We have followed this case for three years, and there has been NO EXPLANATION in the media as to how a homeless, dysfunctional, child-neglecting, cocaine-using father got custody. Who was responsible for this decision?
Dad is identified as ERIC WARFEL.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/dad-ohio-girl-found-dead-crib-guilty-corpse-39696585
Dad of Ohio Girl Found Dead in Crib Guilty of Corpse Abuse
By The Associated Press
MEDINA, Ohio — Jun 8, 2016, 11:19 AM ET
A man whose daughter's decomposed body was found in a crib by a cable television worker was convicted Wednesday of corpse abuse and tampering with evidence.
Investigators were unable to determine how 21-month-old Ember Warfel died last summer because her body was so badly decomposed. Prosecutors argued that her father, Eric Warfel, did not report his daughter's death because he did not want an autopsy performed.
A judge also found the 35-year-old Warfel guilty of child endangering.
Warfel, who was found competent to stand trial after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity, will be sentenced next month and faces up to six years in prison.
Ember's body was discovered last July in a Medina apartment, south of Cleveland.
Another daughter of Warfel's, a 5-month-old, died in 2013. A medical examiner ruled that case as a "sudden unexplained infant death."
Warfel's attorney has said Ember was born with severe medical problems. He also said Warfel's failure to report his daughter's death was not enough reason to convict him on the corpse abuse and tampering charges.
While the cause of the girl's death hasn't been determined, an autopsy did find traces of cocaine in her hair samples.
Warfel was arrested after a cable technician went into an apartment to upgrade the service and found the toddler's body in her crib.
Warfel, who was divorced from the girl's mother, had full custody of the child.
He told investigators Ember died about a month earlier and he hadn't informed family members or anyone else about her death, according to a police report.
Warfel was arrested while he and his 7-year-old daughter were at a mall near Cleveland. He said they were living at a motel, and investigators found cocaine in his motel room, police said.
Showing posts with label mental illness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mental illness. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Mom: Custodial dad could have been stopped from murdering 5 kids (Columbia, South Carolina)
We've reported on this case before. Though so many of these cases are just insanely horrible, this one is particularly so. Dad is identified as TIMOTHY RAY JONES JR.
Notice, however, that there is no explanation as to who gave this crazy piece of sh** custody to begin with.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/mother-slain-kids-sc-agency-stopped-deaths-38685169
Mother of 5 Slain Kids: SC Agency Could Have Stopped Deaths
By meg kinnard, associated press
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Apr 26, 2016, 4:38 PM ET
The mother of five South Carolina children who police say were killed by their father in 2014 says the state's social services agency knew the father was a threat and did nothing to stop him.
The allegations are part of a lawsuit filed last week by Amber Jones accusing the Department of Social Services of wrongful death and infliction of pain and suffering.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against her ex-husband. Authorities say Timothy Ray Jones Jr. killed his five children — ages 8, 7, 6, 2 and 1 — at their Lexington County home in 2014 and drove around with their bodies in trash bags for nine days before dumping them in an Alabama field.
Jones was arrested in Mississippi after a deputy said he smelled the stench of death coming from the SUV at a traffic checkpoint.
A Social Services spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit, which gives a detailed chronology of Jones' criminal past, including 2001 convictions for drug possession and forgery. It also notes his 2004 marriage to Amber Jones and the subsequent births of their five children.
By 2011, the family lived in Batesburg-Leesville, where, according to the lawsuit, Social Services received a report of child abuse and neglect, piles of trash at the home as well as a report Jones had threatened to shoot a neighbor's dog.
Caseworkers came to the family's home multiple more times that year, even calling law enforcement after Jones became violent and accused a caseworker of "ruining people's lives." But, according to the suit, no action was ever taken to discipline Jones or remove the children.
The complaint documents multiple additional instances in which Jones threatened the children's mother, who in 2012 made a criminal domestic violence complaint against him. The couple ultimately had a fifth child and then divorced in 2013, with Jones being awarded primary custody.
Over the next year, according to the lawsuit, teachers reported abuse claims to local Social Services workers after seeing bruises on three of the five children. A baby-sitter made similar claims. In August 2014, the agency contacted law enforcement, saying Jones didn't want to return his children to public school "because he feared the school would report the beatings."
Three weeks later, Jones picked up all five children from school and day care and killed them at the family home, authorities have said. Four children were strangled, and one was beaten to death.
Many of the claims mirror information in case files previously released by the Department of Social Services. Authorities never found anything serious enough to take the children away, but the documents show Jones as a single father and computer engineer struggling to raise his children.
"Dad appears to be overwhelmed as he is unable to maintain the home, but the children appear to be clean, groomed and appropriately dressed," a case worker wrote Aug. 13, two weeks before the children's disappearance.
