Omagh councillor Johnny McLaughlin led has demanded details of social workers' roles with the family to be laid bare in a bid to prevent a repeat of the mass murder that wiped out twice-convicted sex offender McElhill's entire family.

The veteran local politician will table a motion with Omagh District Council next week, demanding that a full public inquiry is held into the tragedy and the circumstances in which a vulnerable teenage girl was in the care of the repeat sex abuser.

As Sunday Life revealed last week, cops acted to have the vulnerable teenager removed from the house just days before the fire that killed McElhill, his partner Lorraine McGovern and their five children.

Social Services and the Northern Ireland Sex Offenders Strategic Management Committee - the unit that monitors sex offenders - last week declined to answer questions about their involvement with McElhill's family.

Said Mr McLaughlin: "When you knock on doors and they are closed, it's because those with the answers want to keep them in.

"The only way to get to the bottom of this is through public inquiry."

Mr McLaughlin demanded to know how twice-convicted sex offender McElhill came to be regarded as a "low risk" and how a vulnerable child could have been allowed into the care of the family.

Said Mr McLaughlin: "The system owes the people more than that.

"The First Minister and Deputy First Minister and the Children's Commissioner all have to have involvement in this public inquiry, and it has to be sufficient that the community can be reassured that it will never happen again.

"We need a public inquiry, the gravity of the situation calls for that - we have had five innocent children murdered.

"At the end of the day the community in Omagh is entitled to precise and clarified answers, and the only way the people of Omagh will get these answers is through a public inquiry."

The Western Health and Social Care Trust last Monday denied that it had " placed" a girl in the care of Arthur McElhill and Lorraine McGovern.

The Trust, however, later refused to confirm or deny a series of questions put to them by Sunday Life.

Among the points we asked them to confirm or deny was:

1. That the Trust had been made aware that a girl was going to be in the care of McElhill and his partner.

2. That its staff had authorised or allowed or agreed to the child being cared for at 4 Lammy Crescent.

3. That the Trust had been approached by police, who raised concerns regarding the child who was in the care of McElhill.

In response to our questions, a WHSCT spokesman issued a four line statement which included a repetition of its earlier denial about "placing" a child in McElhill's home, but did not confirm or deny anything else about the case.

It read: "The Trust cannot breach patient/client confidentiality.

"We did not place a child with the McElhill family.

"The Western Trust has now set up a local community support services number (028) 8283 5043.

"We have systems in place to safeguard and protect children."

Police meanwhile are continuing their murder investigation. Although they have not formally named a suspect, it's believed that McElhill is suspected of torching the family home, killing his partner and five children.

cmcguigan@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

 Sunday, November 25, 2007 ,By Ciaran McGuigan

By Deborah McAleese
Friday November 16 2007

Derek Alexander Doran, from Elphinstone, East Lothian, died after taking the substance, which had been prescribed for his parents, both registered drug addicts.

Lisa Dodds, 25, found her son's body in his bed in the home she shared with her partner, Derek Doran, 22. The boy was taken to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh where he was pronounced dead. Ms Dodds' two other children have been taken into care.

The death occurred on 13 December but it was only yesterday the results of a toxicology report emerged. A police investigation is under way and both parents have been questioned by detectives.

They had been prescribed methadone to take at home, in line with government guidelines that leave GPs to look at a user's circumstances and decide where it should be consumed. But the news provoked an outcry among experts and politicians who said allowing methadone to be taken in the home was placing children at risk.

Annabel Goldie, the leader of the Scottish Tories, said the death highlighted the need for a change of government policy, and she called on ministers to stop "parking" addicts on methadone.

Professor Neil McKeganey, a drugs expert, said too many addicts were prescribed methadone without proper follow-ups to measure its therapeutic benefits.

Last October, Michael McGarrity, three, spent six weeks trapped in a Leith flat with the body of his mother who died from a drugs overdose. Anne-Marie McGarrity, 33, was a heroin addict on a mandatory methadone programme. Five weeks ago, it emerged a girl of 11 had been treated in hospital for the effects of heroin after collapsing at a Glasgow school.

Ms Goldie said: "The Scottish Executive has no control over what's happening with the prescribing of methadone. We have a desperately worrying situation where there are children in the home with parents who have not been successfully rehabilitated.

"What we need is a shorter reporting grid so that social work and schools are aware of what's happening in that home. Where children are involved, there is an obligation to ensure their safety.

"Drug and methadone dependency have reached epidemic proportions, with our social services left to pick up the pieces of government policy that lacks the will to tackle the issue head-on."

Some 20,000 drug addicts - nearly a third of the Scottish total - are on a methadone treatment programme.

Figures from the General Register Office for Scotland show there were 80 methadone-related deaths in 2004, compared with 225 for heroin. The figures for 2003 were 87 and 175 respectively.

The responsibility for ordering supervised consumption of methadone, which mimics the effect of heroin but is less addictive, lies with doctors.

Prof McKeganey, director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University, said "Where young children are involved, it is an absolute requirement that we know where methadone is stored and how it is consumed. We are talking about households which can go from relative stability to utter chaos in a few hours and where children unavoidably have access to drugs and its paraphernalia.

"The trouble is, the prescribing doctor can prescribe the basis on which the methadone is consumed or how it is stored. But often those prescribing services are not aware of dependent children in the household."

"We know from research the vast majority of addicts say they want to become drug free, something we are not going to achieve overnight. What we can do however is ensure people are moved off methadone by weaning them off it, reducing the dosages, and setting clear targets so no-one is on it longer than necessary."

Jack McConnell, the First Minister, said the safety of children with drug addict parents was an "absolute priority".

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: "Different approaches work for different people. Decisions on treatments are for individual patients and their medical professionals."

Santistevan's attorney, Kirk McAllister,  found an anonymous report to Child Protective Services.

German media have reported that local child welfare authorities had been visiting the family of Lea-Sophie but did not intervene to help the girl. She died of starvation last week in the formerly communist east, where unemployment is higher and incomes are lower than in the west.

"More and more families are burdened with hopelessness, unemployment and poverty, accompanied by psychological and physical problems," Gitta Trauernicht, social affairs minister for the state of Schleswig-Holstein, said about the case in an interview in Tuesday's edition of Tagesspiegel newspaper.

Social workers had checked on Lea-Sophie's younger brother in the northeastern city of Schwerin but not the girl, who weighed just 7.4 kg (16.3 lbs) when she died, local media said. Her parents, aged 23 and 26, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. The case is under investigation.

Trauernicht said it was regrettable that Germany's federal government, despite repeated warnings, has been incapable of preparing legislation aimed at preventing such tragedies by getting early help to families in need.

She said that the quality of child protection remains uneven across Germany's 16 states because of the federal government's refusal to take action.

German Health Minister Ulla Schmidt denied suggestions her ministry has made early detection of child abuse more difficult.

A spokesman for Schmidt said she followed recommendations made in September by a committee of doctors and insurance agencies against a federal oversight program. The committee wanted to minimise the risk of false accusations of child abuse.

Reports of child abuse in Germany are increasing, according to the federal Family Ministry. But ministry officials said it was too early to say whether abuse was becoming more common or if people were simply better about reporting suspected abuse.

Last year Germany was shocked by death of Kevin, a malnourished 2-year-old boy whose body was found in his father's refrigerator in the northern city of Bremen.

Before that there was Jessica, a 7-year-old girl from Hamburg whose parents starved her to death.

By Naomi Kresge

(Editing by Sami Aboudi)

Hat das Jugendamt versagt?

Schwerin - Die fünfte Etage eines Plattenbaus. Das Kinderzimmerfenster ist mit einer selbst gebastelten Papierblume geschmückt. Das Mädchen (5), das hier spielte, lebt nicht mehr.

