugs.
The tests determine the presence and amount of the drug in the blood, not how it was ingested.
An autopsy would have answered important questions, such as whether there were pills in the boy's stomach. Even without that evidence, authorities still should be able to investigate, said Janice Ophoven, a Minnesota-based pediatric forensic pathologist who has consulted on cases nationally and abroad.
"In this particular case, we have a cause of death -- that's not going to be in dispute," Ophoven said. "Then the question becomes how did that stuff get in there, and is there a reasonable explanation for that?"
Salicylate poisoning generally causes noticeable symptoms that last hours before death, she said. Those include breathing problems, nausea and vomiting.
"Assuming that the numbers are reported accurately and this is a fatal dose, somebody is going to have to answer the question of what the family thought when they saw signs of salicylate poisoning," Ophoven said.
The case ultimately will come down to "good police work in the days and weeks to come," she said.
Job defies policy
There are no policies to tell forensic pathologists in Snohomish County, or anywhere else, exactly when to perform autopsies. Instead, death investigators must rely on their training and experience to make the right call.
"The almost infinite varieties in ways that people die makes it impossible to write a policy to deal with every kind of death," said Dr. Andrew Baker, spokesman for the National Association of Medical Examiners and medical examiner for Hennepin County, Minn.
Baker added: "Whether one is done is only a piece of the much larger puzzle. Whether you do one or not depends on what historical information is available to you."
A former associate pathologist for Snohomish County said the information from Child Protective Services should have made a decision on the Monroe boy's case an easy call.
"To me, it's obligatory to do an autopsy in this case if the medical examiner knew of the CPS reports," said Dr. Carl Wigren, who left Snohomish County in 2009 and now consults with coroners, attorneys and families.
The child's father pleaded guilty in 2010 to reckless endangerment after police discovered his children living in deplorable conditions. The children, then 10 and 5, were removed from the home for three months. Before then, state social workers investigated numerous allegations of mistreatment involving the couple's two sons, including a report that the older boy, now 12, had been given a double dose of anti-seizure medication on at least two occasions.
Both boys were severely developmentally delayed, but doctors haven't found genetic or neurological reasons. The older boy has been removed from the home.
Timeline still unclear
What also remains unclear is the timeline of events between the younger boy having medical trouble and the hospital declaring him dead, police said.
His father said the boy was breathing and alive when they left the home, but the emergency room doctor said when they arrived, the boy appeared to be in the early stages of rigor mortis, which happens hours after death.
Child Protective Services received notice from the hospital about the younger boy's death, said Sherry Hill, spokeswoman for the state Department of Social and Health Services
A social worker was investigating the case by 10 a.m. that morning. That included contacting Monroe police to ask if they would be assigning a detective.
Generally, hospitals contact CPS or law enforcement when the child's death is unexpected.
The social worker was in frequent contact with the detective. The social worker noted that she was there when the detective called the medical examiner's office. During that conversation, the detective conveyed the family's history with CPS. CPS officials never received a request from the medical examiner to see those reports, Hill said.
"We felt assured that the M.E. was aware of the history of this family," Hill said.
The social worker noted that the medical examiner expected to determine a cause of death that day. The social worker noted that the medical examiner planned to complete a toxicology screen and a full body scan to determine if there were any signs of abuse or neglect, Hill said.
Once the medical examiner concluded that the death wasn't suspicious, the social worker talked with the family about the possibility of doing an autopsy. She advised the family that an autopsy could be helpful to determine what caused the boy's seizures, which could be helpful to their care of their older son. The social worker made it clear that the family would need to request a full autopsy.
The social worker reported that the parents said they would consult with their own doctors and "take care of it."
Officials with the Children's Administration plan to convene a child fatality review. The law calls for a review when a child dies of suspected neglect or abuse and has received services from the state in the past year.
Shortly after A.J.'s death, leaders at his school broke the news to students and families.
A.J. was in a first-grade class.
"He faced many health challenges in his short life and we will miss him," Fryelands Elementary School Principal Jeff Presley wrote at the time. "A.J. was a wonderful member of our school family and our thoughts are with his parents and brother."
Source http://heraldnet.com/article/20120307/NEWS01/703079869/-1/News
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
State Keeps Death Files of Abused Children Secret - New York
By JO CRAVEN McGINTY
When Elisa Izquierdo, a 6-year-old, was killed by her mother in 1995, she became a symbol of a dysfunctional bureaucracy, one that allowed a drug addict to retain custody of her daughter despite numerous reports of abuse.
The resulting outcry led to an overhaul of New York City’s child welfare system and the passage in Albany of Elisa’s Law, a measure loosening the secrecy regulations in child-abuse investigations. Among other reforms, the law required a public accounting of the events leading up to the death of any child in New York State who had been reported as abused or neglected.
But for the last five years, the state’s Office of Children and Family Services has been working quietly and persistently to limit access to those case reports, which in most instances are the only record of the circumstances leading up to the deaths.
In 2007, the office tried to have the law changed. When that failed, it made its own rule. According to a policy enacted by the office in September 2008, it will not release the fatality reports mandated by Elisa’s Law if there are siblings or other children in the home and officials decide that revealing the family’s abuse and investigative history is not in their “best interests.”
“This is like back to the future,” said Jeffrey Binder, who was press secretary for former State Senator Roy M. Goodman, Republican of Manhattan, when he sponsored Elisa’s Law. “We were trying very hard to remove the veil of secrecy.”
After The New York Times began asking about the policy on withholding reports, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said the governor’s office would review the change.
The fatality reports were intended to permit public scrutiny of the performance of child welfare authorities while protecting the privacy of those involved. The reports do not identify deceased children, their caseworkers or anyone else by name. But they do list every complaint of abuse or neglect involving the child, the child welfare agency’s response to the complaints, and an assessment of whether the response was adequate.
The state issues about 250 fatality reports each year. And in 2010, for example, two-thirds of the reports issued in New York City involved homes with multiple children, meaning that under its new policy, officials could withhold information about their deaths.
“The whole point of this was to insist we were going to have accountability,” said Martin Guggenheim, a professor of law at New York University and an expert in child welfare law. “What we’re now stuck with is delegating to the commissioner the discretion to refuse to disclose a report because of her conclusion that it wouldn’t be in a child’s best interest.”
The state agency says it changed the rule out of concern for the privacy of surviving children. Elisa’s Law included a provision allowing the office to withhold reports if someone requested to see a particular child’s case. But state officials said anyone could get around that provision by simply asking to see all the reports in a given year.
“Our primary focus is protecting the interests of surviving siblings and family members,” said Gladys Carrión, the commissioner of the Office of Children and Family Services.
Ms. Carrión said she could not provide an example of a child’s being harmed as a result of the release of a fatality report, but she said: “It is not far-fetched that releasing the information of a particular child would have an adverse impact on surviving siblings.”
Before her death, Elisa’s life seemed full of promise. She lived with her devoted father. Teachers described her as radiant. And a benefactor had agreed to pay for her education.
All of that changed when her father died of cancer and her mother, Awilda Lopez, was awarded custody. Ms. Lopez, whom acquaintances described as crazed by crack cocaine, said she saw the devil when she looked into her daughter’s face.
Ms. Lopez beat the girl, abused her sexually and subjected her to a barrage of hurt and humiliation. Finally, she smashed the girl’s head against concrete and left her lying slack-jawed and unconscious for two days until she died. Elisa was buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens, where the epitaph carved into her tombstone pleads, “World Please Watch Over the Children.”
Relatives, teachers and others who had seen evidence of Elisa’s abuse had complained to child welfare authorities at least seven times.
One major change after Elisa’s death was the creation by New York City of the Administration for Children’s Services, a separate agency devoted to child welfare and protection. Another was Elisa’s Law, which arose out of lawmakers’ frustration when city authorities, citing confidentiality, refused to answer questions about their role in the death.
So far, multiple bills drafted at the request of the Office of Children and Family Services to limit the public disclosure portion of Elisa’s Law have failed. The most recent was introduced in the Assembly in the current legislative session and in January was referred to committee.
The bill would require the state to release its recommendations for administrative or policy changes resulting from a child’s death. But in cases where there are surviving siblings or other children in the home, the bill would permit the state to withhold the details of the family’s case history and how the local child welfare agency responded if releasing those details was deemed to be against the other children’s “best interest.” The local agency, which in New York City is the Administration for Children’s Services, would have a say in the decision, even though that agency might have been responsible for any missteps.
The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored the Assembly version of Elisa’s Law, would not comment on the changes to public disclosure proposed by the Office of Children and Family Services. But a spokeswoman said on his behalf that any bill to amend Elisa’s Law would be vetted to determine whether the process protects “to the greatest extent possible” New York’s children and their families.
Marcia Robinson Lowry, a lawyer and the director of Children’s Rights Inc., a national watchdog group dedicated to reforming government child welfare services, said limiting access to reports would hurt efforts to make the system more responsive to children in dangerous homes.
“They are something a public advocacy group or a think tank or a responsible party can have available to understand the systemic failures that have led to these children’s deaths,” she said. “They are critically important.”
Source http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/nyregion/nys-evades-requirement-for-disclosure-on-childrens-deaths.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
When Elisa Izquierdo, a 6-year-old, was killed by her mother in 1995, she became a symbol of a dysfunctional bureaucracy, one that allowed a drug addict to retain custody of her daughter despite numerous reports of abuse.
The resulting outcry led to an overhaul of New York City’s child welfare system and the passage in Albany of Elisa’s Law, a measure loosening the secrecy regulations in child-abuse investigations. Among other reforms, the law required a public accounting of the events leading up to the death of any child in New York State who had been reported as abused or neglected.
But for the last five years, the state’s Office of Children and Family Services has been working quietly and persistently to limit access to those case reports, which in most instances are the only record of the circumstances leading up to the deaths.
In 2007, the office tried to have the law changed. When that failed, it made its own rule. According to a policy enacted by the office in September 2008, it will not release the fatality reports mandated by Elisa’s Law if there are siblings or other children in the home and officials decide that revealing the family’s abuse and investigative history is not in their “best interests.”
“This is like back to the future,” said Jeffrey Binder, who was press secretary for former State Senator Roy M. Goodman, Republican of Manhattan, when he sponsored Elisa’s Law. “We were trying very hard to remove the veil of secrecy.”
After The New York Times began asking about the policy on withholding reports, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said the governor’s office would review the change.
The fatality reports were intended to permit public scrutiny of the performance of child welfare authorities while protecting the privacy of those involved. The reports do not identify deceased children, their caseworkers or anyone else by name. But they do list every complaint of abuse or neglect involving the child, the child welfare agency’s response to the complaints, and an assessment of whether the response was adequate.
The state issues about 250 fatality reports each year. And in 2010, for example, two-thirds of the reports issued in New York City involved homes with multiple children, meaning that under its new policy, officials could withhold information about their deaths.
“The whole point of this was to insist we were going to have accountability,” said Martin Guggenheim, a professor of law at New York University and an expert in child welfare law. “What we’re now stuck with is delegating to the commissioner the discretion to refuse to disclose a report because of her conclusion that it wouldn’t be in a child’s best interest.”
The state agency says it changed the rule out of concern for the privacy of surviving children. Elisa’s Law included a provision allowing the office to withhold reports if someone requested to see a particular child’s case. But state officials said anyone could get around that provision by simply asking to see all the reports in a given year.
“Our primary focus is protecting the interests of surviving siblings and family members,” said Gladys Carrión, the commissioner of the Office of Children and Family Services.
Ms. Carrión said she could not provide an example of a child’s being harmed as a result of the release of a fatality report, but she said: “It is not far-fetched that releasing the information of a particular child would have an adverse impact on surviving siblings.”
Before her death, Elisa’s life seemed full of promise. She lived with her devoted father. Teachers described her as radiant. And a benefactor had agreed to pay for her education.
All of that changed when her father died of cancer and her mother, Awilda Lopez, was awarded custody. Ms. Lopez, whom acquaintances described as crazed by crack cocaine, said she saw the devil when she looked into her daughter’s face.
Ms. Lopez beat the girl, abused her sexually and subjected her to a barrage of hurt and humiliation. Finally, she smashed the girl’s head against concrete and left her lying slack-jawed and unconscious for two days until she died. Elisa was buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens, where the epitaph carved into her tombstone pleads, “World Please Watch Over the Children.”
Relatives, teachers and others who had seen evidence of Elisa’s abuse had complained to child welfare authorities at least seven times.
One major change after Elisa’s death was the creation by New York City of the Administration for Children’s Services, a separate agency devoted to child welfare and protection. Another was Elisa’s Law, which arose out of lawmakers’ frustration when city authorities, citing confidentiality, refused to answer questions about their role in the death.
So far, multiple bills drafted at the request of the Office of Children and Family Services to limit the public disclosure portion of Elisa’s Law have failed. The most recent was introduced in the Assembly in the current legislative session and in January was referred to committee.
The bill would require the state to release its recommendations for administrative or policy changes resulting from a child’s death. But in cases where there are surviving siblings or other children in the home, the bill would permit the state to withhold the details of the family’s case history and how the local child welfare agency responded if releasing those details was deemed to be against the other children’s “best interest.” The local agency, which in New York City is the Administration for Children’s Services, would have a say in the decision, even though that agency might have been responsible for any missteps.
The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored the Assembly version of Elisa’s Law, would not comment on the changes to public disclosure proposed by the Office of Children and Family Services. But a spokeswoman said on his behalf that any bill to amend Elisa’s Law would be vetted to determine whether the process protects “to the greatest extent possible” New York’s children and their families.
