Foster dad convicted in girl's death

Experts say Child Protective Services failed slain Inland boy

All Ricky ever wanted was to be loved.

Ricky Morales wore his red Power Rangers suit out to play even when it grew too tight. The would-be hero with deep-set dimples told people his mother would come for him after she got out of jail. But she never did come for him.

By the time he died at age 11 in the custody of his aunt and uncle, Ricky was bone-thin.

His body was a map of bruises and scars, burn marks and cuts when he died in Corona on Christmas Day 2005. He died locked in a feces-strewn closet while his aunt and uncle, Raul and Cathy Sarinana, entertained guests for dinner. The Sarinanas are in a Riverside County jail awaiting trial on murder charges.

Ricky was killed three months after social workers in Washington state, where the family had been living, cleared Raul Sarinana of child abuse allegations. When the letter arrived telling Raul he was not suspected of "negligent treatment or maltreatment," Ricky's 13-year-old brother, Conrad, was already dead, his body entombed in a concrete-filled trash can.

The Sarinanas have pleaded not guilty in Ricky's death. Prosecutors in Washington, where Conrad died, said they plan to charge the couple after their Riverside County trial.

In Washington, child protective services dismissed without investigation at least three reports of neglect, drugs and abuse -- physical, sexual and emotional -- in the Sarinana home. None of the allegations warranted investigations or home visits, officials decided.

In the final months of the boys' lives, authorities in Los Angeles County as well as Washington received reports of abuse. However, investigations were superficial, warning signs were not heeded and basic protective procedures were not followed, according to records and interviews with relatives, social service officials and child-welfare experts.

Officials with the Washington stateDepartment of Social and Health Services and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services have reviewed their handling of the case and concluded that they did everything they are required to do.

The Los Angeles County Child Death Review Team, which studies child deaths to better protect children, also reviewed the county's handling of the case, said Cassandra Turner, the team's leader.

"Nothing had been done wrong," she said.

Not every child can be saved, even when social workers do everything in their power to protect them, said Turner.

"We are put in a position where we are damned if we do and damned if we don't," she said. "We have to respect the rights of the family while helping them through very dark waters."

In Washington state, Lewis County Child Protective Services Supervisor Juli Stewart said her social workers also did everything they should have.

But a California legislator familiar with the case said the lack of intervention was indefensible.

"That's atrocious," said California State Assembly Majority Leader Karen Bass, who chairs the Select Committee on Foster Care. "I don't see how they can defend that."

The deaths of Ricky and Conrad reflect the problems with child protective services, Bass said. While it's not helpful to attack social services after every tragedy, it also does no good to defend substandard work, she said.

"I think it would have been more honest to say, 'The social workers needed to do better,' " she said.

Social workers throughout the state are overburdened with heavy caseloads, and child protective agencies are often put on the defensive, she said. But cases like this scream out for improvements, she said.

Stu Riskin, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County agency, said no policy violations or systemic problems were exposed in this case.

The boys' deaths have not triggered changes in the system.

'The Dope House'

The brothers were born into danger.

"The first time I saw them was during a drug raid," said West Covina police Detective Dan Nalian. "In the middle of it, (their mother) was sitting on the couch breast-feeding one of them. My partner and I knew it then. These kids never had a chance."

Ricky and Conrad were the youngest of six children. The two oldest siblings died of sudden infant death syndrome, family members said. The boys lived in West Covina with two sisters and their parents, Rosa and Conrad Morales.

"Our house was the dope house, and everyone knew it," said sister Vanessa Gallardo, 23, of Baldwin Park.

"I hated it so much. I always cried, and all the police knew me as the crybaby," she said. Police told her and other children in the family they would grow up to be troubled like her parents, she said.

"That's why I tried so hard to be different, to show my brothers and sister another way of life. ... I used to dream I would get a job and my own place so my brothers and sister could come live with me."

Gallardo earned a technical degree and works in a pharmacy but was never able to adopt her brothers.

Conrad was 1 when social services first entered his life. His arm broke in a fall from a second-story window on the same day his 4-year-old sister ingested PCP and had to be hospitalized. The children were placed in foster care for months before returning to their mother. Over the years, Los Angeles County social workers would investigate at least five more allegations of abuse or neglect involving the children and various relatives.

The family was well known to local police, said Nalian, who made multiple drug raids at the home where the children lived during the '90s.

According to court records, the children repeatedly were traumatized by exposure to drug deals and SWAT team raids when officers blasted locks and broke down doors.

"These people should never have these children," Nalian and his partner wrote to a judge overseeing custody of the young boys. "The only hope is to remove these children from this environment."

When child protective services intervened, Rosa Morales took classes and submitted to drug tests to get her children back. She gave up her boys for the last time in 2004, when her parole for a drug violation was revoked.

She left Conrad and Ricky with her mom in La Puente. But within a few months, Morales let Conrad move to Washington to live with her brother and sister-in-law.

'A Safe Home'

It was then, around Halloween 2004, when Ricky acted out in school. The 10-year-old wrote "Die, Ricky, die" on his arm.

"You just don't know what is going on at my house," he told a teacher. "My life is not worth living."

Fearing that he was suicidal, authorities admitted Ricky to a psychiatric hospital. Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services social worker Elia Godinez began investigating allegations that his grandmother beat Ricky and Conrad.

In a report to her boss, Godinez wrote that she substantiated the abuse allegations.

Ricky's maternal grandmother, Estella Sarinana, denies hitting her grandchildren.

By then, Rosa Morales was out of jail, but she couldn't support Ricky.

The social worker gave her an ultimatum, Morales said. "She said, 'Conrad seems to be doing fine in Washington, so why don't you send Ricky to Washington, too? You've got one week to send him to Washington or I'm going back to court, and your kids are going back into foster care.' "

Morales sent Ricky to his Uncle Raul.

Through a county spokesman, Godinez declined to be interviewed for this story.

A follow-up plan devised by Godinez's supervisors directed her to call social services in Washington to make sure Ricky received therapy and to make sure the boys were living in a safe home. She also was supposed to interview Conrad by phone at his school so he could talk freely about conditions in the home. That never happened, according to Los Angeles County records.

In a report to her boss, Godinez wrote that she contacted child protective services in Washington to "ensure their safety." She noted the first name of the person she spoke to.

Washington social service officials said they have no record of such a call, and no one there checked on the boys.

In closing her case, Godinez wrote that the boys had been removed from the abuse and that their mother had made living arrangements for her children and would provide "a safe home" with their uncle.

But Raul Sarinana was a felony drug offender who later told police he took medication for anger management and was plagued by voices. If Godinez had taken her abuse findings to a judge to have the boys made wards of the court, the felony conviction would have disqualified Sarinana as a guardian under California law.

Cracks in the System

An outside expert who reviewed the case for The Press-Enterprise said the system failed the boys because social workers didn't follow basic policies standard among child-protective agencies nationwide.

Division 31 of California's Child Welfare Services Manual lists detailed policies to make sure children are safe when a parent voluntarily removes them from an abusive situation. In such cases where abuse is substantiated, social workers are required to establish a written agreement with the parent and a case plan for ongoing protection of the children.

Child protective services is then responsible for assessing the suitability of the voluntary guardian and the safety of the home and for conducting follow-up visits to make sure the children remain safe. When the children are sent out of state, as in Ricky's case, child protective services workers are supposed to first approve their placement and develop a written contract with out-of-state social workers to continue to monitor the children's safety. It is the California social worker's responsibility to provide a follow-up plan and make sure the out-of-state social worker follows it.

Riskin, the Los Angeles County child protective services spokesman, and representatives of other child-protective agencies said it is standard for social workers to take abuse findings to court. The judge can require oversight including background checks on guardians and regular follow-up visits.

Godinez never took her abuse findings to court, nor did she carry out the voluntary placement process. Because Ricky's case was never officially opened in court, the state's policies didn't apply, Riskin said.

With the boys removed from the house, it wasn't necessary to open a court case, Riskin said. "We can't open a case if the child is not here. ... (Morales) was still their mother and responsible for where they were placed."

However, the social worker still had the same responsibility to protect the children with or without a court case, said Bobby Parnell, a retired social worker of 20 years. Now he works with Justice For Children, a national nonprofit group that represents children in civil suits and works toward child protective reform.

The social worker could have done a background check on the Sarinanas and arranged for a home visit and monthly follow-ups, Parnell said.

"You've already discovered that the mother's decision to place the kids with the grandmother was inappropriate, so you have to scrutinize her second choice -- the uncle," he said.

"With an open investigation, they may not have been able to stop the mother from sending (Ricky) to his uncle. However, they did have an obligation to make sure the child was safe with whomever she placed him," he said.

"If you don't follow up, how do you know the child hasn't been sold into slavery or sent to axe murderers or the exact type of situation these kids ended up in? It's not just policy, it's common sense."

In Riverside County, physical abuse findings are automatically taken to court, said Jennie Pettet, the county's deputy director of children's services.

"If the kids were living with the grandmother, and we substantiated physical abuse in the home of the grandmother, we would have removed the kids from the custody of the mother," Pettet said. "You can't just assume the next place she sends them will be any safer."

Riverside protocol also requires regular follow-up visits to ensure the children's safety in their new home, along with proof of medical care and school enrollment, Pettet added. Any notification to social workers in another state would have been made in writing, she said.

'Case Closed'

Even before Ricky was sent to Washington, records show that officials there received reports of emotional abuse and neglect in the home where the Sarinanas lived with their two young children and Conrad.

In the months after Ricky arrived, neighbors, police, the boys' sister in California and a therapist working with Cathy Sarinana reported domestic violence, drug use and physical and sexual abuse.

Ricky was never enrolled in school in Washington, and few in the community even knew of him.

Friends and neighbors noticed Conrad wearing make-up to hide black eyes and bruises. Conrad told a girl in his seventh-grade class that his aunt and uncle were hitting him and that his uncle was cutting him and molesting him.

Washington social workers did not investigate a neighbor's report of neglect and emotional abuse in January 2005. They did not open an investigation again a month later when a sheriff's deputy relayed more abuse allegations.

The boys' sister, Gallardo, had called from California to report drug use and physical abuse to deputies based on strange phone calls she was receiving from Raul Sarinana and Conrad.

The report was second-hand, and a call to a counselor at Conrad's school revealed no evidence of abuse, said Stewart, the child-protective supervisor in Lewis County, Wash. That wasn't enough to warrant investigation, she said.

A counselor working with Cathy Sarinana called Lewis County's child protective services in July 2005 to report that, according to the Sarinanas, Conrad had molested Ricky. The couple told the counselor they sent Conrad back to California.

The department assumed Ricky was no longer in danger because Conrad was gone.

"When you've got a professional in the home working with the family, there is less of a safety concern," Stewart said. "The other big thing was that Conrad was no longer there."

Police believe Conrad was never sent away.

