State never did internal review of murder of 21-month-old boy who was killed by dad after dad obtained custody through fraudulent emergency protective order (Frankfurt, Kentucky)

Update to the killer dads and custody lists.

This is one of the first cases we reported on back in 2009.

What is not discussed in this follow-up article is that this violent father was able to secure access to his son after obtaining "custody" illegally--and all with the help of the local police department, who swooped down and stole this boy from his mother.

How did he do this? He used an fraudulent Emergency Protective Order (EPO) that "requested" temporary custody. It didn't "grant" him custody. The police department was later sued by the mother that same year, but the results of that lawsuit have apparently never been reported in the media.

So given the history of incompetence/corruption associated with this little boy's murder, it's not surprising that the State "failed" to do an internal review despite having a mandate to do so.

See our previous posts here and here and here.

http://www.kentucky.com/2012/01/28/2045794/judge-lets-state-withhold-more.html

State didn't do review of Nelson County toddler's 2009 death

By Beth Musgrave and Bill Estep

January 28, 2012

FRANKFORT — After an extended legal battle with Kentucky's two largest newspapers, the state's child-protection agency began releasing extensive records on Friday about children who died as a result of abuse.

In response to a judge's order, the cabinet released more than 1,000 pages of documents detailing the state's involvement with five abused children who died in 2009.

In at least one of those cases, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services never did an internal review of the child's death despite having prior contact with the family. State law mandates a review in every abuse death or near-death when the cabinet "had prior involvement with the child or family." The reviews are supposed to examine the cabinet's actions to determine if there were any missteps and to identify needed improvements and training.

Cabinet officials maintained Friday night that no review was required in the death of 21-month-old Cole Frazier, who was shot and killed by his father, Timothy Frazier, in May 2009 in Nelson County. Timothy Frazier later shot and killed himself.

The cabinet, which oversees child protection, had received multiple reports of domestic violence between Cole's parents, including one 13 days before Cole's May 29, 2009 death. But the cabinet did not investigate the last claim because they did not consider it domestic violence — Cole's parents did not live together at the time, according to cabinet records.

Jill Midkiff, a spokeswoman for the cabinet, said child-protection workers did not do an internal review of Cole's death because there was not an ongoing case at the time of his death and all previous allegations involved domestic violence among adults in the home.

"There were no allegations of abuse or neglect related to the child," Midkiff said.

However, according to a summary of some of the previous domestic violence incidents between Timothy Frazier and Candice Dempsey, Cole's mother, a November 2007 report showed that Cole was present during a fight between his parents.

"He took the bottle out of child's mouth and threw it, slammed mother head in couch," the summary said. That report was unsubstantiated by adult-protection workers due to lack of evidence.

A summary of an April 2008 allegation of domestic violence between Frazier and Dempsey said he "threatened me about taking my son, expressed concern for the life of my son and myself." Adult-protection workers made no finding in the case because they were unable to make contact with the victim.

Two other reports of domestic violence came in May 2009.

On May 15, Timothy Frazier filed a domestic violence petition against Dempsey and was granted temporary custody of Cole. Dempsey had asked police to check on her son three different times prior to his May 29 death, according to state records.