Web-posted Thursday, February 5, 2009
Boy’s death ruled homicide
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/020509/new_12497982.shtml
Police say 3-year-old was abused
By Sean Thomas
sean.thomas@amarillo.com
The death of a 3-year-old boy in a north Amarillo home was a homicide, police said Wednesday, and state welfare workers took custody of seven other children in the home.
Miracuelos Fuentes died from what police are calling “acute abuse.” There were bruises, both fresh and old, across much of his body, and he was malnourished, authorities said.
The boy’s mother called police around 8 a.m. Tuesday to report that her son was not breathing. He died a half-hour later at Northwest Texas Hospital.
“What happened to this child is a homicide,” said Lt. Gary Trupe, coordinator of the Potter-Randall Special Crimes Unit.
The death is the latest event in Child Protective Services’ eight-year involvement with the family.
The seven children were taken from the home by CPS on Tuesday, and they ranged in age from 1 to 11 years old. Trupe said the mother, 26, and her 18-year-old boyfriend have been cooperative with police in interviews. No arrests had been made as of Wednesday afternoon.
The children taken from the home will undergo medical examinations for abuse before a determination is made on appropriate placement, CPS spokesman Greg Cunningham said.
The body of the child, who police identified as Miraculous Manriquez, will undergo further testing at the Lubbock County Medical Examiner’s Office.
This isn’t the first time the children have been taken by CPS.
For the last eight years, agents have been in and out of the family’s home on NE 11th Avenue on allegations of neglect, abuse and lack of supervision.
The latest incident occurred in September when there were claims of abuse. Cunningham said caseworkers examined all the children and found no signs of abuse.
In June 2005, the children were removed on abuse allegations.
The mother, who is pregnant, went through a program with CPS, which can involve parenting classes, counseling and anger management. All of her children were returned by August 2006.
Cunningham said the alleged abuser was no longer in the home when all the children were returned.
“Unfortunately, it’s not extremely uncommon,” Cunningham said of the repeated calls. “We have families we’ve been working with for years.”
In fiscal year 2007, CPS removed 71 children from homes in Potter County and 167 children from homes in Randall County. In the same period, CPS confirmed 556 cases of abuse in Potter County and 215 in Randall County.
CPS also investigated drug use at the home.
Fuentes’ mother gave birth to a child who tested positive for marijuana in July 2003. Cunningham said police conducted a drug raid on the home, but it did not involve the mother.
Many (BUT NOT ALL APPARENTLY)of the reports CPS investigated at the home were unfounded or lacked evidence, Cunningham said.
This the comment I left on the site that posted this story and I stand by it.
I blame CPS for this child’s death, as well as many others that are dying across this country. CPS has more power then you realize, the policy and laws that they are supposed to follow enable them to violate peoples constitutionally protected rights, find you guilty with out the benefit of a trial, talk to your children, their doctors, teachers, anyone they want, without your permission.
They can order medical evaluations, parenting classes, psychological evaluations and do anything else they may need to do to get information on your family and children.
They do not have to follow the same laws and rules as the police because they are considered a civil matter, not criminal, they have more leeway then the police, yet they cannot see abuse when it is right under their nose.
They remove the children who do not need to be removed and leave the children who do need to be removed in the home to die.
There has to be accountability for CPS when they fail in their duties to protect children, or when they abuse their power and remove children as a means of retaliation or vindictiveness….What needs to happen is these cases need to stop being confidentual, every other branch of government is open to public scrutiny, why shouldn’t they be as well.
I know they state that they are trying to protect the privacy of the child and the reporter, but who these laws really protect is CPS, it allows them to hide their mistakes and failures behind the veil of privacy. Create watch dog groups who investigate complaints against them,…before children die!!!!!!
and do you honestly believe that what CPS tells the public happened is really what occurred? I don’t, not with all the case coming out with forged documents, falsified records, perjury committed by these departments. Plus they are allowed to investigate theirselves, of course they are going to clear themselves of wrong doing…allow a criminal to be the judge and jury in his own trial and he too will find himself not guilty.
Want proof of my statements, visit my blog at http://stopcorruptdss.wordpress.com or numerous other sites on the web that are trying desperately to bring these failures of CPS to the public eye, so they can no longer hide.
Because until something is done and the laws are changed so that CPS is held accountable for their wrongs, children will continue to die on their watch, either at home or in the foster homes and adopted familes CPS places them in.
Families will continue to be torn apart for reason that do not even qualify as abuse, just because you asked about constitutional rights to be free from unlawful search and seizure or questioned what they were doing.