According to Corona police, Raul Sarinana later confessed that he beat Conrad severely on Aug. 22 and placed the boy in the bunk bed he shared with Ricky. By morning, Conrad was dead.

Three days later, Cathy Sarinana called the county about an at-risk youth program for her out-of-control nephew Conrad. In response, a Lewis County social worker interviewed the family for the first time.

Unable to reach them at home, social worker Bob Cordell interviewed the family in the parking lot of an am/pm minimart on Aug. 30.

The Sarinanas told Cordell they sent Conrad to relatives. Cordell's written report doesn't indicate he made an effort to confirm the boy's whereabouts.

When the social worker asked about the earlier report of sexual abuse by Conrad, Cathy Sarinana recanted.

"Some of this seems suspicious, but the CPS issue is still unfounded," Cordell wrote in his report. "Case Closed."

He never pulled Ricky aside to talk about the alleged abuse without the Sarinanas listening.

While it is policy and generally "good practice" to take those steps, it's not always possible, said Kathleen Spears, Lewis County's CPS spokeswoman.

The social worker simply wasn't in a position to interview Ricky alone or track down Conrad, said Spears. The family said they were moving to California, and this seemed like his last chance to interview them, she said.

Cordell's supervisor did not allow him to be interviewed for this story.

Even though Conrad had been accused of molesting Ricky, the department sent a letter Sept. 2 clearing Raul Sarinana of abuse allegations. When one child molests another, it can be a sign that a sexually abusive adult is in the picture, Spears said. The social worker cleared Raul Sarinana because the Sarinanas had recanted their claims of sexual abuse in the home, she said.

The family reported Conrad a runaway in October, saying he had fled with an elderly gay lover. Three days later, the family moved to Corona. Once again, Ricky was not enrolled in school.

Neighbors and servers at a Corona restaurant saw Ricky with black eyes, bruises and cuts. A grocery store employee in Norco reported seeing Raul Sarinana kicking Ricky.

Neighbors on Belle Avenue pitied the child, who sold his toys at weekend yard sales.

During the family's two-month stay in Corona, the trash can that held Conrad's body was stored in the carport, and Ricky lived in a closet.

After his death, investigators said Ricky's body showed signs of months of abuse. Scars hinted that he had been whipped with electrical cords and burned with cigarettes. Wounds on his thighs and bottom were so infected, they could have killed the child, Mark Fajardo, a forensic pathologist for the Riverside County coroner's office, testified in court. Because the wounds were so infected, it is difficult to say what caused them, he added.

Police say Raul Sarinana confessed to kicking Ricky on Christmas Day because the boy was too slow in cleaning the bathroom. He told police he carried the injured child by his belt to the closet. He said he kicked the boy one last time when he caught Ricky reaching for the doorknob as if to escape.

Common Danger

"I felt bad for the kids, but I wasn't surprised," said Nalian, the detective who intervened when the boys were babies.

Though the violence was extreme, the dangers they faced are not uncommon among the children who police and social workers help every day, he said.

The Sarinanas moved between states -- one of the many challenges social workers face when abusers try to hide, said Turner, of the Los Angeles County death review team.

"You'd be surprised how often we are left holding a piece of paper saying here are allegations of abuse, and we can't find the family, and we can't find the kids," Turner said. "They're ghosts in the night."

A national database to share information among states could help fill cracks in the system and save lives, she said.

Ten children died of abuse in Los Angeles County in 2005 despite the intervention of social workers. Ricky and Conrad are not included in the statistic because they were killed elsewhere.

Nationwide, 40 percent to 50 percent of abuse fatalities involve children who received child protective services, said James Shields, director of Justice for Children.

"That's just too many," he said.

The California legislature has identified overworked social workers as the major problem. Los Angeles County, the nation's largest child protective agency, has 3,000 case workers responding to roughly 9,400 to 13,500 reports of abuse monthly. The average Los Angeles County emergency response caseworker handles 21 cases each month compared with Riverside County's average of 18.5 cases each month.

The Los Angeles County caseload is down significantly from two years ago when the department was last involved with Ricky and Conrad, said Riskin, the department's spokesman.

The county is also hiring 500 people in an ambitious effort to reduce caseloads even further, he said.

Assemblywoman Bass spearheaded an ongoing $50 million statewide hiring effort to reduce workloads. California also is seeking federal funding to further reduce caseloads, she said.

The Washington Division of Children and Family Services is reforming its procedure for handling abuse cases after audits that showed inconsistencies in the quality of investigations around the state. The department has focused on reducing response times and plans to adopt the same standardized case methods being used in California and several other states.

But for Gallardo, the boys' oldest sister, there are no excuses. After her brothers were killed, she covered the walls of her apartment with mementos -- baby pictures and grinning class photos.

"I don't want this to happen to any other kids," she said. "It's so frustrating, because I could tell something was wrong, and I called police, and I tried to get help, but no one would do anything. No one would help my brothers."

Gallardo said she blames child protective services for not checking to make sure Ricky was safe in Washington.

"If they did their jobs, I don't think my brothers would be dead," she said.

'Violence Happens'

Raul Sarinana has a buzz cut, salt-and-pepper stubble and watery brown eyes. Tattoos peeking out from his jail-issue jumpsuit identify him as a member of Big Hazard, a gang from his native Ramona Gardens housing project in East Los Angeles.

Violence, he said with a shrug, is inevitable and child abuse is part of growing up in the Sarinana family. In a jail interview, he said he accepted custody of his sister's boys to save them from the violent childhood he experienced.

When he talked about the abuse, his body shook.

"They use you and abuse you in whatever way, shape and form that they can," he said. "It's just the way that not only I grew up, but others, too. It's just the way society has it, and there is nothing any social worker can do about it."

The youngest of five children, Sarinana said he had no one to save him when he was a child.

In Conrad and Ricky's case, social workers didn't do much, but it wouldn't have made a difference if they had investigated, he concluded. They would have seen good things -- a happy family that took trips to the river to have barbecues and water gun fights, he said.

Violence is unpredictable, he added.

"You're sitting at dinner, and -- Bam! Violence happens," he said. "You're watching football, and -- Bam! Violence. You're at a barbecue -- Bam! Violence."

Sarinana recanted the confession he made to Corona police. He insisted that he tried to save Conrad and Ricky.

"I loved my nephews. I would have done anything for them, but my hands were tied," he said. "My hands were tied even before they came to live with me. ... All Ricky ever wanted was to be loved.

"I tried to help him."

Corona Detective Jeff Edwards paints a different picture. On the day of his arrest, Sarinana described his nephews as a burden, Edwards said during a court hearing.

According to Edwards, Sarinana asked, "Who cares about these kids? Nobody cared about them when they were dumped on me."

Reach Paige Austin at 951-893-2106 or paustin@PE.com

She wasn't growing fast enough!

When Sara Eyerman of northern California was nineteen-months-old, child protective services was concerned that she wasn't growing fast enough. So they "erred on the side of the child" and placed Sara in a "specialized" foster home.

About six weeks later, Sara began running a 105 degree fever. But the "specialists" in the specialized foster home decided it was o.k. to wait two days before taking her to a doctor. On the way to the doctor's office, Sara Eyerman died of viral pneumonia.

"She should have been in the hospital two days earlier when she had a 104.8 [degree] temperature," said Sara's mother, Angie. "When she was home, she went to the emergency room if her temperature got over 101. I didn't care if they laughed at me when I got there or not. One time I took her when she was cutting a tooth ... I kept her alive for a year and seven months. They had her for six weeks and three days and she died.

 "Don't go, Mommy. I love you."

About a week before she died, Caprice Reid's mother saw her daughter for the last time. The little girl clung to her mother's neck and said "Don't go, Mommy. I love you.

Chicago, Boys died after a fire on July 19, 2000

A DCFS licensing worker failed to ensure that a foster home had working smoke detectors. The worker rushed a licensing inspection because "the foster mother was in a hurry," an investigative report stated. The three children died after a fire July 19, 2000, that destroyed the home. After the fire, a second licensing worker employed by DCFS told an investigator that she "was unfamiliar as to how to check (smoke detectors) to find out if they are operational." A state fire marshal's probe concluded that the home had no smoke detectors. "The worker's admitted failure to check for fire hazards in the home may have cost three children their lives," the inspector general concluded.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: Faced with discipline, the second licensing worker resigned. A child protection investigator received counseling.

Died July 10, 2000 Palatine,IL

Two staff members at a residential facility for developmentally disabled children used by DCFS attempted to restrain Tina. The girl was extremely disruptive and took psychotropic medication. But the workers were unfamiliar with the restraint -- a choke hold -- and Tina died. Her death prompted four pages of recommendations from the inspector general about how to deal with children who are mentally disabled.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: None

On Tuesday, October 25, 2005, Islam Elkaryoncey, a twelve year old boy hung himself, choosing death over the prospect of a court mandated visitation with his father. The tragedy of his death is overshadowed by the tragedy of his life, which was fraught with violence at the hands of an abusive father and the unwillingness of the courts to protect him.

According to Danielle Lough's advocate, Sandra Ramos, who is the Founder and Executive Director of Strengthen Our Sisters shelter for battered women and children, Danielle and her three young sons lived in terror for several years. Not only were the children subjected to witnessing their mother being brutally beaten repeatedly by their father, but they were themselves were victims of his wild abuse. In August of 1998, Danielle confided with a friend that she feared for her children's lives, after her oldest son Islam had been hung upside down in a twisted sheet and beaten with a stick on the bottoms of his feet by his father. Her friend called Sandra Ramos and Strengthen Our Sisters took in the distraught mother and her children. Shortly after their arrival to the shelter, Danielle applied for and was granted a restraining order and believed she and her children would finally be protected. However, an appeal was filed by the father and the court ordered unsupervised visitation, despite Danielle's pleas to have these visits monitored.

All too often, the children would come back from the visitations with bumps and bruises, obviously disturbed and begging not to have to go again. This went on for years. Danielle would petition the courts seeking help for her children, showing photographs of the bruises and would request supervised visitation, which would be granted but then always overturned when the father and his expensive attorney would go to the court and protest. At one point Islam, at the age of 8, who was the recipient of the most extreme abuse, experienced a breakdown and spent 19 days at St. Clare's Hospital in Denville, NJ. The psychiatrist's report to the court stated Islam was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit disorder, and extreme depression from the abuse he had experienced and witnessed over the years.

Finally, in May 2005, the judge mandated psychiatric evaluations for the entire family to determine whether the children should be forced to continue visitations with their father. Danielle and her three sons heartily embraced this opportunity to have someone finally understand what they had endured and present their evaluations to the court. However, the father left the country and did not return for five months. During this time, he was served with contempt papers for failing to comply with the ordered psychological evaluation. His excuse was that he had only expected to be gone for two weeks, to tend to his ailing mother (who according to Danielle he had previously declared dead to the INS in 1994, when he wanted to leave the country and be able to return), but that he had been further delayed due to a car accident. He had also testified in another courtroom, two weeks prior to leaving the country, that he was anxious to get the evaluation over with, as he was planning on being away for several months. On July 18, 2005 the judge called the family back into court to assess the evaluations, but since the father was still in Egypt, he ordered his parenting visitation time suspended, stating his reasons were based on the father's contempt, and on his assessment and review of the psychiatrist letter to the court. This letter stated the children had clearly been subjected to abuse and that they should be able to make their own choices about visitation. The letter also stated that the judges formal recommendation would take place after he actually had the opportunity to meet with the father.

