Tuesday, January 4, 2011

DCF drops the ball, so criminal dad with history of child abuse kills infant son (Lawrence, Massachusetts)

My God this gets tiresome. Incompetent child protection workers, convicted criminal fathers who are "allowed" around new child victims after useless "anger management" and "parenting" classes....Result? Yet ANOTHER infant with a skull fracture--and this time the baby died. All that crying "set him off," see. "Him" being dad ALEXIS O. MEDINA.

Seriously folks. If you need a "class" to tell you that it's not nice to break a baby's skull, then you're beyond hope. Sorry.

And don't give me crap about how this poor father "strugggled" to pay child support. I paid child support to an abusive father for 11 years, and nobody felt sorry for me. And I didn't bash anybody's skull either.

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?&articleid=1306523&format=&page=1&listingType=Loc#articleFull

Kin: DCF didn’t know suspect had a new baby
By Laura Crimaldi
Saturday, January 1, 2011 - Updated 3 days ago

A Lawrence father with a history of child abuse — now accused of fatally shaking his infant son — was freed from jail in 2009 without anyone flagging child welfare authorities that he was going home to a baby born while he was behind bars, the Herald has learned.

Department of Children and Families workers had already closed Alexis O. Medina’s case when he was released from jail in October 2009 for fracturing his daughter’s skull and were not notified he was getting out, said DCF spokeswoman Alison Goodwin.

Medina went home to a new baby daughter who was born to his girlfriend, Jocelyn DeJesus, while he was jailed, his family said.

Medina is now facing a murder charge for violently shaking his 3-month-old son, Alex, who died Wednesday.

“He had been on probation, and knowing that he was having more kids, I think they should had (DCF) involved in the case,” said Medina’s sister, Marielys Ramirez, 25. “They knew his background. Knowing his background they should have gotten (DCF) involved for the safety of those kids.”

Medina pleaded guilty in 2008 to two counts of assault and battery on a child under 14 for choking his daughter with a bottle and giving her a skull fracture, prosecutors said. The attack ended his marriage to the mother of that child, and he was sentenced to serve 18 months of a 2A year sentence followed by three years of probation.

As part of his probation, Medina was required to comply with any DCF stipulations, but that condition did not apply because child welfare authorities had already closed his case, said probation spokeswoman Coria Holland.

Goodwin refused to say when Medina’s contact with DCF ended and could not explain why the court included the agency in its probation sentence.

Prosecutors did not consult with DCF in preparing its sentencing recommendations for Medina, said Steve O’Connell, a spokesman for Essex County District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett.

Holland said Medina was in compliance with his other probation conditions, including completing 20 hours of anger management classes and 12 hours of parenting classes.

Despite his compliance, Medina complained about his counselor and refused to seek more help after he completed the court-ordered requirements, Ramirez said.

“I think with people who are coming out of jail for child abuse, they need to be more strict about it,” she said.

She added that her brother struggled financially because so much of his machinist wages went to child support. And the sound of a baby crying “set him off,” Ramirez said.

Still, he wanted a boy.

“We told him if he was not ready for it, not to have any more children,” Ramirez said. “But I think he was looking for that boy.”

Medina’s only son died Wednesday at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, cops said. The baby was hospitalized the day before when Medina’s mother discovered he was not breathing.

“He’s a monster for what he did,” Ramirez said. “For me, it was like a piece of my heart got ripped out. And I just want justice to be served.”

No one answered the door at Jocelyn DeJesus’s apartment yesterday.