ES VERHUNGERTE! MITTEN IN DEUTSCHLAND!

Und schon wieder hat das Jugendamt offenbar versagt!

Das Protokoll des Dramas von Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern).

Nicole G. (23) und ihr Lebensgefährte Stefan T. (26) gehen mit ihren beiden Mischlingshunden Gassi. Beide sind Hartz-IV-Empfänger. Ihre Tochter Lea-Sophie und ihr erst acht Wochen alter Sohn Justin bleiben allein in der Wohnung.

Als die Eltern zurückkommen, sitzt das blonde Mädchen in seinem Kinderstühlchen. Lea-Sophie ist total entkräftet, ringt nach Luft. Der Vater ruft den Notarzt.

Der Mediziner ist entsetzt: Das Kind ist lebensbedrohlich unterernährt und leidet unter Flüssigkeitsverlust. Klinik, Intensivstation!

Die Ärzte können Lea-Sophie nicht mehr helfen: Ihr kleiner Körper ist so abgemagert, so schwach, dass sie nach drei Stunden stirbt.

Ein Kliniksprecher: ?Ich war sehr erschrocken, dass es so etwas geben kann. Die Kleine erinnerte mich an Fotos von Kindern, die die Alliierten aus den Lagern befreit hatten." Lorenz Caffier (CDU), Innenminister von Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, sagte: ?Es ist für mich unbegreiflich, dass es Eltern gibt, die ihre Kinder offensichtlich verhungern und verdursten lassen."

Die Eltern wurden festgenommen. ?Gegen sie besteht der dringende Tatverdacht der Tötung durch Unterlassung", so der zuständige Oberstaatsanwalt. Baby Justin befindet sich in der Obhut von Pflegeeltern.

Unfassbar: Das Jugendamt war über Probleme in der Familie informiert!

Nach Angaben des Vermieters hatte sich ein Behörden-Mitarbeiter vor etwa zwei Wochen an ihn gewendet, um einem entsprechenden anonymen Hinweis nachzugehen. Der Sozialarbeiter habe dann die Familie besucht, aber keine Auffälligkeiten festgestellt.

In einer Stellungnahme bestätigte das Jugendamt, bereits vor zwei Monaten Kontakt mit der Familie des Mädchens gehabt zu haben. Die Sozialarbeiter hätten sich auch im aktuellen Fall nach den Vorschriften gerichtet.

Hat dieser Dienst nach Vorschrift der kleinen Sophie das Leben gekostet?

Der Fall erinnert an den Tod der kleinen Jessica (? 7) aus Hamburg: Das Mädchen war im März 2005 völlig abgemagert und entkräftet an Erbrochenem erstickt.

Die Eltern wurden zu lebenslanger Haft wegen Mordes verurteilt.

Heute wird die Leiche von Lea-Sophie obduziert.

Deputy prosecutor defends sentence in child's death

The deputy prosecutor today defended the 10-year prison sentence given to a Forrest City man in the death of a four-year-old child who was beaten.

Cornelius Dawson, 32, of Forrest City, pled guilty to manslaughter during St. Francis County Circuit Court activity Monday. He was arrested in January for capital murder in the death of Lamont Hurd. Hurd's mother, Roberta Johnson, 24, was also charged with capital murder.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Chris Morledge said he anticipates Johnson will plead guilty to second-degree murder when she appears in court Thursday, at which time he also anticipates she will be sentenced to 30 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

Morledge said Johnson's sentence is being reduced from capital murder to second-degree murder in that she "knowingly caused the death of another person under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference in regard to human life."

The Times-Herald attempted to contact Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long and Morledge early Tuesday for comments on the case, but neither responded to the messages left for them before press time, which is after noon.

Officials with the Forrest City Police Department, the agency which investigated the case and filed the affidavits, declined to comment on the sentence Tuesday morning.

However, this morning, Morledge contacted the Times-Herald to further explain Dawson's sentence.

"First, I want to apologize for not being able to talk to you yesterday. My obligation is not to the Times-Herald and is not to stop court proceedings to talk to the newspaper. My obligation is to the people as deputy prosecutor," Morledge said. "Mr. Long also extends his apology for not being able to accept your telephone calls. His obligation extends not only to the people of St. Francis County, but to the First Judicial District as the elected prosecuting attorney. Mr. Long has been, and remains, in a trial in Phillips County."

Morledge said Dawson entered what is called an "Anders plea," which was accepted by the court. "It means, ?I did not do this, but I believe it, under the advice of my attorney, to be in my best interest to take the deal offered by the state because I do not want to take my chances offered at trial.'"

Morledge added, "The reasons for Dawson's plea and the sentence he got of 10 years for manslaughter, which is defined as reckless conduct, is because Dawson did not react to what Johnson was doing with her own children, and in the law, that is no defense.

"With the facts we had in Dawson's case, the prosecuting attorney's office did the best it could based on all the evidence accumulated from the beginning of this case to the time of the plea," Morledge said.

Morledge said Dawson was charged in the case because Johnson lived in his home.

Despite previous reports, Morledge said Johnson does not have a criminal history. "She has nothing; not even a traffic citation. This was law enforcement's first contact with Roberta Johnson.

"First, the evidence shows clearly that Roberta Johnson is the perpetrator in this case," Morledge said, adding that Roberta Johnson has a "long history of violence toward her children," and said that claim is supported by third-party witnesses "within the evidence of this case."

Two other children, ages one and three, were at the home when Hurd died. The three-year-old showed evidence of bruises and lacerations. There was no evidence of abuse on the one-year-old, according to Morledge. At the time of Johnson's and Dawson's arrests, both were turned over to the Department of Human Services.

The information used in Tuesday's story on Dawson's arrest and subsequent sentence were taken from court records on file in the circuit clerk's office.

There were four cases on Monday involving Dawson, two of which he pled guilty. He was given a total sentence of 16 years in prison; 10 years on the manslaughter and six years on a charge of fleeing. The sentences are to run consecutively.

Police arrest 18-year-old suspected of attack that left one 11-year-old dead

A simple toothache can be fatal.

That is the sobering message a 12-year-old Maryland boy left when, after his dental problems went untreated, he succumbed to a severe brain infection.

Deamonte Driver's life could have been spared if his infected tooth was simply removed -- a procedure costing just $80.

However, the Driver family faced obstacles with Medicaid, poverty, and access to resources, resulting in an easily preventable health problem turning deadly.

In the end, Driver endured two surgeries and weeks of hospital care totaling about $250,000 in medical bills. Sadly, it was too late to save the boy, and he passed away on Feb. 25.

But Deamonte Driver has become much more than just a tragic death. His story underscores the growing need in this wealthy nation to provide adequate dental care to our nation's children.

Children without Dental Care

"Unfortunately, this is more common than we'd like it to be," says Sally Cram, a practicing periodontist in the Washington, DC area. "A lot of children don't get dental care."

In fact, data from the Centers for Disease Control cites tooth decay as one of the most common chronic infectious diseases among U.S. children.

By the age of 11, approximately half of children have decay, and by the age of 19, tooth decay in the permanent teeth affects about 68 percent of adolescents.

For children in low-income families, like the Drivers, there is nearly twice the risk for untreated tooth decay.

"Among children, dental services are the most needed service that they do not receive," says Judith Lave, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburg, PA.

"I think it is probably the least covered of our health benefits across the nation," she adds.

Hurdles in Getting Dental Care

While this lack of care is a known problem, there are a number of issues that stand in the way.

"The dentist doesn't break even," says Cram.

In fact, experts say the low rates Medicaid offers to cover dental services are less than what it costs the doctor to do the actual treatment.