On September 8, 2005, the father asked the judge to vacate the order of July 18, 2005, at which time the judge stated he would review all orders and documentation on October 21, 2005.

After leaving the shelter, Danielle met and married her current husband and gave birth to another son. Danielle, her husband and her children longed to move away from the area and go to Kansas where Danielle had grown up, and where there were supportive relatives. On October 7, 2005, Danielle put in a request to the court to relocate with children to Kansas City, at which time the judge arbitrarily vacated the July 18, 2005 order and mandated supervised visitation for the father, despite the fact that he did not yet have a full report. Danielle's attorney protested and said that no visitation should be granted until the court had the full psychiatric profile of the father. The judge denied his appeal.

Danielle reported that when she broke the news to her children that they would have to see their father, she assured them that the visit would be supervised. The two younger boys protested but then reluctantly agreed. Islam; however, was beside himself and kept saying that they can't make me see him. She said he was extremely agitated over the next few days, so she called the psychiatrist's office to ask that he intervene and make an appeal to the judge, on behalf of her son. Regrettably, before any of this could happen, Islam went into his room the next day and hung himself, choosing death over the prospects of being forced to be with his torturer.

Hesia Rosenberg, Director of the Circle of Life Organization, has been working tirelessly to help make the public more aware of what the courts are not doing to protect children like Islam. "I have received letters from Florida to Washington, Texas and Tennessee and they continue to pour in. New Jersey is not an isolated state when it comes to corruption. All states are amassed with judicial and legal corruption, and we have to stop it." She recommended that people watch a new PBS documentary scheduled to air on November 20, 2005, entitled "Breaking the Silence", to educate themselves on this national scandal of how the courts are neglecting their duty to protect our most vulnerable, abused women and children.

In 2000, Jill Soderman was a volunteer at Strengthen Our Sisters. She was a licensed therapist and clinical social worker, having over 33 years experience as a non-biased expert witness in many domestic violence cases in New York and New Jersey. Jill attempted to intervene, on behalf of Danielle's children, after interviewing them in the presence of their father. She reported to the court at that time that she felt the children were in grave danger. After reporting such, Jill was harassed on a daily basis by receiving hundreds of phone calls with male voices, muttering in a language she did not understand. This harassment continued, as she persisted in trying to get help for the children, when her house suddenly burned down. Though the perpetrator was never found, she was told by police and firemen that it had clearly been a case of arson. Ironically, the house where Danielle and her children lived was also burned down.

Jill Soderman is currently involved in a second doctoral program involving forensic evaluation and psychoanalysis cases, with particular emphasis on the role of the expert witness. She originally saw the children with Danielle, while they were residing at the shelter and had lined up many witnesses, such as teachers and principles, as well as friends. Jill was never allowed to testify in court, nor was her witnesses, some of whom claimed to have been threatened as well. Instead, she was discredited and so was Danielle by a court appointed evaluator, who claimed that the children had been brainwashed. According to Jill, this evaluator remained a protagonist of the father throughout many of the court hearings, though he was never subpoenaed. It was his claims that brought the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) into the case. DYFS did not want to accept custody of the children and so transferred custody to the father, who brought them back to their mother after three weeks, claiming they were incorrigible. It was at this time that Islam had a breakdown and was brought to St. Clare's Hospital in Denville, NJ, claiming that he and his brothers had been beaten and brutalized by his father, while in his care.

Jill claims she was convinced she had to help the children after her extended interview with them. In the presence of their father, he would read the Koran aloud while the children talked to Jill about the abuse, which included being put into suitcases and beaten. On one occasion, she witnessed their mother bringing them for a mandated weekend visit with their father, who was waiting in a car outside with another man. When the children saw him, they ran in all different directions, screaming that they did not want to go with him. The father then called the police and because of the court ordered documentation, the police had no choice but to chase the children through the streets and force them into the car with their father. Jill said that one of the policemen commented that the event should have been video tapped and presented to a judge. At that time the children were ages four, five and six.

Bereft and distraught with grief over the loss of her son, Danielle requested that Islam's father not be present at the funeral but to be permitted to visit the mosque at a private time. The same judge who ordered the dreaded visitation said he would put in an order to suspend visitation with the other two children. However, a new judge stepped in to take over the case and said the father would be allowed full participation in the funeral.

Danielle also stated that she wants the memory of her son to mean something. She wants the court to be held accountable, so that the tragedy of Islam's life and his death will inspire others into action, in order to protect other children from the same fate. She said the judges and the courts had all the information before them. "They must be exposed because they dropped the ball and now my son is dead."

Those wishing to help can send tax-deductible donations toward desperately needed funeral expenses to Strengthen Our Sisters, marking the envelope "Islam Fund" and send to POB U, Hewitt, NJ. People wishing further information or who wish to share their own stories can contact the Circle of Life Organization at 908-362-9526 or Strengthen Our Sisters at 973-728-0777 and ask for Sandra Ramos.

Girl Found In Cooler

Dead Girl's Mother Accused Before

Judith Barsi, child actress and victim...

June 6, 1978 - July 25, 1988

Judith and Maria were murdered brutally because the California CPS and Social Work department failed them! They had an overload of more than twice the recommended number of cases at the time. The system will always be flawed, but it won't always fail!

I hope little Holly can rest in peace.

The "baby killer" did it, and he'll spend "life" in prison thinking about it.

A jury found James Robinson guilty of murdering his stepdaughter Friday after listening to four days of testimony.

"I hope little Holly can rest in peace," Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Elizabeth Burchett emotionally said after the jury handed down the verdict and recommended a life sentence.

Circuit Judge Eddy Coleman closed the courtroom to the media and family members Friday morning, after Robinson caused a disturbance as he was being transported from the jail to the courtroom. Witnesses said it took six to eight deputies to get him under control.

Coleman told media representatives that Robinson didn't "need an audience."

Before the delayed proceedings began, Coleman ordered deputies to remove the jury from the courtroom if Robinson created problems again. When it was time for the penalty phase, Robinson verbally resisted being shackled to his chair in the courtroom. He gripped and pushed his chair toward the bailiff, telling him to get out of his way.

"What makes them think that I'm guilty of anything?" Robinson asked his attorney, Melissa Goodman, when he was given the opportunity to make a statement on his behalf after the verdict was handed down and the jurors were preparing to decide how much time he should serve. He said he was innocent.

The jury deliberated for more than two hours, pondering whether Robinson was innocent or guilty of murder, second-degree manslaughter, reckless homicide or complicity for each of those three charges.

The last words prior to deliberations from both the prosecution and defense painted bleak pictures of the life of 23-month old Holly Grace Lockard, who was murdered on November 2, 2005.

This week, the evidence has shown that Lockard sustained at least 26 bruises on her face, head and neck, two skull fractures, a broken arm and two broken wrists. Some of the injuries had healed or partially healed, indicating that the abuse occurred over a period of time. Kentucky Medical Examiner Christen Roth said she died because of inter-cranial bleeding, a secondary condition of blunt force trauma or shaken baby syndrome. The baby had been given Xanax and phenegren.

Attorney Melissa Goodman, blamed the child's mother, Amber Robinson, who is currently serving a life sentence for murder. She confessed to the crime and talked about it this week in court and a deputy, who spent time with her during the delivery of her last child, testified that Amber Robinson said she was going to take the fall for her husband.

Amber Robinson wanted to get an abortion when she was pregnant with Holly, Goodman said, and James Robinson, who has paid child support since he was 16, wanted to adopt the child.

Jurors heard testimony this week from a witness who saw Amber Robinson grabbing and jerking the child in 2005.

Goodman described both Holly and her sister Haley, the daughter of James Robinson, as "Daddy's babies," a term Amber Robinson used when described her husband. Goodman also reminded the jury that Amber Robinson said she "flew off the handle" and beat the child.

Referring to the prosecution's argument that Holly was abused over a period of time, Goodman told jurors that no evidence indicated that Robinson ever hit the child. She outlined the months prior to the murder to explain how busy Robinson was, dealing with the death of two family members - one that occurred the day after the couple got married. She also told the jurors about the people who saw Holly Lockard in the weeks and months before the murder.

Burchett pointed at those people when she described how the system failed Holly Lockard. Social service offices in South Carolina and Kentucky failed Holly Lockard, she said, explaining a long list of things that could have prevented the murder. That list included Robinson's decision to bring Amber Robinson and the children from South Carolina to Kentucky, against social services orders and the fact that Lisa Blevins "faked" a urine test to trick the social services. If only someone in Pike County district court would have noticed, Burchett said, that the child was "limp as a rag doll" on the day she was killed, if only Robinson hadn't drugged her, if only Amber Robinson hadn't gone to school and left the child alone with her stepfather.

Burchett told the jury that Robinson's father, Frank Robinson, who was kicked out of the courtroom earlier this week because he talked to a juror, manipulated Amber Robinson so that his son could get away with murder.

She said Amber Robinson was "dumb as a rock" and Frank Robinson, whom she called "the architect," convinced her to take the fall for his son. Frank Robinson paid attorney Robby Wright $10,000, Burchett said, and she pleaded guilty, without a plea bargain and without going over the discovery or the evidence in the case. Amber Robinson, who "richly deserves" her life sentence, thought she was getting 10 to 12 years, Burchett said.

Frank Robinson, who had 20 years of experience as a deputy coroner, called "his life-long friend and lodge brother" Mike Hall, and not the police, when Holly Lockard died, Burchett said, because he thought Hall would declare that she died from natural causes. He manipulated Amber Robinson by keeping funds for her at the jail and by bringing her daughter over to see her every weekend at the detention center. Regardless of the jury's verdict, Amber Robinson will not see her daughter again, Burchett said.

Burchett called James Robinson the "baby killer," and explained that he didn't want Holly Lockard or his wife, who he married, she said, because she was pregnant. To Robinson, the child and his wife were "extra baggage," Burchett said.

Before finally closing, Burchett held up a family portrait that the defense used to portray the "happy family."

"Look at the baby's face," she said. "Is she happy? She's terrified. She's sitting in this picture with a broken arm and the beating that's going to end her life is about to occur."

Even though Goodman officially expressed her disappointment in the jury's verdict and sentence recommendation, Goodman said they were dedicated and took the case seriously.

"At the end of the day, there is no good resolution anyway," she said, "cause little Holly Lockard did lose her life."

Robinson will be formally sentenced on March 16.

Maria Colwell died on 6th January 1973, aged 7.

