SOCIAL WORKER FIRED AFTER VIRGINIA GIRL’S DEATH

Social Worker Fired in Slaying

 

2 Others Suspended Over the Pr. William Child Abuse Case

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/17/AR2009061703501.html

 

A Prince William County social services employee has been fired and two others disciplined for mishandling the case of a 13-year-old girl whose adoptive mother is accused of abusing and killing her, county officials said yesterday.

After Alexis “Lexie” Agyepong-Glover was found slain in a frigid creek Jan. 9, many people, including school bus drivers, said they had reported seeing signs that she was being abused by her mother, Alfreedia Gregg-Glover, but she was not removed from the home.

Several investigations were launched at the local and state levels, and an internal review by the county’s Department of Social Services found that several employees did not follow proper procedures in response to the abuse and neglect reports, officials said.

“I would say that we made some errors, no doubt about it,” said John P. Ledden Jr., director of social services, adding that the investigation’s findings have led to procedural changes. “I want to ensure we learn something from this case.”

Ledden declined to discuss the specific procedures his employees failed to follow. He said that in some cases the required actions were taken, but not within the proper time frames.

One change in place involves how multiple complaints about the same child are handled, even when they are determined to be invalid, Ledden said. Now, three abuse reports about the same child that are deemed invalid will prompt a further inquiry into the child’s case, he said.

In addition, Ledden said the Board of County Supervisors gave his agency funding in the most recent budget to hire two more social workers after July 1, and he is considering increasing the training and number of responders on call after hours.

Ledden has also been meeting with county Police Chief Charlie T. Deane to discuss how their departments can better coordinate and share information, and he might ask the county to petition the General Assembly for less-restrictive laws governing what information can be shared across agencies in child abuse cases.

One senior social worker was fired Tuesday, and two social work managers were suspended for five days without pay, officials said. A probationary employee involved in Lexie’s case has also been fired, although there were other problems with that social worker beyond the Glover case, officials said.

Officials did not release the names of the employees, citing confidentiality rules about personnel matters.

Several officials, including Ledden, said they hope improved procedures at the agency will be a silver lining to the tragedy.

“If something good is going to come out of this, it’s that the county has been able to learn from this,” said Supervisor Martin E. Nohe (R-Coles), an adoptive parent. “The DSS staff and the board of supervisors have really been focused on not trying to sweep this under the rug but, rather, finding out what happened.”

Ledden stopped short of assigning blame for Lexie’s death to any of the employees.

“The particular errors that we made — it’s not like it resulted in the child’s death,” Ledden said. ( I would say that is exactly what they resulted in) ”There’s only one person responsible for the child’s death . . . and that’s Mrs. Glover, if she’s found guilty. Even with the employees leaving, they’re not leaving out the door thinking they’re responsible for the girl’s murder.”

Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R) said that all the facts in Lexie’s case are not out and that it’s difficult to say whether her death was preventable.

“I don’t think that this is reflective of DSS as a whole or even child protective services,” Stewart said. “Clearly we had a few employees who made some mistakes, tragic mistakes . . . but I don’t think it’s an indictment of the system as a whole, or all the personnel in social services.”

To those who tried to sound the alarm that Lexie was being abused over the two years before she was killed, the firings and suspensions were a welcome surprise. But they vigorously dispute the notion that county officials didn’t share in the blame for her death.

“We understand that you didn’t murder her, but if you wouldhave done your job and removed her from the home, she would have been protected,” said Marlene Williams, a bus driver who, along with her attendant, reported to police that they saw Lexie’s adoptive mother drive off with the girl in the trunk of a car in 2007.

Williams’s feelings were echoed by others who had made reports. In December, Lexie’s neighbor, Wes Byers, reported finding her barely clothed in the freezing cold with a head wound outside his home. Lexie’s former bus driver, Nancy Frederick, said she told officials that Lexie displayed bruises and marks that looked like she’d been tied up and that she came to the bus in her underwear. Others in the neighborhood said they found Lexie to be hungry and terrified to return home on occasions when she ran away.

