QUESTIONS SURROUND DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES’ FINANCES

 

http://www.news14.com/content/local_news/charlotte/611664/questions-surround-department-of-social-services–finances/Default.aspx

By: Brad Broders

 CHARLOTTE – There have been questions about how money was managed at Mecklenburg County’s Department of Social Services. An audit of the department found a lack of internal control on how money, receipts and other financial documents were handled.

Now DSS is under investigation as requested by its director, Mary Wilson.

“Ultimately, the question is, who is responsible for DSS finance, how did this happen, and how long has it been occurring?” Commissioner Bill James said.

Commissioners James and Dan Murrey are both on the Audit Review Committee and want to know why DSS’ finance division wasn’t better controlled.

“That’s certainly why those procedures and policies are in place, is to make sure people can’t take money without someone finding out. And if you don’t keep records the right way, then sometimes it can be hard to tell,” Murrey said.

Wilson and county leaders have Charlotte-Mecklenburg police tracking down receipts for some programs to find out who could be responsible and held accountable.

“There are some data and some information that we’ve not been unable to get that hopefully with their investigative powers that they’ll be able to get for us,” Wilson said.

In closed session, County Manager Harry Jones explained DSS’ relationship with the county manager’s office and promised action once the investigation is complete.

“We will fix the problem. We’ve had other issues in this county, where we’ve had to go in and fix problems that existed,” Jones said.

Mecklenburg County DSS is one of the county’s biggest agencies with about 1,200 employees and a budget around $180 million.

MOTHER PLEADS GUILTY

 

Va. Woman Faces Up to 51 Years in Death of Girl, 13

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/06/AR2009070601862.html?hpid=sec-metro

A Prince William County woman pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of leaving her adopted 13-year-old daughter for dead in a frigid creek in January, and county police acknowledged that they could have responded better to numerous reports that the girl was being abused and neglected.

Despite reports made to several county agencies over six years, the girl, Alexis “Lexie” Agyepong-Glover, was not removed from the home, and the case has highlighted shortcomings in the county’s policies on child abuse and runaways.

Yesterday, Alfreedia Leona Gregg-Glover, 45, of the Manassas area pleaded guilty to felony murder, felony child abuse and filing a false police report in Prince William County Circuit Court. She faces a maximum of 51 years in prison, which the county’s chief prosecutor called “an effective life sentence.” She will be sentenced in October.

Court testimony yesterday and comments by authorities tell a long, sad tale of abuse, during which Gregg-Glover was able to persuade authorities to discount Lexie as a disabled, dishonest, habitual runaway.

After the hearing, Prince William Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul B. Ebert called the case “a true horror story” and said he hopes that a judge will impose the maximum sentence.

“There’s no question a lot of mistakes were made in this case, by both the Department of Social Services and the police department,” Ebert said, adding that both agencies are taking steps to change their practices to prevent a repeat of the case.

Calls for comment to Gregg-Glover’s attorney, John V. Notarianni, were not returned after the hearing.

After the plea, county police released the findings of an internal audit that found “deficiencies” in their response to reports concerning Lexie over the years. The audit called for reforms in how officers train, respond to abuse reports and communicate with other agencies.

The report, compiled with the help of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said Gregg-Glover intentionally misled authorities, portraying herself as a “loving and caring mother” and Lexie as a “severely mentally and physically challenged” liar.

It also found inadequate communication between DSS and police and inconsistent practices by police when responding to abuse reports.

Police Chief Charlie T. Deane said three employees — two detectives and a police officer — were disciplined for failing to follow departmental policy. He said one person was given a written reprimand and two were suspended but declined to say which employees received which punishment, citing confidentiality in personnel matters.

“Part of our responsibility is to safeguard children from harm, and it is deeply disturbing to me that we failed to do so in Lexie Glover’s case,” Deane said in a statement. “While there is only one person who caused her death, and that is her mother, Alfreedia Glover, I would be remiss in not stating that there are some things we could have, and should have, done differently in prior investigations with this family.”

Last month, county officials said three social services employees had been disciplined for mishandling Lexie’s case after an internal review by DSS, an agency that also said it would revise policy, said its director, John P. Ledden Jr.

Lexie was first placed in Gregg-Glover’s home in January 2003 and was officially adopted in December of that year, Prince William Detective Carole Tyrrell testified yesterday.