Maria, removed from her mother's care due to neglect, had been living happily with an aunt after her father's death, but was returned to her mother at the mother's request. Despite warnings of abuse, and 30 calls to social services from neighbours, she was left in a violent household. One neighbour reported the child being hit for being dirty, and saw her at a window with a blackened face "and one eye just a pool of blood." The neighbour asked NSPCC and Social Services: "What protection does a child have against her parents? Does she have to be killed before they take her away?" In Maria's case the answer was yes. Maria was taken to hospital in a pram, after being beaten by her stepfather the night before. She was found to be dead on arrival. She had 2 bruised eyes, bruising on neck, back, arms and legs, severe internal injuries and brain damage. Her stomach was empty.

A life of abuse and neglect -'Ineffective' authorities failed to protect Lauren

Jun. 9, 1993 - May 25, 2006

Open Case with DYFS

Scotty D. McCarter, 12, was fatally shot by his father, Scott McCarter, 40, on May 25, 2006. His father also killed his mother, Wendy Carol Bennett McCarter, 35, and his sister, Melanie Rae, 6, before turning the gun on himself.
At the time of the murders, McCarter was on trial on charges of molesting his teenaged stepdaughter (Wendy's daughter) and the girl's best friend. The bodies of the family were found the morning McCarter was supposed to take the stand in his own defense. Wendy's family found out about the murders as they waited in the courtroom for his trial to resume.
Scotty was known as a rambunctious, active boy who loved the outdoors and sports. He was a student at Lakeside Middle School. He was so loved by his school, students were given a day off to mourn his loss.
The elementary school Scotty had attended, Mount Pleasant Elementary School, dedicated a tree and a plaque to Scotty and his sister Melanie, who attended school there at the time of her death.
The family's initial involvement with DYFS dated back to 2004, when DYFS substantiated that Mr. McCarter had sexually abused another child. The case remained active since that time and DYFS was regularly engaged with the McCarter children. In May, Mr. McCarter went on trial for the sexual abuse allegation. He failed to appear in court on May 25th. Instead, he apparently went to his children's home and shot them, killed their mother Wendy Bennett, then turned the gun on himself.

The deaths of Sean, Melanie, Scotty and Ms. Bennett have brought into sharp focus the connection between domestic violence and child welfare. At DYFS, we have the responsibility to ensure children's safety. To guide our efforts in the context of family violence, we recently hired Jane Sweeney, one of the state's most respected domestic violence experts, to join DCF and strengthen our collaboration with the 21 lead domestic violence agencies in each county. Jane and our executive staff are creating training and technical assistance for our DYFS field staff who encounter family violence every day and need to know how to access resources and sanctuary, navigate the legal system and ensure that children are safe. 

Jan. 20, 2006 - Feb. 27, 2006

Jasmin Fink of Burlington County was born prematurely on January 20, 2006, and died a month later on February 27, 2006 due to Shaken Baby Syndrome. Jasmin's mother's former boyfriend, David Fink, has been charged in connection with the infant's death. DYFS had previously been involved with Jasmin's mother, prior to Jasmin's birth. DYFS had facilitated a formal, court-ordered transfer of custody of Jasmin's older sister to the maternal grandmother in September 2006, after several years of working with the family, and there were no remaining children in the custody of Jamin's mother when DYFS closed her case. DYFS was unaware that Jasmin's mother was pregnant when the case was closed in September. Jasmin's mother has indicated she was unaware she was pregnant until late August and did not tell the maternal grandmother until five days after Jasmin was born. Shortly after Jasmin's birth, the hospital sent a registered nurse to visit with the family on February 14, 2006. We understand the nurse met with the family, observed parenting behavior and described Jasmin's mother as nurturing and receptive to advice and support.

Child dies in foster home

Another Wayne County foster child -- the third in eight months -- died of trauma incurred at a state-licensed foster home, officials said Monday.

On April 8, 3-year-old James Earl Bradley Jr. of Detroit had seizures and a possible head injury in the master bedroom of his foster parents' home in Van Buren Township.

After being taken first to Annapolis Hospital in Wayne around 9:30 p.m. on April 8, the child was transferred by medical helicopter to Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He remained on life support there until he died Friday evening, Township Police Detective Bob Greene said Monday.

Greene said results from an autopsy in Washtenaw County were not yet available, though doctors at U-M thought James might have been shaken, received a blunt-force injury to the head or both.

"We know that something happened to him, but we don't know what yet," Greene said.

The foster parents, identified through court records as Christine Woodward and Lasana Karva, were questioned by police after Woodward reported that she and her 15-year-old daughter had found James in distress on the floor of the master suite in the family's home on Sadie Lane outside Belleville, officials said.

Woodward reported that she had the flu and that James had watched television with her 10-year-old son before going to bed around 9 p.m. She and her daughter said they heard crying from the bedroom, went upstairs and found James having a seizure, Greene said.

Officials said Woodward has been a licensed day-care provider for the state for about 10 years. In November, she and her husband, Karva, became licensed foster parents through the Ennis Center for Children, based in Flint, Waterford and Detroit. James was their first foster child, state records show.

Woodward was licensed to have as many as four children in day care and two foster children at a time, state records say. Only James, the foster parents and their 15-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son were at home the night of April 8, Greene said.

On Friday, the Michigan Department of Human Services' Office of Children and Adult Licensing summarily suspended Woodward's day-care license and the couple's foster-care provider license, the DHS said in a news release. The release said the actions "resulted from a recent investigation of a complaint" at the home.

The couple could not be reached Monday.

Bob Ennis, president and CEO of the Ennis Center, said "the death of this youngster is affecting all of us."

"We're devastated that this happened," Ennis said. "We reviewed all of our records, and the state has been there to review our records, and we don't believe that we could have done anything to prevent this. We want the investigation to be completed and to find where the responsibility lies."

James and his seven siblings were placed in foster care in April 2006 after allegations that some of them had been sexually abused in their home, court records show. The biological family had a history with Child Protective Services dating to January 2005, the records say.

Two other young foster children have been killed in licensed foster homes in recent months. Isaac Lethbridge, 2, of Westland was fatally beaten in a Detroit foster home on Aug. 16, 2006. His foster mother is charged with involuntary manslaughter and child abuse.

Allison Newman, also 2, died Sept. 22 after being injured in the Canton Township home of her foster mother, who is jailed on charges of first-degree murder and child abuse.

Contact JACK KRESNAK at 313- 223-4544 or jkresnak@freepress.com.

"I just don't have anywhere to go."

The uncomfortable truth about the foster care system is that some children are left in the care of overworked, under-trained social workers who fail them. Mary Taylor, who runs the Court-Appointed Special Advocates Program in St. Louis has had some success in limiting the number of placements for children her program supervises.

Although Dominic Williams was not in the CASA program, after his death she wrote this to her volunteers:  "I wonder who really knew him, how many case managers he had, how many places he lived, whether he ever knew his guardian ad litem. Sixteen years of foster case has to be a failure  in everyone's eyes." It was a failure that left Dominic wandering his block of Queens Avenue,  mumbling, "I just don't have anywhere to go."

Sex offender gets life sentence for killing teen

December 16, 2006
By Heather Ratcliffe

St. Louis ? A sex offender convicted of beating and strangling a 16-year-old boy to death in 2004 was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole.

Andrew Roberson, 36, insisted he was not guilty even after St. Louis Circuit Judge Maggie Neill sentenced him for the first-degree murder of Dominic Williams.

"I'll fight this if it takes 20 years from now," Roberson said. He was convicted by a jury Nov. 2.

Williams, whose life and death became a symbol of problems with Missouri's foster care system, was found naked in a trash bin in the Mark Twain neighborhood five days before his 17th birthday in June 2004.

Roberson, who lived in Dominic's neighborhood of Walnut Park, strangled him with an extension cord and beat him with a pipe or similar object, according to prosecutors. He made incriminating statements to police and family, according to court testimony. Blood and the victim's DNA were found at his home.

Roberson had a prior history of violence against teenage boys. In 1986, he threatened a 14-year-old with a knife and sodomized him in the woods in Cool Valley. The next year he choked and sodomized a 15-year-old fellow inmate in the shower of the juvenile detention center in Clayton. He pleaded guilty in both cases and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Court records show that Roberson dropped out of school in 10th grade and has a history of psychological problems. His father, Winford L. Stokes Jr., was executed in Missouri in 1990 for strangling and stabbing a waitress he had met in a bar. Stokes was convicted in two other killings and claimed he had raped six women.

Dominic, the slain 16-year-old, lived a troubled life as well. He was born premature and drug-addicted in 1987 and removed from his mother by a judge seven months later because of medical neglect.

He suffered abuse and neglect as authorities shuffled him through a series of group and foster homes, including one with no heat or electricity, according to state records. He suffered hearing and neurological damage, was mildly retarded and had behavior problems including some that suggested he had been sexually abused.

Records also show the Missouri Department of Family Services failed to place him in six possible permanent homes, including with his paternal grandmother, who raised his older brother.

Dominic's last foster mother wrote a letter to the court Friday defending the state system.

"It was the selfish, heinous and down-right evil actions of Mr. Andrew Roberson that led to this child's death," said Anna Hall.

Annette House, assistant regional director for the Missouri Department of Social Service Children's Division, told the judge that more than 200 people ? friends, relatives, teachers, social workers and strangers ? attended Dominic's funeral.

"Two Dominics"

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

June 13, 2004
Editorial 

TWO BOYS NAMED DOMINIC died in Missouri's foster care system three years apart. The death of two-year-old Dominic James at the hands of his foster father in Greene County in 2001 led to this year's foster care reform bill.
But the reform effort didn't save Dominic Williams.

The high school freshman from the Walnut Park neighborhood in the city spent his entire life shuttling from one foster home to another before his naked body was found abandoned in a trash bin this month, just before his 17th birthday. He had been strangled. It's too soon to know all the specifics that set the stage for Dominic Williams' tragic death.

But the circumstances of his life illustrate the personal problems and systemic failures that confront many children in foster care. Dominic's mother neglected him from birth, leading to brain damage as an infant. His father is unknown. Dominic lived in eight different homes; no one wanted to adopt him.

His case file crossed the desk of no fewer than eight state case workers and nine court-appointed guardians. The last of the nine hadn't visited Dominic's home in the year he had the case. In meetings about him in the last year, no one in the system seemed to have an inkling that he was in danger. A sex offender in custody is a suspect in his murder.

On average, children in foster care have three different placements. The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care recently concluded that children suffer damaging "turbulence and uncertainty" with lasting consequences from multiple placements.

One response to this is a lawsuit. The Washington Supreme Court ruled last year that foster children have a right to be free from the "unreasonable risk of harm," including harm from moving them indiscriminately. But it's one thing for a court to limit the number of placements for foster children and quite another to find the money and safe homes to care for them.

Dec. 10, 1986 - Aug. 15, 2000

Dedicated to a 13-year-old girl who was abused as a child, neglected by the state and was raped and murdered.