In addition to Ledden’s investigation, the Virginia Department of Social Services is conducting an inquiry into Lexie’s case, which is expected to be released to county officials within the next three weeks, a state DSS spokesman said. The state has also conducted a Quality Management Review of the county Department of Social Services’ general practices — which will not mention Lexie specifically — expected to be finalized within the next week.

Deane has also ordered an internal review of his department’s handling of its encounters with Lexie. Deane has said he hopes to be as transparent as possible about the findings, although some redactions might be necessary because of confidentiality concerns. He declined yesterday to discuss whether his internal review has resulted in any disciplinary action. Gregg-Glover’s trial is scheduled for July 6.

 

Social worker fired after Va. girl’s death

 

http://www.dailypress.com/news/virginia/dp-dc–deadgirl0618jun18,0,4492217.story

By the Associated Press

 June 18, 2009

MANASSAS, Va. – A social services employee has been fired and two others disciplined in Prince William County for mishandling the case of a 13-year-old girl who authorities say was abused and killed by her adoptive mother, officials said this week.

After Alexis “Lexie” Agyepong-Glover was found slain in a creek in January, many people said they had reported signs of abuse by her mother, Alfreedia Gregg-Glover, but the teen was not removed from the home. Gregg-Glover faces murder charges in the girl’s death.

An internal review found that several employees did not follow proper procedures in response to the abuse and neglect reports, county officials announced Wednesday.

“I would say that we made some errors, no doubt about it,” said John P. Ledden Jr., director of social services. “I want to ensure we learn something from this case.”

The department fired one senior social worker on Tuesday, and suspended two social work managers for five days without pay, according to officials. Ledden would not provide specifics on what the employees failed to do.

The review has prompted changes to county procedures. Now, even when abuse reports are determined to be invalid, if there are three or more invalid reports about the same child, the case will be investigated further, Ledden said.

The county has provided the social services department with money in the most recent budget to hire two more social workers after July 1. Ledden said he’s also considering additional training and responders on call after hours.

The agency’s inquiry has been welcomed by those who attempted to warn officials that the girl was being abused. But some still blame county officials for not responding earlier.

“We understand that you didn’t murder her, but if you would have done your job and removed her from the home, she would have been protected,” said Marlene Williams, a bus driver. Williams and her attendant told police that they saw Gregg-Glover drive with the girl in the trunk of a car in 2007.

A Virginia Department of Social Services spokesman said an inquiry into the case is expected to be released to county officials within the next three weeks. The county police department also has ordered an internal review into the handling of its encounters with the girl.

Gregg-Glover was indicted in March on several charges, including first-degree murder and felony child abuse. Police say she lied when she told them her daughter had run away in January. A massive search ensued. The girl’s body was found two days later in a Woodbridge area creek.

Gregg-Glover’s trial is set for July 6.

AUDIT: DCS WORKERS LOOTED FOSTER KIDS’ ACCOUNTS

 

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jun/18/audit-dcs-workers-looted-foster-kids-accounts/?partner=RSS

Janell Ross, THE TENNESSEAN

Originally published 06:55 a.m., June 18, 2009

Updated 06:55 a.m., June 18, 2009

NASHVILLE — State employees stole from foster children’s savings accounts, skipped calls and e-mails to teens transitioning out of foster care and submitted mileage reports for trips to and from work, an audit released this week found.

But those familiar with the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services’ history say the audit shines a light on just how far a once-chaotic agency has come. Eight years ago, it was restructured in a settlement of the so-called “Brian A.” case, a federal class-action civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of Tennessee’s abused and neglected children.

“In broad strokes, it was really a dangerously dysfunctional system,” said Ira Lustbader, the associate director of Children’s Rights, the New York-based child advocacy organization that helped to bring the suit in 2000 and to monitor the state’s performance since.

See full story on The Tennessean below:

 

Children’s Services workers looted foster kids’ accounts

 

 

Audit finds progress, but problems persist

 

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090618/NEWS0201/906180349/Children+s+Services+workers+looted+foster+kids++accounts

By Janell Ross • THE TENNESSEAN • June 18, 2009

State employees stole from foster children’s savings accounts, skipped calls and e-mails to teens transitioning out of foster care and submitted mileage reports for trips to and from work, an audit released this week found.