Tyrrell cited more than a dozen incidents dating back to 2004 — more than had previously been known — in which people reported Lexie showing bruises and cuts, being driven off in the trunk of a car, running away from home and showing up at a bus stop wearing only a diaper. Lexie also was hospitalized several times, Tyrrell said.

In one incident in March 2004, officials received a complaint that Lexie was sleeping on the floor and that Gregg-Glover called her names and denied her underwear because she had wet the bed, Tyrrell testified.

In another report, from February 2005, Lexie was found to have a swollen eyelid. Lexie said she had walked into a doorknob, although she was too tall to have done that at the time, Tyrrell testified.

Several of the accounts described in court matched those given to The Washington Post by school bus drivers and neighbors, who came forward after Lexie’s death and said they had reported suspected abuse to police, social services and school officials on numerous occasions.

The medical examiner determined that Lexie died of drowning and exposure, and authorities believe that she was alive at the time she was placed in the Woodbridge area creek, where her body was found Jan. 9.

Felony murder is the unintentional killing of another while committing a felony — in this case, child abuse, prosecutors said. A first-degree murder charge against Gregg-Glover was dropped.

Ebert said he expected the various reforms to prevent a similar case from happening again. But he noted that Lexie’s was not the first child death case in the county to prompt reform.

In 1993, 2-year-old Donnell Robinson was shaken and beaten to death by his mother’s boyfriend, Fatai Olatoni Okedeji, of Woodbridge. In response to the case, the Virginia General Assembly passed a measure requiring social services workers to disclose information about alleged child abuse to police and other agencies. Police complained that DSS had withheld some information from them, citing confidentiality laws.

 

Three police officers disciplined for Lexie Glover case

 

http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/manassas/article/three_police_officers_disciplined_for_lexie_glover_case/38876/

By Amanda Stewart

Published: July 6, 2009

The Prince William County Police Department has disciplined three police officers for not following policy during the Lexie Glover case.

The department has completed an internal investigation about its handling of the girl’s case and is making several changes because of it, police department officials announced Monday.

“Part of our responsibility is to safeguard children from harm, and it is deeply disturbing to me that we failed to do so in Lexie Glover’s case,” Chief Charlie T. Deane said in a statement.

He added that “there are some things we could have, and should have, done differently within prior investigations with [Glover’s] family.”

Monday, Alfreedia Gregg-Glover pleaded guilty to killing 13-year-old Alexis, as well as to abusing her and filing a false police report.

During the plea hearing, police listed more than a dozen incidents of abuse of Lexie Glover that were reported to the police and the Department of Social Services since 2004.

A police department report released Monday lists the problems encountered in Lexie’s case and changes that can be made to fix them.

One problem was that Gregg-Glover “intentionally mischaracterized” Lexie, the police department report states.

Gregg-Glover led the police department, the Department of Social Services and various healthcare professionals to believe that Lexie was “severely mentally and physically challenged” and that she was lying about the abuse, the report states.

Another problem arose from the poor communication between the police department and the Department of Social Services.

The internal investigation revealed that there needs to be a better and more consistent way for police officers and social workers to share information about a case.

A third problem the report identified is that police officers and detectives who investigated Lexie’s case used inconsistent techniques.

The police department’s report recommends improvements in training, communication between investigating officers, police department policy and communication between the police department and other agencies, including the department of social services.

Among the changes that will be made are changes to the police department’s policy regarding child abuse and neglect complaints.

The revised policy will require detectives or school resource officers to follow up and investigate every report of child abuse and neglect.

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014

TEACHER’S SEXUAL ISSUES NOT RECORDED

 

Now he faces charge of molesting young student

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090706/NEWS0102/307060010/Teacher+s+sexual+issues+not+recorded

By Andy Gammill, Tim Evans and Ben Fischer • andy.gammill@indystar.com | tim.evans@indystar.com | bfischer@enquirer.com • July 6, 2009

Indiana child welfare officials and school districts in two states had a responsibility to protect children in Lee N. Tibbetts’ classroom, but miscommunication and missteps among the agencies failed to catch a pattern of problematic behavior over three years.