Additionally, state Medicaid programs provide less than satisfactory resources for patients seeking dental care.

It often happens that "you have the benefits, and can't find a dentist to give you care," says Lave.

In Cram's experience, when she and the D.C. Dental Society sought out the names of dentists providing to Medicaid patients, "they couldn't provide the resources to us.

"How can they provide it to patients?" she asks.

The problem with care extends further than bureaucracy, however.

"I think that, for the general public, dental care is lower down on their list of important issues," says Lave.

Case for Prevention

People seem to think "teeth are not a big deal," says Cram.

But it's not just about your mouth. "Infections in your teeth and mouth can lead to more problems," she points out.

When a cavity goes untreated for months or years, the decay eats into the center of the tooth, and eventually enters the nerves and blood vessels.

From there, bacteria get into the blood stream and can travel virtually anywhere.

By taking advantage of basic preventative services -- like cleanings and filling cavities -- people can drastically reduce their chances for severe dental disease.

And with the benefit of Medicaid funding, a tremendous amount of budget funds could be saved in the long run.

Across the board, education on the benefits of prevention is the most important that can be done.

"It's sad that a child has to die for people to wake up," says Cram. "We need to stop putting our heads in the stand and start working together -- it takes education to help."

Investigators say 15-month-old Ronce Ramos was beaten in the head. Police arrested the man believed to be the child's father, 21-year-old Ronnie Ramos, and charged him with injury to a child.

Ramos was arrested and escorted to jail by police. As cameras rolled, Ronnie Ramos confessed to causing the baby's injuries.

Reporter: "Did you do it?"
Ramos: "Yeah, I did."

Ramos went on to say, "I was playing with him, and I hit him on the head, and my hand went down too hard on him."

News 4 WOAI found out the Ramos has been in and out of jail since 2004 on drugs, weapons and assault charges, including domestic violence.

Child Protective Services workers said they just filed paperwork Monday asking a judge to keep the baby's sibling in their care as the investigation continues.
 
A CPS spokeswoman told News 4 investigators were first called to check out the child's family back in October when someone reported little Ronce and his brother were abused.

"They went out. They thoroughly check out the situation," said CPS spokeswoman Mary Walker. "They undressed the 2 boys down to diapers. No bruises; no marks. They took photographs of them. Neither the special investigators for CPS nor the SAPD saw signs of visible injury."

Walker said investigators did recommend Ronce's mother move out of Ramos' house.

"We were aware of possible domestic abuse issues," explained Walker. "As a result of that and knowing the father was in jail on unrelated charges. We suggested that mom take her children and leave the home. We were told that she had indeed done that."

Ronnie Ramos remained in jail Monday evening without bond, as the Ronce's mom continued finalizing his funeral arrangements.

Ronnie Ramos is waiting on a paternity test to find out whether or not he's Ronce's father.  A custody hearing for the second child will be scheduled sometime in the next two weeks.

Reported by: Demond Fernandez
Email: DemondFernandez@woai.com
Last Update: 12/03 10:03 pm

A baby died on Saturday night, the reason is still a mystery, but the little boy's family is speaking out.

In October 2004, his mother's boyfriend, Anderson Hazelwood, dared a state trooper to chase his Acura Legend down a winding road in North Raleigh, the patrol said. Jalien, strapped in the back seat, died instantly when Hazelwood lost control and smashed through a picket fence into a tree. The 5-year-old's mother, Shavonda Commissiong, died in the crash, too.

It wasn't the first time Hazelwood, 33, had run from the law; in 2002, he dragged a Wake Forest officer half a football field before fleeing a license checkpoint. Hazelwood's rap sheet -- pulled only after the Highway Patrol arrested him in the deaths of Jalien and his mother -- details years of dangerous driving, drug abuse and violence in North Carolina and New Jersey.

Wake County social workers never spotted the danger. They were called into Jalien's life after someone reported that he and his brother were being exposed to domestic violence. The social workers weren't required to pull Hazelwood's state criminal record; and even if they had tried to see if he had been in trouble with police before moving to North Carolina, they couldn't have.

Social workers, unlike police, aren't allowed to tap into a national database that tracks criminal activity throughout the United States. State and national efforts to open this system to child welfare investigators have faltered so far, undermined by federal officials who worry about unnecessary meddling into someone's private affairs.

Missed warnings

As more out-of-state families settle in North Carolina, social workers fear they are missing potential signs of trouble.

"Having that kind of access gives you the comfort that you're checking everything," said Denise Boyette, head of children's services at the Johnston County Department of Social Services.

Child advocates in North Carolina have been demanding better access to criminal records for years. Last fall, they cleared one hurdle -- securing rights to North Carolina criminal records, though there's no state policy requiring child protective workers to check the records every time they get involved with a family.

Jalien is one of dozens of North Carolina children who might have been saved in the past five years if social workers had seen clues from national and state criminal records to better protect them. State and local welfare workers raised the issue in reports prepared after the deaths of children who were overseen by social workers. They include:

* Bailey Mallan, 3, of Iredell County, died four years ago when he was punished with cold baths for wetting his bed. His body temperature plummeted to 69 degrees. His father, Timothy Phillips, imprisoned for life for Bailey's death, had a long history of gun, drug and assault charges in Georgia and South Carolina. Social workers gave Phillips custody of his son because Bailey's mother battled drug addiction; they had no way to check his out-of-state criminal record.

* Jahein Cooper, 3, burned to death in Edgecombe County last summer after being dunked in scalding water. His mother's boyfriend, Osborne Bennett, who is now charged with murder in Jahein's death, had a handful of convictions in North Carolina for assaults with guns. Social workers never thought to check.

* Brandon Warren, 14, borrowed his mother's rifle to kill his teenage brother and sister, then committed suicide at his family's Johnston County farm in 2001. For months before their deaths, social workers made Brandon and his brother spend nights with a family friend but allowed them to tend chores at the farm during the day. Earl Marett, director of the Johnston County Department of Social Services, said social workers might have forbidden daytime visits had they known that years before an Arizona judge had convicted the boys' mother, Nissa Warren, of child abuse. A jury convicted her of failing to keep her gun out of her children's hands.

Opening a nationwide criminal database for social workers would take an act of Congress. A child safety bill that could make it happen was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in the spring, and the measure's supporters are trying to have the provision inserted into a similar bill that has passed the Senate. It's too soon to say whether negotiations between staffs will get the measure into a final child safety bill.

Records well guarded

Criminal records are public and on file in the local courthouse where the crime was prosecuted, but the national system that stores them is private and heavily guarded. Only law enforcement officers can search a person's name in the National Crime Information Center without his permission, and then for a limited number of reasons. Even when officers investigate a child-abuse incident, they are forbidden from sharing the national data with a social worker handling the case, according to state and federal regulations.

"There are so many concerns about privacy these days," said Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican who is a sponsor of the House bill allowing access to social workers. "The feds ask, 'How do you keep people from snooping?' Well, I'd rather err on the side of checking and try to keep our kids safe."

In recent years, some new laws have forced those working with children to have their criminal records vetted. Churches and youth sports leagues can require volunteers and coaches to be checked. People applying to be foster or adoptive parents in North Carolina must pass a full criminal history check.

Federal officials relaxed the laws to allow police to check someone in the national database if social workers need to give the person emergency custody of a child. To do it, though, North Carolina's state legislature must pass its own law reinforcing the provision. The N.C. State Child Fatality Task Force, a legislative study commission, plans to examine the issue next year, said Selena Berrier, executive director for the task force.

Some officials worry that offering child welfare workers a glance into someone's criminal past might lead them to unjustly declare the person an unfit parent.