But those familiar with the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services’ history say the audit shines a light on just how far a once-chaotic agency has come. Eight years ago, it was restructured in a settlement of the so-called “Brian A.” case, a federal class-action civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of Tennessee’s abused and neglected children.

“In broad strokes, it was really a dangerously dysfunctional system,” said Ira Lustbader, the associate director of Children’s Rights, the New York-based child advocacy organization that helped to bring the suit in 2000 and to monitor the state’s performance since.

He said the audit shows a basically functioning agency with the need for more fiscal controls.

The department and its 5,000 employees are charged with managing a $690 million budget and caring for children in state custody or at risk of abuse.

“We take audits very seriously,” said Viola Miller, the Department of Children’s Services commissioner.

“Nobody loves them, but we are going to use these as opportunities to learn to identify areas that we need to make improvements.”

State comptroller’s office auditors reviewing the period between April 2006 and October 2008 found a number of problems inside the agency.

The audit indicated there were instances of employee theft from interest-earning accounts that belong to children in state custody who work. Joe Holzmer, executive director of finance and program support, said the department asked auditors for details, but they were unable to provide any.

While such incidents are rare, there have been a few internal investigations dealing with similar matters, Miller said.

(2 of 2)

The audit also found social workers assigned to older children transitioning from state custody to adulthood were not visiting them as frequently as department rules require — once every two months, plus contact by phone or e-mail once per month. When auditors sampled 25 such cases, they found 20 had not received required visits or contact.

The social workers are supposed to help with housing, job placement, utility hookups and other adult responsibilities.

That’s a vital job, said Linda O’Neal, director of the Tennessee Commission on Youth and Children, a state advocacy agency.

“Obviously, this is one of the areas where the department is not where we would want it to be and not where I think they want it to be,” she said.

“But much like the effort to reduce child abuse, it is the sort of thing that is going to require the whole state to get involved.”

Tax money misusedThe audit also pointed to three departmental matters affecting the state’s taxpayers.

Joel Player, a department employee, improperly requested and was paid for $14,127 in travel, hotel, parking and taxi fares, according to the audit. That included mileage to and from work and taxi fares accrued on business trips on days that he also requested reimbursement for his parked car.

After the audit and an internal investigation, a letter of reprimand was placed in the file of Player’s supervisor, Mark Anderson. Player must repay the $14,127. He didn’t return a call placed to his office Wednesday afternoon.

“These are good people who admitted what had happened, made no attempt to hide it, but really it seems just misunderstood the policy,” Miller said.

The audit also identified as many as 446 possibly unused but in-service telephone lines that may cost the department as much as $7,000 a month. The agency has since identified and disconnected 211 unused phone lines, said Rob Johnson, the agency spokesman.

Finally, money from two closed petty cash accounts could not be found or recovered. The two accounts should have contained a combined $650.

DAD ANGRY CPS DIDN’T ACT BEFORE ARREST

 

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/140643

Mike Sakal, Tribune

June 17, 2009 – 7:39PM

A father is speaking out against state Child Protective Services after police said his son and another boy were left home alone by their mother and living in filthy conditions.

William Schiminski, 24, of Queen Creek, the father of a 3-year-old boy, said Wednesday that he had filed two complaints with the agency against Samantha Miller-Abernathy, his former girlfriend, claiming neglect of the children on her part in 2007 and 2008.

Police: Children resorted to eating dog food

Miller-Abernathy, 20, who works at a Phoenix strip club, was arrested at her apartment at 265 N. Gilbert Road in Mesa about 11 a.m. Sunday on suspicion of two felony counts of endangerment and two misdemeanor counts of neglect, according to a police report.

She is accused of leaving her two sons, ages 2 and 3, home alone for more than five hours with the door unlocked after she left the apartment at 2 a.m. to visit an ex-boyfriend, according to the report.