That breakdown allowed Tibbetts to remain in the classroom despite a series of accusations, including one that eventually led to the math teacher being arrested on criminal charges alleging he molested a student while teaching for Indianapolis Public Schools.

A review by the Indianapolis Star and The Cincinnati Enquirer shows red flags about Tibbetts were raised as early as 2007, two years before police say he molested a 13-year-old Indianapolis boy.

Among the findings:

• Tibbetts resigned from Cincinnati Public Schools in 2007 while being investigated for making inappropriate comments to a student. Ohio law requires the district to report such resignations to state regulators, but the district can’t determine whether it did.

• Indianapolis Public Schools never contacted the Cincinnati school Tibbetts last worked for and failed to uncover his history before hiring him. IPS also failed to follow up on the serious claim in 2008 that Tibbetts had “come on” to a student and may not have documented even earlier concerns.

• Indiana’s Department of Child Services decided not to investigate the August 2008 claim that Tibbetts touched a 15-year-old boy’s leg and knee while asking sexually suggestive questions.

Through it all, Tibbetts kept teaching math – a position that gave him access to young boys.

It wasn’t until another student came forward in May to say Tibbetts molested him that Indianapolis police investigated the teacher and charged him with six counts of felony child molestation.

But when police dug further, they uncovered the incident the state ignored and a child solicitation charge.

Cincinnati red flags

The first red flags appear to have been raised in 2007 when an 18-year-old Cincinnati student claimed Tibbetts made sexual conversation with him and touched his arms and legs.

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Tibbetts resigned within weeks of the end of the school year while the district investigated him.

“It had not been completed … when he submitted his resignation,” spokeswoman Janet Walsh said.

Ohio law requires districts to alert the state when teachers resign while under investigation.

Last week, Cincinnati officials could find only a draft copy of a letter to the state about Tibbetts. Walsh said they were unable to confirm it was sent.

Scott Blake, an Ohio Department of Education spokesman, would not say whether the state received a letter because records on teacher misconduct are confidential unless the state takes disciplinary action. He declined to comment on Tibbetts’ issues in Cincinnati but said the state had not disciplined him.

If Cincinnati reported the matter and the state confirmed the behavior, it could have issued a public or private reprimand to Tibbetts, an action it has taken in the past in similar cases. That information could then be disclosed to Indiana officials at the time he requested a license there.

Instead, when Indiana education officials checked with the Ohio Department of Education, they confirmed Tibbetts was a teacher in good standing. His Indiana teaching license was approved in July 2007.

License granted, he applied to Indianapolis Public Schools to teach for the 2007-08 school year. The district ran a standard background check, including checking references with the Cincinnati schools, IPS officials said.

“When HR checked him, they had two letters from principals that were sterling,” IPS Superintendent Eugene White said. “He was clean.”

But IPS’ background check was limited: The district never checked with anyone at Tibbetts’ last school before he applied in Indianapolis. Instead, he was given forms by IPS to give to his references that they could send in to IPS. All three that came back were from administrators who worked with him earlier in his career.

That policy makes sense, IPS spokeswoman Mary Louise Bewley said, because potential employees might not want supervisors to know they’re looking for jobs. She said IPS also received a letter from Cincinnati Public Schools’ human resources department confirming Tibbetts’ dates of employment but raising no concerns.

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Cincinnati Public Schools says it has no record that IPS contacted the district to ask about Tibbetts, although it said individual principals could have been contacted without making a record in Tibbetts’ file.

In his first year in IPS, Tibbetts worked in the district’s alternative schools – and the district might have been made aware of the first hint of trouble.

Supervisors that year warned Tibbetts to avoid close relationships with students after concerns came to light from students or parents, said Jeffery C. White, a former IPS principal who later supervised Tibbetts.

District spokeswoman Bewley said Tibbetts’ personnel file showed no record of any incident during the 2007-08 school year. Repeated attempts to reach the administrator who supervised the teacher were unsuccessful.

Administrators learned of that prior incident only after another boy came forward.

Tibbetts had been on his new job at Marshall Community High School for only a few weeks in 2008 when a 15-year-old boy and his mother told the principal Tibbetts made sexual conversation with the boy and rubbed his arm and knee.

Administrators reported the incident to Child Protective Services.

From that point on, nothing went like as it should have.