"There is tension regarding to what extent it is reasonable to hold against someone what they might have done in the past instead of taking a good hard look at what's going on in the home right now," said Warren Ludwig, director of Wake County's Child Welfare Services.

Those fighting for better access insist that children won't be yanked from their homes unnecessarily. Social workers say they could use the information to decide what services to offer the caretaker. Does the mother have a string of drunken-driving convictions? Maybe put her in a substance abuse treatment program.

Knowledge can't hurt

It's hard to know if being aware of Hazelwood's criminal troubles would have saved Jalien. But Wake County officials are certain more information couldn't have hurt. In part because of Jalien's death, Wake County Child Welfare Services now requires social workers to check North Carolina criminal records for all adults caring for a child when they are investigating abuse or neglect.

Domestic violence led social workers into Jalien's life in January 2004, according to a summary of Jalien's case. Protective orders detail the couple's rocky and violent history -- colored by Commissiong's ramming her car into Hazelwood's and Hazelwood's threatening her with a knife. Social workers never checked either adult's criminal record or civil records in Durham County, Ludwig said.

After six weeks of visits to Jalien and his brother and assurances from Commissiong that she had shut Hazelwood out of her life, Wake County investigators closed their case.

But by the fall, Commissiong and Hazelwood made amends. The night of the car chase, they were getting ready to head to New York to visit Hazelwood's family, said Jeff Cruden, the prosecutor who persuaded a Wake County jury in March to convict Hazelwood of second-degree murder in the deaths of Jalien and his mother. He'll be in prison more than 30 years.

"An innocent kid, just along for the ride, died for nothing," Cruden said, thumbing through Hazelwood's criminal record. "It didn't have to be that way."

(Staff writer Samiha Khanna and news researcher Susan Ebbs contributed to this report.)

Driver Sentenced To More Than 38 Years In Prison For Fatal Raleigh Wreck

Posted: Mar 3, 2006
Updated: Nov. 6, 2007

"Nothing in this opinion prevents the Legislature from amending the alimony statute," the judges wrote. "But we do not read the present statute nor the ... case law to create that automatic disqualification."

The decision was issued in the case of Linda Calbi, who is serving a three-year prison term after pleading guilty to beating her son, Matt, on Aug. 17, 2003, during a violent argument at their home. He died hours later from internal bleeding and cardiac arrest.

"I don't understand how anyone can look my brother in the face and tell him that he has to pay this woman alimony," said Brian Sokoloff, brother of Linda Calbi's ex-husband, Chris. "Half of this opinion espouses sympathy for my brother, and the other half is saying, 'Too bad.' "

Linda Calbi was originally charged with murder, but the charges were later downgraded to aggravated assault, based on expert reports that medical error contributed significantly to the boy's death. She was sentenced last year to three years in prison and won't be eligible for parole until November 2008.

The Calbis were divorced in 2001 after 15 years of marriage. A few months after Matt's death, Chris Calbi fell behind his alimony payments and filed papers in court seeking a reduction or termination of his payment obligations.

"She took the life of her oldest son, scarred her younger son for the rest of his life, and tore the fabric of my soul from me," Chris Calbi wrote in papers filed in Superior Court in Hackensack. "To reward this evil and violent woman by allowing her ... to derive a financial benefit from the family she destroyed ... can only be described as a perversion of our justice system."

A judge ordered him to continue making payments, then later interrupted alimony for the period that Linda Calbi is incarcerated.

But Chris Calbi's arrears had risen to more $40,000 by then, and the judge ordered him to pay $400 a month to his ex-wife's prison account.

Alimony is determined mostly on the basis of economic considerations and rarely involves moral factors. So while a second marriage to a well-to-do spouse is enough to terminate alimony, a criminal conviction isn't, said Ian Hirsch, an attorney who previously represented Linda Calbi.

"Alimony has nothing to do with the criminal act. He is obligated to pay it," Hirsch said. "It's not much of an argument to say that she killed his child and she should be punished for it by losing the payment."

The three-judge appeals panel stuck to those principles Wednesday.

"We cannot mend the hole in Christopher's heart anymore than we can expiate Linda's guilt," the judges wrote. "However, what we can and must do is consider whether the impact of Matthew's death on Christopher resulted in an economic change of circumstances such that his ability to pay alimony was prevented or hindered."

The panel suspended Chris Calbi's payments until a hearing is held in Hackensack to make that determination. The panel also vacated the father's arrears after Matt's death.

The panel also noted that Linda Calbi can apply for alimony after she leaves prison.

Linda Calbi, who represented herself in the appeal, is incarcerated at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton.

Sokoloff, who has acted as a spokesman for Chris Calbi, said his brother will continue his battle.

"The record before the court lays out a consistent and increasing pattern of spousal and child abuse culminating in the death of Chris' son," he said. "The court acknowledges that, and then invites the Legislature to change the law.

"We are going to turn our attention to the New Jersey Supreme Court, and we are going to turn our attention to the Legislature and governor."

E-mail: markos@northjersey.com

He also revealed that the girl's mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 19, is pregnant.

He said Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 24, stayed home from work July 24 to make sure that Kimberly, his wife of less than two months, followed his orders to whip Riley with a belt, attorney Tommy Stickler Jr. said. "It got way out of control," Stickler said. "It wasn't his plan to beat her so bad she would die. It was his plan to use the belt to beat her to get her to do things the way he wanted."

Stickler said the information was part of a three-hour statement given to investigators Saturday He said the statement made public Monday was only a fraction of the entire interview.

The statement said that Trenor and Zeigler beat Riley with a belt, held her head under water in a bathtub and that Zeigler threw her onto a tile floor. Riley's face was pushed into a pillow and a couch, the statement said.

Zeigler's attorney says information will be revealed that casts doubt on Trenor's statement.

"She's obviously going to try to point the finger to save herself," attorney Neal Davis III said. "Once we start sorting through these facts, her credibility will be a big issue."

The couple, who lived in Spring, put Riley's body in a plastic container purchased at a local Wal-Mart and kept it in the garage for up to two months before tossing it into West Galveston Bay.

Meanwhile, one question investigators have yet to answer in the death of Riley is how could anyone harm such a fragile, helpless child?

"If I knew the answer to that question, my name would be God," Galveston sheriff's spokesman Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo said Tuesday. "That's a question we have not yet determined."

The question haunts Riley's grandmother, Sheryl Sawyers, 47, of Mentor, Ohio. "I want to know why," she said Monday.

Trenor, divulged the gruesome details of Riley's violent death in a statement Saturday to a sheriff's investigator, authorities said.

Trenor Zeigler II, 24, of Spring, beat Riley July 24 with belts, held her head under water in a bathtub, and Zeigler slammed her against a tile floor, according to Trenor's statement.

Body left in garage

An autopsy found three skull fractures.

Tuttoilmondo said investigators are trying to determine if there was a pattern of abuse.

The box holding Riley's body was discovered Oct. 29 on a sand bar about five miles from the Galveston Causeway. Because her identity was unknown, investigators dubbed her Baby Grace.

Trenor and Zeigler surrendered to authorities last week and Trenor said in her statement that Riley was Baby Grace.

'Like a big teddy bear'

"He's probably never been very social in his life," Davis said. He has no criminal record and Davis said he has no history of violence. "The kid is like a big teddy bear."

Zeigler is an instrument technician with Austin-based Emerson Process Management, a Shell Oil contractor, he said.

Trenor and Zeigler are charged with injury to a child and tampering with evidence. They are being held on $350,000 bail.

Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk has said he could seek capital murder charges from a grand jury, depending on the results of a continuing investigation.