About 7:30 a.m. Sunday, neighbors saw the boys wandering around the complex along a busy road under construction. Police inside the apartment discovered feces and urine stains on the children’s bedroom floor. There was alcohol and very little food in the refrigerator, the report stated.

Miller-Abernathy did not return to the apartment until 10:45 a.m., but the father of each boy arrived at 10 a.m., according to the report.

Schiminski, who said he and Miller-Abernathy shared custody of the 3-year-old, said CPS awarded him temporary emergency custody of both of the boys pending the outcome of the investigation.

“This has been going on for two and a half years,” Schiminski said of his battle to acquire full custody of his son. “I don’t want to say that I’m mad at the system, but I’m frustrated that it took something like this to happen to get full custody. How many times has this happened in the past? I’m very upset at the situation. Something like this shouldn’t have happened. I’m grateful for the person who found them, to the Mesa police and to CPS (for giving him temporary emergency custody).”

Despite the stern words about the agency, Schiminski said he is worried that he could lose custody of them for speaking out.

“This isn’t about me, or the father of the other boy, it’s about the safety of the boys,” Schiminski said. “They’re safe with me.”

Schiminski said he was never married to Miller-Abernathy, but she is married to the father of the 2-year-old and they are separated.

Schiminski said both claims of neglect and bad living conditions for the children he filed in 2007 and 2008 were determined by CPS to lack sufficient evidence and were unfounded.

The agency confirmed that it had one prior report on Miller-Abernathy, which after an investigation was found to be unsubstantiated, CPS spokesperson Kevan Kaighn wrote in an e-mail.

Miller-Abernathy remained incarcerated in a Maricopa County jail and is scheduled to appear in Maricopa County Superior Court on Monday in connection to the offenses.

There are conflicting reports on whether one of the children ate dog food after police found them.

According to a court document, one of the children “went right to the pantry and started eating dog food.”

The document, known as a Form Four, is filled out by the officer who makes an arrest and it is used by the judge in setting bail.

Sgt. Ed Wessing, Mesa police spokesman, said the police report he read states that the child went to the pantry and it appeared he was going to eat the dog food, but the officer on scene stopped him from eating it, upsetting the child.

“He did not actually eat the dog food,” Wessing said.

Wessing said the officers bought the children food, and they devoured it.

Miller-Abernathy, who is in jail in lieu of $2,700 bail, declined an interview request, according to a spokesman with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

Related

Police: Children resorted to eating dog food

 

TRACY TORTURE VICTIM’S DISAPPEARANCE LONG UNKNOWN TO POLICE

 

http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story?article-Tracy%20torture%20victim-s%20disappearance%20long%20unknown%20to%20police%20=&page_label=home&id=2737490-Tracy+torture+victim-s+disappearance+long+unknown+to+police&widget=push&instance=home_news_lead_story&open=&

by Jennifer Wadsworth/TP staff

Jun 16, 2009

A 16-year-old boy allegedly held captive and brutally tortured for more than a year in Tracy wasn’t reported missing to the police until nearly a year after he ran away from a Sacramento group home.

The teen called Kyle Ramirez in court papers — but who has a different legal surname — met up with his “aunt,” Carén Ramirez, after she convinced him to leave the Children’s Receiving Home in Sacramento in early May 2007, according to his testimony in a 928-page grand jury transcript unsealed Friday.

It wasn’t until March 27, 2008 — 11 months after he ran away — that the Sacramento County Department of Social Services reported the child missing to the police. Until then, a couple of social workers made a few phone calls every month to Ramirez and her daughter, Cristina Sanchez. No one ever answered.

Meanwhile, police say Ramirez and three other adults imprisoned the boy inside a two-story home in the heart of Tracy. They said a married couple, their houseguest Ramirez and a next-door neighbor allegedly starved, drugged and regularly tormented, beat and burned Kyle from about July 2007 until the boy’s Dec. 1 escape.

Linda Hirsch, a Sacramento social worker assigned to find the missing teen, said she learned months before Kyle’s escape in Tracy that Ramirez had been collecting a Social Security check in the child’s name. She called the Social Security office, but they refused to give her Ramirez’s mailing address.