Marcia Robinson Lowry, a lawyer and the director of Children’s Rights Inc., a national watchdog group dedicated to reforming government child welfare services, said limiting access to reports would hurt efforts to make the system more responsive to children in dangerous homes.
“They are something a public advocacy group or a think tank or a responsible party can have available to understand the systemic failures that have led to these children’s deaths,” she said. “They are critically important.”
Source http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/nyregion/nys-evades-requirement-for-disclosure-on-childrens-deaths.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Safety of children not always a priority for state in domestic violence cases - Kentucky
By Valarie Honeycutt Spears
There were warning signs that Michael Utley was a danger to his toddler son.
Utley had been charged with assaulting the mother of his child 18 months before the Gallatin County man attacked his live-in girlfriend and then shot and killed their 3-year-old son and himself in February 2009.
When the mother attempted to drive her "trashed" partner home from a local bar in September 2007, Utley slapped her hard enough to give her a black eye as 17-month-old Owen James Utley sat in the back seat.
A state adult-protection worker substantiated "partner abuse." But social workers never considered Owen's safety, according to an internal review of the boy's death conducted by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which handles child and adult protection in Kentucky.
Social workers should have formally assessed the "risk of harm" to Owen after the domestic violence episode, according to the internal review that focused on the handling of the case before the deaths.
That oversight was one of several problems related to domestic violence documented in internal reviews completed after children with whom the cabinet had previous contact died or were seriously harmed in 2009 and 2010.
A Lexington Herald-Leader analysis of the 85 reviews found that domestic violence in the family was mentioned in 48 of them and that an episode of domestic violence played a direct role in the injury or death of a child in five instances, including the death of Owen, who was killed shortly after his father had beaten his mother.
Among the shortcomings identified in the reviews:
■ Social workers don't always emphasize the safety of the child when domestic violence is discovered in a family.
■ Social workers sometimes fail to thoroughly assess whether domestic violence has occurred.
■ People living in some rural areas don't have convenient access to domestic violence shelters.
According to a 2011 report on deaths and near-deaths from child abuse and neglect in Kentucky, domestic violence was identified as a risk factor in 68 percent of cases from 2007 to 2011.
Another report released in January 2011 said studies have shown that there is an overlap of 30 percent to 60 percent between violence against children and violence against women in the same families.
In Kentucky, police must send the state a report of all incidents of domestic violence, and adult-protection workers are supposed to investigate those cases, although people are not required to accept the workers' help. Additionally, state regulations say that the cabinet must conduct an assessment to see whether a child is at risk of harm from domestic violence.
According to Jim Grace, assistant director of the cabinet's Division of Protection and Permanency, simultaneous child protection and domestic violence investigations are launched under a variety of circumstances, including if the child has been harmed, is prevented from leaving the premises by an abuser or is considered at risk of being harmed.
But cabinet officials conducting the fatality reviews said workers sometimes missed opportunities to protect children whose families experienced domestic violence.
For example, the cabinet's review of one 3-year-old's death raised questions about why the state found in a case involving the child's family that "there are no child-protection issues" even though a female relative told authorities, "I'm scared for my life and my child's life." The woman said she was being physically abused on a regular basis.
The review of Jeffrey B. Fields' death also questions whether a child-protection investigation should have been initiated after a report said, "Child has seen mother's paramour beat mommy up."
In the end, Jeffrey died in a traffic accident in 2010 when he was thrown from a car driven by a woman who was not his parent and who allegedly could not pass a drug test after the crash, according to the review of his death. There were previous reports of domestic violence in the child's family and the driver's family.
In an April 2009 case in Larue County, a child was taken to Hardin Memorial Hospital with 16 fractures and "multiple brain bleeds" and nearly died. A man in the child's home — his relationship to the mother was not made clear in documents — was criminally charged, and the cabinet found that the mother was neglectful for not protecting her child.
The review in that case noted that another child in the family was injured in 2007 during a domestic violence case involving the mother's previous boyfriend. That boyfriend assaulted the mother when she had an infant in her arms, cutting and bruising her and leaving a bruise and swelling on the baby's head.
The cabinet's review said staff should "continue to emphasize child safety and assessment" when conducting concurrent child-protection and adult-protection cases.
Grace said the cabinet is conducting training "on the dynamics of domestic violence and how it relates to a child's protection."
Once cabinet officials identify a systemic problem as a result of a fatality review, "there's the expectation that we would correct it," he said.
Shelters not always close
The death of Owen Utley also highlighted a lack of domestic violence shelters in rural portions of Kentucky.
After the initial 2007 report of domestic violence against Owen's mother, a social worker spoke with her about financial resources and alternative living arrangements that were available to her. But going to a shelter in her own community was not an option.
Ultimately, the cabinet's review said Michael Utley beat Owen's mother in February 2009 until she had two black eyes and cuts to her ear, and was missing chunks hair. When she ran to a neighbor's home for help, he killed the child and himself.
The "lack of shelter options in rural counties could be a deterrent to victims utilizing ... services," the review said.
Sherry Currens, executive director of the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association, said there are 15 regional shelters with a total of 466 beds, which are nearly always full. All 120 counties are served by a shelter, but some residents have to travel farther than others, Currens said.
It's unlikely that shelters could expand their services without additional funding, she said, and domestic violence shelters in Kentucky got less state funding per resident in 2011 than in 1996.
Coordination lacking
Beyond the problems noted in the fatality reviews, there are other gaps, domestic violence victim advocates said.
Currens said she knows of instances when adult-protection workers have dropped a case after child-protection workers got involved. But both kinds of workers are needed to help the non-offending parent figure out "how to deal with the threat to the children," she said.
Coordination between advocates and cabinet workers has at times been lacking, advocates said.
Darlene Thomas, executive director of the Lexington-based Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program, said advocates are sometimes not told by cabinet workers about domestic violence incidents. In other cases, advocates who contract with the cabinet to provide victim services don't have enough staff to attend team meetings about the family.
Lisa Holmes, the director of a domestic violence shelter in Elizabethtown, was concerned recently that she couldn't immediately get an answer at an intake line for the local child-protection office.
Holmes said she was "scared to death" for the safety of a child whose mother decided to leave the shelter.
Police had brought the mother to the SpringHaven shelter after "her boyfriend told her that the best way to handle his anger was to beat her 3-year-old child. So he picked her up and threw her, and she has a bruise on her face," Holmes said, referring to the child.
Holmes was trying to confirm that the boyfriend was in jail and that the mother and child would be safe if they returned home.
Holmes said she thought it would help "if we were quicker and better at adjudicating domestic violence cases and women had the support of CPS (child protection workers) instead of being afraid of them."
Removing children
Advocates and child-protection workers are sometimes at odds about the best way to keep safe a child who has been exposed to domestic violence.
Members of Currens' group are concerned that the cabinet sometimes unfairly recommends that judges remove children from a domestic violence victim's custody under the theory that the victim is failing to protect the child.
As a matter of policy, the cabinet does not recommend removal of any child from a parent's home unless there is risk to the child's physical safety or well-being, cabinet spokeswoman Anya Weber said. Recommendations are presented to the court, where the ultimate decision is made related to removal of the child, Weber said.
Thomas, the Lexington-based domestic violence advocate, said children should be protected from a parent who is a batterer. But she and other advocates said every attempt should be made to allow the child to remain with the non-offending parent.
The 2009 near-death of a 2-month-old girl demonstrates the difficult decisions that child-protection workers must sometimes make in cases of domestic violence.
A state review of the case noted that the cabinet substantiated neglect by the child's mother due to a "history of engaging in abusive relationships," not following through once she was granted domestic violence protection orders, and not being cooperative in previous law enforcement interventions involving domestic violence with the child's alleged abuser.
According to the review, the unidentified child was taken to the University of Kentucky Hospital in 2009 with a traumatic brain injury after her mother's paramour admitted to shaking her and handling her roughly.
Solutions
There are at least two legislative proposals this year to create task forces that would study the effect of domestic violence on Kentucky's children and come up with proposed laws for the 2013 General Assembly.
The sponsor of one proposal, Democratic state Rep. Joni Jenkins of Shively, said she worked in a domestic violence shelter for 10 years. She said expanding the services of domestic violence shelters would be beneficial.
"No kid gets beat in shelters. No kid gets neglected in shelters," she said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, and Rep. Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow, have introduced bills that would require the cabinet to assess the needs of children and custodial parents who have been exposed to domestic violence and to provide prevention services to help the child live at home. So far, neither bill has been considered by a legislative committee.
Other states have found success in having police, child-protection workers and domestic violence advocates working together on a team.
In Fresno, Calif., police Sgt. Daniel Macias is a member of the Children Exposed to Domestic Violence Team, which operates with a $200,000-a-year federal grant. The team's social workers and advocates, along with police detectives, investigate and provide services after domestic violence cases in which children are present, Macias said.
The team follows up with adult victims, Macias said, and "with the children, which are really the key to trying to stop the cycle of violence."
In Kentucky, Thomas said she would like to see collaborative efforts between the cabinet, which investigates allegations of abuse, and agencies that provide services for spouse-abuse victims to make sure families "have all available supports."
Having domestic violence advocates attend cabinet team meetings about individual families would help, she said.
But, Thomas said, "it all comes down to resources."
Source http://www.kentucky.com/2012/02/26/2084442/safety-of-children-not-always.html
There were warning signs that Michael Utley was a danger to his toddler son.
Utley had been charged with assaulting the mother of his child 18 months before the Gallatin County man attacked his live-in girlfriend and then shot and killed their 3-year-old son and himself in February 2009.
When the mother attempted to drive her "trashed" partner home from a local bar in September 2007, Utley slapped her hard enough to give her a black eye as 17-month-old Owen James Utley sat in the back seat.
A state adult-protection worker substantiated "partner abuse." But social workers never considered Owen's safety, according to an internal review of the boy's death conducted by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which handles child and adult protection in Kentucky.
Social workers should have formally assessed the "risk of harm" to Owen after the domestic violence episode, according to the internal review that focused on the handling of the case before the deaths.
That oversight was one of several problems related to domestic violence documented in internal reviews completed after children with whom the cabinet had previous contact died or were seriously harmed in 2009 and 2010.
A Lexington Herald-Leader analysis of the 85 reviews found that domestic violence in the family was mentioned in 48 of them and that an episode of domestic violence played a direct role in the injury or death of a child in five instances, including the death of Owen, who was killed shortly after his father had beaten his mother.
Among the shortcomings identified in the reviews:
■ Social workers don't always emphasize the safety of the child when domestic violence is discovered in a family.
■ Social workers sometimes fail to thoroughly assess whether domestic violence has occurred.
■ People living in some rural areas don't have convenient access to domestic violence shelters.
According to a 2011 report on deaths and near-deaths from child abuse and neglect in Kentucky, domestic violence was identified as a risk factor in 68 percent of cases from 2007 to 2011.
Another report released in January 2011 said studies have shown that there is an overlap of 30 percent to 60 percent between violence against children and violence against women in the same families.
In Kentucky, police must send the state a report of all incidents of domestic violence, and adult-protection workers are supposed to investigate those cases, although people are not required to accept the workers' help. Additionally, state regulations say that the cabinet must conduct an assessment to see whether a child is at risk of harm from domestic violence.
According to Jim Grace, assistant director of the cabinet's Division of Protection and Permanency, simultaneous child protection and domestic violence investigations are launched under a variety of circumstances, including if the child has been harmed, is prevented from leaving the premises by an abuser or is considered at risk of being harmed.
But cabinet officials conducting the fatality reviews said workers sometimes missed opportunities to protect children whose families experienced domestic violence.
For example, the cabinet's review of one 3-year-old's death raised questions about why the state found in a case involving the child's family that "there are no child-protection issues" even though a female relative told authorities, "I'm scared for my life and my child's life." The woman said she was being physically abused on a regular basis.
The review of Jeffrey B. Fields' death also questions whether a child-protection investigation should have been initiated after a report said, "Child has seen mother's paramour beat mommy up."
In the end, Jeffrey died in a traffic accident in 2010 when he was thrown from a car driven by a woman who was not his parent and who allegedly could not pass a drug test after the crash, according to the review of his death. There were previous reports of domestic violence in the child's family and the driver's family.
In an April 2009 case in Larue County, a child was taken to Hardin Memorial Hospital with 16 fractures and "multiple brain bleeds" and nearly died. A man in the child's home — his relationship to the mother was not made clear in documents — was criminally charged, and the cabinet found that the mother was neglectful for not protecting her child.
The review in that case noted that another child in the family was injured in 2007 during a domestic violence case involving the mother's previous boyfriend. That boyfriend assaulted the mother when she had an infant in her arms, cutting and bruising her and leaving a bruise and swelling on the baby's head.
The cabinet's review said staff should "continue to emphasize child safety and assessment" when conducting concurrent child-protection and adult-protection cases.
Grace said the cabinet is conducting training "on the dynamics of domestic violence and how it relates to a child's protection."
Once cabinet officials identify a systemic problem as a result of a fatality review, "there's the expectation that we would correct it," he said.
Shelters not always close
The death of Owen Utley also highlighted a lack of domestic violence shelters in rural portions of Kentucky.
After the initial 2007 report of domestic violence against Owen's mother, a social worker spoke with her about financial resources and alternative living arrangements that were available to her. But going to a shelter in her own community was not an option.