Woman: DCFS was indifferent to warning -"It was like Cree Lynn just didn't matter."

FLORA - Linda Jones says child protection workers were hostile and indifferent when she tried to warn them that someone was abusing her step-granddaughter.

"They said, 'Don't you worry about this. This is none of your business,'" said Jones, a Flora beautician.

Jones said she made several calls to an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services child abuse caseworker at the field office in Olney concerning bruises she observed on the baby, Cree Lynn Scott.

On Aug. 24, 2000, the 10-month-old girl choked to death on tissue paper forced down her throat while her mother, Brandy Scott, attended a parenting class.

Jones said she made her last call to DCFS several hours before Cree Lynn's death.

Police charged Scott's boyfriend, Chad W. Jones, no relation to Linda Jones, with murder. He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and received five years in prison.

Chad Jones testified he placed the tissue paper in the little girl's mouth to stop her from crying but could not remove it before she suffocated.

The DCFS had required Scott to take parenting classes after an earlier finding that someone had physically abused Cree Lynn, according to a child death report by the department's Office of the Inspector General.

Linda Jones, who had already adopted two of Brandy Scott's older children, both girls, said she continued to observe bruising on Cree Lynn, even after a second probe.

"They would not listen," she said. "To me, they were more or less just protecting Brandy. They're supposed to be there to protect the child. It was like the baby wasn't even important."

Brandy Scott could not be reached for comment. A supervisor in the DCFS' Olney office declined to comment.

In the investigation of Cree Lynn's death, an investigator faulted the DCFS caseworker and her supervisor for "ethics" violations. After the first child abuse probe, a supervisor allowed Scott's former private therapist to become her DCFS caseworker.

Because of the prior relationship, "The caseworker accepted all of the mother's (claims) regarding substance abuse, employment and the baby's health, and neglected to verify information when obvious discrepancies arose," the investigative report stated.

When the agency assigned another child protection investigator to the case after the second abuse allegation, that worker failed to assess the danger and accepted the opinion of the former therapist-caseworker that the girl's injuries were accidental, the inspector general's office reported.

Linda Jones said a judge would not allow her to make a victim statement at Chad Jones' sentencing.

"They wouldn't hear anything we had to say," she said. "It was like Cree Lynn just didn't matter."

By George Pawlawczyk and Beth Hundsdorfer

News-Democrat

A SHORT, UNHAPPY LIFE

A foster child, Dianne DeVanna just wanted to go home. That's where she was killed.

Nearly 30 years ago, the murder of a young girl reverberated far beyond the South Shore and resulted in wholesale changes in the way the state deals with child abuse.

Eleven-year-old Dianne DeVanna was found dead in her Braintree home on Sept. 23, 1978, the victim of shocking cruelty at the hands of her father and stepmother. The little girl had been tortured, including being hanged by her feet from a staircase with her hands tied and mouth gagged. She died from a blood clot in her brain, caused by a blow to the head.

The case exposed huge gaps in the welfare system designed to protect children and led to the creation of the state Department of Social Services. After living in foster homes and residential facilities for six years, Dianne wanted to go home. A month before her murder, a judge ordered that she be returned to her family, even though all the professionals involved in the case argued against it.

What then-Norfolk County District Attorney William Delahunt called "one of cruelest and most sadistic" cases he had seen was also the impetus for The Dianne DeVanna Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. The nonprofit organization named for the pretty young girl from Braintree grew out of donations sent to a memorial committee raising money to put a headstone on her grave. When a local company donated the headstone, the donations were used instead to establish the center.

Today, the DeVanna Center develops programs to reduce child abuse and neglect, supports parents and families in need and promotes child safety. It provides services to families being helped by the state Department of Social Services.

Dianne's father, Sylvester DeVanna, died of a heart attack in prison in 1980 while serving a life sentence. His wife, Vincenza, served a 19- to 20-year term at MCI-Framingham for manslaughter.

Patriot Ledger staff

CPS Responds to Toddler's Abuse -Did this child slipped through the cracks? 
 A police report Eyewitness News obtained after Jada's injuries, shows young Jada was no stranger to medical treatment.

Did this child slipped through the cracks? "I don't know that, but I do know the process will help one identify that if that happened," Susan Klein-Rothschild said.

Klein-Rothschild is the County's Director of Family Services, and overseas Child Protective Services. She reviewed the police report that details four incidents of injuries to Jada while in the care of her mother's live in boyfriend, Osvaldo Lopez. The incidents include a fractured collarbone, bruises to the stomach, an injury to the arm, and the most recent incident last night when she was taken to the hospital with breathing problems.

Klein-Rothschild says Jada being treated at different medical centers could help CPS with questions they have, "It looks like this child had more than one injury and treatment at different place, different professionals may have known different things about it."

If a medical professional sees an injury on a child, immediate action must happen. Rothschild says, "If a medical profession sees an injury they're concerned about they they're required and responsible to report it to a hotline."

Jada has a younger brother who is at Child Haven. CPS says they do have a child abuse investigator on the case since Lopez was arrested.

Died: March 18, 2003

Over-the-Rhine

Age at death: 1 year

Cause of death: Head injury

Job and Family Services intervention: The agency got involved immediately after Mikinah was born because her mother previously neglected older siblings. When the baby was 4 months old, her mother left her with an unsuitable caregiver. That prompted the agency to place her and her twin brother in foster homes. Mikinah's foster father, Norman White, violently shook Mikinah on March 15, 2003, leading to her death three days later.

Criminal case: White, 41, of Westwood was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and assault. He is serving a five-year prison term.

Why did Sarah Crider die?

Alone in the darkness of a state mental hospital, Sarah Crider, 14, lay slowly dying.

A HIDDEN SHAME: DEATH IN GEORGIA'S MENTAL HOSPITALS

Did baby Elijah Yanes' heart rupture because he was sodomized, or did he die because his father used adult CPR on his 11-month-old body?

Another fine example of Phoenix CPS-Child Abuse justice.

That's the question Maricopa County Superior Court jurors will have to ponder in the trial of Peoria resident Delano Yanes, who was charged with first-degree murder and child abuse in his son's death in September 2003. During opening arguments Wednesday, prosecutor Frankie Grimsman alleged that Yanes had either raped the baby or forced an object into him, causing his heart to rupture.

Defense attorney Vikki Liles countered that Yanes, 27, found the child unconscious in his playpen and that he and an APS worker possibly caused the fatal injury by performing CPR on him.

There was no DNA evidence to confirm a sexual attack. And the attorneys have lined up medical experts to argue whether there was bruising or whether CPR could kill a baby.

 "Mommy" she whispered softly as one last tear slowly fell. This was her last thought as she slowly slipped from this world into what waited beyond.

Please, Remember Me - By Dawn Barler

The four year old lay quietly in the dark listening to the dull thumps and bumps of her brothers and sisters playing upstairs. She could hear her mother's voice, an angry, mean and threatening voice that still somehow brought comfort. A tear ran down her dirty little face. She wanted her mommy.

Slowly, with what strength was left to her, she turned her head toward the stairs, as she had done so many times before and watched the light that seeped in from under the door. Then she heard the water running in the kitchen sink and licked her cracked lips with a dry tongue.

She knew mommy would be in the kitchen now, and she wanted so much to be in her mother's arms. She wanted to be warm, dry and safe. She wanted to have just a sip of that cool running water.

She tried to get up to go to the door but couldn't move from the damp and musky pile of old clothes and newspapers that had been serving as her bed. She reached one scrawny bruised arm to the door. Opening and closing her tiny hand as infants so often do. She opened her mouth to call out to her mother, but the sound that ripped from her raw throat was only a dry and painful whisper.

She didn't know how long she had been there in the darkness of the basement, but she knew why. In her child's mind it had been her fault; she had been a very bad girl. She must have been because mommy had told her so. She had made mommy very angry, that is why she was there.

She had crawled to the door many times and clawed at the wood until her fingers bled. She had cried out in fear, pain, and hunger. She had cried out in her sorrow and had promised to be a good girl. No one had answered her cries and so once again she would crawl back down into the darkness, confused, afraid, and alone.

She had squeezed her eyes shut tight many times against the tears of frustration and fear. They would fall anyway. When her tears would finally fade she would lay and watch the door quietly; listen to the rats rustling through the filth of the basement and she would wait.

As the time passed an odd calmness washed over her and she began to feel a strange kind of numbness. Oh, she still felt the pain and sickness of her empty stomach, the dry burning in her throat, and her head still ached. She was aware of the sores and bruises on her small body which still oozed blood and puss and caused pain with every movement. She felt the throbbing of the splinters under what remained of her bloody and infected fingernails. She knew all this pain, but somehow it didn't matter anymore, she felt detached from it as if it were happening to someone else.

Darkness surrounded her as she heard her mother ushering the other children to bed. She heard their feet, a distant steady thumping as they went up the stairs.
A faint memory of soft pillows and warm blankets fluttered on the edge of her mind. 'Mommy' she whispered softly as one last tear slowly fell. This was her last thought as she slowly slipped from this world into what waited beyond.

No arms had held the little one as she passed. No tears were shed. Life continued on in the shabby house, uncaring of the tiny forgotten frame which lay half buried beneath the garbage and dirt in the basement below.

It would have taken only one person to save Isaiah Jeremiah
Isaiah Jeremiah never knew his name.

He died within minutes of being born, dumped in a rest room trash can at Muskegon High School by his mother, a 16-year-old sophomore.
The girl's stepfather, 44, admitted to police that he was the baby's father. He's awaiting trial for first-degree sexual assault.
But that's not going to help Isaiah Jeremiah, whose death haunts a community that could have intervened but failed to act.
Signs of trouble were there long before Isaiah Jeremiah's fleeting passage through this world. Police believe the baby was the second the stepdad fathered by his stepdaughter. The first is 19 months old now and lived in the same home where police say the stepdaughter was molested since she was 7.
Police felt something was horribly wrong after that first child was born, but they couldn't prove anything. The girl denied having sex with her stepfather; a boyfriend said the baby could have been his.
Police say the girl did her best to keep the pregnancy a secret, hiding it under baggy clothes and jackets. She did not see a doctor, who might have reported a case of suspected child abuse. Her school did nothing to help her.
Especially in light of the first birth, it seems as if someone outside the home had to know, or at least should have asked, and someone -- a teacher, counselor, friend, relative -- should have at least made an anonymous report to Children's Protective Services. It may take a village to raise a child, but sometimes it takes just one person to keep a child from danger.
The girl's mother worked long hours at two clerical jobs and apparently just looked away while her husband horribly abused a girl he was entrusted to protect. The girl's relationship to her mother, and her mother's relationship to herself, are the linchpins that broke. The daughter apparently felt she could not turn to her mother, and the mother had neither the will nor the strength to stop the abuse.
The mother could be charged with neglect. But that's not going to help Isaiah Jeremiah.
It's easy to say the girl should have called out for help. But few adults can imagine the paralyzing fear and shame she must have felt. More than a month after Isaiah's death, prosecutors are still trying to decide what, if any, charges to bring against her. The Muskegon County medical examiner's office is trying to determine whether the baby suffocated, drowned or died some other way. The young mother says Isaiah Jeremiah just ceased to breathe.
Chances are the teen will face a charge that will keep her under court jurisdiction without sending her to prison. A good student, though quiet and withdrawn, she wants to return to school. She's going to need a lot of therapy and other kinds of assistance.
But that's not going to help Isaiah Jeremiah.
For now, the teen is living with a relative in Muskegon, receiving counseling and getting homework from her high school teachers.
She hasn't been publicly identified, but Muskegon's not a big city. People know.
"All of us are questioning ourselves," says one community leader. "It's raised a lot of questions about whether there was something we should have done or something we should have known."
The questions come too late for Isaiah Jeremiah, the child who never knew his name. His legacy may be that some people never forget it.
December 7, 2000

Little Rickiana Campbell, who was visited monthly by a social worker, was a victim of "child abuse syndrome," authorities said. Her body was covered with bruises and she had a fractured skull, officials said.