At that point, police had taken the investigation off Hirsch’s hands, she told jurors. The first time Hirsch actually met Kyle was on Dec. 2, in the Sutter Tracy Community Hospital, the day after the boy jumped on a trampoline to vault a wall behind the Tennis Lane home and frantically ran into an adjacent health club to beg for help.

“He was very thin, fragile — he had burns, bruises on him,” Hirsch recalled.

In fact, Kyle’s untreated wounds were so severe that he was sent to a burn clinic in Davis, where he stayed 20 days — from Dec. 2 to 22 — to recover from skin grafts to repair scabbed-over third-degree burns and other head-to-toe injuries.

A doctor who testified before a San Joaquin County criminal grand jury in March said Kyle’s untreated burns and cuts were serious enough that if the burns were left to heal on their own, they would have restricted the boy’s mobility.

David Greenhalgh, a doctor who treated Kyle at University of California, Davis, Medical Center for most of December, said the boy had severe burns on his left arm that appeared to have been untreated for about three weeks.

During the month before Kyle’s escape from the Tracy home, the family he lived with couldn’t afford to pay the utility bill, so they lived for nearly a month without electricity, witnesses told the grand jury. During that time, the family warmed up by the fireplace to which Kyle was allegedly shackled. That’s when he said he got his worst burn.

Ramirez had allegedly abused Kyle in the past, but the beatings escalated to harrowing torture once he moved to the Tennis Lane home, the boy said. Kyle recounted getting beaten and cut with a mallet, a baseball bat, razors and belts. He said the four adults he stayed with doused him in lighter fluid and bleach, taped his mouth shut and tied his wrists behind his back. At times, the only nourishment he said he’d get was the hard liquor they allegedly forced him to drink.

To abet Kyle’s story are his many scars.

Kyle had scars and burns on his lower abdomen, on his back and all over his left arm, according to Greenhalgh. Kyle told jurors that he got the scar on his left arm from passing out after Lau allegedly choked him with a belt. He dropped to the fireplace hearth and his arm fell on the grate while the fire burned.

Kyle said that days or weeks before, his alleged captors restrained him and cut the same arm four or five times with a steak knife.

“And after they got done cutting you, what did they do?” San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Angela Hayes asked Kyle.

“So they put my arm over a bucket and then poured bleach on my cut, and then they put a bandage … I think it was a paper towel or something,” Kyle said, according to the grand jury report. “And then they taped it after — oh, my bad — they put butter and salt after they poured the bleach on.”

He said his captors doctored his wounds with bleach, butter and salt. The only time he got to rinse off the blood was when they took him outside and showered him with the hose or doused him with pots of hot water, he said.

Another doctor, Angela Rosas of Sutter Medical center in Sacramento, said the boy had so many injuries that she needed to refresh her memory by looking at a chart before she could talk about them to jurors.

Rosas, who treated Kyle on Dec. 3 for the first time, said he had scars all over the crown of his head that appeared to have been deep enough to require stitches, but many of them were old and untreated. They healed into thick, permanent scars, Rosas said.

Kyle said that the four suspects many times would beat him with a metal baseball bat. Rosas said that the scars appeared to be from something heavy hitting his head and splitting the skin.

When she first saw Kyle in early December, a couple of days after he escaped shackled and bloodied to a Tracy gym, she said his head was covered in what appeared to be glue residue.

Rosas recounted a long list of injuries: Marks on his neck from being choked with a belt, scratches and cuts all over his stomach and back, healing burns on his lower abdomen, burns from some caustic chemical that had dripped near his genitals, a deep cut and third-degree burns on his arm and permanent scars on each wrist from being bound with zip-ties.

Also, Kyle’s ankles were cut from the shackle that kept him chained to the fireplace, according to the transcript.

He was so malnourished from allegedly living off old Halloween candy, the occasional piece of bread and liquor that it could have been why he hadn’t gone through puberty yet, a doctor and prosecutors said. He weighed little more than 120 pounds and, at 5 feet, 4 inches, was short for his age at the time of his escape. He has since gained 50 pounds, according to transcripts.