Waiting to have a service

"We want her back safe and sound so we can have a memorial service," Riley's father, Robert Sawyers, 20, of Painesville, Ohio, said Tuesday.

Galveston County Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Stephen Pustilnik said his office could not release Riley's body until her identity is confirmed through comparison of her DNA with samples from her parents.

Chronicle reporter Terri Langford contributed to this report.

harvey.rice@chron.com

By HARVEY RICE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Baby Grace documents tell of a brutal death

By HARVEY RICE and TERRI LANGFORD
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Died October 3, 2007

The county's Child Welfare Services received seven calls about the Rivard family before November 2006.

Rivard case leaves tough questions

Child welfare officials say there ?never was a time' they considered taking away girl who was killed

And that's exactly where those who knew and loved the little girl who was born three weeks premature say she's now resting.

Nevaeh Richardson was 8 days old when she was rushed to Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital on Friday.

Bleeding from the nose and mouth and with trauma to her rectum, she died about 24 hours later.

With the 9-day-old's death now ruled a homicide, investigators are working around the clock to find her killer.

Nevaeh's father, Christopher Ryan Richardson, 21, of Lincoln Park, is a suspect, along with others who were in the family's house in the 1400 block of Cicotte at the time the infant was injured. Police say Nevaeh likely was sexually assaulted.

While the homicide case is being investigated, Richardson is behind bars, accused of beating up his live-in girlfriend. He was arrested for domestic violence, third offense, for allegedly attacking the baby's mother as the couple drove the child to the hospital.

Richardson was in 25th District Court on Monday, where Judge David Zelenak ordered him held on a $100,000 cash bond pending a preliminary examination of the evidence against him. That hearing is set for Tuesday.

If convicted of the felony, he faces up to two years in jail and a $2,500 fine.

"I'm not guilty," Richardson said in court, before later requesting a court-appointed attorney and a lie detector to prove his innocence.

Police Chief Thomas Karnes said the infant's mother awoke early Friday and found Nevaeh lying on her chest, covered in blood.

The young couple, who lived with Richardson's mother and stepfather, went to Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital at about 1:55 a.m. with the child and grandparents. A 911 call was not made.

During the short drive, Richardson is accused of slapping his girlfriend across her face, grabbing her by her hair and threatening her should the baby die.

After doctors assessed the infant's condition, they notified police and transported Nevaeh to Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. She died at about 2:25 a.m. Saturday.

Richardson's mother, Adie Green, called police after witnessing her son assaulting his girlfriend in the back seat of her car. She said her son has an alcohol and drug problem and was drunk on the early morning in question.

"I'm not supporting him," she said yesterday. "I'm more concerned about the baby. She came from heaven and now she's back there. I don't understand how anyone could do something like this to a child."

As the incident occurred so close to Thanksgiving, Karnes said, there could have been people coming and going from the family's house.

Everyone who was in that home is being questioned and no one has yet been ruled out as a suspect in the child's death, Karnes said.

Police initially seized the infant's bedding and some of her diapers from the house in hopes of obtaining evidence, Karnes said. Officers returned Monday night and removed a curling iron and a hair straightening iron.

While he hasn't officially been named as a suspect, the investigation is focused on Richardson because of his criminal past.

"I'm not foolish enough to ignore that," Karnes said.

Richardson has two prior convictions for domestic violence and is on probation for a controlled- substance conviction in Roscommon County, court records show.

He also has been arrested at least two other times on domestic violence charges, but those cases were dismissed when the alleged victim failed to show in court. The girlfriend in question is the same woman in at least one of those cases.

Police Detective Lt. John Martin said his department is learning new information about the case every day.

"All of this stuff kind of ties together," he said. "We're still putting a lot of pieces together."

Karnes ? a father of three and president of the Michigan district's Exchange Club, whose primary mission is to prevent child abuse ? said this case has been especially hard for him to handle.

"This is a terrible crime," he said. "It's the worst thing I have ever come in contact with and it's the worst thing I've ever heard of."

Contact Staff Writer Jason Alley at jalley@heritage.com or at 1-734-246-0867.

Teenage killer sentenced

Girl gets 25-year term for fatal stabbing of light rail passenger

The Circuit Court judge said King can be considered for the Patuxent Institution for psychiatric care.

Kendrick McCain, who was 15 when the stabbing occurred and had been charged with first-degree murder, accepted a deal and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and second-degree assault. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 4.

Speaking publicly for the first time about his anguish, Nikki's father, Wayne Edmonds, told Judge Martin P. Welch that he remembers taking in Nikki as a 2-year-old foster child. He said he watched her grow into a young lady who worked hard, wanted to go to college and work with children, and loved to participate in church activities.

To the relatives of King, some of whom were sitting in court yesterday, Edmonds said, "I don't have any hard feelings to [your] family, because two families lose today."

Edmonds, pastor of an East Baltimore church, said he still misses his daughter, who used to play practical jokes and try to cheer him up until he laughed. "I'll miss that. ... there's nobody in my life who fulfills that right now," he said.

His mother, Keisha Davis, said she knew the answer: Big kids bullied her son, while school officials ignored her cries for help.

Although some of his classmates backed her claim, disturbing state documents obtained by the Daily News show Davis beat and emotionally battered her children for years while the city's child welfare agency monitored the family.

Even after state reviewers advised the city in August last year to remove Sidney's surviving siblings - including one who officials feared "would hurt himself" - The News found them still living with Davis in their lower East Side low-income housing complex a week ago. The city agency is currently providing services to the family.

"I know I didn't hurt my son," Davis said recently. "I know my son was fine with me."

No one will ever know what drove Sidney to jump while walking to school with his 6-year-old sister, but it's clear his life was riddled with strife.

The state probe into his death reveals that two months beforehand, his mother was charged with choking the honor student and beating his younger brother with a belt - one of two incidents case workers were investigating at the time of his death.

It was not her first encounter with the Administration for Children's Services.

The 31-year-old mother was reported for child abuse and neglect 16 times in the past decade. Six times the charges against her were substantiated. These included offenses ranging from inadequately caring for her children because of drug abuse to using "excessive corporal punishment" that resulted in "lacerations, bruises, welts."

When ACS didn't substantiate the charges, the city often conducted a weak investigation, state officials said.

Sidney's story is a sadly familiar one: His teenage mother was in foster care and he was barely 6 months old when ACS entered his life.

In 2004, an ACS lawyer advised a caseworker to have the children removed when Davis refused services after a finding that she had beaten Sidney's younger brother. The case workers never took that action, and a supervisor closed the case without giving services to the family.

This was a mistake, according to the August 2006 report issued by the state Office of Children and Family Services, because "the circumstances warranted this intervention."

Within a year, Sidney's brother tried to jump out a window and "there was a concern that the child would hurt himself," school officials wrote to the state.

Two months before Sidney's suicide, Davis was accused of choking him. She was cleared of this after his fatal jump. Two days before the death, the school filed an "inadequate guardianship" report against Davis, saying Sidney's "destructive behavior presented a risk to himself and others." ACS had not reached a determination on this when the state filed its report on his death.

Perhaps most disturbing about Sidney's suicide is that it came when ACS was supposed to be on high alert. The agency was under heavy fire for apparent failings in the murder of Nixzmary Brown, a 7-year-old whose mother and step-father are accused of killing her in January last year.

Richard Wexler, director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, said that might have been the problem.

"They were so overloaded with children who did not need to be investigated that no one noticed [Sidney's] case had taken a desperate change for the worse," Wexler speculated. "This child paid the price of panic."

Seemingly shocked that the children still lived with Davis after the suicide, state officials warned ACS to take legal action to remove them. "In light of the added stressors from the suicide, it would appear that the surviving children would be more at risk than before the siblings death," state officials wrote.