Ultimately, the cabinet's review said Michael Utley beat Owen's mother in February 2009 until she had two black eyes and cuts to her ear, and was missing chunks hair. When she ran to a neighbor's home for help, he killed the child and himself.
The "lack of shelter options in rural counties could be a deterrent to victims utilizing ... services," the review said.
Sherry Currens, executive director of the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association, said there are 15 regional shelters with a total of 466 beds, which are nearly always full. All 120 counties are served by a shelter, but some residents have to travel farther than others, Currens said.
It's unlikely that shelters could expand their services without additional funding, she said, and domestic violence shelters in Kentucky got less state funding per resident in 2011 than in 1996.
Coordination lacking
Beyond the problems noted in the fatality reviews, there are other gaps, domestic violence victim advocates said.
Currens said she knows of instances when adult-protection workers have dropped a case after child-protection workers got involved. But both kinds of workers are needed to help the non-offending parent figure out "how to deal with the threat to the children," she said.
Coordination between advocates and cabinet workers has at times been lacking, advocates said.
Darlene Thomas, executive director of the Lexington-based Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program, said advocates are sometimes not told by cabinet workers about domestic violence incidents. In other cases, advocates who contract with the cabinet to provide victim services don't have enough staff to attend team meetings about the family.
Lisa Holmes, the director of a domestic violence shelter in Elizabethtown, was concerned recently that she couldn't immediately get an answer at an intake line for the local child-protection office.
Holmes said she was "scared to death" for the safety of a child whose mother decided to leave the shelter.
Police had brought the mother to the SpringHaven shelter after "her boyfriend told her that the best way to handle his anger was to beat her 3-year-old child. So he picked her up and threw her, and she has a bruise on her face," Holmes said, referring to the child.
Holmes was trying to confirm that the boyfriend was in jail and that the mother and child would be safe if they returned home.
Holmes said she thought it would help "if we were quicker and better at adjudicating domestic violence cases and women had the support of CPS (child protection workers) instead of being afraid of them."
Removing children
Advocates and child-protection workers are sometimes at odds about the best way to keep safe a child who has been exposed to domestic violence.
Members of Currens' group are concerned that the cabinet sometimes unfairly recommends that judges remove children from a domestic violence victim's custody under the theory that the victim is failing to protect the child.
As a matter of policy, the cabinet does not recommend removal of any child from a parent's home unless there is risk to the child's physical safety or well-being, cabinet spokeswoman Anya Weber said. Recommendations are presented to the court, where the ultimate decision is made related to removal of the child, Weber said.
Thomas, the Lexington-based domestic violence advocate, said children should be protected from a parent who is a batterer. But she and other advocates said every attempt should be made to allow the child to remain with the non-offending parent.
The 2009 near-death of a 2-month-old girl demonstrates the difficult decisions that child-protection workers must sometimes make in cases of domestic violence.
A state review of the case noted that the cabinet substantiated neglect by the child's mother due to a "history of engaging in abusive relationships," not following through once she was granted domestic violence protection orders, and not being cooperative in previous law enforcement interventions involving domestic violence with the child's alleged abuser.
According to the review, the unidentified child was taken to the University of Kentucky Hospital in 2009 with a traumatic brain injury after her mother's paramour admitted to shaking her and handling her roughly.
Solutions
There are at least two legislative proposals this year to create task forces that would study the effect of domestic violence on Kentucky's children and come up with proposed laws for the 2013 General Assembly.
The sponsor of one proposal, Democratic state Rep. Joni Jenkins of Shively, said she worked in a domestic violence shelter for 10 years. She said expanding the services of domestic violence shelters would be beneficial.
"No kid gets beat in shelters. No kid gets neglected in shelters," she said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, and Rep. Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow, have introduced bills that would require the cabinet to assess the needs of children and custodial parents who have been exposed to domestic violence and to provide prevention services to help the child live at home. So far, neither bill has been considered by a legislative committee.
Other states have found success in having police, child-protection workers and domestic violence advocates working together on a team.
In Fresno, Calif., police Sgt. Daniel Macias is a member of the Children Exposed to Domestic Violence Team, which operates with a $200,000-a-year federal grant. The team's social workers and advocates, along with police detectives, investigate and provide services after domestic violence cases in which children are present, Macias said.
The team follows up with adult victims, Macias said, and "with the children, which are really the key to trying to stop the cycle of violence."
In Kentucky, Thomas said she would like to see collaborative efforts between the cabinet, which investigates allegations of abuse, and agencies that provide services for spouse-abuse victims to make sure families "have all available supports."
Having domestic violence advocates attend cabinet team meetings about individual families would help, she said.
But, Thomas said, "it all comes down to resources."
Source http://www.kentucky.com/2012/02/26/2084442/safety-of-children-not-always.html
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Child Protective Services has 'serious' problems, Wash. senator says
By Pat Reavy
PUYALLUP, Wash — Pam Roach has been a longtime advocate for changes in the policies and procedures of the state's Child Protective Services.
With the world's attention focused on the case of Josh Powell, who killed his two young sons and himself during a supervised visit, the Washington state senator is again calling for changes.
Public hearing planned
On Thursday, in Olympia, Wash., Roach will hold a public hearing.
Before public comment is taken, she will be joined by Chuck and Judy Cox, the grandparents of Charlie and Braden Powell and parents of Susan Cox Powell, the boys' mother who has been missing since 2009 and is presumed dead.
Josh Powell is the key person of interest in his wife's disappearance. Tuesday, Powell's death certificate was released. It showed that his body was cremated on Friday in Sumner, Wash., a short drive from Puyallup.
Thursday's hearing and news conference will address the issue of what happened in Charlie and Braden's case, and what, if anything, needs to be done with the system, said Anne Bremner, an attorney for the Cox family who will also be present.
The family is still dealing with "enormous grief and shock," she said They want to do something to make sure something like what happened to Charlie and Braden doesn't happen again, but they don't know how to go about it. Everything from a civil lawsuit to proposing new legislation had been tossed around.
"They're interested in any effort to make sure something good comes out of this," Bremner said.
What the attorney would like to see is new legislation, possibly something called Charlie and Braden's Law, that would essentially make it illegal for a spouse or significant other to have custody of a child while they're the subject of a criminal investigation for a violent crime.
“CPS needs to directly hear from the public,” Roach said. "At the end of the meeting the department will be presented with ideas for change. ... Everyone in the room will have a story to tell. We are going to ask them, in short comments, what changes should be made in the way the department does business."
Cox family, attorneys look at ways to prevent future tragedies
Chuck Cox reaffirmed that he does not blame Elizabeth Griffin-Hall, the social worker who was in charge of the supervised visit the day Josh Powell killed the boys. She had just arrived at Powell's rented house when the two boys got a step ahead of her. When they got inside, he shut the door on Griffin-Hall. During her subsequent call to 911, Griffin-Hall told the dispatcher she feared for the boys' lives.
"I don't blame her. She was doing what she was asked to do and she was doing her best to take care of the boys," Cox said Tuesday.
But Cox does have an issue with the visitation being allowed in the first place, just four days after a judge denied a motion to return full custody of the children to Josh Powell and ordered him to undergo a psychosexual evaluation.
"They knew he had mental issues, problems, and he was under a great amount of stress, and that courtroom setback — certainly was a setback — and the fact that visitation continued …" Cox said.
The supervised visit, he believes, should have been at a "protected place" and not Powell's house, or should have included more than one supervisor.
Powell decorated his rented home in Graham, Wash., with photos of his missing wife, including wedding photos and photos of them with the boys as babies. In November, a social worker noted the home appeared "staged" as if for the social worker's approval. Police later confirmed they believe Josh Powell did not live in that home and simply used it for visitation purposes.
Dr. James Manley, a psychologist, conducted the court-ordered evaluation on Powell. His report was part of a massive collection of more than 1,000 pages of records the Washington Department of Social and Health Services released last week.
In his report, Manley diagnosed Powell with narcissistic personality disorder and adjustment disorder with anxiety.
He noted that Powell talked frequently and negatively against Mormons and the Cox family.
"Mr. Powell has very little capacity at this time to rein in his opinions and commentary for the sake of his children's mental health," the report states. "It is concerning Mr. Powell cannot or will not stay focused on his children's emotional/psychological needs."
Manley said in his report that he was concerned about what would happen as Charlie and Braden became more independent thinkers and how their father would react. And while there was no history of abuse, Manley called Powell's alleged camping trip to Tooele on a "cold, windy" night before his wife was reported missing, "foolhardy" at best, and noted the trip did not appear to be planned.
The psychologist noted that Powell seemed to be living with a high amount of stress as well as defensiveness, and was a person who had a tendency to be over-controlling. Powell acknowledged attending counseling as a teen for "self-destructive tendencies" but could not recall details for his evaluators.
On Jan. 30, Manley was asked to view images found a computer seized from Josh and Susan Powell's home by West Valley police in 2009. There were about 400 "hand drawings, computerized drawings and photographs," according to the report. Some of the images were of well-known cartoon characters, such as The Simpsons, The Flintstones and Sponge Bob, engaged in pornographic acts. About 15 of the images were 3D style, with some of those images depicting incest.
Manley said in his report that graphic nature of the images was not only "concerning," but they also suggested "global approval" of sex between a minor and an adult.
"If these are Mr. Powell's images, it gives rise to great concern. Coupled with his general level of defensiveness across the evaluation there seems to be important aspects to Mr. Powell's life he is unwilling to discuss," Manley stated in the report. "Given the gaps of information about Mr. Powell, there seems reason to conclude he may not presently be a stable and appropriate resource for his children."
Chuck Cox said Tuesday that the possibility of a lawsuit against the state of Washington has been briefly discussed.
"It's been suggested. That's about as far as it's gone," he said.
Bremner said Tuesday that any talk of a civil suit is "premature."
"We don't know everything that happened," she said.
Source http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=19308982
PUYALLUP, Wash — Pam Roach has been a longtime advocate for changes in the policies and procedures of the state's Child Protective Services.
With the world's attention focused on the case of Josh Powell, who killed his two young sons and himself during a supervised visit, the Washington state senator is again calling for changes.
Public hearing planned
On Thursday, in Olympia, Wash., Roach will hold a public hearing.
Before public comment is taken, she will be joined by Chuck and Judy Cox, the grandparents of Charlie and Braden Powell and parents of Susan Cox Powell, the boys' mother who has been missing since 2009 and is presumed dead.
Josh Powell is the key person of interest in his wife's disappearance. Tuesday, Powell's death certificate was released. It showed that his body was cremated on Friday in Sumner, Wash., a short drive from Puyallup.
Thursday's hearing and news conference will address the issue of what happened in Charlie and Braden's case, and what, if anything, needs to be done with the system, said Anne Bremner, an attorney for the Cox family who will also be present.
The family is still dealing with "enormous grief and shock," she said They want to do something to make sure something like what happened to Charlie and Braden doesn't happen again, but they don't know how to go about it. Everything from a civil lawsuit to proposing new legislation had been tossed around.
"They're interested in any effort to make sure something good comes out of this," Bremner said.
What the attorney would like to see is new legislation, possibly something called Charlie and Braden's Law, that would essentially make it illegal for a spouse or significant other to have custody of a child while they're the subject of a criminal investigation for a violent crime.
“CPS needs to directly hear from the public,” Roach said. "At the end of the meeting the department will be presented with ideas for change. ... Everyone in the room will have a story to tell. We are going to ask them, in short comments, what changes should be made in the way the department does business."
Cox family, attorneys look at ways to prevent future tragedies
Chuck Cox reaffirmed that he does not blame Elizabeth Griffin-Hall, the social worker who was in charge of the supervised visit the day Josh Powell killed the boys. She had just arrived at Powell's rented house when the two boys got a step ahead of her. When they got inside, he shut the door on Griffin-Hall. During her subsequent call to 911, Griffin-Hall told the dispatcher she feared for the boys' lives.
"I don't blame her. She was doing what she was asked to do and she was doing her best to take care of the boys," Cox said Tuesday.
But Cox does have an issue with the visitation being allowed in the first place, just four days after a judge denied a motion to return full custody of the children to Josh Powell and ordered him to undergo a psychosexual evaluation.
"They knew he had mental issues, problems, and he was under a great amount of stress, and that courtroom setback — certainly was a setback — and the fact that visitation continued …" Cox said.
The supervised visit, he believes, should have been at a "protected place" and not Powell's house, or should have included more than one supervisor.
Powell decorated his rented home in Graham, Wash., with photos of his missing wife, including wedding photos and photos of them with the boys as babies. In November, a social worker noted the home appeared "staged" as if for the social worker's approval. Police later confirmed they believe Josh Powell did not live in that home and simply used it for visitation purposes.
Dr. James Manley, a psychologist, conducted the court-ordered evaluation on Powell. His report was part of a massive collection of more than 1,000 pages of records the Washington Department of Social and Health Services released last week.
In his report, Manley diagnosed Powell with narcissistic personality disorder and adjustment disorder with anxiety.
He noted that Powell talked frequently and negatively against Mormons and the Cox family.
"Mr. Powell has very little capacity at this time to rein in his opinions and commentary for the sake of his children's mental health," the report states. "It is concerning Mr. Powell cannot or will not stay focused on his children's emotional/psychological needs."
Manley said in his report that he was concerned about what would happen as Charlie and Braden became more independent thinkers and how their father would react. And while there was no history of abuse, Manley called Powell's alleged camping trip to Tooele on a "cold, windy" night before his wife was reported missing, "foolhardy" at best, and noted the trip did not appear to be planned.