Cops yesterday arrested Rickiana's mother, Venisha Clark, 21, who had lost custody of the girl and another child in 1997 while she was in jail.

Clark, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, called 911 about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, saying her daughter was unconscious. The girl was taken to New York Methodist Hospital, where she died hours later, police said.

Under questioning by 77th Precinct detectives, Clark broke down and said she had hit her daughter over the head with a 10-inch-tall action figure to stop her from crying, cops said. She was charged with murder.

"Nobody knows what happened. Only God and her knows," said Clark's sister, Lisa Sophia, 28, who lives next door to the family's Park Place apartment. "I know she is a good mother who loves her babies."

A social worker who made monthly visits to Clark and her three children ? Rickiana, 3-year-old Bobby and 10-month-old Paul ? did not report any abuse, cops said.

"The matter is under investigation," said Jennifer Falk, a spokeswoman for the Administration for Children's Services.

Child-welfare officials became involved with the family in 1997, after Clark was arrested for shoplifting.

While she served a 38-day sentence at Rikers Island, Clark left her children with a female friend in the Bronx.

During that time, the woman severely beat Bobby, sending him to the hospital with serious injuries, cops said. The woman was jailed, and Clark's children were sent to foster homes, cops said.

After she got out of jail and attended mandatory parenting classes, Clark regained custody of Bobby in June 1998; Rickiana came home in February 1999, sources said.

Sept. 15, 1999 -- City officials yesterday were investigating how a social worker missed bruises inflicted over a series of months on a 2-year-old Brooklyn girl who authorities said was ultimately beaten to death by her mother.

The social worker, employed by the Administration for Children's Services, did not report seeing any signs of abuse on little Rickiana Campbell, who died Sunday.

"We don't know what happened," said ACS spokeswoman Jennifer Falk, who did not further identify the social worker. "It's all under investigation."

Venisha Clark, 21, was charged Monday with killing Rickiana after confessing to beating the girl over the head with a 10-inch action figure because the child would not stop crying, authorities said.

Officials said Rickiana was a victim of "child abuse syndrome" and had numerous bruises and a fractured skull.

It was not the first time Clark's children suffered abuse. A baby-sitter, Betty Chambers, was arrested in 1998 for beating Clark's oldest son, Bobby, 3, so severely she caused liver damage and bleeding to his head and eyes, court records show.

Chambers, who was caring for Bobby and Rickiana at her Bronx home while their mother served a jail sentence for shoplifting, admitted hitting the boy, court records show.

"He has been getting on my nerve [sic]. I've been doing cruel stuff ... [I'm] always roughing him," Chambers told police after her arrest. She later said the statement was coerced.

After Chambers' arrest, the children were taken from Clark, who was charged with child neglect, Falk said.

Clark regained custody of Bobby in November 1998 and Rickiana last February after attending parenting classes. The court-ordered social worker was assigned to visit the family once a month, Falk said.

Sept. 16, 1999 -- A foster mom who once cared for a 2-year-old Brooklyn girl later beaten to death ? allegedly by her mother ? said yesterday child welfare officials ignored her pleas to adopt the toddler.

Little Rickiana Campbell, who authorities said suffered numerous bruises and fractures after being returned to her mother in February, had begged her foster mother, Cicely Mercuris, to take her back, Mercuris said.

"She would cry, 'Please let me come home,'" a tearful Mercuris told the Daily News.

"She used to be a feisty, jolly little thing. It broke my heart.

"I wanted to give this child a family life," she added.

"Little Ricki was so happy here, she would wrap her arms around me and say, 'I love you.'

"Then she went there and her mother would never let me see her. I knew something was wrong, but there was nothing I could do. The agency wouldn't let me," Mercuris said.

Rickiana died Sunday, a victim of child abuse syndrome, authorities said.

Venisha Clark, 21, was charged with murder after confessing she beat her daughter with a plastic doll because the girl wouldn't stop crying, cops said.

The city's Administration for Children's Services is investigating how the social worker assigned to monitor Rickiana and her two siblings missed signs of abuse during monthly visits.

"We are investigating all of the aspects of the case," said ACS spokeswoman Leonora Wiener, who added that no calls about Rickiana were received by an abuse hotline.

Wiener declined to comment on Mercuris' claims, but confirmed the 50-year-old Brooklyn woman was Rickiana's foster mom from July 1998 to February.

Rickiana and her 3-year-old brother, Bobby, were placed into foster care after the boy was severely beaten by a family friend, authorities said.

Clark had regained custody of Bobby and Rickiana after taking parenting classes.

Mercuris said she plans to raise money to give a proper burial to the child who, for seven months, called her "Mommy."

"I have to give her a good sendoff, poor sad little baby," Mercuris said through sobs.

"It hurts me what must have passed through her little mind when this was happening to her," she said.

"And it hurts me to think I was right here the whole time."

Sept. 26, 1999 -- In the days after 2-year-old Rickiana Campbell was beaten to death, allegedly by her mother, no relative stepped forward to claim the toddler's remains.

She was bound for a pauper's grave in Potter's Field, the city's burial ground for the unclaimed dead.

Rickiana's neighbors found that unacceptable, and yesterday they banded together to give her a proper funeral and a show of love that was so sorely missing from her life.

"We did it because it was the right thing to do," said Vanessa Reed, misty-eyed after the brief service at St. Lucy Old Catholic Church on Kent Ave. in Brooklyn.

The church donated the cost of the service. Rickiana's foster mother paid for the tiny pink casket. Neighbors raised $700 for flowers and wreaths.

"At least she went away with formality," said Msgr. Elias Milazzo, who attended the service. "Love and nurturing. Maybe at this late hour, she got what she never had."

Rickiana died Sept. 12, a victim of child abuse. Her mother, Venisha Clark, 21, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, was charged with murder after confessing that she beat Rickiana with a plastic doll because the child would not stop crying.

Her death culminated a short, stormy life in which she bounced between foster care and her mother's apartment. Rickiana and her brother Bobby, 3, were placed in foster care last year after the boy was beaten by a family friend.

Their mother regained custody in February after taking parenting classes.

"Rickiana should still be here," said her foster mother, Cicely Mercurius. "I told her mother that if there was a problem, all she had to do was call me.

"Just call me, call me, that's all," Mercurius said, her voice trailing off. "I could've helped."

More than 100 mourners went to the child's wake Friday night. About two dozen attended the funeral. They heard Bishop Vincent Crisci describe Rickiana as "an infant who will never know what it is to grow up here on Earth, who will never have the things girls have."

After an array of prayers, the pastor asked if anyone had anything to say. Tony Burke, 25, a nephew of the toddler's foster mother, rose and recalled how Rickiana once called out his name.

"I didn't even know she could talk," Burke said. "She always had these little surprises."

"We got to take care of our kids," he said. "This craziness has got to stop."

An usher opened the casket, and the mourners and a cluster of small children filed by for a final look at Rickiana, her small body covered with white lace.

A man bowed his head. A woman put her arm around a little girl who stood next to her. They followed the casket onto the street and watched as it was loaded into the back of a hearse for the trip to Rosehill Cemetary in New Jersey.

"She never had a chance," said Emily Delgado, shaking her head as the procession drove off. "Such a shame."

3-year-old who loved dogs and trampolines

Cops suspect abuse in local boy's death

By Greg Cima
Pantagraph
4/5/07

BLOOMINGTON -- A boy who flashed his eyes at little girls and loved to play with SpongeBob SquarePants toys may have died because of abuse, authorities said Thursday.

Three-year-old Logan E. Bratton of Bloomington was pronounced dead about 8:40 p.m. Wednesday at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, police said. Peoria County Coroner Johnna Ingersoll said the boy was unresponsive when rescue workers initially took him to BroMenn Regional Medical Center in Normal.

"The indications are that the injuries Logan sustained are non-accidental," Ingersoll said. She wouldn't comment on his cause of death or signs of trauma because the case is being investigated as a homicide.

The boy lived with his mother and her boyfriend in Bloomington, Ingersoll said. Ingersoll said the 911 call was made at 12:18 p.m. Wednesday, and fire department logs show an ambulance dispatched at that time went to the 800 block of West Washington Street.

A police squad car sat in that block Thursday afternoon, and a police officer answered the door at an apartment at 818 W. Washington St. when a Pantagraph reporter knocked. An officer remained stationed late Thursday night at the doorway of the apartment.

Bloomington police issued a short statement about the boy's death about noon Thursday, but could not be reached later in the day and throughout the evening.

Willie Bratton of Peoria, who identified himself as Logan's father, said he called police late Sunday afternoon after a relative told him the boy was bruised.

Bratton said he hadn't seen the boy since December. The boy's mother had custody of the child, he said.

Bratton described Logan as an average 3-year-old who loved dogs and trampolines. Bratton said he was at OSF Saint Francis until late Wednesday, and he commended hospital workers for their compassion.

Logan's grandmother, Connie Smith of Peoria, said Logan was cheerful but shy. Yet, he liked to pucker his lips and flash his eyes at little girls, she said.

Smith said Logan lived with her on and off for half his life, or "maybe a little more." She said the boy enjoyed playing with SpongeBob SquarePants and Dragon Ball Z toys, eating chicken strips, playing basketball and watching cartoons.

Her grandson loved hugs and kisses and asked Smith to lift him, she said.

"?Grandma, I wanna hold you,' " Smith quoted Logan as saying. "?I just want to hold you.'"

Philadelphia authorities had taken Gladys from her natural mother, a drug addict judged incapable of caring for her. They in turn referred Gladys to the Easton institution which in turn placed Gladys in the foster family.

Glady's grandmother, also named Gladys Campbell filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia and the Easton institution and it's director. The city has settled with the terms of the settlement being secret. The case is not pending against the remaining defendants.