ACS and the state Office of Children and Family Services declined to comment on the specifics of the case.

BY KATHLEEN LUCADAMO
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

Monday, November 19th 2007, 4:00 AM

klucadamo@nydailynews.com

Over the Edge

The suicide of a 14-year-old boy

On the morning of March 10, Sidney Hatchett lay in a pale-blue coffin at the Vanella's Funeral Chapel on the Lower East Side. A slew of gifts surrounded him?a Yankees hat, three teddy bears, a white stuffed rabbit, a bundle of silk flowers. Sidney had told his mother he wanted an Akademiks denim outfit for Easter this year, so that's what she had bought for him to be buried in. There was no sign of how Sidney had died, except that his face was slightly puffy. He'd spent two days in the East River before police divers found his body. He was 14.

One week earlier, on the last day of his life, Sidney Hatchett woke up at 6:45 a.m. and started getting ready for school. Most mornings he didn't spend too much time worrying about how he looked, but on this day he pulled out his favorite sweater?the navy one with red stripes?and he ironed his cargo pants. It was 23 degrees outside, so to keep warm he put a pair of blue jeans on underneath his cargo pants. He walked his eight-year-old brother Shaquelle to his bus stop, waited with him for the bus to arrive, then headed home, stopping at a bodega to get a snack for his sister to eat later that day.

As the oldest child, Sidney regularly helped his siblings get off to school, even on those days when he didn't go himself. Sidney, who was in ninth grade, had already missed about 30 days of school this year. While he'd once been an honor roll student, he had announced recently that he didn't like school anymore. His mother didn't argue with him; instead she let him stay home. Sidney's school notified the city's Administration for Children's Services about his absences, and later today an ACS caseworker was scheduled to come to the apartment to investigate.

Now Sidney had no choice but to go back to school. He kissed two fingers and pressed them against his mother's cheek?his usual goodbye gesture?then left with his six-year-old sister Shakeema. The family lived on the Lower East Side on a short street called Rutgers Slip, just north of the Manhattan Bridge.

There was no need to walk toward the water?Shakeema's school was in the other direction?but Sidney headed that way, darting across South Street. When they reached the promenade, he took off his parka and handed it to his sister. "Bye, Keema," he said. "I'm going to jump in the water."

"No, please don't," she cried.

But Sidney had already made up his mind. He climbed over the barricade and hurled himself into the freezing river.

Seventeen days after Sidney's death, his mother, Keisha Davis, sits on a sofa in her living room and talks about him for more than two hours. Keisha does not use the word "suicide" to describe Sidney's death. Instead she says "my son passed," or she speaks about "the day Sidney went in the water." She doesn't deny that Sidney leapt into the East River; she just can't seem to accept the fact that he ended his own life. He did not leave a note; he'd never attempted suicide before; and he wasn't preoccupied with death, at least not as far as she knew.

Keisha Davis, 30, describes her son variously as a "goofball" and "a little dad" because he helped out so much with his younger siblings. "If I had a bad day, Sidney was going to do something to take my mind off it," she says. He'd move around the apartment, practicing a dance he called the Shake, wiggling his upper body while his hands hung at his sides. And he was a perpetual prankster, stealing her spoon when she went off to the bathroom in the middle of a meal, then giggling when she returned and couldn't find it.

When Sidney was in eighth grade, he used to come home brimming with stories about what had happened at school that day. The next year, after he entered University Neighborhood High School?which was started a few years ago in collaboration with NYU?these conversations stopped. "Did you have a good day?" his mother would ask. "Yeah," he'd say. "What did you do?" she'd ask. "Nothing," he'd reply.

Keisha began getting calls from a guidance counselor, who, she says, accused Sidney of starting fights in school. As these calls became more frequent, Keisha got angry; she didn't believe her son was a troublemaker. (The guidance counselor and school principal did not return calls for this story; ACS is continuing to investigate Keisha, since she has two children at home.) According to Keisha, the guidance counselor encouraged her to have Sidney "evaluated." Keisha wasn't sure what this meant, but Sidney didn't want to participate. Keisha sided with Sidney.

When Sidney said he didn't want to go to school at all, Keisha let him stay home. Mother and son would hang out together, get lunch, go to the barbershop. "I was letting him know that I understand, I'm not angry with you," she says. "Because I know it's not a situation where you don't want to learn, or you don't want to go to school. It's a situation where you're stressed out, and I was trying to relieve some of that stress."

After Sidney's death, Keisha heard stories that helped explain why he'd been so adamant about not going to school: Other kids told her he'd been regularly taunted and beaten. One instance involved his cell phone. Sidney had told Keisha that it disappeared when someone took it from his pocket; after his death, she heard that kids at school had attacked him and stolen the phone. "It's not something he'd come home and tell me," she says. "He was very protective. And you know how 14-year-old boys are?he was probably ashamed." About his decision to jump in the river, she says flatly, "He was bullied to death."

It is one explanation for Sidney's suicide, but it may not be the whole explanation.

Keisha Davis gave birth to Sidney when she was 16 years old, then dropped out of high school. When Sidney was four, they entered the city's homeless shelter system. That first night, they stayed at the Emergency Assistance Unit in the Bronx, where she slept in a chair and he slept on her lap. It was the beginning of an odyssey through the shelter system that lasted more than a year. Keisha recalls that she and Sidney spent about seven months in a welfare hotel near Kennedy Airport, then transferred to a shelter in Bushwick.

Eventually, they moved into apart-ment 19L, the two-bedroom 19th-floor place on Rutgers Slip. Keisha had grown up in the Mitchel Houses, a housing project in Mott Haven, and the fact that she was now raising her son somewhere other than the projects was a point of pride. (About the Bronx project where she grew up, she says: "I hated it; it was violent; it was nasty; it always smelled.")

Their apartment on Rutgers Slip is down the street from two projects?the La Guardia Houses and the Rutgers Houses?and it felt like a step up. It is a mixed-income building with a doorman, laundry machines in the lobby, and a community center on the first floor. Section 8, the federal voucher program, subsidizes her rent, and she pays $326 a month. Still, it's a stretch for Keisha to make the rent; she works as a cashier at Pathmark earning seven dollars an hour.

Inside apartment 19L, Sidney shared a small bedroom with his two siblings. The closet door leans off its hinges, the result of a wrestling match between him and his brother. Inside is an empty box for a Game Boy Advance SP?the Christmas present that was in his pocket when he jumped in the water. There are no bookshelves, but beneath a broken TV set are well-worn copies of two of his favorite books, 145th Street: Short Stories and Handbook for Boys: A Novel, both by Walter Dean Myers.

The day before he killed himself, Sidney visited the apartment of Steven Neville, his cousin and best friend, who lives upstairs on the 20th floor. The two played the video game NBA Live 2006, and Steven says he didn't notice anything amiss: "He seemed all right to me." Steven and Sidney had been friends since they were seven. When the weather was warmer, they played basketball together in the park across the street. If anyone tried to bother Sidney, who was smaller than other kids his age, Steven would intervene.

When Steven heard that Sidney had jumped into the East River, he was stunned. Asked why he thought Sidney took his life, Steven does not have an answer. The boys attended different high schools, and Steven says Sidney never told him he was being harassed or bullied at school. "He kept that secret," he says. "He didn't tell nobody."

Every month, Sidney got his hair cut by George Rosario, a barber who works at a shop on Madison Street. "He was real quiet, sadness in his eyes. Just a regular ghetto kid. Just like all of us," says George, 34, who grew up in the neighborhood. George ran into Sidney on the street all the time; the two would greet each other by slapping palms. While seated in George's chair, Sidney sometimes talked about the fights he got into at school. To George, the tales sounded familiar; he was not overly concerned. "Who doesn't go through that in the 'hood?" he says.