The psychologist noted that Powell seemed to be living with a high amount of stress as well as defensiveness, and was a person who had a tendency to be over-controlling. Powell acknowledged attending counseling as a teen for "self-destructive tendencies" but could not recall details for his evaluators.
On Jan. 30, Manley was asked to view images found a computer seized from Josh and Susan Powell's home by West Valley police in 2009. There were about 400 "hand drawings, computerized drawings and photographs," according to the report. Some of the images were of well-known cartoon characters, such as The Simpsons, The Flintstones and Sponge Bob, engaged in pornographic acts. About 15 of the images were 3D style, with some of those images depicting incest.
Manley said in his report that graphic nature of the images was not only "concerning," but they also suggested "global approval" of sex between a minor and an adult.
"If these are Mr. Powell's images, it gives rise to great concern. Coupled with his general level of defensiveness across the evaluation there seems to be important aspects to Mr. Powell's life he is unwilling to discuss," Manley stated in the report. "Given the gaps of information about Mr. Powell, there seems reason to conclude he may not presently be a stable and appropriate resource for his children."
Chuck Cox said Tuesday that the possibility of a lawsuit against the state of Washington has been briefly discussed.
"It's been suggested. That's about as far as it's gone," he said.
Bremner said Tuesday that any talk of a civil suit is "premature."
"We don't know everything that happened," she said.
Source http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=19308982
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
DFCS acknowledges wrongdoing in child's death
By Craig Schneider
State child protection officials acknowledged Tuesday that they failed to properly watch over a 4-year-old Fulton County boy who died Feb. 6 of head injuries in a case that has been ruled a homicide.
The state Division of Family and Children Services had an open case on the family of Nasir Patrick, but there was confusion about which worker was to visit the home, said Acting DFCS Deputy Director Kathy Herren. Consequently no workers made a documented visit there in nearly two months before Nasir was injured on Jan. 25.
“We were remiss in visiting the child,” Herren told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday.
DFCS fired three employees after the boy died. The Fulton County Medical Examiner declared the death a homicide Tuesday, finding that Nasir died of delayed complications from blunt force head trauma. The Atlanta Police Department is investigating, but no arrests have been made.
Nasir’s mother, Yakerra Patrick, declined to comment when contacted by phone by an AJC reporter.
Nasir’s aunt, Mary Sewell of Coweta County, blasted DFCS for failing in its responsibility.
“He did not have to die,” Sewell said. “I blame them for not following up.”
Nasir’s death came to light through a joint investigation by the AJC and Channel 2 Action News. It was among 35 deaths in the past ten weeks of children whose families have a DFCS history.
The Patrick family came to the attention of DFCS in 2008, with allegations of neglect and inadequate supervision in 2008 and 2009. The agency could not substantiate those complaints, and the inquiries were quickly closed, according to DFCS records obtained by the AJC through the state Open Records Law.
Then, in August, Nasir and his younger sister were removed from the home after the little girl suffered a broken leg. The mother's boyfriend told investigators the injury occurred when the girl got her leg stuck between the bars of her crib.
But the doctor who examined the girl said that story did not wash, and DFCS classified the case as an instance of abuse. The girl was placed in DFCS custody and Nasir went to live with a relative.
DFCS officials say they asked the Atlanta police several times to look deeper into this girl's injury, but the department declined.
Atlanta Police spokesman Carlos Campos told the AJC Tuesday that police thoroughly investigated the girl's injuries at the time and found no evidence to support criminal charges.
In December, DFCS returned Nasir's sister to the home after a judge issued a protective order stipulating that some adult -- the name is redacted from the case file provided to the AJC -- would have no contact with her. At that point, Herren said, the case was supposed to be transferred from one caseworker to another, but each thought the other was monitoring the family.
At some point, the relative with whom Nasir was living returned him to his mother's home, without alerting DFCS. It is not clear whether DFCS workers ever discovered that he was living there.
The agency made no visits that documented the children's well-being between Dec. 9 and Jan. 25, when Nasir was injured. Caseworkers are supposed to visit families at least once a month. The DFCS record notes that a worker made a visit on Dec. 21 to deliver Christmas presents, but did not document that the children were seen.
Nasir was admitted to Scottish Rite children’s hospital Jan. 25 and diagnosed with a skull fracture. According to the police report, his mother told hospital staff that she had left Nasir with her boyfriend while she went to work. She said the boyfriend called her at work to say Nasir had suffered a seizure and fallen to the ground, striking his head on a toy truck.
Again, doctors said the injuries were not consistent with that explanation, and the case was turned over to the Atlanta police.
Herren said DFCS has been reviewing problems with internal communication for the past year, ever since its parent agency, the Department of Human Services, was put under the direction of a new commissioner, Clyde Reese. She said the handling of the Patrick case is being scrutinized and that the lessons learned will be communicated across the agency.
That’s small comfort to advocates who have monitored the agency for years.
“It’s a tragedy whenever people responsible for keeping children safe don’t do what they’re supposed to do,” said Normer Adams, executive director of the Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children.
Sewell said her nephew's death should sound alarm bells throughout DFCS.
"This should be a wake up call for all DFCS workers," she said.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dfcs-acknowledges-wrongdoing-in-1357736.html
State child protection officials acknowledged Tuesday that they failed to properly watch over a 4-year-old Fulton County boy who died Feb. 6 of head injuries in a case that has been ruled a homicide.
The state Division of Family and Children Services had an open case on the family of Nasir Patrick, but there was confusion about which worker was to visit the home, said Acting DFCS Deputy Director Kathy Herren. Consequently no workers made a documented visit there in nearly two months before Nasir was injured on Jan. 25.
“We were remiss in visiting the child,” Herren told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday.
DFCS fired three employees after the boy died. The Fulton County Medical Examiner declared the death a homicide Tuesday, finding that Nasir died of delayed complications from blunt force head trauma. The Atlanta Police Department is investigating, but no arrests have been made.
Nasir’s mother, Yakerra Patrick, declined to comment when contacted by phone by an AJC reporter.
Nasir’s aunt, Mary Sewell of Coweta County, blasted DFCS for failing in its responsibility.
“He did not have to die,” Sewell said. “I blame them for not following up.”
Nasir’s death came to light through a joint investigation by the AJC and Channel 2 Action News. It was among 35 deaths in the past ten weeks of children whose families have a DFCS history.
The Patrick family came to the attention of DFCS in 2008, with allegations of neglect and inadequate supervision in 2008 and 2009. The agency could not substantiate those complaints, and the inquiries were quickly closed, according to DFCS records obtained by the AJC through the state Open Records Law.
Then, in August, Nasir and his younger sister were removed from the home after the little girl suffered a broken leg. The mother's boyfriend told investigators the injury occurred when the girl got her leg stuck between the bars of her crib.
But the doctor who examined the girl said that story did not wash, and DFCS classified the case as an instance of abuse. The girl was placed in DFCS custody and Nasir went to live with a relative.
DFCS officials say they asked the Atlanta police several times to look deeper into this girl's injury, but the department declined.
Atlanta Police spokesman Carlos Campos told the AJC Tuesday that police thoroughly investigated the girl's injuries at the time and found no evidence to support criminal charges.
In December, DFCS returned Nasir's sister to the home after a judge issued a protective order stipulating that some adult -- the name is redacted from the case file provided to the AJC -- would have no contact with her. At that point, Herren said, the case was supposed to be transferred from one caseworker to another, but each thought the other was monitoring the family.
At some point, the relative with whom Nasir was living returned him to his mother's home, without alerting DFCS. It is not clear whether DFCS workers ever discovered that he was living there.
The agency made no visits that documented the children's well-being between Dec. 9 and Jan. 25, when Nasir was injured. Caseworkers are supposed to visit families at least once a month. The DFCS record notes that a worker made a visit on Dec. 21 to deliver Christmas presents, but did not document that the children were seen.
Nasir was admitted to Scottish Rite children’s hospital Jan. 25 and diagnosed with a skull fracture. According to the police report, his mother told hospital staff that she had left Nasir with her boyfriend while she went to work. She said the boyfriend called her at work to say Nasir had suffered a seizure and fallen to the ground, striking his head on a toy truck.
Again, doctors said the injuries were not consistent with that explanation, and the case was turned over to the Atlanta police.
Herren said DFCS has been reviewing problems with internal communication for the past year, ever since its parent agency, the Department of Human Services, was put under the direction of a new commissioner, Clyde Reese. She said the handling of the Patrick case is being scrutinized and that the lessons learned will be communicated across the agency.
That’s small comfort to advocates who have monitored the agency for years.
“It’s a tragedy whenever people responsible for keeping children safe don’t do what they’re supposed to do,” said Normer Adams, executive director of the Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children.
Sewell said her nephew's death should sound alarm bells throughout DFCS.
"This should be a wake up call for all DFCS workers," she said.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dfcs-acknowledges-wrongdoing-in-1357736.html
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Police: Boy Tied Up, Beaten To Death By Dad - Indiana
Blogger note:
CPS failed, once again! Shame on them. When will CPS ever be held criminally accountable for their failure to protect children and being neglectful in their duties?
-----
Caseworker Reported Nothing Wrong In Home, Records Show
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The father and grandmother of a 10-year-old boy who was beaten to death have been charged, yet a caseworker who investigated the family months before found nothing wrong, records show.
Tramelle Sturgis died earlier this month after he and his older brother were tied up with duct tape and beaten with a club by their father, Terry Sturgis, over several hours, in the family's South Bend home, police said.
The 10-year-old was found to have both old and new injuries, including a broken arm and leg, bruising across his body and marks from the club, police said.
His older brother survived the attack but also suffered bruises and welts, police said.
Terry Sturgis has been charged with one count of murder and two counts of felony battery. His mother, Dellia Castile, 53, the boys' grandmother, was charged Wednesday with three counts of felony neglect of a dependent.
Police said Castile, who lived with her son and his five children, was in the home the night that her grandson was killed and heard the boys screaming but did nothing to stop the abuse.
Indiana Department of Child Services records obtained by the Call 6 Investigators show at least one person reported ongoing abuse in the home in May.
According to the complaint, the parents "beat the children with two-by-fours" and that one of them "might be bleeding internally."
Records show that a caseworker went to the home to investigate but found the report to be unsubstantiated. The caseworker said the children didn't show signs of being abused.
Sandy Runkle-Delorme with Prevent Child Abuse Indiana said it is critical to study child fatalities to determine how other children might be saved in the future.
"Who knows where the responsibility lies, other than with the perpetrator, ultimately," she said. "Anyone with whom that child had contact with -- where was the missing link and who failed this child?"
Due to confidentiality rules, DCS officials were unable to comment on the case.
Source http://www.theindychannel.com/news/29787510/detail.html
CPS failed, once again! Shame on them. When will CPS ever be held criminally accountable for their failure to protect children and being neglectful in their duties?
-----
Caseworker Reported Nothing Wrong In Home, Records Show
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The father and grandmother of a 10-year-old boy who was beaten to death have been charged, yet a caseworker who investigated the family months before found nothing wrong, records show.
Tramelle Sturgis died earlier this month after he and his older brother were tied up with duct tape and beaten with a club by their father, Terry Sturgis, over several hours, in the family's South Bend home, police said.
The 10-year-old was found to have both old and new injuries, including a broken arm and leg, bruising across his body and marks from the club, police said.
His older brother survived the attack but also suffered bruises and welts, police said.
Terry Sturgis has been charged with one count of murder and two counts of felony battery. His mother, Dellia Castile, 53, the boys' grandmother, was charged Wednesday with three counts of felony neglect of a dependent.
Police said Castile, who lived with her son and his five children, was in the home the night that her grandson was killed and heard the boys screaming but did nothing to stop the abuse.
Indiana Department of Child Services records obtained by the Call 6 Investigators show at least one person reported ongoing abuse in the home in May.
According to the complaint, the parents "beat the children with two-by-fours" and that one of them "might be bleeding internally."
Records show that a caseworker went to the home to investigate but found the report to be unsubstantiated. The caseworker said the children didn't show signs of being abused.
Sandy Runkle-Delorme with Prevent Child Abuse Indiana said it is critical to study child fatalities to determine how other children might be saved in the future.
"Who knows where the responsibility lies, other than with the perpetrator, ultimately," she said. "Anyone with whom that child had contact with -- where was the missing link and who failed this child?"
Due to confidentiality rules, DCS officials were unable to comment on the case.
Source http://www.theindychannel.com/news/29787510/detail.html
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Can Adoption Lead to Child Abuse?
By Lisa Belkin
I have not been able to get four-year-old Sean Paddock, or 11-year-old Hanna Williams, or 7-year-old Lydia Schatz out of my mind. As Erik Eckholm reported in the New York Times yesterday, and Anderson Cooper discussed on CNN, most recently last week, the three children all died within the past five years, and they had several chilling factors in common.
Each of their deaths were brutal and agonizing: Sean suffocated; Hana, who was found lying naked in the muddy yard, died of hypothermia and malnutrition; Lydia showed signs of a brutal beating. In each case, one or both of their parents has been charged with their murder.
And in each case, those parents are said to have essentially punished their children to death, allegedly because they believed it was God's will. They are said to have been guided by the book To Train Up A Child, by Michael and Debi Pearl, which advocates beating children with rubber tubing, leaving them outside in the cold, and witholding food for days at a time in keeping with Biblical teachings. (No, I am not linking to it, out of sympathy with those who are petitioning sites like Amazon not to sell this particular book, which does not directly advocate the level of abuse that killed these children, but that appears to have been misinterpreted and misused by at least some of the parents who stand accused.)