“It was a horrible case of child abuse,” Rosas concluded.

Michael Schumacher, his wife, Kelly Lau, their neighbor, Anthony Waiters, and Ramirez are due in court Thursday. All but Schumacher, who has yet to enter a plea, have pleaded not guilty to the 17 felony charges of various types of abuse and kidnapping, aggravated assault and false imprisonment by violence.

HAWTHORNE-AREA BOY’S DEATH SHOWS FAILINGS OF SYSTEM

 

http://www.dailybreeze.com/latestnews/ci_12604713

By Denise Nix Staff Writer

Posted: 06/16/2009 08:32:01 PM PDT

Years before 19-month-old Kobe Brown died, allegedly at the hands of his stepfather, his Hawthorne-area family was already known to social workers.

Kobe’s mother, Britney Portis, has a history of abuse and arrests, according to court documents related to the custody of Kobe’s older half-brother, identified only as Jayden.

Even so, those who work in the dependent court system say it is difficult – if not impossible – to know when they should intervene. Many families are troubled, they say, but very few experience such tragedy.

Although judges, social workers, attorneys and the like are constantly trying to make decisions that benefit children, there is no way to know the future.

“We try to figure out which families need which level of intervention, disruption, services or support,” said Leslie Heimov, executive director of the Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles, which represents children in dependency court proceedings.

“It’s a complicated balance and, unfortunately, there is no perfect formula,” Heimov added.

Kobe was one of 14 children who died of abuse or neglect in Los Angeles County last year, despite the fact that his family was already under scrutiny by child welfare officials, according to an April 21 Los Angeles Times article.

The report, based on normally confidential documents obtained by the newspaper, shocked county officials, who immediately called for reforms.

“Although each death and each child is completely important on its own, 14 out of 24,000 is less than a half percent,” Heimov said.

 She also noted that the Times article reported that an additional 18 Los Angeles County children who were not under DCFS scrutiny died during the same time from abuse or neglect.

That wasn’t the case, however, in Britney Portis’ household.

Portis was arrested in July 2004 for making terrorist threats after an anonymous caller to the child protection hotline reported domestic violence between Portis and Jayden’s father.

Then, in January 2006, Portis assaulted a boyfriend’s grandmother, pulling the woman’s hair from her scalp. She was arrested for battery.

Portis was convicted in 2006 for misdemeanor domestic violence and a felony of assault likely to produce great bodily harm.

However, court records show Portis never complied with the probationary terms imposed on her for the convictions.

In addition, a social worker found that, from July 2004 to August 2007, there were six reports filed related to abuse and neglect of Portis’ children.

Only one was substantiated – and that was for emotional abuse of Jayden related to Portis’ assault on the grandmother, according to court documents.

Four reports were determined to be unfounded and one was inconclusive.

Kobe and Jayden, who is about 5, had different fathers. They also had a 1-year-old half-sister, whose father is Deshawnte Wade.

Wade, 27, returns to Torrance Superior Court today for a pretrial hearing in the murder and assault of Kobe, who died from blunt force head trauma consistent with shaking, a deputy medical examiner testified at Wade’s preliminary hearing in March.

Wade told a detective that Kobe choked on a penny while in his care at their Chadron Avenue home May 4, 2008, the detective testified.

Wade also said he used back and abdominal thrusts to dislodge the coin, but didn’t call for help.

Portis testified at that same hearing that she returned home from the hospital, where she had taken Jayden, to find Kobe lying lifeless on the couch.

She called 911. Kobe was taken to a hospital, where he died two days later.

While Portis did not say during the hearing why she was at the hospital with Jayden that day, court documents show she took the boy there for a dog bite on his lip that he received the day before.

At the time, he was in his biological father’s custody, but under the care of a babysitter who had a dog.

After Kobe’s death, Jayden and their sister were placed in social workers’ custody. Jayden was released to his father, identified only as Craig, but the Department of Children and Family Services filed papers seeking to have them declared dependents of the court.

Los Angeles Dependency Court Judge D. Zeke Zeidler decided in August that Jayden and the sister should remain dependents of the court, but allowed Craig to retain custody of Jayden.