The Easton home through a contract with Philadelphia provided placement for minors referred from the city's Department of Human Services. 

The basic claim of the lawsuit was depriving the child of her life without due process as well as counts for wrongful death and survival action. 

The grandmother charged that the defendants placed the child in an out-of-state foster home without adequately investigating the foster parents and without notifying her relatives. 

A U.S. District Judge in a pretrial ruling let stand all claims against the Children's Home and its director. 

He recited six types of failure of the home and the administrator in screening and supervising foster parents for the 2-year-old. 

Those included providing no training for foster parents, disregarding minimum requirements for supervising them and failing to comply with regulations for screening them. 

Those factors could lead a jury to conclude the home and its director acted with deliberate indifference to the child's welfare, the judge said. 

But he dismissed counts of wrongful death and survival action against the Philadelphia defendants. 

He left the due process claim. 

The judge said the Philadelphia agency had a monitoring unit to check service providers like the Easton home, but it did little monitoring. 

That could be interpreted as a "policy of inaction or insufficient action" leading to depriving the child of her life without due process. 

Death of toddler in foster care under investigation

There are others who share the responsibility too.

Chicago, IL -- Convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison for Diego Aguado's 1993 death was his father, Saul Aguado, however he has never served a day of that sentence. 

He and his wife, who also kidnapped their 8-year-old son, Francisco who had been placed with relatives by Child Protective Services, have been traveling between Mexico and the U.S. with little fear of arrest. Aguado owes his freedom to a cadre of supporters and relatives who, despite his guilty plea, refuse to believe he is a murderer and have helped him escape authorities.

There are others who share the responsibility too. The judge and prosecutor who did not consider him, a Mexican immigrant, a flight risk and so let him remain free prior to the start of his prison term. There are the child welfare officials who failed to stop him and his wife from seeing their surviving son without supervision, a violation of agency rules. And there are local and federal investigators who have done little to track him down, even though a newspaper reporter doing a story on the case was able to locate him in a small village in Mexico and interview him on the telephone. 

Now, five years after Diego was killed, and nearly four years after his father pleaded guilty, the murder case is, technically closed even though the confessed killer remains at large. 

In a statement to police, Aguado said Diego's crying that morning had angered him. He reached over from his bed and yanked hard on Diego's baby seat, flipping it over. Diego flew out of the seat and rolled across the floor. "His head was pounding on the floor," according to the statement. "Diego stopped rolling because Diego's head slammed into the metal bed frame."

Diego began shaking uncontrollably and had difficulty breathing. He was in a coma for nine months before he died. 

Even though Aguado said he never hit his son and because he was tired and scared he decided to tell the police anything they wanted to hear. But the case against him was strong. An autopsy showed that Diego died of massive head injuries that could not have been caused, as Aguado claimed, by chronic respiratory and heart problems. Nor were the injuries caused, as his lawyer argued, accidentally when Aguado tried to revive Diego, according to the coroner who examined him. 

Aguado told the judge that law enforcement officials threatened to throw his wife in prison and withhold medical treatment for Diego, who was still in a coma, unless he took responsibility for his son's injuries. The police officer and prosecutor who took Aguado's confession denied in court that they ever threatened him. The judge didn't believe him and the confession would stand. So facing mounting legal bills and a potential 199-year prison sentence if he lost the case, Aguado decided to plead guilty to killing his son in exchange for a 35-year sentence. He was then allowed to remain free on bail until the following month when he was to start his prison sentence. 

There are outstanding arrest warrants for Aguado and his wife, who was charged with abducting Francisco. But the Aguados, who are living under assumed names, would have to be arrested in the U.S. on another offense and their real identities discovered through fingerprints before authorities could learn about their fugitive status. 

Since Aguado fled, the plea deal was scuttled and the judge increased the sentence to 60 years. Today the couple and their children, they've since had a daughter, are still believed to be in Mexico. 

June 12, 2007

Fire victim mourned; Family pleased they had chance to adopt boy and his brother

A four-year-old boy who died in a garage fire Tuesday started out as a tiny miracle after his mother had already adopted his brother two years earlier.

It was a "blessing" when Bobbi Wilson found out that she had the chance to adopt Brian, the blood brother of her son.

"He (Brian) was like a little miracle," said Terri Hazell, his aunt. "And now he's gone. No one expects a four-year-old to die."

Yesterday, as she stood in the yard outside the Lisle home where Brian Wilson lived, about 30 kilometres west of Barrie, fire investigators continued to shuffle through blackened debris in a garage where the boy died.

Fire officials say they still don't know what caused the fire that broke out in the garage, which was used as a tool and garden shed, Tuesday morning.

"All of the kids knew they were not allowed to play in there," Hazell said.

"I guess that makes kids more curious to see what's in there."

Her mouth trembled as she stifled her tears to talk about her nephew.

Other times she smiled as she remembered his favourite toys.

"Fire trucks and dinosaurs," she said.

"And he had a pair of cowboy boots that he would never take off, even when he went to bed."

It was routine to see little Brian roaring around the house wearing his dinosaur costume with his cowboy boots on.

"He was always happy. A real blessing," she said.

Brian's mother had waited 10 years to adopt a child when finally, his older brother, Ben, came along. Two years later, Brian was born, but the Simcoe County Children's Aid Society didn't realize he had a brother until he was five months old.

"It took some piecing of the puzzle to find where he was," Hazell said. "And now he's gone."

She said Brian was supposed to start school in the fall.

She said the family has decided not to disclose funeral details because they want to keep it private.

"It will be hard enough to get through this," Hazell said.

Meanwhile, Adjala-Tosorontio Fire Chief Paul Boissonneault, said the father and son firefighters that made a "heroic" effort to save the boy, remain traumatized over the loss.

He said he was disappointed when he heard that some media reported the father and son, who are volunteers, did not wear proper fire gear.

"That is incorrect," he said. "They were dressed in bunker hats, boots, coats and pants."

He said they did not have a breathing apparatus, but firefighters are trained to work without them.

"They took a risk to save a young boys' life," Boissonneault said.

Boy set deadly blaze: police; Youngster, 4, died of smoke and hot-air inhalation
Local News - Friday, June 15, 2007 @ 07:00

The four-year-old boy who died following a garage fire Tuesday in Lisle appears to have accidentally set the blaze himself using materials found in the garage, police said yesterday.

Brian Wilson, 4, was alone at the time. His parents were in the house adjacent to the garage, which is normally locked, when the fire started, Nottawasaga OPP said.

TRACY McLAUGHLIN

Social worker goes to court ! 

A Man's (and Woman's) Home Is a Castle

The story of Anthony Bars the 4-year-old boy who was starved and beaten to death in Indiana by foster parents with a criminal record of child abuse?continues.

Due to media and public outrage, the caseworker who recommended removing Anthony from an earlier, loving foster parent is facing charges. Denise Moore is accused of official misconduct and of falsifying reports in an adoption proceeding: misdemeanor offenses.

Sadly, Anthony is just one in a long list of children neglected or abused by Child Protective Services in state after state. In his case, the press is still pounding on why child welfare officials never disciplined Moore for her actions and cited state confidentiality laws at almost every question asked.

Emerging scandals and conflicts in Indiana and elsewhere should not be allowed to distract from more fundamental questions: When should a third party have the terrible right to separate a child from its parents? By what right do civil servants have to enter your home and threaten to remove your children if you do not answer accusations of abuse?often accusations made anonymously?to their satisfaction?

The increased power of child welfare agencies to do so comes from legislation dating back to the Mondale Act of 1974. That act established huge financial incentives for state agencies to uncover abuse, without providing checks or balances to protect those wrongfully accused. It also virtually immunized child welfare workers and false accusers from liability.

But a power is not a right. If it were, then everything you have the power to do would also be proper for you to do.

What, then, are rights?

A right is an enforceable claim that an individual has against all other people; it carries a corresponding duty to respect those rights in others. For example, your right to freedom of religion comes with the corresponding duty to respect the right of others to reach their own conclusions. Rights and responsibilities are two sides of the same social coin.

Otherwise stated: Every peaceful human being has a moral jurisdiction over his or her own body and property that no one else can justly violate.

Few acts symbolize this moral jurisdiction more clearly than the right to close a front door behind you and lock out the world. This act dramatizes the difference between the private and the public spheres.

"A man's home is his castle" is a phrase coined by civil rights attorney Clarence Darrow. It means people are rulers within their own homes, which others have no right to enter without permission.

The concept is embedded within the Bill of Rights, specifically the Fourth Amendment:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation ..."

This concept is a line of defense for the individual and family against unwarranted intrusion by government.

What constitutes warranted intrusion? A credible and specific reason to believe the rights of people within that house are being violated. It becomes proper for third parties to break down a door for the same reason it is proper for them to stop a mugging on the street: to protect the victim. If a parent uses violence against a child, he or she has abandoned the responsibility to respect the rights of others. He or she can no longer demand an automatic and similar respect from others.

In short, the Fourth Amendment is not a blank check to engage in violence under the guise of privacy. But it is a clear and compelling demand that any individual or agency who breaks down a door must do so on credible evidence, not anonymous tips, and that everyone accused must receive due process. Moreover, any third party who is later found to have acted from malice or other gross misconduct should be legally liable for those actions.

The fact that parents accused of child abuse are not currently accorded due process?indeed, they are "guilty until proven innocent"?reflects a 180 degree change in society's attitude toward the home and the family. The family used to be viewed as a private realm into which the law entered with extreme caution.

Since the '70s, however, the family per se has been under attack as a breeding ground of domestic violence, child abuse, and other brutality. This change in attitude is largely rooted in a brand of feminism that arose in the '70s: gender feminism, which has exerted great influence over laws concerning women and children. Gender feminism views men and women as separate and antagonistic classes, with the family being another expressed of gender conflict.

Accordingly, a closed door in-and-of-itself is reason to suspect the presence of violence. Warrants, probable cause, and oaths are no longer deemed necessary.

They should be.

And, without them, front doors in North America should slam shut and remain closed.

January 20, 2004
Wendy McElroy

'Someone Beat the Hell Out of This Kid'

VICTIM: Ricky Aragon Jr., age 2, taken into state custody after mother found sniffing paint.
INJURY: Beaten to death in grandmother's foster care home.
OUTCOME: Grandmother, Josefita Romero, is sentenced to 15 years in prison; state pays child's estate $599,469.

Rosalie Montoya listened as the baby next door screamed, just like he'd been screaming every day for the past two weeks.
Montoya, who was doing yard work, noticed her neighbor's mobile home vibrate, "as if something very large, like a piece of furniture, had been hurled against the wall."
Inside, 52-year-old Josefita Romero demanded, "shut up."
There was the sound of water splashing. "Oh my God," the neighbor heard Romero cry out. "Mi hijito, breathe."
Then only silence.
* * *
Neighbors heard the warning sounds. Social workers weren't around to see the warning signs.
Two-year-old Ricky Aragon Jr. lost his life at the hands of his maternal grandmother -- a state-authorized relative foster parent.