Much attention has been paid to the religious pieces of a this tale. Less noted is that each of these children joined these families through adoption. Sean was born in the US, as were his five adopted siblings. Hana was from Ethiopia, as was her adopted brother (their parents had six biological children as well), and Lydia was from Liberia (there were two other adopted siblings among the family's nine children.)
Is this merely grisly coincidence? Or is there something about the adoption dynamic that makes violent abuse more likely?
One possibility is that adoptive children -- particularly those who spend their earliest years in an orphanage or shuttling from one foster caregiver to the next -- are more likely to suffer reactive attachment disorder, which are essentially the inability not only to bond, but to feel. The effects are not just psychological, but also physical, with evidence these children can have elevated levels of the hormone cortisol, which increases their tolerance for pain. Some speculate that spanking a child with Reactive Attachment Disorder can spiral out of control quickly, because it takes abusive levels of pain before the child actually feels it and responds.
This cycle is the talk of a handful of adoptive parenting websites, and, in particular, it has been discussed often on Why Not Train a Child, which is dedicated to warning parents about the dangers of the Pearls' book. There an anonymous commenter there, who describes him or herself as knowing the parents of Hana Williams personally, speculates:
Initially, I think their intentions for adopting were "good" (although I am uncomfortable with the idea of adopting children solely because you are religiously motivated to "rescue" them). I don't think they adopted Hana and her brother so that they could have some children to torture and abuse. However, I believe they made a huge assumption that these kids would respond to their methods just like their own biological children did. They expected Hana and her little brother to assimilate into their family, and most likely ignored their culture, how they had grown up (customs, beliefs, etc), and most importantly, the trauma that Hana and her brother had gone through in their childhoods. These kids just weren't acting like their biological children. Instead of taking a step back and getting professional help, they decided that they would continue to follow the Pearl method, but continued to up the ante, because these kids were NOT succumbing to being "broken".
Adoption can save a child and create a family. It can also come with complications that biological parents are far less likely to face. All children are vulnerable, but adopted children are more so, because the very fact of their adoption tells of a shakier start in life. They deserve more of our protection. In at least three cases they did not receive it.
Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-belkin/adoption-spanking-childabuse_b_1081617.html
I have not been able to get four-year-old Sean Paddock, or 11-year-old Hanna Williams, or 7-year-old Lydia Schatz out of my mind. As Erik Eckholm reported in the New York Times yesterday, and Anderson Cooper discussed on CNN, most recently last week, the three children all died within the past five years, and they had several chilling factors in common.
Each of their deaths were brutal and agonizing: Sean suffocated; Hana, who was found lying naked in the muddy yard, died of hypothermia and malnutrition; Lydia showed signs of a brutal beating. In each case, one or both of their parents has been charged with their murder.
And in each case, those parents are said to have essentially punished their children to death, allegedly because they believed it was God's will. They are said to have been guided by the book To Train Up A Child, by Michael and Debi Pearl, which advocates beating children with rubber tubing, leaving them outside in the cold, and witholding food for days at a time in keeping with Biblical teachings. (No, I am not linking to it, out of sympathy with those who are petitioning sites like Amazon not to sell this particular book, which does not directly advocate the level of abuse that killed these children, but that appears to have been misinterpreted and misused by at least some of the parents who stand accused.)
Much attention has been paid to the religious pieces of a this tale. Less noted is that each of these children joined these families through adoption. Sean was born in the US, as were his five adopted siblings. Hana was from Ethiopia, as was her adopted brother (their parents had six biological children as well), and Lydia was from Liberia (there were two other adopted siblings among the family's nine children.)
Is this merely grisly coincidence? Or is there something about the adoption dynamic that makes violent abuse more likely?
One possibility is that adoptive children -- particularly those who spend their earliest years in an orphanage or shuttling from one foster caregiver to the next -- are more likely to suffer reactive attachment disorder, which are essentially the inability not only to bond, but to feel. The effects are not just psychological, but also physical, with evidence these children can have elevated levels of the hormone cortisol, which increases their tolerance for pain. Some speculate that spanking a child with Reactive Attachment Disorder can spiral out of control quickly, because it takes abusive levels of pain before the child actually feels it and responds.
This cycle is the talk of a handful of adoptive parenting websites, and, in particular, it has been discussed often on Why Not Train a Child, which is dedicated to warning parents about the dangers of the Pearls' book. There an anonymous commenter there, who describes him or herself as knowing the parents of Hana Williams personally, speculates:
Initially, I think their intentions for adopting were "good" (although I am uncomfortable with the idea of adopting children solely because you are religiously motivated to "rescue" them). I don't think they adopted Hana and her brother so that they could have some children to torture and abuse. However, I believe they made a huge assumption that these kids would respond to their methods just like their own biological children did. They expected Hana and her little brother to assimilate into their family, and most likely ignored their culture, how they had grown up (customs, beliefs, etc), and most importantly, the trauma that Hana and her brother had gone through in their childhoods. These kids just weren't acting like their biological children. Instead of taking a step back and getting professional help, they decided that they would continue to follow the Pearl method, but continued to up the ante, because these kids were NOT succumbing to being "broken".
Adoption can save a child and create a family. It can also come with complications that biological parents are far less likely to face. All children are vulnerable, but adopted children are more so, because the very fact of their adoption tells of a shakier start in life. They deserve more of our protection. In at least three cases they did not receive it.
Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-belkin/adoption-spanking-childabuse_b_1081617.html
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Oklahoma counties have history of child death problems
Records reveal that two to the 11 Oklahoma DHS workers and supervisors allegedly involved in her case have been disciplined by the agency within the last four years.
BY RANDY ELLIS,
NOLAN CLAY AND
ROBBY TRAMMELL
SHAWNEE — The 2009 death of 6-year-old Alexis Morris was in the same region of the state where DHS child welfare workers have been involved in at least four other cases that ended in violent deaths.
Records reveal that two of the 11 DHS workers and supervisors allegedly involved in Alexis' case have been disciplined by the agency within the past four years. It is not possible from the records to determine whether the discipline was connected to that case.
Serenity Deal, 5, Kelsey Smith-Briggs, 2, Aja Johnson, 7, and Melissa Ellison, 5, all suffered violent deaths within the past nine years after having come under supervision of DHS in Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties. Aja's DHS case was closed before her death, said Sheree Powell, spokeswoman for DHS.
Powell said DHS administrators are highly aware of child deaths in Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties and for more than a year have been engaged in a special focus program to identify deficiencies in those counties and provide additional training.
“This broad assessment includes reviews of individual cases, management of the offices and decision making, as well as communications between the counties, district attorneys and the courts,” Powell said. “We have also instituted weekly training sessions with our legal division, county staff and assistant district attorneys.”
A lawsuit over Alexis' death alleges one of the disciplined workers, Tamara Story, was both a close friend and worked at DHS with a sister of Alexis' father.
Alexis' mother contends that relationship prompted Story and other workers to leave Alexis and a brother at their father's home when they should have been removed.
Story declined to comment when contacted by The Oklahoman.
Workers disciplined
Records show Story is one of two DHS workers involved in Alexis' case who have been disciplined by the agency.
Story was fired by DHS in April for dereliction of duty and having medical limitations that prevented her from performing her duties.
Her discharge letter indicates she failed to appear at work the last nine months she was employed, was on medical leave without pay for a portion of that time and had complained actions taken weren't fair because her medical problems were “OKDHS' fault.”
Records show Story was suspended without pay for five days in April 2010 for unsatisfactory performance and misconduct and had twice before received written reprimands on the same grounds.
At the time of her suspension, she was cited for more than 20 areas of substandard performance. Those included falsifying documents in her permanency child placement caseload, lack of worker contacts with parents, being “not diligent at all” in searching for relatives with whom children could be placed, announcing child visits in advance and allowing parent-child unsupervised weekend visitation and trial reunifications without safety assessments of the homes.
In that April 12, 2010, disciplinary letter, DHS Area IV Director William Wilson Jr. ripped the performance of child welfare workers in Pottawatomie County, noting that even though that county was one of two focus counties within his 15-county jurisdiction that had received extra training, a review revealed “outcomes for children were extremely disappointing in most categories.”
“In fact, Pottawatomie is the first and only county in Area IV to have had scores of zero (on a scale of 100) in any category, much less several categories,” Wilson wrote.
Other findings
The county scored:
• 0 percent in substantially achieving the goal of providing permanency and stability for children in their living situations.
• 0 percent in substantially achieving the goal of preserving continuity of family relationships and connections for children.
• 0 percent in substantially achieving the goal of enhancing the capacity of families to provide for their children's needs.
• 67 percent in substantially achieving the top goal of protecting children from abuse and neglect.
• 33 percent in substantially achieving the goal of maintaining children in their home whenever possible and appropriate.
• 67 percent in substantially achieving the goal of providing children with appropriate services to meet educational needs.
• 50 percent in providing children with services to meet their physical and mental health needs.
Gloria Weiss was the other Pottawatomie County DHS child welfare worker named in the lawsuit who has been disciplined by the agency.
Records show Weiss was suspended without pay for five days in 2008 for misconduct that included unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, failure to follow DHS policy and discourteous treatment of clients, employees or members of the public.
Source http://newsok.com/oklahoma-counties-have-history-of-child-death-problems/article/3620508
BY RANDY ELLIS,
NOLAN CLAY AND
ROBBY TRAMMELL
SHAWNEE — The 2009 death of 6-year-old Alexis Morris was in the same region of the state where DHS child welfare workers have been involved in at least four other cases that ended in violent deaths.
Records reveal that two of the 11 DHS workers and supervisors allegedly involved in Alexis' case have been disciplined by the agency within the past four years. It is not possible from the records to determine whether the discipline was connected to that case.
Serenity Deal, 5, Kelsey Smith-Briggs, 2, Aja Johnson, 7, and Melissa Ellison, 5, all suffered violent deaths within the past nine years after having come under supervision of DHS in Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties. Aja's DHS case was closed before her death, said Sheree Powell, spokeswoman for DHS.
Powell said DHS administrators are highly aware of child deaths in Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties and for more than a year have been engaged in a special focus program to identify deficiencies in those counties and provide additional training.
“This broad assessment includes reviews of individual cases, management of the offices and decision making, as well as communications between the counties, district attorneys and the courts,” Powell said. “We have also instituted weekly training sessions with our legal division, county staff and assistant district attorneys.”
A lawsuit over Alexis' death alleges one of the disciplined workers, Tamara Story, was both a close friend and worked at DHS with a sister of Alexis' father.
Alexis' mother contends that relationship prompted Story and other workers to leave Alexis and a brother at their father's home when they should have been removed.
Story declined to comment when contacted by The Oklahoman.
Workers disciplined
Records show Story is one of two DHS workers involved in Alexis' case who have been disciplined by the agency.
Story was fired by DHS in April for dereliction of duty and having medical limitations that prevented her from performing her duties.
Her discharge letter indicates she failed to appear at work the last nine months she was employed, was on medical leave without pay for a portion of that time and had complained actions taken weren't fair because her medical problems were “OKDHS' fault.”
Records show Story was suspended without pay for five days in April 2010 for unsatisfactory performance and misconduct and had twice before received written reprimands on the same grounds.
At the time of her suspension, she was cited for more than 20 areas of substandard performance. Those included falsifying documents in her permanency child placement caseload, lack of worker contacts with parents, being “not diligent at all” in searching for relatives with whom children could be placed, announcing child visits in advance and allowing parent-child unsupervised weekend visitation and trial reunifications without safety assessments of the homes.
In that April 12, 2010, disciplinary letter, DHS Area IV Director William Wilson Jr. ripped the performance of child welfare workers in Pottawatomie County, noting that even though that county was one of two focus counties within his 15-county jurisdiction that had received extra training, a review revealed “outcomes for children were extremely disappointing in most categories.”
“In fact, Pottawatomie is the first and only county in Area IV to have had scores of zero (on a scale of 100) in any category, much less several categories,” Wilson wrote.
Other findings
The county scored:
• 0 percent in substantially achieving the goal of providing permanency and stability for children in their living situations.
• 0 percent in substantially achieving the goal of preserving continuity of family relationships and connections for children.
• 0 percent in substantially achieving the goal of enhancing the capacity of families to provide for their children's needs.
• 67 percent in substantially achieving the top goal of protecting children from abuse and neglect.
• 33 percent in substantially achieving the goal of maintaining children in their home whenever possible and appropriate.
• 67 percent in substantially achieving the goal of providing children with appropriate services to meet educational needs.
• 50 percent in providing children with services to meet their physical and mental health needs.
Gloria Weiss was the other Pottawatomie County DHS child welfare worker named in the lawsuit who has been disciplined by the agency.
Records show Weiss was suspended without pay for five days in 2008 for misconduct that included unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, failure to follow DHS policy and discourteous treatment of clients, employees or members of the public.
Source http://newsok.com/oklahoma-counties-have-history-of-child-death-problems/article/3620508
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Police: Foster parents allegedly hurt other child
By BRIAN WALKER
The Post Falls foster parents arrested on Thursday in connection with the death of a 2-year-old girl they cared for nearly three years ago bonded out of the Kootenai County jail on Friday after their first appearance in court.
Jeremy Clark, 36, and his wife, Amber Clark, 28, were arrested after a grand jury assigned to the case came back with an indictment in the Karina Moore case on Wednesday night.