IPS social worker Shawnieka Pope called the Department of Child Services hot line and told an operator about the accusation. that the teen had accused his teacher of making sexual conversation with him and rubbing his arm and knee. She told the state the boy said Tibbetts asked him if he was gay and if he had “done anything” with another boy. He then rubbed his knee and arm.

The agency decided the report didn’t merit investigation.

Jennifer Hubartt, a regional manager for the DCS Local Office in Marion County, said supervisors reviewing reports ask themselves one key question: If what I’m seeing were true, would that rise to the level of a crime under Indiana law.

When it received the 2008 report on Tibbetts, the agency chose not to assign it.

Based on the information the agency had, Hubbart Hubartt said, there was no other legal option. “I don’t think we’re at fault at all in this,” she said. “We regret that this person victimized people. But we couldn’t have done this differently under the Indiana law as it exists.”

(4 of 4)

It wasn’t until nine months later when an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police detective dusted off the old report that the matter was investigated – based on the same allegations DCS declined to look into.

Two experts who reviewed the agency’s intake report obtained by the Star said the facts warranted investigation.

“DCS clearly fumbled the ball on this,” said Henry Karlson, professor emeritus at the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis.

Karlson, an expert on child abuse, said the details DCS had would have constituted sexual misconduct with a minor under Indiana law if true.

“On this statement alone,” Karlson said of the report’s reference to Tibbetts touching the boy’s knee and arm, “I could probably get a conviction … from half the juries in Indiana.”

That statute says any adult “fondling or touching” a child at least 14 but younger than 16 “with intent to arouse or to satisfy the sexual desires of either the child or the older person” commits sexual misconduct with a minor.

Karlson said the threshold for launching an abuse investigation is much lower than what is needed to obtain a criminal conviction.

“He was ‘coming on’ to the child, which clearly indicated the child thought it was sexual,” Karlson said. “Add to that the rubbing of the knee while talking about sexual orientation and sexual activity. There were red flags all over this. I have no idea why they didn’t investigate this.”

Neither IPS nor Child Protective Services notified the Indianapolis police. After another boy came forward in May, a detective found a copy of the same report that the state had ignored.

This time, though, the accusations were more serious.

The 13-year-old boy told police the teacher performed oral sex on him at least six times, threatening him with low grades if he didn’t comply and coaching him to lie to an assistant principal who nearly walked in on them, according to a probable cause affidavit.

In the wake of the arrest, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said he faults both DCS and IPS for not referring the matter to local police.

The family of the 2008 victim is outraged that Tibbetts was allowed to remain with students despite all the red flags.

“They should have done something about it when we told them,” said a spokesman for the family. He said school and child welfare officials dropped the ball, leaving Tibbetts in the classroom.

The spokesman also blamed Cincinnati officials for allowing Tibbetts to continue having access to young boys. “They should have caught him back in Ohio,” he said. “They should have dealt with it then, but they swept it under the table, and that allowed him to come up here and take advantage of other kids.”

SAN ANTONIO POLICE SORT OUT KILLINGS OF 3 FROM TEXAS CITY

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6515385.html

By ROBERT CROWE San Antonio Express-News

July 7, 2009, 10:03AM

By most accounts, the volatile relationship between punk rocker Courtney Gass and rap producer Christopher Allgood should have ended months ago.

It was filled with violence against each other long before Gass, their 2-year-old daughter Anika, and their 26-year-old friend Kevin Bones were found fatally shot inside the couple’s North Side apartment early Sunday morning, according to police and family court records.

Allgood, 30, has been charged in Gass’ death, but authorities are still unsure whether the former Texas City resident killed Anika and Bones, in part, because of a startling confession — one that he repeated to reporters as he was ushered to jail.

“She told me that she did it,” Allgood said, blaming his girlfriend.

Police declined to discuss details of the case Monday, only to say the investigation was ongoing.

“We are looking into all possibilities,” said Officer Joe Rios, a San Antonio Police Department spokesman.

In what initially appeared to be an open-and-shut case, with Allgood arrested outside the apartment with rifle in hand, the police investigation has turned into a lengthy, complicated one that has police studying ballistics and other evidence before filing any additional charges.

Meanwhile, Gass’ friends and family are furious that Allgood’s allegation has stalled the investigation. They admit Gass was troubled, but that she would never hurt Anika.

