PROPOSALS FOCUS ON PREVENTING DEATHS LIKE SUMMER’S

Rebecca Nappi / The Spokesman-Review

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/feb/27/agency-focus-preventing-child-deaths-summers/

 

Summer Phelps

Four-year-old Summer Phelps died March 11, 2007, after being burned, beaten and drowned. Her father and stepmother were sentenced in January to long prison terms for causing her death.

Today, the Department of Social and Health Services Children’s Administration issued its “Executive Child Fatality Review” report in the case, examining the actions of Child Protective Services employees and making recommendations that could help prevent a similar death in the future.

CPS had eight referrals on the case before Summer died, most of them when she resided with her biological mother. The mother accused the father of sexually molesting Summer. He later contacted CPS claiming Summer’s biological mother had abandoned her.

Among the report’s recommendations:

- Agencies that help at-risk children should be able to share information that identifies high-risk families. Summer eventually moved in with her father and stepmother.

The stepmother’s infant, Summer’s half-brother, was being seen by nurses and other professionals from Medicaid-funded programs targeting at-risk mothers and their newborns. But the professionals were unaware of the family’s CPS history.

- CPS supervisors should review every referral, regardless of the decision made after the screening, keeping in mind the history of the entire family. Supervisors may have more experience spotting patterns of recurring and severe abuse that might be happening over time in a family, as was the case with Summer’s family.

- The (visiting nurse) programs restrict services to the childbearing woman and her infant. The report recommended that DSHS see if options exist to expand the services to other children in the home, based on need.

Child Fatality Reviews are limited in scope, and do not replace or supersede other investigations. “Nor is it the function or purpose of a Child Fatality Review to take personnel action or recommend such action against DSHS employees or other individuals,” according to the report.

Jonathan Lytle was sentenced to 75 years in prison – the longest homicide-by-abuse sentence in Washington state history – for his role in killing Summer. Adriana Lytle, Summer’s stepmother, was sentenced to 62 1/2 years.

CPS FAILED SETH IRELAND IN EVERYWAY POSSIBLE

CPS Under Spotlight in Ireland Case

http://www.cbs47.tv/news/local/story/CPS-Under-Spotlight-in-Ireland-Case/92VH2bp4DEq1cF5a8ESSQg.cspx

Last Update: 2/26 2:04 pm

There is new information in a case of deadly child abuse.

The mother of ten-year-old Seth Ireland and her boyfriend apparently tried to take him in for psychiatric help but were turned away.

The attorney for LeBaron Vaughn says Vaughn and Seth’s mother, Rena Ireland, took Seth to CCAIR just one day before Vaughn is accused of beating Seth to death.

Children’s Crisis Assessment Intervention Resolution Center (CCAIR) is a 24-hour emergency clinic run by Child Protective Services. CPS has been under fire in the Seth Ireland case because they received reports about Seth’s abuse and they admit they did let it slip through the cracks.

Attorneys for both plaintiffs in the case say they tried to seek help and were turned away before Seth Ireland was beaten to death. The information could be used to decrease the murder charges to manslaughter.

Seth Ireland was at Children’s Hospital for ten days before he eventually died of his injuries.

CPS failed this child in every imaginable way, they should be prosecuted for those failures, they cause Seth’s death as surely as the man who dealt the deadly blows that killed him.

MAN SUES DSS OVER CASE INVOLVING SPANKING

http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D96K3IQ02

A father who’s daughter was removed from his care because he spanked her, has sued the Department of Social Services. 

 In his interview in the above article the father states, that his daughter had no marks or bruises from the spanking and that after DSS removed her, she had to sleep on a cot in a foster home for nearly seven weeks.

The article further states, “The trauma that DSS inflicted upon her is far, far greater than a spanking.”

I would have to agree….

PAYNE BLAMES KIDS FOR THEIR DEATHS (what a piece of shit!)