Both were being held in jail on $25,000 combined bonds on two counts of felony injury to a child, one count of concealing evidence and one count of perjury. The bond amount stayed the same during the first appearance before the couple bonded out of jail late Friday afternoon, according to jail staff.
During their court appearance earlier in the day, Amber sobbed while Jeremy showed little emotion. Several supporters of the Clarks attended their appearance.
The Clarks, represented by the county Public Defender's Office, declined to be interviewed on Friday, per their attorneys. Their attorneys could not be reached for comment.
The arraignment in district court is expected on Thursday. The case is expected to go to trial.
"When I became chief, bringing this to a conclusion was one of my top priorities," Post Falls Police Chief Scot Haug said. "My feeling was that somebody needed to be a voice for Karina. This was a very complex case that took interviewing dozens of medical experts, witnesses and reviewing digital and physical evidence.
"We wanted to make sure we had a good solid case (before making the arrests). We've always had a detective, sometimes two, assigned to the case for the past three years."
Haug and Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh declined to comment on details surrounding the charges or evidence.
"I can't talk about evidence," Haug said. "That will come out in court."
McHugh added: "They deserve a fair trial."
Haug said another child under the Clarks' care - a boy who was 4 at the time - was allegedly injured in the home between 2007 and 2008.
"The (injury to child) charges indicate physical harm done to the children, but I can't get into the specifics," Haug said.
The Clarks were registered foster parents for two years and had several children in their care, but haven't been registered with the state since the Moore case. They also have kids of their own.
Haug said he believes the Clarks were aware of the ongoing investigation during the past three years. A search warrant was recently served at their home.
Jeremy was arrested without incident at his house, while Amber was arrested at her Hayden workplace.
Haug said the Clarks were not cooperative with police during the investigation, but declined to specify.
The grand jury met on the case from Monday through Wednesday. Haug said it's rare that cases go to a grand jury, which speaks to the complexity of the Moore case. He said police supported McHugh's decision to have a grand jury consider the charges.
Karina's biological mother, Samantha Moore, couldn't be reached for comment on Friday. She earlier said she doesn't believe her daughter's death was an accident.
Haug said Samantha was pleased with the outcome of the case when he spoke with her on Thursday.
The Clarks, who had been Karina's foster parents for more than a year, told police that Karina fell about 4 feet down a flight of carpeted stairs during the Jan. 6, 2009, incident. Amber Clark told police she was on the couch and recognized that the child might fall, but the child fell to the bottom of the stairs before she could help. She called the incident a tragic accident.
Haug wouldn't comment if investigators believe the account was made up.
Clark claimed she performed CPR until emergency responders arrived and flew her to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. Police said Karina was at the bottom of the stairs when they arrived.
Karina was brain dead and comatose afterward and died 10 days later.
The Spokane County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the case a homicide, citing "blunt force head injuries."
However, the examiner's report did not corroborate with the initial police investigation nor the opinions of multiple doctors police interviewed at Kootenai Medical Center and Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, which determined the head and spleen injuries were consistent with an accidental fall.
John Howard, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy of Karina, said he could not comment on the evidence or factors that led him to the homicide determination.
Moore filed civil lawsuits against the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in January this year in state and federal courts, claiming she reported abuse allegations against the Clarks to social workers twice, but her concerns weren't addressed.
The suit claims the IDHW "negligently and with reckless indifference failed to supervise the foster home ... which resulted in the death of Karina."
The suits have been stayed.
Karina and two of her siblings, a brother and sister, had been living with the Clarks. Moore has since regained custody of her two surviving children.
The Clarks hadn't been booked in the local jail before.
Staff writer David Cole contributed to this article.
Source http://www.cdapress.com/news/local_news/article_4599160c-4a3a-5254-9fa5-1876efb5147f.html
The Post Falls foster parents arrested on Thursday in connection with the death of a 2-year-old girl they cared for nearly three years ago bonded out of the Kootenai County jail on Friday after their first appearance in court.
Jeremy Clark, 36, and his wife, Amber Clark, 28, were arrested after a grand jury assigned to the case came back with an indictment in the Karina Moore case on Wednesday night.
Both were being held in jail on $25,000 combined bonds on two counts of felony injury to a child, one count of concealing evidence and one count of perjury. The bond amount stayed the same during the first appearance before the couple bonded out of jail late Friday afternoon, according to jail staff.
During their court appearance earlier in the day, Amber sobbed while Jeremy showed little emotion. Several supporters of the Clarks attended their appearance.
The Clarks, represented by the county Public Defender's Office, declined to be interviewed on Friday, per their attorneys. Their attorneys could not be reached for comment.
The arraignment in district court is expected on Thursday. The case is expected to go to trial.
"When I became chief, bringing this to a conclusion was one of my top priorities," Post Falls Police Chief Scot Haug said. "My feeling was that somebody needed to be a voice for Karina. This was a very complex case that took interviewing dozens of medical experts, witnesses and reviewing digital and physical evidence.
"We wanted to make sure we had a good solid case (before making the arrests). We've always had a detective, sometimes two, assigned to the case for the past three years."
Haug and Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh declined to comment on details surrounding the charges or evidence.
"I can't talk about evidence," Haug said. "That will come out in court."
McHugh added: "They deserve a fair trial."
Haug said another child under the Clarks' care - a boy who was 4 at the time - was allegedly injured in the home between 2007 and 2008.
"The (injury to child) charges indicate physical harm done to the children, but I can't get into the specifics," Haug said.
The Clarks were registered foster parents for two years and had several children in their care, but haven't been registered with the state since the Moore case. They also have kids of their own.
Haug said he believes the Clarks were aware of the ongoing investigation during the past three years. A search warrant was recently served at their home.
Jeremy was arrested without incident at his house, while Amber was arrested at her Hayden workplace.
Haug said the Clarks were not cooperative with police during the investigation, but declined to specify.
The grand jury met on the case from Monday through Wednesday. Haug said it's rare that cases go to a grand jury, which speaks to the complexity of the Moore case. He said police supported McHugh's decision to have a grand jury consider the charges.
Karina's biological mother, Samantha Moore, couldn't be reached for comment on Friday. She earlier said she doesn't believe her daughter's death was an accident.
Haug said Samantha was pleased with the outcome of the case when he spoke with her on Thursday.
The Clarks, who had been Karina's foster parents for more than a year, told police that Karina fell about 4 feet down a flight of carpeted stairs during the Jan. 6, 2009, incident. Amber Clark told police she was on the couch and recognized that the child might fall, but the child fell to the bottom of the stairs before she could help. She called the incident a tragic accident.
Haug wouldn't comment if investigators believe the account was made up.
Clark claimed she performed CPR until emergency responders arrived and flew her to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. Police said Karina was at the bottom of the stairs when they arrived.
Karina was brain dead and comatose afterward and died 10 days later.
The Spokane County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the case a homicide, citing "blunt force head injuries."
However, the examiner's report did not corroborate with the initial police investigation nor the opinions of multiple doctors police interviewed at Kootenai Medical Center and Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, which determined the head and spleen injuries were consistent with an accidental fall.
John Howard, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy of Karina, said he could not comment on the evidence or factors that led him to the homicide determination.
Moore filed civil lawsuits against the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in January this year in state and federal courts, claiming she reported abuse allegations against the Clarks to social workers twice, but her concerns weren't addressed.
The suit claims the IDHW "negligently and with reckless indifference failed to supervise the foster home ... which resulted in the death of Karina."
The suits have been stayed.
Karina and two of her siblings, a brother and sister, had been living with the Clarks. Moore has since regained custody of her two surviving children.
The Clarks hadn't been booked in the local jail before.
Staff writer David Cole contributed to this article.
Source http://www.cdapress.com/news/local_news/article_4599160c-4a3a-5254-9fa5-1876efb5147f.html
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Oklahoma - Tribal Members Rally In Support Of Naomi Whitecrow
Lisa Monahan, News 9
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A two-year-old Native American dies in foster care. Now, tribal members are calling on lawmakers to deliver justice for Naomi Whitecrow.
The Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes do not believe Whitecrow's foster mother, Amy Holder is being held accountable.
The tribes say the punishment recommended for Amy Holder does not fit the crime.
A jury recommended Holder pay a $5,000 fine after they found Holder guilty of child abuse in the death of Whitecrow.
The tribes say a rally at the capitol Wednesday is not their first attempt to get justice and certainly will not be their last.
Naomi's Aunt, Debby Whitecrow, said, "I'm glad people are taking notice of all we got going here."
A crowd rallied for the two-year-old who was also a member of the tribes.
"We want justice that is what we are looking for in all of this. We are here to remember her life and the life she is no longer going to be able to live with us," Whitecrow said.
Tribal members wore buttons and held signs begging for justice for Naomi. The tribe said they will keep campaigning for a judge to send Holder to prison.
"We want everyone to know what kind of monster is still out there and lurks," Whitecrow said.
Tribal members said they plan to attend Holder's formal sentencing.
Holder's attorney says the jury made its decision and Holder will be ready to pay the fine at sentencing on November 7th.
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A two-year-old Native American dies in foster care. Now, tribal members are calling on lawmakers to deliver justice for Naomi Whitecrow.
The Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes do not believe Whitecrow's foster mother, Amy Holder is being held accountable.
The tribes say the punishment recommended for Amy Holder does not fit the crime.
A jury recommended Holder pay a $5,000 fine after they found Holder guilty of child abuse in the death of Whitecrow.
The tribes say a rally at the capitol Wednesday is not their first attempt to get justice and certainly will not be their last.
Naomi's Aunt, Debby Whitecrow, said, "I'm glad people are taking notice of all we got going here."
A crowd rallied for the two-year-old who was also a member of the tribes.
"We want justice that is what we are looking for in all of this. We are here to remember her life and the life she is no longer going to be able to live with us," Whitecrow said.
Tribal members wore buttons and held signs begging for justice for Naomi. The tribe said they will keep campaigning for a judge to send Holder to prison.
"We want everyone to know what kind of monster is still out there and lurks," Whitecrow said.
Tribal members said they plan to attend Holder's formal sentencing.
Holder's attorney says the jury made its decision and Holder will be ready to pay the fine at sentencing on November 7th.
Friday, September 30, 2011
More CPS Incompetence: Lakeland mom charged with negligence, manslaughter in 3-month-old daughter’s death
Blog authors note:
The gross negligence and incompetence by CPS is so horrible - children are injurred and killed daily - while under the watch of CPS. Why? If CPS is truly doing the job that they are trained to do, how does this happen so frequently? They are trained professionals in the field of child abuse, right?
---
By: Jeff Butera
LAKELAND, Fla. - A Lakeland mother is charged with negligent manslaughter in the death of her 3-month-old daughter, and is also accused of lying to police about what happened.
Kylee Copeland, 21, was arrested earlier this week after her daughter, Nataley Agee, was found dead at their house in Briarwood Estates near the county line.
Copeland claimed she had found Nataley dead at 9 a.m. on Monday. Investigators said that was a lie. They said evidence on Nataley’s body indicated she had been dead for at least eight hours before Copeland called 911.
They also said roaches, which “infested the residence,” had bitten Nataley after she died but well before Copeland called for help.
Multiple neighbors at Briarwood Estates confirmed that the house was infested with roaches, including in Nataley's crib.
The medical examiner also determined Nataley's cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head, consistent with child abuse.
Copeland told detectives in a subsequent story that the child had fallen on the couch cushion and bounced to the floor, but investigators determined that to be false based on the trauma Nataley received to her brain.
Copeland faces a first-degree felony charge of negligent manslaughter.
“I don’t know how a mother could do that,” said Samantha O’Neill, a neighbor.
“I didn’t know that Kylee. I don’t want to know that Kylee. I just want justice for Nataley,” said Ashley Leath, Nataley’s godmother and neighbor.
According to law enforcement, Copeland disappeared for a few days in 2009 while raising her then 6-month old son. She did not come home from her job as a nightclub dancer, but turned up a few days later.
Copeland has two sons in addition to Nataley. They are now in foster care, according to Carrie Hoeppner, director of communications with the Department of Children and Families.
Hoeppner said DCF was currently investigating the family after an incident in August involving the childrens’ father. That investigation remains open. DCF also has four other reports about the family on file.
A social worker visited the family as recently as last week, Hoeppner said, but the social worker had not found any evidence of abuse and did not believe there was reason to suspect future violence.
Source http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_polk/lakeland/lakeland-mom-charged-with-negligence,-manslaughter-in-3-month-old-daughter%E2%80%99s-death
The gross negligence and incompetence by CPS is so horrible - children are injurred and killed daily - while under the watch of CPS. Why? If CPS is truly doing the job that they are trained to do, how does this happen so frequently? They are trained professionals in the field of child abuse, right?
---
By: Jeff Butera
LAKELAND, Fla. - A Lakeland mother is charged with negligent manslaughter in the death of her 3-month-old daughter, and is also accused of lying to police about what happened.
Kylee Copeland, 21, was arrested earlier this week after her daughter, Nataley Agee, was found dead at their house in Briarwood Estates near the county line.
Copeland claimed she had found Nataley dead at 9 a.m. on Monday. Investigators said that was a lie. They said evidence on Nataley’s body indicated she had been dead for at least eight hours before Copeland called 911.
They also said roaches, which “infested the residence,” had bitten Nataley after she died but well before Copeland called for help.
Multiple neighbors at Briarwood Estates confirmed that the house was infested with roaches, including in Nataley's crib.