“He’s a coward who’s afraid of admitting that he killed his own innocent little daughter,” said Gass’ mother, Judy Bradley.

But Allgood’s friends say — and police and Children’s Protective Services records indicate — that Allgood wasn’t the only one conflicted. Gass — who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had a history of drug addiction — had shown streaks of violence, too.

Gass, 26, was charged with assaulting Allgood on June 22 following another day of heavy drinking. According to the police report, he had multiple lacerations on his face after she hit him repeatedly with closed fists.

“I don’t think Chris would lie about that,” said Matthew Perez,

Allgood’s friend and the manager of his rap group, Committee of Majority. “Courtney was so crazy sometimes.”

But friends say Gass was more often the victim in the relationship.

“There are so many times he left bruises on her face and police were never called,” Bradley said.

Friends and family said Bones, a Texas City resident, was visiting the couple for the night on a trip to Corpus Christi to visit his mother. Mutual friend Michael Humphrey of Galveston said Bones drove from Texas City to Austin, where he picked up a camera that Gass had left a few weeks ago following a concert.

“He was that good of a friend that he would take a little bend in his trip just to get a camera for a friend,” Humphrey said. “He was an all-around good guy.”

Allgood moved to San Antonio about 10 months ago, while Gass and Anika moved in with him three months later.

Bradley, Gass’ mother, thinks that Allgood killed her daughter because she was planning to leave him that night and move in with another friend in Austin. Bones was going to give her a ride, she said.

“I’m thinking Chris was upset that she was going to leave him,” Bradley said.

Allgood was working part-time for a local gun range, but he spent most of his time producing music for his rap group with neighbor Billy Watson.

An industrial rock enthusiast, Allgood started a relationship four years ago with Gass, a fan of punk rock, after meeting through the Galveston-area underground music scene.

Records obtained from the Texas City Police Department and CPS show that Anika was born into a home filled with chaos and domestic violence. Both have children living with other guardians.

Texas City police were called to the couple’s various homes seven times on allegations of assaults or domestic disturbances during the first year of Anika’s life. In three of those occasions, Gass was listed as a victim and Allgood as the suspect. In the four other occasions, the positions were reversed.

In July 2007, an allegation was made to the Galveston County CPS that Allgood threw a bottle at Gass as she was holding Anika. But when Gass told the CPS caseworker that she and Anika were leaving Allgood to live in a battered women’s shelter, the CPS caseworker closed the case.

Six months later in January 2008, a referral of physical neglect was made. Someone reported that Anika had a diaper rash, she was dirty and that Gass was addicted to drugs. But, caseworkers closed the case after finding minimal diaper rash and Gass’ volunteer admittance into a drug rehabilitation program that she eventually completed, according to Mary Walker, spokeswoman for Child Protective Services’ San Antonio region.

“She made some bad decisions, and yes she had been addicted to prescription drugs, but there’s no one that’s ever gonna convince me that she killed her daughter,” Bradley said.

Express-News Staff Writer Nancy Preyor-Johnson and Houston Chronicle Staff Writer James Pinkerton contributed to this story.

SYSTEM FAULTED IN BOY’S DEATH IN FOSTER CARE

 

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1130172.html

BY MARC CAPUTO

Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — Child-welfare doctors and case managers routinely failed to complete legally required treatment plans, share information or properly document the prescribing of powerful psychiatric drugs for children, according to a new state study of 6- and 7-year-olds medicated in state care.

One of the 268 children was Gabriel Myers. The troubled 7-year-old, medicated with an adult anti-depressant known to cause suicides in children, hanged himself in April in his Margate foster home.

But the state study, which documents how many times caseworkers and doctors followed child-welfare rules and laws, shows that it would be a mistake to blame Gabriel’s death solely on the drug, Symbyax, said Florida’s drug czar, William Janes.

”It wasn’t just the medications,” said Janes, who sits on a committee investigating ways to prevent cases like Gabriel’s. “It was the system and his world. His environment just collapsed on him. And there was no one there to really put their arms around him.”

The Department of Children and Families study, presented Monday to the committee, indicates that a number of rules and laws on medication for children in state care weren’t followed for all 6- and 7-year-olds:

• In 86 percent of cases, the prescribing physician didn’t complete what’s known as a Psychotherapeutic Medication Treatment Plan, which helps case workers, legal guardians, judges and other physicians determine a child’s mental well being.