Sidney's parents started dating when his mother was 13 and his father was a few years older. His father, also named Sidney, was the youngest of seven siblings; his family called him Peanut. The two lived across the street from each other in the Bronx. "I thought I was in love," Keisha says. "I thought he was going to save me and we were going to be together forever." The fairy tale faded quickly; she and Peanut split after four years. While in the shelter system, she met another man, whom she has been with for nearly 10 years. They are not married, but she refers to him as "Sidney's stepfather"; he is the father of her two younger children.

Over the years, Sidney stayed connected to his father's family through the efforts of his paternal grandmother, Victoria Felton. On Friday afternoons, she'd send someone to get him so he could come up to the Bronx to hang out for the weekend. She gave him a nickname?Jazz?and when he was in elementary school, he announced that he wanted to live with her. Keisha agreed, and Sidney moved to the Bronx for almost a year before deciding to return home.

Victoria Felton died in 2000, and afterward Sidney saw his father far less often. Peanut had always been a drinker, and he had suffered brain damage after being hit in the head with a bat on a Bronx street. In the months following his mother's death, Peanut spent days inside her apartment, surrounded by empty 40-ounce bottles of St. Ides. "Peanut got lost in the head," his sister Gina Felton says. "He'd sit in the apartment all day drinking, watching TV, listening to the radio." Peanut stopped paying rent and lost the apartment. Eventually he too entered the shelter system.

The last time Peanut's siblings saw him was in August, when he showed up at a family barbecue. Besides drinking too much, Peanut suffers from chronic seizures. In October, Gina brought his photo to the Fort Washington Armory, the shelter in Washington Heights where he had been staying. She says she found a few men who recognized Peanut, and that one of them told her they'd last seen him leaving the shelter in an ambulance. She contacted the police and called around to local hospitals, but has not been able to find him.

Relations between Sidney's parents had been strained for a long time. Keisha says the last time she saw Peanut he promised to show up for Sidney's sixth-grade graduation, but never did. A week before Sidney jumped in the river, one of Peanut's sisters called apartment 19L and talked to him about his father. Keisha remembers the call coming into the apartment, but she says she only learned that Sidney's father had disappeared after Sidney died.

Among Peanut's relatives, Sidney's suicide stirred up memories of two other tragic deaths. Peanut's father?Sidney's grandfather, also named Sidney Hatchett? died about 20 years ago when he fell from a tenement building in the Bronx. Nobody knew for certain whether he jumped or was pushed. According to Gina Felton, little Sidney's great-grandfather died in a similar way, leaping from a building. In his case, she says, the family had little doubt that it was a suicide.

Sidney's funeral was scheduled to start at 10 a.m., and by then nearly every seat was filled. About 60 people showed up?friends, relatives, classmates. Just before 10, Keisha Davis walked to the front and gazed down at her son. She placed her head inside the casket, leaned her cheek against his, pressed her lips to his face. Eventually she turned around and took a seat in the front row. The funeral lasted only a few minutes?it included one reading from the Bible but no speeches or songs?and then everyone filed past the coffin to say goodbye.

By 10:25 a.m. Sidney's casket was in the back of a silver hearse, traveling down Madison Street. As the motorcade headed off to a cemetery in New Jersey, most of the funeral-goers remained on the sidewalk, clustered in small groups, whispering to one another. It was an exceptionally warm day?the temperature was almost 70 degrees?and everyone was trying to find an answer to the same question, trying to figure out why Sidney Hatchett had thrown himself in the river.

jgonnerman@villagevoice.com

by Jennifer Gonnerman
March 28th, 2006 11:17 AM

An 11-month old girl who had been placed in foster care after she was physically abused died of a cocaine overdose hours after her foster mother took her to a Brooklyn hospital, the authorities said yesterday.

Detectives from the 79th Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where the baby, Shantel Lisby, lived on Pulaski Street with the 26-year-old foster mother, are investigating the case as a homicide, the police said.

The foster mother, whom a law enforcement official identified as Latisha Jefferson, took the infant to Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center about 4:45 p.m. on June 1, the police said. The child, who was suffering from seizures, died a short time later.

Toxicological tests performed along with an autopsy on the infant determined on Thursday that the child had died from acute cocaine ingestion, said Ellen Borakove, the spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office.

''Detectives are investigating how the child ingested the narcotics,'' said a police spokesman, Sgt. Brian Burke.

The baby's two siblings, a 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, who were also in Ms. Jefferson's care, were returned to the custody of the City Administration for Children's Services, officials said. Ms. Jefferson's own two children, an 11-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, were placed in the custody of their maternal grandmother.

Detectives have questioned the foster mother and her boyfriend about the death, officials said.

A spokeswoman for the child welfare agency, Jennifer Banks, said Shantel and her brother and sister had been placed in the care of the agency in September 1999 after the agency determined that they had suffered physical abuse. She said she could provide no details about the children's birth parents.

Ms. Banks said a social service agency, St. Christopher's Jenny Clarkson, had looked into Ms. Jefferson's background and, along with the Administration for Children's Services itself, passed on her fitness to be a foster parent. St. Christopher's Jenny Clarkson has a contract with the city agency and placed the children in Ms. Jefferson's home, she said.

The case is under investigation by the city agency and the Police Department ''as to whether the incident was intentional or accidental and whether all appropriate steps were taken when this foster home was licensed,'' Ms. Banks said.

Police did not know how long they had been there.

Tyler had been hospitalized since Easter, when the couple said he had a seizure on the way back from a restaurant in Toledo, Ohio. Doctors determined the boy suffered brain injuries from being shaken.

Tyler's mother, 19-year-old Sara Vanpopering, had planned to let the couple adopt the boy and her 1-year-old daughter, McKenzie.

In a suicide note, Carissa Columbus wrote: "No one here would ever hurt Sara's kids." She also asked that her dogs be taken care of.

McKenzie, who was not hurt, was placed in foster care after her brother was hospitalized, Southgate police chief Larry Hall said.

"It's difficult even to talk about it, it really is," he said. "I'm a father. You take your police hat off on these."

The couple was not charged in the boy's death. Southgate police chief Larry Hall said authorities had tried to contact them, and finally entered the home on Saturday.

Mark Vanpopering said his sister met the couple about nine months ago through a friend, and she often let them care for the children. Carissa Columbus was diabetic and couldn't have children, he said.

"(Sara) was too young to have kids," he said. "She thought they were financially secure and everything, and she'd be able to see them and stuff."

Mark Vanpopering said his family wants to get McKenzie back. "My whole family's been devastated," he said.

Tyler's father, Chris Deneen, 19, said he didn't know the couple well, but he suspected something was amiss when he met them at the hospital.

"I just tried to stay away from them so I wouldn't do anything stupid," he said Tuesday. Carissa Columbus was talkative, but Leonard was "just staring off into space," he said.

The deaths were a huge blow to this small blue-collar Detroit suburb, which has little violent crime.

Keith Johnson, who lives next door to the Columbuses, said the couple seemed dedicated to each other. "I've never seen them be hostile toward the children or hostile toward each other," he said.

He said they bought their house new about two years ago. Outside the small brick home, a Scooby Doo flag hung over the front door Tuesday wishing passers-by a "Happy Spring."

Posted 4/20/2004

Mom Gets Prison Time In Son's Starvation Death

Boy Weighed 29 Pounds At Time Of Death

A 2-year-old Queens boy plunged six stories to his death Tuesday after crawling out a window onto a fire escape while his mother was showering, police and witnesses said.