The medical examiner also determined Nataley's cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head, consistent with child abuse.
Copeland told detectives in a subsequent story that the child had fallen on the couch cushion and bounced to the floor, but investigators determined that to be false based on the trauma Nataley received to her brain.
Copeland faces a first-degree felony charge of negligent manslaughter.
“I don’t know how a mother could do that,” said Samantha O’Neill, a neighbor.
“I didn’t know that Kylee. I don’t want to know that Kylee. I just want justice for Nataley,” said Ashley Leath, Nataley’s godmother and neighbor.
According to law enforcement, Copeland disappeared for a few days in 2009 while raising her then 6-month old son. She did not come home from her job as a nightclub dancer, but turned up a few days later.
Copeland has two sons in addition to Nataley. They are now in foster care, according to Carrie Hoeppner, director of communications with the Department of Children and Families.
Hoeppner said DCF was currently investigating the family after an incident in August involving the childrens’ father. That investigation remains open. DCF also has four other reports about the family on file.
A social worker visited the family as recently as last week, Hoeppner said, but the social worker had not found any evidence of abuse and did not believe there was reason to suspect future violence.
Source http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_polk/lakeland/lakeland-mom-charged-with-negligence,-manslaughter-in-3-month-old-daughter%E2%80%99s-death
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Funeral Set for 4 year old girl
August 20, 2011 6:53 PM
Ashley Gaston
The Funeral has been set for a 4 year old girl who Investigators say died at the hands of her mothers boyfriend. Breonna Nichole Loftin died Wednesday night. Her funeral service will be 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, August 23, 2011, at Eastgate United Pentecostal Church, 290 South Street, Vidor with burial to follow at Restlawn Memorial Park in Vidor under the direction of Broussard’s, 530 W. Monroe, Kountze. A gathering of her family and friends will be Monday evening, August 22, 2011, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Broussard’s.
HARDIN COUNTY - A judge has set bond at more than $1 million each for a mother and boyfriend charged with Injury to a Child in connection with the death of the woman's 4-year-old daughter.
Read the complete affidavit for Jason Delacerda
Read the complete affidavit for Amanda Guidry
State District Court Judge Steve Thomas arraigned Amanda Nichole Guidry, 30, and her boyfriend, Jason Wade Delacerda, 34, Friday afternoon on 1st Degree Felony Charges of Injury to a Child.
He set Delacerda's bond at $2 million and Guidry's at $1.5 million.
The judge appointed attorney Sonny Cribbs to represent Delacerda and Jimmy Hamm to represent Guidry.
Investigators say the child suffered physical and sexual abuse, and neglect, for months.
The Hardin County Sheriff's Office and Child Protective Services are investigating the death of the child in what Sheriff Ed Cain and CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam tell KFDM News is "one of the worst child abuse cases" they've ever seen.
District Attorney David Sheffield says additional charges could be filed in the case.
KFDM News has obtained a Probable Cause Affidavit for the arrest of Delacerda and Guidry.
According to the Affidavit, Delacerda admitted making the 4-year-old stand barefoot on water caps.
Investigators spoke with two male juveniles who said they saw him make the girl stand on the bottle caps and observed Delacerda strike the child in the head and torso several times. The juveniles also said they saw him kick the girl several times on her body. Investigators say Delacerda admitted to those actions.
The Affidavit states Guidry told investigators that she observed Delacerda throw the child across the room on one occasion.
The court document indicates he admitted spilling hot coffee on her foot and thigh and causing burns, and he admitted spanking the child so hard with a wooden paddle that he caused injury to her buttocks.
Guedry, according to the document, admits she knew her daughter was being abused and failed to seek medical attention or to report the actions to law enforcement.
The Affidavit states the child suffered a number of injuries that include, numerous broken ribs in various stages of healing, abrasions to her left temple, a bruise in the middle of her forehead, a burn mark on her left chest, a burn to her inner right upper thigh, a burn to the top of her foot, bruising to her vaginal area, severe burns to both buttocks, bruising to her left shoulder, and an old fracture on her left leg.
A neighbor told KFDM News they saw the girl outside only a couple of times. The last time was about two months ago. They told us she was never allowed outside. The neighbor said the mother and boyfriend always had an excuse about why she couldn't come outside to play.
The girl weighed 32 pounds.
"That child suffered months and months of physical abuse, sexual abuse and also neglect," Shari Pulliam with Child Protective Services told KFDM News.
Funeral arrangements for the girl are pending with Broussard's Mortuary in Koutze.
Late Thursday afternoon deputies arrested the mother, Amanda Guidry, 30, and her boyfriend, Jason Delacerda, 34, and jailed them on 1st Degree Felony charges of Injury to a Child. If convicted they could face up to life in prison.
Sheriff Cain says the boyfriend called 911 Wednesday night and an ambulance took the child to Christus Hospital Saint Elizabeth. She died at about midnight. Sheriff's deputies and Child Protective Services began investigating and visited the couple's mobile home off Highway 69 in Kountze. Investigators say there were visible signs of abuse. A preliminary autopsy shows the four-year-old girl died of blunt force trauma to the head. The autopsy report lists the preliminary manner of death as homicide. Toxicology results are pending.
Sheriff Cain said the mother and boyfriend voluntarily came to the Sheriff's Office for questioning Thursday afternoon and were arrested following the questioning.
Shari Pulliam with CPS says investigators with her agency are shaken up after seeing what Pulliam calls abuse the girl suffered. Investigators believe it went on for nearly six months. The Sheriff and Pulliam say it's one of the worst cases of abuse they've ever seen. Pulliam says nearly every one of the girl's ribs was shattered.
"Old fractures and new fractures," said Pulliam. "Almost every rib on this child was fractured. The child had a skull fracture, multiple cigarette burns to the chest. Large burn on her foot and both buttocks."
Cain said the girl had "numerous bruises and burns, basically from head to toe." The Sheriff said she was the victim of severe abuse going on the last several months. According to Cain, his office is consulting with the Hardin County District Attorney's Office and other charges might be filed in the case.
"I've never seen anything this bad," said Sheriff Cain. "Doctors agree and they're saying it's pretty bad. I can't believe it went on this long without anyone bringing it to our attention."
Cain said it hurts him to see children who are abused.
"Any time there's a child involved, they are totally helpless. An adult can help themselves but children like this, they can't help themselves. It's a serious case. It's sad, it's tragic. This child has suffered a lot."
Pulliam says the girl would have turned five in December. According to Pulliam, the girl was malnourished. She weighed only 32 pounds. Pulliam says that's a definite sign of abuse. She says no calls were made to indicate any abuse was going on in the home.
Source http://www.kfdm.com/articles/year-44378-old-funeral.html<>
Ashley Gaston
The Funeral has been set for a 4 year old girl who Investigators say died at the hands of her mothers boyfriend. Breonna Nichole Loftin died Wednesday night. Her funeral service will be 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, August 23, 2011, at Eastgate United Pentecostal Church, 290 South Street, Vidor with burial to follow at Restlawn Memorial Park in Vidor under the direction of Broussard’s, 530 W. Monroe, Kountze. A gathering of her family and friends will be Monday evening, August 22, 2011, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Broussard’s.
HARDIN COUNTY - A judge has set bond at more than $1 million each for a mother and boyfriend charged with Injury to a Child in connection with the death of the woman's 4-year-old daughter.
Read the complete affidavit for Jason Delacerda
Read the complete affidavit for Amanda Guidry
State District Court Judge Steve Thomas arraigned Amanda Nichole Guidry, 30, and her boyfriend, Jason Wade Delacerda, 34, Friday afternoon on 1st Degree Felony Charges of Injury to a Child.
He set Delacerda's bond at $2 million and Guidry's at $1.5 million.
The judge appointed attorney Sonny Cribbs to represent Delacerda and Jimmy Hamm to represent Guidry.
Investigators say the child suffered physical and sexual abuse, and neglect, for months.
The Hardin County Sheriff's Office and Child Protective Services are investigating the death of the child in what Sheriff Ed Cain and CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam tell KFDM News is "one of the worst child abuse cases" they've ever seen.
District Attorney David Sheffield says additional charges could be filed in the case.
KFDM News has obtained a Probable Cause Affidavit for the arrest of Delacerda and Guidry.
According to the Affidavit, Delacerda admitted making the 4-year-old stand barefoot on water caps.
Investigators spoke with two male juveniles who said they saw him make the girl stand on the bottle caps and observed Delacerda strike the child in the head and torso several times. The juveniles also said they saw him kick the girl several times on her body. Investigators say Delacerda admitted to those actions.
The Affidavit states Guidry told investigators that she observed Delacerda throw the child across the room on one occasion.
The court document indicates he admitted spilling hot coffee on her foot and thigh and causing burns, and he admitted spanking the child so hard with a wooden paddle that he caused injury to her buttocks.
Guedry, according to the document, admits she knew her daughter was being abused and failed to seek medical attention or to report the actions to law enforcement.
The Affidavit states the child suffered a number of injuries that include, numerous broken ribs in various stages of healing, abrasions to her left temple, a bruise in the middle of her forehead, a burn mark on her left chest, a burn to her inner right upper thigh, a burn to the top of her foot, bruising to her vaginal area, severe burns to both buttocks, bruising to her left shoulder, and an old fracture on her left leg.
A neighbor told KFDM News they saw the girl outside only a couple of times. The last time was about two months ago. They told us she was never allowed outside. The neighbor said the mother and boyfriend always had an excuse about why she couldn't come outside to play.
The girl weighed 32 pounds.
"That child suffered months and months of physical abuse, sexual abuse and also neglect," Shari Pulliam with Child Protective Services told KFDM News.
Funeral arrangements for the girl are pending with Broussard's Mortuary in Koutze.
Late Thursday afternoon deputies arrested the mother, Amanda Guidry, 30, and her boyfriend, Jason Delacerda, 34, and jailed them on 1st Degree Felony charges of Injury to a Child. If convicted they could face up to life in prison.
Sheriff Cain says the boyfriend called 911 Wednesday night and an ambulance took the child to Christus Hospital Saint Elizabeth. She died at about midnight. Sheriff's deputies and Child Protective Services began investigating and visited the couple's mobile home off Highway 69 in Kountze. Investigators say there were visible signs of abuse. A preliminary autopsy shows the four-year-old girl died of blunt force trauma to the head. The autopsy report lists the preliminary manner of death as homicide. Toxicology results are pending.
Sheriff Cain said the mother and boyfriend voluntarily came to the Sheriff's Office for questioning Thursday afternoon and were arrested following the questioning.
Shari Pulliam with CPS says investigators with her agency are shaken up after seeing what Pulliam calls abuse the girl suffered. Investigators believe it went on for nearly six months. The Sheriff and Pulliam say it's one of the worst cases of abuse they've ever seen. Pulliam says nearly every one of the girl's ribs was shattered.
"Old fractures and new fractures," said Pulliam. "Almost every rib on this child was fractured. The child had a skull fracture, multiple cigarette burns to the chest. Large burn on her foot and both buttocks."
Cain said the girl had "numerous bruises and burns, basically from head to toe." The Sheriff said she was the victim of severe abuse going on the last several months. According to Cain, his office is consulting with the Hardin County District Attorney's Office and other charges might be filed in the case.
"I've never seen anything this bad," said Sheriff Cain. "Doctors agree and they're saying it's pretty bad. I can't believe it went on this long without anyone bringing it to our attention."
Cain said it hurts him to see children who are abused.
"Any time there's a child involved, they are totally helpless. An adult can help themselves but children like this, they can't help themselves. It's a serious case. It's sad, it's tragic. This child has suffered a lot."
Pulliam says the girl would have turned five in December. According to Pulliam, the girl was malnourished. She weighed only 32 pounds. Pulliam says that's a definite sign of abuse. She says no calls were made to indicate any abuse was going on in the home.
Source http://www.kfdm.com/articles/year-44378-old-funeral.html<>
Friday, August 19, 2011
Young boy’s death at hands of foster parents led to change
Marcus Fiesel was killed five years ago, prompting overhaul of child welfare system.
By Michael D. Pitman, Staff Writer
2:20 AM Sunday, August 7, 2011
It’s been five years since the death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel at the hands of his foster parents that captured the attention of the region, state and nation, sent two people to prison for the rest of their lives and led to a child welfare system overhaul.
Marcus, the Middletown boy with an impish grin, would have turned 8 in June. Instead of marking another birthday, he will be remembered for his horrific death.
The developmentally disabled boy was bound in a blanket wrapped with duct tape and placed in a playpen inside an upstairs closet while Liz and David Carroll Jr., live-in girlfriend Amy Baker, their children and foster children, and even the family dog, traveled to an August family reunion in Kentucky during the hottest days of the year.
“I’d like to think the laws that have changed in his memory have been beneficial in the fact that we haven’t had any other child have the same fate that he did,” said Gary Cates, a former state senator from West Chester Twp. “If that’s his legacy, that no other child’s been harmed, then that’s a tremendous legacy that Marcus left other children.”
Both Liz and David Carroll declined interview requests from prison.
Marcus’ death during the weekend of Aug. 4-6, 2006, in the closet of the Carrolls’ Union Twp. home in Clermont County placed a giant spotlight on some gaping holes in the child welfare system and led private foster placement agency, the former Lifeway for Youth, from operating in the state.