Craig, however, appealed Zeidler’s finding that he knew or should have known that Portis had unresolved violent tendencies and had engaged in “violent altercations” in Jayden’s presence. By leaving Jayden with Portis, Craig failed to protect the boy from risk of physical or emotional harm, Zeidler found.

Craig also took issue with the judge’s order that he attend parenting classes and keep all of Jayden’s medical and therapy appointments.

The 2nd District Appellate Court, in an opinion issued April 16, rejected Craig’s arguments, citing evidence that Craig could benefit from parenting classes and that he had a history of not getting Jayden proper care – like not seeking medical attention after the dog bite.

Craig said he left Jayden with Portis only because he had to work, but added that she “assaulted (Craig) so many times he could not recall all of them,” the opinion states.

Many of those incidents occurred around Jayden, he told a social worker.

In upholding Zeidler’s findings, the appellate court noted that Jayden could have easily suffered physical or emotional harm during the domestic violence incidents he witnessed.

CUSTODY HEARING FOR LORRIE THOMAS’ CHILDREN CONTINUES, FATHERS ARGUE FOR THEIR RIGHTS

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/06/custody_hearing_for_lorrie_tho_3.html

by Shannon Murphy | The Flint Journal

Tuesday June 16, 2009, 3:01 PM

Arguments continued Tuesday about where to place the five children and two grandchildren of a woman accused in the death of her 9-year-old adoptive daughter.

In a Family Court hearing, attorneys for Lorrie Thomas’ children and their fathers argued that the children, who range in age from 15 to 2, should be living with family.

Thomas is in jail on charges of second-degree murder and child abuse in the death of her adoptive daughter and niece Shylae Thomas. Shylae’s body was found April 22 in a storage bin in Vienna Township. Authorities said she died of malnourishment.

Shortly after the discovery, Thomas’ remaining children, plus her eldest daughter’s two children, were placed in foster care homes around the area.

Fathers of four of the children were in court Tuesday and their attorney, Rochelle Thompson, said it’s “absurd” that the children still are in foster care and not with their fathers.

“There are no allegations of abuse of neglect against (these fathers),” she said. “All they want is their children and no one is looking at their housing.”

Department of Human Services officials said during the hearing that all four fathers were looked at and home studies conducted when the children were removed from their home. But, DHS said none of the fathers’ homes were appropriate.

At least one of the men has a criminal history, two live out of state and one owes child support. But Thompson argued none of that is a reason to keep them from their children.

Judge John Gadola adjourned the matter until June 30 so all attornies could review home placement studies. The children will remain in their current foster care homes.

Also on Tuesday, Gadola set Thomas’ parental termination trial Aug. 14. Gadola said he wanted to wait until the preliminary examination in her criminal trial was completed.

Thomas was in court Tuesday, but did not speak. Her attorney, Mark Clement, said after the hearing that he is ready to go to trial in the termination case and doesn’t believe Thomas should lose her parental rights.

SUPPORT GROWS FOR MOM OF 55O-POUND BOY

Support Grows For Mom Of 550-Pound Boy

 

Calls Offer Aid For Jerri Gray, Son

 

http://www.wyff4.com/news/19782467/detail.html

POSTED: 6:38 pm EDT June 17, 2009

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Support for the mother of a 555-pound boy is coming from all over the country, despite the fact that she remains in jail.

Jerri Gray was arrested and extradited from Maryland to Greenville, after she fled the Upstate to avoid a family court hearing where the Department of Social Services planned to take custody of her son, prosecutors said.

She is being held on charges of child neglect and custodial interference.

Gray’s attorney said Wednesday that his office had taken many calls from all over from people offering financial support and other aid to Gray and her son. Efforts are under way to establish a fund to help the family in the long-term.

Attorney Grant Varner said, “We are hoping to complete the program — provide a complete treatment program, a full treatment program, a beneficial treatment program — whereas the Department of Social Services wants to put him on a treadmill and get him to lose 100 pounds and say, ‘Job done.’”