Ezquel Conterras landed on the sidewalk outside his Saunders St. apartment building in Rego Park, prompting terrified neighbors to call for an ambulance as they tried to comfort the gravely injured child.

"A lot of people were screaming," said the building's super Frank Popovic. "He was still breathing ... Every 20 seconds, he would take a breath."

The child's mother, Sandra Perez, told neighbors and investigators that she was in the shower when her son fell.

Neighbors said she didn't come downstairs to look for her child for several minutes and then did not immediately recognize the boy, who was only wearing a diaper.

"She had no idea what had happened," said Popovic. "When she came down she said, 'That's not my child.'"

Shaken neighbors said the child had been spotted on the fire escape before.

"I saw the very same baby climbing out of the window a few days ago," said neighbor Boris Yusupov, 39. "My heart was shaking when I saw that."

Paramedics rushed Ezquel to Elmhurst Medical Center, where he died a short time later.

Investigators interviewed Perez yesterday but no charges have been filed, police said. Perez - who has another child under the age of 1 - does not have a history with the Administration for Children's Services, a police source said.

"What kind of parents are these?" asked David Brandes, who was walking his daughters to school when he saw the child laying on the sidewalk. "[Ezquel] had on only a pamper in 40-degree weather."

"I saw the blood, I saw the blood all over the left front portion of his forehead," said Brandes, a professor at the New York Institute of Technology. "I was paralyzed in my tracks and I was praying my children didn't see it."

The window Ezquel crawled through was not required to have a guard over it because it leads to the fire escape, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Neighbors said that yesterday was not the first time Perez lost track of Ezquel, potentially putting her son in danger.

"I saved him on three or four occasions from running into the street and being hit by a car," said Narine Pragg, 47, the super of a neighboring building.

"On one occasion, I had to hold him and go back into the building and look for his parents," said Pragg.

With Peter Kadushin

mjaccarino@nydailynews.com

BY MIKE JACCARINO and JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Wednesday, November 21st 2007, 4:00 AM

Tuesday, a judge sentenced a former National Guardsman to 45 years in prison for the death of a three year old child. At the time of his arrest, he was only a few weeks away from being deployed to Iraq.

May 20, 2003. That's the day 3 year old Chasity Haselden's life came to an abrupt end. Her grandmother, Cheryl Haselden is still grieving. "She was a very beautiful little girl that we miss a lot."

Tuesday morning, the man who took Chasity's life stood before a judge, to learn his fate. The night she died, Kenneth Robinson was watching her. He lived with Chasity's mother on Bayside Court in Marion County. Robinson says he shook Chasity and handled her roughly. When it became hard for her to breathe, he called 9-1-1. The three year old died 46 minutes later.

In court, Robinson apologized for what happened, but despite his apology the judge gave sentenced him to 45 years behind bars. Cheryl Haselden said, "I'm fine with that if it would have been 20 years. I'd been fine with that because no amount of time in jail is gonna bring Chasity back."

But Cheryl said she's made peace with Robinson. "Lord forgives him and so do I. I wish him the best."

Chasity's mother, Brandy McDaniel, is also charged with homicide by child abuse in her daughter's death because she was ordered by the Department of Social Services not to leave Chasity alone with Robinson.

She's expected to plead guilty to the charge, in the coming weeks.

By Tonya Brown
Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 6:25 p.m.

The girl's father, Jason Marcelle, of 350 Marcus Garvey Boulevard in Bedford-Stuyvesant, was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child, officials said, after an autopsy on Thursday found that the girl, Tkai Marcelle, had died of "blunt impact injuries."

The child's death was caused "by laceration of the liver and massive internal bleeding" as a result of blunt force trauma, according to court papers. The papers said the autopsy showed bruises on Tkai's legs, back, arms and head and severe burns to the feet, abrasions to the back, and lacerations to the scalp.

Some neighbors of Mr. Marcelle said they had heard arguments coming from the second-floor apartment where he lived with a woman and four children. "You could hear everything on that floor, everything," said Rahim Allen, 38, who moved into a first-floor apartment in the building about three months ago. "You could hear screaming and cursing and banging: boom, boom, boom."

Others said Mr. Marcelle appeared to be balancing work with the rigors of raising four children.

Tkai was unconscious and unresponsive on a couch when emergency responders went to the apartment at 10:34 p.m. on Wednesday, the police said, after Mr. Marcelle called 911. The child was pronounced dead minutes later at Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn.

Yesterday, her siblings were in the custody of the city's Administration for Children's Services. The woman who lived with them and Mr. Marcelle was not Tkai's mother, officials said, and it was not clear if the two were married.

Police officers had responded to domestic-incident calls involving Mr. Marcelle at least five times since 2004, the police said, though none involved children.

Mr. Marcelle was arrested in a grand larceny case on Sept. 18, 1996, and he later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, officials said. In February, he was accused of assaulting his 31-year-old sister, and the case has not yet gone to trial, they said.

One official familiar with the investigation into Tkai's death said that child welfare authorities had had complaints about the family before. There had not, however, been an abuse or neglect allegation involving a child of the family for more than two years, the official said. Before that, there had been several complaints, but none had involved physical abuse.

Mr. Marcelle was held without bail after his arraignment yesterday.

Where is justice for 2-year-old Khamerin? No arrest after his death

Died July 12,2007

A 12-YEAR-old girl who died in foster care had wet herself because she was too ill to move and her carers had refused to call an ambulance......

The child, who struggled to walk as the result of an infection in her leg, had been dumped outside because, unable to make it to the bathroom, she had been soiling her clothes, Crown Prosecutor Richard Coates said.

Foster carers Toni Melville, 43, and Denise Reynolds, 42, have been charged with her manslaughter.

At a committal hearing in Darwin on Wednesday, the court heard the sisters lived together in Palmerston with nine of their own children, two of whom were intellectually disabled.

Another adult and five foster children also lived in the three-bedroom home.

On July 12 this year, the young girl was taken to Royal Darwin Hospital where she died from acute septicaemia, believed to have been caused by an infection in her leg.

Mr Coates said that both Reynolds and Melville had been told by people the child needed medical care.

"If she had received appropriate medical treatment she would have made a complete recovery," he said.

About three weeks before her death, the child said she had a sore leg. In the last week of life it became so painful she found it difficult to move off the couch.

"The deceased needed assistance to get to the toilet and on occasion there is evidence that she urinated and defecated in her clothes," Mr Coates said.

On the day she died, the girl had been left on a dirt patch in the front yard.

"Her gums were bleeding and at one stage she was given salt water to wash her mouth ... some of the children playing in the yard noticed ants on her nose, eyes and mouth," Mr Coates said.

"As the day progressed, the child became delirious and was talking to the other children about seeing fairies in the trees and that a limo was coming to pick her up."

Evelyn Noakes, who referred to both Melville and Reynolds as her aunties, told the court she was surprised to see the young girl outside the house.

She said Melville told her the girl wanted to be outside and that the children were instructed not to help her move because she needed to use her bad leg.

"Aunty Denise said if she wanted to soil herself and sit there she might as well just go outside and act like an animal," Ms Noakes said.

"I said she shouldn't be outside knowing that she can't get up and move about freely. I think I asked whether she had a feed and a drink."

"What were you told about that?" Mr Coates asked.

"That no one was to give her any," she replied.

Richard White, a neighbour who tried to give the girl CPR, said she had often popped in to say hello and had been "really a bubbly girl ... full of beans".

But by the end of her life, he said: "She was pale and sick and didn't talk that much ... she just said she wanted to lie down".

An ambulance worker who treated the girl before taking her to hospital said he had not noticed a sore on her leg.

November 28, 2007