• In 75 percent of the cases, the case workers did not provide physicians with pertinent medical information about the child.

• In 76 percent of the cases, the case worker didn’t provide parents with information about the psychotropic drugs their kids were being prescribed. Nor did the case worker help arrange transportation or phone conversations between the doctor and the child’s guardian.

• In 58 percent of the cases, the case manager didn’t attempt to speak with or meet the parent or guardian prior to seeking a court order to medicate the child.

• In 89 percent of the cases where parental consent wasn’t obtained to medicate children, case managers failed to inform state lawyers that they were seeking a court order to administer the medication.

The DCF study also found numerous record-keeping and data discrepancies in the state’s child-tracking system, Florida Safe Families Network. The study follows a similar review last month concerning the drugging of children in state care under the age of 6. DCF is now studying other age groups.

Dr. R. Scott Benson, former head of the American Psychiatric Association, pointed out the difficulties physicians have in meeting all the state record-keeping requirements.

Benson, who doesn’t treat children in state care, said he found it ”horribly troubling” that physicians weren’t given all the pertinent medical information about the children prior to making a prescription. But, he said, he wasn’t surprised because of the complicated nature of child-welfare cases and clients.

The committee probing the child-welfare system plans to issue a report by Aug. 20.

It is only touching on Gabriel’s case, which is the subject of a Margate police investigation. Some doctors and case workers — all of whom work for privatized agencies under contract with the state — might face sanctions, depending on what the report finds.

The DCF study, as well as Gabriel’s case, show the troubles with 2005 legislation designed to curb the prescribing of mental-health drugs to kids in state care.

Among its requirements, the law mandates more information sharing, parental involvement and second-party review of doctors’ prescriptions for the youngest children.

One committee member, Dr. Rajiv Tandon, pushed for a simple electronic record system that physicians and case workers can share.

He said the system also needs to be ”tweaked” to clarify who’s in charge and who needs to do what.

”There’s only so much we can do. There’s no substitute for common sense,” Tandon said. “There’s no substitute for people doing the right thing. Sadly, in this case, the right thing wasn’t done by some people.”

FATHER GETS 27 YEARS FOR KILLING INFANT GIRL, ASSAULTING 8-YEAR-OLD

 

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/50063952.html

By Crocker Stephenson of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: July 6, 2009

Less than a month after a Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare social worker decided that Rubi Ochoa-Cervantes did not need protective services, the 2-month-old was dead.

The infant, born six weeks prematurely, had been punched in the stomach by her father, Salvador Ochoa, who in April pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide and in May pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl.

On Monday, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Conen sentenced Ochoa on the two convictions to a combined 27 years in prison.

“Mr. Ochoa is a monster,” Conen said. “There is no other conclusion I can come to.”

A Spanish translator whispered the judge’s words into the ear of Rubi’s mother, Judith Cervantes, who, when told the sentence, lowered her head and closed her eyes.

“I am scared when he gets out,” she said after the hearing.

Rubi was born Oct. 7, 2005. One month later, she was treated and released from Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin for an unexplained head fracture. A doctor reported the injury to child protective services.

According to Department of Children and Families records, a bureau social worker consulted hospital staff and was told the fracture may have been caused by a fall or a drop from a short distance or by complications from the child’s premature birth.

The social worker then interviewed members of Rubi’s household, including the 8-year-old sexual assault victim. The social worker concluded that there was no evidence to support the physical abuse allegations and closed the case Nov. 21, 2005.

Ochoa killed the infant girl three weeks later. According to police reports, Ochoa already had been sexually abusing the 8-year-old for months.

Shortly after Rubi’s death, Ochoa tried to persuade Cervantes to flee to Mexico with him. He confessed to her that he had punched Rubi for crying. Cervantes refused. Ochoa told Cervantes he had to go to the store and never returned.

Ochoa did flee to Mexico, where he is a citizen.

Under treaty, Mexico had for years refused to return its citizens to the United States if they faced charges here that could result in execution or life in prison.

A Mexican court modified that rule to protect only fugitives facing execution, not life sentences.

Officials returned Ochoa to Milwaukee in December.

“It’s been a long road to get to this point,” Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams told Conen.