Defense attorneys have suggested Jones suffered from mental problems, and an arrest warrant said he feared his children were going to kill him, chop him up and feed him to dogs. A judge in December ordered a psychiatric evaluation, and no trial date has been set.
Notice, however, that there is no explanation as to who gave this crazy piece of sh** custody to begin with.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/mother-slain-kids-sc-agency-stopped-deaths-38685169
Mother of 5 Slain Kids: SC Agency Could Have Stopped Deaths
By meg kinnard, associated press
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Apr 26, 2016, 4:38 PM ET
The mother of five South Carolina children who police say were killed by their father in 2014 says the state's social services agency knew the father was a threat and did nothing to stop him.
The allegations are part of a lawsuit filed last week by Amber Jones accusing the Department of Social Services of wrongful death and infliction of pain and suffering.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against her ex-husband. Authorities say Timothy Ray Jones Jr. killed his five children — ages 8, 7, 6, 2 and 1 — at their Lexington County home in 2014 and drove around with their bodies in trash bags for nine days before dumping them in an Alabama field.
Jones was arrested in Mississippi after a deputy said he smelled the stench of death coming from the SUV at a traffic checkpoint.
A Social Services spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit, which gives a detailed chronology of Jones' criminal past, including 2001 convictions for drug possession and forgery. It also notes his 2004 marriage to Amber Jones and the subsequent births of their five children.
By 2011, the family lived in Batesburg-Leesville, where, according to the lawsuit, Social Services received a report of child abuse and neglect, piles of trash at the home as well as a report Jones had threatened to shoot a neighbor's dog.
Caseworkers came to the family's home multiple more times that year, even calling law enforcement after Jones became violent and accused a caseworker of "ruining people's lives." But, according to the suit, no action was ever taken to discipline Jones or remove the children.
The complaint documents multiple additional instances in which Jones threatened the children's mother, who in 2012 made a criminal domestic violence complaint against him. The couple ultimately had a fifth child and then divorced in 2013, with Jones being awarded primary custody.
Over the next year, according to the lawsuit, teachers reported abuse claims to local Social Services workers after seeing bruises on three of the five children. A baby-sitter made similar claims. In August 2014, the agency contacted law enforcement, saying Jones didn't want to return his children to public school "because he feared the school would report the beatings."
Three weeks later, Jones picked up all five children from school and day care and killed them at the family home, authorities have said. Four children were strangled, and one was beaten to death.
Many of the claims mirror information in case files previously released by the Department of Social Services. Authorities never found anything serious enough to take the children away, but the documents show Jones as a single father and computer engineer struggling to raise his children.
"Dad appears to be overwhelmed as he is unable to maintain the home, but the children appear to be clean, groomed and appropriately dressed," a case worker wrote Aug. 13, two weeks before the children's disappearance.
Defense attorneys have suggested Jones suffered from mental problems, and an arrest warrant said he feared his children were going to kill him, chop him up and feed him to dogs. A judge in December ordered a psychiatric evaluation, and no trial date has been set.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Tormented boy kills crazy, abusive father with unspecified custody rights; gets sentenced to 20 years in prison (Kootenai County, Idaho)
Was the mother "estranged" before all this happened? Not clarified here. But if she was, who in the hell thought it was a good idea to place these boys with a violent, lunatic father?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/idaho-teen-sentenced-20-years-deaths-father-brother-article-1.2588562
Idaho teen sentenced 20 years in deaths of zombie-obsessed father and younger brother
BY Nicole Hensley / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS / Monday, April 4, 2016, 10:12 PM
A 16-year-old Idaho boy who murdered his abusive, zombie-obsessed father before brutally stabbing his autistic brother to death, will spend 20 years behind bars.
After a jury found Eldon Gale Samuel III guilty of first-degree and second-degree murder charges in late January, a Kootenai County judge slapped the teenager with two concurrent sentences Friday.
Eldon will spend the next two decades in an adult prison, rather than a juvenile facility, looking back on the night of March 24, 2014. At age 14, he riddled Eldon Samuel Jr. with bullets before moving on to Jonathan Samuel, 13. Eldon shot him repeatedly and then hacked his kid brother to death as the scared child cowered under a bed at their Coeur d’Alene home.
The teen reflected on his actions during a sentencing hearing Friday afternoon.
“I’m not the same person I was two years ago,” KXLY-TV reported Eldon as telling Judge Benjamin Simpson. “I feel like a whole new person, but that doesn't excuse what I did."
He acknowledged killing his little brother, who he referred to as “Johnny.”
“I lost my dad and my brother, Johnny, my own little brother,” Eldon added.