While his death was the breaking point to prompt reform in Ohio’s foster care and children services system, other children died while under the charge of Butler County Children Services: Tiffany Hubbard, 3, of Hamilton in 1986; Randi Fuller, 2, of Hamilton, in 2000; Christopher Long, 2, of Middletown, in 2001; Courtney Centers, 3, of Middletown in 2002; Jesus Rodriquez, 7 months, of Hamilton in 2003; and Justin Johnson, 13 months, of Middletown in 2004.
Marcus’ hurdles
Born on June 24, 2003, Marcus had many obstacles from the start. He was born with a developmental disability — though not specifically diagnosed, he had “global delays” and needed 24-hour care and attention.
Marcus slept on a foam mat at the home of his biological mother, Donna Trevino, and he and his siblings were not closely watched or cared for. Butler County Children Services became involved with the family in Aug. 9, 2004.
When Marcus was found wandering the streets on April 22, 2006, almost being hit by a car — roughly four months after he accidentally fell out of a second-story window — caseworkers removed Trevino’s three children from her home, where reports showed there was feces on the carpet and wall of the flea-infested home. This was the third time her children had been taken from her care.
The day Marcus went ‘missing’
The public story of Marcus’ disappearance began on Aug. 15, 2006, after Liz Carroll collapsed from an apparent heart condition at an Anderson Twp. park in Hamilton County. When medics responded, she told them she brought four children to the park, but only three were present. This sparked a massive three-day search by hundreds of volunteers, law enforcement and search and rescue teams.
“I still have nightmares about that little guy,” said Jann Heffner, then director of Butler County Children Services. “You don’t get into this business unless you care about the care and physical well being of a child.”
She and some of her staff, including Marcus’ caseworker Joe Beumer went out immediately to search for the child.
Beumer was in “shock and disbelief” but said the story of his disappearance “wasn’t adding up.” He doubted Marcus would have run off — even though that would be something he would do, when his foster mother collapsed. “Any child that experiences something like that I think their natural instinct would be to stay with that person that’s hurt,” he said, “even if they couldn’t do anything they would just sit there.”
Worry quickly turned into horror at the end of August 2006 when the Carrolls were charged with murder.
The case
Not many things hang on the walls in Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters’ office, but a drawing of Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Jim Borgman of Marcus holding hands with God walking toward heaven has a special place.
“To this day it just chills me that someone could do that to a little baby. They are where they belong and they will have to answer to God,” Deters said.
Deters had prosecuted the case before it was moved over to Clermont County since Marcus died in the Carrolls’ home. He said he thinks about the 3-year-old boy “all the time.”
“The inhumanity of how they treated him, it boggles my mind when you’ve got children,” he said.
The story of Marcus’ disappearance unraveled at Liz Carroll’s televised news conference, which Deters watched from his office. “It was rehearsed and came off very untruthful,” he said.
He immediately brought in Liz Carroll and Amy Baker (who now goes by Amy Ramsey) before a county grand jury. He talked to Baker first, and with her attorney present, said “if she was not truthful, she’ll go to prison.” After consulting with her attorney — who Deters said was ghostly pale after the attorney-client conversation — Baker admitted what happened to Marcus.
“It was disgusting,” Deters said of her testimony.
She revealed Marcus had been dead for days before the disappearance hoax at the park, and that she helped David Carroll burn the boy’s body in rural Brown County and throw the rest of his remains in the Ohio River.
Following a jury trial in February 2007, Liz Carroll was convicted of charges including murder and sentenced to 54 years to life in prison; her husband later was sentenced to 16 years to life as part of a plea deal.
The aftermath
An Ohio Department of Job and Family Services investigation pointed blame at Lifeway for Youth, the New Carlisle, Ohio-based foster care provider that placed Marcus with the Carrolls.
For reasons that include and extend beyond Marcus’ case, ODJFS later pulled Lifeway’s operational certificate, a decision upheld by a Franklin County judge.
Although investigations determined that Butler County Children Services did nothing wrong, Heffner was moved into a consulting role and then fired by the county commissioners. The Butler County Children Services Board — initially formed in the wake of 3-year-old Tiffany Hubbard’s abuse and death in 1986 at the hands of her biological father — was disbanded.
The Rev. Johnny Wade Sloan, chairman of the 11-member board, didn’t agree or see the reason to disband the board.
“(The Carrolls) promised 24-hour adult supervision and there was no reason for us not to place (the kids) when (Lifeway was) telling us, as a licensed agency, they had an ideal place,” he said.
But Sloan and Heffner said the decisions to disband the board and fire Heffner were political moves and not a result of Marcus’ death. “Marcus Fiesel became the focal point for that happening because that would have happened regardless,” Sloan said. Former Butler County Commissioner Mike Fox resigned his elected seat and later was appointment Children Services director. He has since resigned and is headed to federal prison in an unrelated case.
System changes
The death of Marcus Fiesel prompted change the Ohio child welfare system, though the need for retooling the system had been evident for years, said Gary Cates, a former state senator from West Chester Twp.
In 2007, Cates introduced legislation in the Ohio Senate and Rep. Courtney Combs, R-Hamilton, introduced legislation in the Statehouse.
“I hope and pray that it never happens again,” Combs said of Marcus’ death.
Implementing the legislation requirements cost about $15 million in both the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years, said ODJFS spokeswoman Angela Terez. That investment included about $5.2 million in federal funds in each of the years, she said. After Marcus’ death, the Criminal Justice Information System, formed in Montgomery County, expanded to now include 14 Ohio counties. Had CJIS been in effect in Butler County, Marcus could have been pulled from the Carroll home following a June 2006 domestic violence arrest of David Carroll Jr., though the charge was later dismissed.
“Any foster parent in our network — even foster parents where we don’t have children in their homes — if they are pulled over even for a speeding ticket we’re made aware of it instantly,” said Jeff Centers, current children services director. “Anything that might raise a red flag, we’ll know about it immediately.”
Centers said the county pays $46,000 a year for the CJIS licensing records checks and that the agency also has a $95,000 annual contract with the county sheriff’s office to have a deputy supervise the investigations unit and provide services such as security and finding runaways.
Source http://www.oxfordpress.com/news/oxford-news/young-boys-death-at-hands-of-foster-parents-led-to-change-1224553.html
By Michael D. Pitman, Staff Writer
2:20 AM Sunday, August 7, 2011
It’s been five years since the death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel at the hands of his foster parents that captured the attention of the region, state and nation, sent two people to prison for the rest of their lives and led to a child welfare system overhaul.
Marcus, the Middletown boy with an impish grin, would have turned 8 in June. Instead of marking another birthday, he will be remembered for his horrific death.
The developmentally disabled boy was bound in a blanket wrapped with duct tape and placed in a playpen inside an upstairs closet while Liz and David Carroll Jr., live-in girlfriend Amy Baker, their children and foster children, and even the family dog, traveled to an August family reunion in Kentucky during the hottest days of the year.
“I’d like to think the laws that have changed in his memory have been beneficial in the fact that we haven’t had any other child have the same fate that he did,” said Gary Cates, a former state senator from West Chester Twp. “If that’s his legacy, that no other child’s been harmed, then that’s a tremendous legacy that Marcus left other children.”
Both Liz and David Carroll declined interview requests from prison.
Marcus’ death during the weekend of Aug. 4-6, 2006, in the closet of the Carrolls’ Union Twp. home in Clermont County placed a giant spotlight on some gaping holes in the child welfare system and led private foster placement agency, the former Lifeway for Youth, from operating in the state.
While his death was the breaking point to prompt reform in Ohio’s foster care and children services system, other children died while under the charge of Butler County Children Services: Tiffany Hubbard, 3, of Hamilton in 1986; Randi Fuller, 2, of Hamilton, in 2000; Christopher Long, 2, of Middletown, in 2001; Courtney Centers, 3, of Middletown in 2002; Jesus Rodriquez, 7 months, of Hamilton in 2003; and Justin Johnson, 13 months, of Middletown in 2004.
Marcus’ hurdles
Born on June 24, 2003, Marcus had many obstacles from the start. He was born with a developmental disability — though not specifically diagnosed, he had “global delays” and needed 24-hour care and attention.
Marcus slept on a foam mat at the home of his biological mother, Donna Trevino, and he and his siblings were not closely watched or cared for. Butler County Children Services became involved with the family in Aug. 9, 2004.
When Marcus was found wandering the streets on April 22, 2006, almost being hit by a car — roughly four months after he accidentally fell out of a second-story window — caseworkers removed Trevino’s three children from her home, where reports showed there was feces on the carpet and wall of the flea-infested home. This was the third time her children had been taken from her care.
The day Marcus went ‘missing’
The public story of Marcus’ disappearance began on Aug. 15, 2006, after Liz Carroll collapsed from an apparent heart condition at an Anderson Twp. park in Hamilton County. When medics responded, she told them she brought four children to the park, but only three were present. This sparked a massive three-day search by hundreds of volunteers, law enforcement and search and rescue teams.
“I still have nightmares about that little guy,” said Jann Heffner, then director of Butler County Children Services. “You don’t get into this business unless you care about the care and physical well being of a child.”
She and some of her staff, including Marcus’ caseworker Joe Beumer went out immediately to search for the child.
Beumer was in “shock and disbelief” but said the story of his disappearance “wasn’t adding up.” He doubted Marcus would have run off — even though that would be something he would do, when his foster mother collapsed. “Any child that experiences something like that I think their natural instinct would be to stay with that person that’s hurt,” he said, “even if they couldn’t do anything they would just sit there.”
Worry quickly turned into horror at the end of August 2006 when the Carrolls were charged with murder.
The case
Not many things hang on the walls in Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters’ office, but a drawing of Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Jim Borgman of Marcus holding hands with God walking toward heaven has a special place.
“To this day it just chills me that someone could do that to a little baby. They are where they belong and they will have to answer to God,” Deters said.
Deters had prosecuted the case before it was moved over to Clermont County since Marcus died in the Carrolls’ home. He said he thinks about the 3-year-old boy “all the time.”
“The inhumanity of how they treated him, it boggles my mind when you’ve got children,” he said.
The story of Marcus’ disappearance unraveled at Liz Carroll’s televised news conference, which Deters watched from his office. “It was rehearsed and came off very untruthful,” he said.
He immediately brought in Liz Carroll and Amy Baker (who now goes by Amy Ramsey) before a county grand jury. He talked to Baker first, and with her attorney present, said “if she was not truthful, she’ll go to prison.” After consulting with her attorney — who Deters said was ghostly pale after the attorney-client conversation — Baker admitted what happened to Marcus.
“It was disgusting,” Deters said of her testimony.
She revealed Marcus had been dead for days before the disappearance hoax at the park, and that she helped David Carroll burn the boy’s body in rural Brown County and throw the rest of his remains in the Ohio River.
Following a jury trial in February 2007, Liz Carroll was convicted of charges including murder and sentenced to 54 years to life in prison; her husband later was sentenced to 16 years to life as part of a plea deal.
The aftermath
An Ohio Department of Job and Family Services investigation pointed blame at Lifeway for Youth, the New Carlisle, Ohio-based foster care provider that placed Marcus with the Carrolls.
For reasons that include and extend beyond Marcus’ case, ODJFS later pulled Lifeway’s operational certificate, a decision upheld by a Franklin County judge.
Although investigations determined that Butler County Children Services did nothing wrong, Heffner was moved into a consulting role and then fired by the county commissioners. The Butler County Children Services Board — initially formed in the wake of 3-year-old Tiffany Hubbard’s abuse and death in 1986 at the hands of her biological father — was disbanded.
The Rev. Johnny Wade Sloan, chairman of the 11-member board, didn’t agree or see the reason to disband the board.
“(The Carrolls) promised 24-hour adult supervision and there was no reason for us not to place (the kids) when (Lifeway was) telling us, as a licensed agency, they had an ideal place,” he said.
But Sloan and Heffner said the decisions to disband the board and fire Heffner were political moves and not a result of Marcus’ death. “Marcus Fiesel became the focal point for that happening because that would have happened regardless,” Sloan said. Former Butler County Commissioner Mike Fox resigned his elected seat and later was appointment Children Services director. He has since resigned and is headed to federal prison in an unrelated case.
System changes
The death of Marcus Fiesel prompted change the Ohio child welfare system, though the need for retooling the system had been evident for years, said Gary Cates, a former state senator from West Chester Twp.
In 2007, Cates introduced legislation in the Ohio Senate and Rep. Courtney Combs, R-Hamilton, introduced legislation in the Statehouse.
“I hope and pray that it never happens again,” Combs said of Marcus’ death.
Implementing the legislation requirements cost about $15 million in both the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years, said ODJFS spokeswoman Angela Terez. That investment included about $5.2 million in federal funds in each of the years, she said. After Marcus’ death, the Criminal Justice Information System, formed in Montgomery County, expanded to now include 14 Ohio counties. Had CJIS been in effect in Butler County, Marcus could have been pulled from the Carroll home following a June 2006 domestic violence arrest of David Carroll Jr., though the charge was later dismissed.
“Any foster parent in our network — even foster parents where we don’t have children in their homes — if they are pulled over even for a speeding ticket we’re made aware of it instantly,” said Jeff Centers, current children services director. “Anything that might raise a red flag, we’ll know about it immediately.”
Centers said the county pays $46,000 a year for the CJIS licensing records checks and that the agency also has a $95,000 annual contract with the county sheriff’s office to have a deputy supervise the investigations unit and provide services such as security and finding runaways.
Source http://www.oxfordpress.com/news/oxford-news/young-boys-death-at-hands-of-foster-parents-led-to-change-1224553.html
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