Payne blames kids for their deaths

 

Kim Smith, ARIZONA DAILY STAR
02.28.2009

http://www.azstarne t.com/metro/ 282207

Editor’s note: Readers, please be advised that the testimony in this trial is disturbing.

Jurors in the Christopher Payne double-homicide trial spent several hours Friday watching Payne spit, swear, fidget and blame his children for their own deaths.

Prosecutors Susan Eazer and Bunkye Chi played a videotape of Payne taken in the hours before his arrest in the 2006 deaths of Ariana and Tyler Payne.

While most of the videotape shows Tucson police Detective Mike Walker interviewing Payne, there were long blocks of time when Payne was left alone, handcuffed to a table.

It was during those breaks that Payne, who was going through heroin withdrawal, yelled, kicked walls and banged his handcuffs on the table begging for someone to talk to him, for bathroom breaks and for something to warm him up.

When Payne wasn’t discussing the details of his children’s deaths, he was complaining about feeling sick and demanding to talk to his girlfriend or his stepsister.

Payne, 30, is accused of killing Ariana and Tyler sometime between March 9, 2006, and Sept. 1, 2006. Assuming they died in that time frame, they were 3 and 4, respectively.

Ariana’s remains were found Feb. 18, 2007, stuffed inside a plastic tub in a trash bin. Authorities believe detectives overlooked Tyler’s remains in the trash bin and that his remains are in a landfill. Searches at the landfill proved futile.

An autopsy revealed that in the weeks or months leading up to Ariana’s death, she’d suffered 12 broken ribs and a broken shoulder blade.

Payne is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of concealment of a dead human body and multiple counts of child abuse. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

During the first portion of the police interview, Payne repeatedly demanded to know why he was being questioned. At one point, he told Walker that the last time he’d seen the kids, they were living with their mother, Jamie Hallam. Minutes later, he said he last saw them during a weekend visit.

Suddenly, he said: “Sir, I know where you’re going with this. Just let me say goodbye to my wife and my kid and I’ll be totally honest with you because I know where this is going, OK?” After being turned down numerous times, Payne began to cry.

“I got those kids and they were so distraught, man, and they (expletive) quit eating on me,” Payne said, claiming nothing he did to get the kids to eat worked, and then they started to eat their own feces.

When asked what happened next, Payne said: “You know what happened, man. You know what happened. You’re asking me about everything.”

Although Payne’s attorneys told jurors during opening statements that his live-in girlfriend, Reina Gonzales, was responsible for the children’s deaths, Payne repeatedly told Walker and Detective Michael Orozco that Gonzales wasn’t involved because she was at an aunt’s home when the children died.

He was left alone with the two children, he didn’t have a job and resorted to stealing food – food the children refused to eat, Payne said.

“They just withered away man. I didn’t know what to do. CPS (Child Protective Services) wouldn’t help me, and I couldn’t get food stamps,” Payne said.

“They wanted to be with their mom, but they couldn’t go back with their mom because their mom is a meth addict, and CPS wanted them them with me,” Payne said. “I tried to get help, man. I truly, honestly did.”

Payne insisted he didn’t kill the children. They were malnourished when they arrived at his home, and he feared being blamed if he sought medical help.

Eventually, Payne said, he knew the children were beyond help, and they died within a week of each other, probably in July 2006.

“I knew I’d get in trouble if something happened, and I just wanted to spend time with Reina and my son (Christopher Jr.), so I lied and said they were back with their mom,” Payne said.

After Ariana died, Payne said he just sat there and prayed and prayed and prayed. After Tyler died, Payne said he hid both children in an outside storage closet at his apartment. About two months later, he persuaded a transient to rent a storage locker for him.

Both children were placed in garbage bags, but the bag Ariana was in was stuffed into a designer duffel bag before both children were put into the plastic tub and moved to the storage unit.

He repeatedly asked the detectives why they told him they’d found only one set of bones. He swore he put Tyler’s body under Ariana’s.