Marilyn Matheus, with DSS, issued a written statement saying, “This child is under medical care and progressing well. His medical team will determine his best course of treatmet and we will make sure he is provided what he needs.”

Previous Stories:

•June 13, 2009: Mother Of 555-Pound Boy Stays In Jail

•June 4, 2009: Mom Who Fled With 555-Pound Son Back In Upstate

•May 27, 2009: Mother Of 555-Pound Boy In Court

•May 22, 2009: Attorney: Don’t Assume Obese Teen’s Mom Is Guilty

•May 22, 2009: Mom, 555-Pound Son Found In Baltimore

Copyright 2009 by WYFF4.com.

GABRIEL MYERS: DCF OFFICIALS DISCUSS SUICIDE OF 7-YEAR-OLD MARGATE BOY

DCF officials discuss suicide of 7-year-old Margate boy

 

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1103119.html

Gabriel Myers: picture from Florida DCF webpage

BY AMY SHERMAN

asherman@MiamiHerald.com

A group of officials from the Department of Children & Families and other child advocates are holding a daylong public meeting Thursday in the aftermath of the hanging death of a child in foster care. The work group will listen to the experiences of two young adults who spent time in the foster care system.

A medical director at a school in Massachusetts is also expected to speak at the meeting in Fort Lauderdale. He will discuss the best practices for mental health in child welfare. DCF secretary George Sheldon formed the work group as part of the investigation into Gabriel Myers’ death and the practices of prescribing powerful drugs to foster children.

Gabriel, 7, hung himself in the bathroom of his Margate foster home in April. He had been prescribed several psychiatric drugs during his nine-month stay in foster care.

A Miami Herald article that showed Gabriel had been on several drugs, including anti-depressants associated with suicide risk, prompted DCF to investigate the practices of prescribing such drugs to children.

A recent state review of more than 100 foster care children receiving psychiatric drugs revealed that child welfare administrators are ignoring rules designed to protect the children. For example, caseworkers have failed to seek a second opinion from a psychiatrist before administering mental-health drugs to children younger than 6.

Four years ago legislators passed a law to reduce the amount of psychiatric drugs prescribed to children in state care. That law requires consent from a parent or judge, among other rules.

The work group will next meet July 6 in Tallahassee.

PUNISHMENT PHASE BEGINS FOR MAN CONVICTED IN DEATH OF FOSTER CHILD

 

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/jun/16/no-headline—coleman_murder_trial/

By Jo Ann Eddleman Special to the Reporter-News

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

COLEMAN — The punishment phase for a Coleman man convicted of reckless conduct that led to the death of a 14-month-old foster child began this week in a Coleman County courtroom with 42nd District Judge John Weeks presiding.

Charles Yarbrough was convicted in October of conduct leading to the injury and death of Lacey Lynn Nichols, a foster child in his care. A six-man, six-woman jury was selected Monday afternoon, and testimony in the punishment phase began Tuesday morning.

The jury that heard the evidence in the original two-count murder and capital murder indictment convicted Yarbrough on the lesser charge of reckless injury to a child, but deadlocked on the punishment phase.

The failure of the jury to reach an agreement on the punishment resulted in a punishment phase mistrial. This new trial will present an abbreviated version of the evidence presented in the original trial before this new jury, which will then decide on punishment.

Yarbrough is facing two to 20 years in prison, or possibly a probated sentence of 10 or fewer years.

In a brief statement before Tuesday’s testimony began, Coleman County District Attorney Heath Hemphill verified there would be no punishment deal and said, “We expect the trial to last at least through Thursday.”

Witnesses at Coleman County Medical Center, where the child was taken by ambulance the afternoon of Jan. 9, 2006, said she was covered in bruises and was lethargic, prompting them to contact authorities. Witnesses said Yarbrough claimed Nichols had choked on play food, but medical personnel saw no evidence of that.

An autopsy found that the cause of death was a homicide due to blunt injury of head and brain.

Defense Attorney Bob McCool, assisted by attorney Olney G. Wallis, indicated he would be calling his witnesses by late today or Thursday morning.