 When he died of head injuries April 12, 1993, human teeth marks were visible on his face, left knee and right elbow.
"Someone beat the hell out of this kid," a physician at the state Office of the Medical Investigator told investigators at the time.
Romero, now 52, pleaded guilty in late 1993 to child abuse causing death and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Last year, the state paid $599,496 to settle a lawsuit alleging that mistakes and omissions by state social workers led to Ricky's death.
The settlement came after lawyers for the boy's estate discovered Romero had once been investigated for hitting one of her own daughters, said Albuquerque lawyer Mary Han, one of the attorneys for the child's estate.
Timothy Flynn-O'Brien, an Albuquerque lawyer who represented the social workers, said confidentiality laws bar him from commenting.
Social workers maintained Romero's home appeared safe.
The case -- the first reported death of a child in New Mexico foster care in recent years -- underscores all that can go wrong in the foster care system.
From early 1989 to 1991, state child protective services had received a half-dozen complaints that Ricky's mother was sniffing paint and jeopardizing the safety of her children.
In July 1989, Ricky's older sister went to foster care after police arrested the mother for child abuse and drug abuse.
Ricky was eight months old when the state took him into custody in 1991. Social workers believed his mother was still sniffing paint, court records show.
Ricky's older sister was placed with his great-grandmother. So the state placed Ricky with his maternal grandmother, Romero -- a divorcee with a history of alcoholism.
Court records show the social worker who placed the child in Romero's care never formally looked into the woman's background, what is called a "home study."
The social worker said a supervisor told her simply to "eyeball" the residence.
Lawyers for the child's estate said that violated agency policy.
Court records show Romero never attended foster-home training and wasn't even licensed to provide foster care.
The agency turned over a number of the social workers' responsibilities to Romero, such as regulating and monitoring visits from Ricky's mother.
The state paid her from $280 to $300 a month.
Ricky was considered a drug-exposed baby and needed physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech/language therapy. But court records show Romero didn't take him.
The initial social worker on the case said she may have visited the home once during the child's first four months with Romero.
The case was reassigned to social worker Catherine Culver White on Oct. 26, 1992, who had been on the job a month.
In court documents, White said she assumed Romero was licensed.
Social workers, by internal policy, are supposed to visit foster homes at least monthly. White visited once the six months before Ricky died.
White said in court records that her supervisor never told her about the monthly visits.
In court documents, her lawyer said White "had limited time (resources) so she prioritized her work and focused on the cases she felt presented the greatest need."
"No one disagrees that it would be nice if there were sufficient resources to do everything. (The social worker) did not have sufficient time to visit every child in foster care on a monthly basis and perform all her duties," O'Brien said in a court document.
She happened to visit the home about two weeks before the child was killed.
It was the same day police responded to a report of suspected child abuse at the mobile home -- but White said she hadn't been notified of the call.
Neighbors called police after hearing a baby screaming on March 26, 1993.
"It sounded like the child was put in a closet, because I heard a door slam. I heard the child crying and kicking at a door," stated Rosalie Montoya in a statement introduced in the civil lawsuit by the plaintiffs.
Albuquerque police said they found no evidence of child abuse.
Montoya stopped one of the officers as he left Romero's trailer.
"I told him, 'What does it take, for him (Ricky) to physically end up in the hospital before something is done?' '' Montoya said in a court deposition.
A CYFD investigation later concluded social workers should make more frequent visits of relative foster homes and conduct "home studies" when placing such children.
The $599,496 settlement is in a trust. Ricky's mother is the beneficiary, but is limited in the amount of money she can receive at any one time and must maintain a lawful lifestyle. A community organization involved with children will receive a portion of any money remaining at her death.

Cover-up concealed slayings, police say

Cathy Sarinana assured family members that she and her husband were frantically looking for their runaway nephew in the rural Washington area where they lived.

She told the boy's family on Christmas Day that he would be home to open his presents.

But 13-year-old Conrad Morales never came home, and police and family members say Sarinana and her husband, Raul, knew he wouldn't.

Rather than searching for the runaway, police allege Sarinana and her husband had fled the state months earlier after the death of Conrad and brought the boy's remains to Corona.

On Monday, investigators discovered a grisly new twist.

Raul Sarinana called police to the quiet Corona Belle Avenue neighborhood Monday after saying he had hurt and possibly killed his 11-year-old nephew, Conrad's little brother Ricky. The couple had taken custody of both boys over the last two years. When police arrived, they found Ricky's body, and several hours later discovered Conrad's body encased in concrete in the carport of the Corona home.

The crime scene left the family to grapple with the deaths of two boys and the subsequent arrest of their aunt and uncle, a man known to the kids in the family as the easy-going, "fun" uncle.

"This just isn't happening," sobbed Martin Cevallos, the boy's 22-year-old cousin from Downey. "We sent them to my uncle because we thought they'd be better off. He was always the uncle that would joke around with us kids. If he couldn't handle them, he could have just sent them home.

"They said Conrad's presents were under the tree when all along they knew he was dead," Cevallos said. "Everything has been one big lie."

This week, the district attorney's office filed charges against the Sarinanas in the killing of Ricky. Raul Sarinana is charged with murder and torture, while his wife, Cathy, is charged with murder and child endangerment. Their arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 5.

Corona detectives are investigating the death of Conrad in and around Randle, Wash., where the Sarinanas lived and reported Conrad missing days before moving to Corona in October. According to police and family, the case involves an elaborate cover-up spanning three cities and two states and covered more than 1,000 miles.

Coroner's officials conducted one autopsy Thursday but did not release results. Corona investigators returned to the home Thursday night and the Sarinanas' former Washington home, where police believe the first killing took place.

Police officials released few details about either death Thursday. However, they did confirm that Cathy Sarinana was in the Big Bear area when her husband reported Ricky's death on Monday.

Before living with the Sarinanas, Ricky and Conrad lived with an aunt, Berta Cevallos, 43, in Los Angeles County.

Their mother, Rosa Morales, 42, had been incarcerated on drug-related charges, Berta Cevallos said.

Living in Washington

Their mother, and the rest of the family, decided the boys would be better off living in the rural Washington home of the Sarinanas, said Berta's son, Martin Cevallos. Conrad moved in with the family about a year and a half ago while Ricky moved in about six months ago.

"Everything was going good at first," Martin Cevallos said. "They would call us and tell us that the boys got perfect attendance awards at school and that Conrad was playing track and basketball."

Rosa Morales, who asked the Cevalloses to speak on the family's behalf, was ready to bring the boys home for several months but her brother kept saying he had no money to fly them home. Then Raul Sarinana called to say that Conrad had run away. He said the teenager had been misbehaving, Berta Cevallos said. Raul Sarinana told the family he would remain in Washington looking for Conrad while Cathy Sarinana moved to her aunt's home in Sacramento with Ricky and her two small children, Martin Cevallos said.

But on Christmas Eve, Cevallos discovered Sarinana had given a fake address when he tried to check on the boys Christmas Eve while on a business trip to Sacramento.

On Christmas Day, a somber Ricky called Berta Cevallos' home and told his sister Vanessa, 22, that he wanted to come back. That same day, Rosa Morales began making plans to find a home for her and the boys. "All this time, we thought they were in Sacramento, but they were really just the next county over in Corona," Martin Cevallos said.

Family and friends gathered throughout the day Thursday outside the modest La Puente home of Berta Cevallos.

Investigators have located four residences for the family so far in Lewis County in southwest Washington. Neighbor Mark Mowery remembers seeing one boy get off a school bus on occasion but rarely saw anyone outside on the 6-acre lot. Bags of garbage piled up around the gray manufactured home with white trim. He was one of the neighbors interviewed when the aunt reported the boy missing.

After the family moved down the road to Winlock, the bags remained. In a help to detectives, no one moved into the home after the Sarinanas left, Chief Criminal Deputy Joe Doench of Lewis County said.

Family Remembers

Through tears, family members recalled memories of the brothers while trying to grasp how their deaths could have happened.

The family, including the boys' mother, learned of their death through a television news report.

They remembered Conrad as a caring and charming young man who loved to spend time with friends. Ricky was obsessed with television, especially cartoons and his video games. The boys were good friends, family members said.

Photos of the boys smiling at Christmas time and other family gatherings were bathed in the soft glow of candlelight on the driveway. Balloons soared above that read, "We love you," and "Miss you."

"One minute you're numb and in shock," Berta Cevallos said, crying while gazing at the boys' photo. "The next minute, you can't stop crying."

Staff writer Linda Lou and researcher Flint Johnston contributed to this article.

Reach Paige Austin at (951) 893-2106 or paustin@pe.com

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Durham Woman Charged With Murder Of Adopted Daughter

Authorities Believe Melissa Watkins Was Abused

Corey Greer might have survived the overcrowding, if only he had been white.

Somebody "erred on the side of the child" and placed Corey Greer of Treasure Island, Florida, in a foster home that would later be described by police as "filthy and overcrowded." The home was licensed for four children. By the time Corey Greer died in his crib of dehydration, 12 were living there. The foster mother was convicted of manslaughter and third degree murder.

Corey Greer might have survived the overcrowding, if only he had been white. According to a witness at the foster mother's trial, the foster mother said that touching black children "just gives me the willies." According to the witness, the foster mother referred to Corey Greer as "a big black blob."

Galesburg. Died Feb. 9, 2003

A neighbor who was the subject of a child abuse investigation agreed to baby-sit Shyanna. A DCFS caseworker allowed this arrangement. An inspector general's report stated the baby sitter, who had a sleep disorder, was lethargic because she was overweight. The report also stated she spent her family's benefits check on calls to psychic hot lines. When a DCFS supervisor learned the baby sitter's live-in boyfriend had a felony record for selling crack cocaine, the supervisor implemented a "safety plan" that required another adult -- a relative or friend -- to be with her children at all times. However, the baby sitter refused to allow a caseworker into her home to make sure another adult was there. Shyanna accidentally choked to death on loose binding from a mattress while the baby sitter slept.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: None

 Died Aug. 24, 2000 ,Olney,MD

A DCFS child abuse investigation began when Cree Lynn came to a hospital with bruising. Caseworkers sent her to live with a relative, and her mother agreed to counseling. But despite a supervisor's concerns, the DCFS assigned the mother's former private therapist to be her new caseworker. Because of the prior relationship, "The caseworker accepted all of the mother's self-reports about substance abuse, employment and the baby's health care, and neglected to verify information when obvious discrepancies arose," the inspector general reported. This optimistic but false picture resulted in Cree Lynn being returned home. A few weeks later, her mother's boyfriend shoved a wad of tissue paper down the infant's throat to make her stop crying. The baby choked to death. The boyfriend, Chad Jones, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: Faced with discipline, the caseworker resigned. The supervisor received counseling.

CPS decision angers father of dead child

CPS failed Kerianne

 Family feels failed by officials