The former general manager of the storage facility testified earlier this week that the lid came off the tub when she dumped it into a Dumpster. The prosecutors have said that after finding Ariana’s body, police never dreamed there would be a second body and failed to search the entire Dumpster. Searches at a local landfill proved unsuccessful.

Payne expressed shock when told about Ariana’s broken bones, saying he never struck the children.
Jurors are expected to listen to the rest of Payne’s testimony on Monday.

On Tuesday, Gonzales is expected to testify against Payne. She, too, was facing the death penalty, but she pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in exchange for a 22-year prison sentence.

Judge Richard Fields is presiding over the case in Pima County Superior Court. The trial is expected to last another three to five weeks.

Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet. com

For more on this story, please visit the following links;
Payne trial: Suspect denies killing kids to avoid child support

When Chris Payne was being interviewed by Det. Mike Walker after his March 1, 2007, arrest, he repeatedly denied killing his children, stressing that he was only guilty of not getting them help.

Payne trial: Jurors hear Payne confess

Jurors are watching an interview with Chris Payne conducted by Det. Mike Walker on March 1, 2007.

Payne trial: Gruesome evidence admitted

Det. Mike Orozco took the stand this morning to introduce some gruesome evidence, details of the decomposition of Ariana Payne’s body, including photos, and blood and body fluid evidence found in Payne’s old apartment where Ariana and Tyler died.

Payne trial: Jurors expected to hear Payne’s alleged confession Friday

Most of Friday’s testimony is expected to be about statements Chris Payne made to police after his March 1, 2007, arrest.

Payne trial: Testimony wraps for the day

Tucson police Officer William Nutt testified this afternoon that he was unaware when he left Ariana and Tyler Payne with Chris Payne on March 9, 2006, on CPS’s advice, the investigation in their mother’s alleged drug use had been concluded.

Payne trial: Hallam describes learning of her children’s deaths

Jamie Hallam testified that she was contacted by police in February 2007 about her children, whom she hadn’t seen in more than a year.

Payne trial: ‘Bug identifier’ testifies

Prosecutors called University of Arizona bug expert Carl Olson to the stand this afternoon.

Payne trial: Early lunch break due to no-show witnesses

Testimony will resume at 1:30 p.m.

Payne trial: Trial delayed by tardy witnesses

Prosecutor Susan Eazer’s witness schedule was going along well until after the first witness today was excused.

Payne trial: State says defense opened door to his domestic violence incidents

Prosecutor Susan Eazer told Judge Richard Fields this morning that the state’s witness list will change slightly now that she’s heard what Christopher Payne’s defense will be.

Payne trial: Defense flip-flops on his drug usage, drug job

Chris Payne’s defense attorney tried hard Tuesday to prevent jurors from hearing testimony that he allegedly abused drugs, much less sold them.

Payne trial: Testimony wraps for the day

Jurors were excused to discuss matters with Jury Commissioner Kathy Brauer after testimony wrapped in Christopher Payne’s capital murder trial.

Payne trial: Officer testifies about finding Ariana’s remains

Prosecutors showed jurors photos of the plastic tub in which Ariana and Tyler Payne’s bodies were stuffed and the designer tote bag that contained Ariana’s body.

Payne trial: Children’s mother arrives at trial

Jamie Hallam, the mother of Ariana and Tyler Payne, wasn’t in court for opening statements this morning, but arrived for afternoon testimony.

Payne trial: Storage unit manager testifies about finding bin with bodies (CAUTION: Graphic testimony)

CAUTION: This blog contains testimony that might offend some readers.

Defense: Payne loved his children, but women mistreated them

A defense attorney for Christopher Payne says he loved his children and didn’t abuse them or kill them.

Payne abused kids, then starved them to death, state says

Christopher Payne starved his two older children to death because he was so focused on feeding himself, his girlfriend and their baby and supplying himself and his girlfriend with drugs, a prosecutor said.

http://tucsoncitize n.com/blog/ rss/author/ 4691