Mental health experts believe parental neglect and a dysfunctional home life with his doomsday prepper father contributed to signs of reactive detachment disorder in Samuel, the Spokesman Review reported.
During the trial, the victim’s estranged wife, Tina, said the elder Samuel planned to take his sons into the mountains to train against a zombie apocalypse.
Eldon shot his father in the stomach and pumped three more bullets into his head to prevent him from reanimating into the flesh-eating undead, a defense attorney argued in court.
Judge Simpson acknowledged that Samuel will require treatment to prevent future streaks of violence.
“Mr. Samuel, you’re going to have to live with the fact you took Jonathan’s life for the rest of your life,” Simpson told Eldon.
“You’re going to need treatment for a long time,” he added, according to the Spokesman-Review.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/idaho-teen-sentenced-20-years-deaths-father-brother-article-1.2588562
Idaho teen sentenced 20 years in deaths of zombie-obsessed father and younger brother
BY Nicole Hensley / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS / Monday, April 4, 2016, 10:12 PM
A 16-year-old Idaho boy who murdered his abusive, zombie-obsessed father before brutally stabbing his autistic brother to death, will spend 20 years behind bars.
After a jury found Eldon Gale Samuel III guilty of first-degree and second-degree murder charges in late January, a Kootenai County judge slapped the teenager with two concurrent sentences Friday.
Eldon will spend the next two decades in an adult prison, rather than a juvenile facility, looking back on the night of March 24, 2014. At age 14, he riddled Eldon Samuel Jr. with bullets before moving on to Jonathan Samuel, 13. Eldon shot him repeatedly and then hacked his kid brother to death as the scared child cowered under a bed at their Coeur d’Alene home.
The teen reflected on his actions during a sentencing hearing Friday afternoon.
“I’m not the same person I was two years ago,” KXLY-TV reported Eldon as telling Judge Benjamin Simpson. “I feel like a whole new person, but that doesn't excuse what I did."
He acknowledged killing his little brother, who he referred to as “Johnny.”
“I lost my dad and my brother, Johnny, my own little brother,” Eldon added.
Mental health experts believe parental neglect and a dysfunctional home life with his doomsday prepper father contributed to signs of reactive detachment disorder in Samuel, the Spokesman Review reported.
During the trial, the victim’s estranged wife, Tina, said the elder Samuel planned to take his sons into the mountains to train against a zombie apocalypse.
Eldon shot his father in the stomach and pumped three more bullets into his head to prevent him from reanimating into the flesh-eating undead, a defense attorney argued in court.
Judge Simpson acknowledged that Samuel will require treatment to prevent future streaks of violence.
“Mr. Samuel, you’re going to have to live with the fact you took Jonathan’s life for the rest of your life,” Simpson told Eldon.
“You’re going to need treatment for a long time,” he added, according to the Spokesman-Review.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Dad with history of DV who murdered two daughters during custody/visitation to be executed (Dallas, Texas)
The mental illness plea is nothing but a red herring. This is a classic coercive control murder. Daddy with an extensive history of domestic violence (against at least two women that we are told of) "losing control" so he murders two children to "punish" the mother.
And yet, a father with this history was still granted custody/visitation rights with two young girls. That's what's insane.
Children are abused by definition when they are forced to live in a home where the mother, their caretaker, is beaten up and verbally abused on a regular basis.
That the father had reportedly never physically abused the children up to this point is irrelevant. That is not uncommon. But kids are never safe with a violent narcissist who sees other humans--especially women and children--as mere objects he can use and dispose of as he sees fit. Clearly, the kids were simply collateral damage in his efforts to further abuse/control their mother.
Dad is identified as JOHN BATTAGLIA.
See the Killer Dads and Custody List for Texas.
People sometimes ask why the data is not easily broken down by year. Here's an example. These murders took place in 2001, before this blog/project was started. A news account about the crime didn't come into any of my news feeds until 15 years had passed.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3514282/Dallas-man-set-executed-death-daughters-9-6.html
'I'm too delusional to die': Accountant who killed his two daughters, nine and six, while his ex-wife listened on the phone makes last-ditch plea to avoid execution
TODAY John David Battaglia, 60, killed daughters Faith and Liberty in 2001
He is appealing for more time to prove he is mentally incompetent
The murders came after his ex-wife reported he was harassing her
Was arrested at a tattoo parlor, getting two roses to remember his girls
Battaglia is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday in Huntsville
ByAnneta Konstantinides For Dailymail.comand
Associated Press
Published: 12:19 EST, 29 March 2016 | Updated: 23:58 EST, 29 March 2016
A Texas accountant who is set to die by lethal injection for killing his two young daughters while his ex-wife was listening on the phone has appealed for a stay of execution.
John Battaglia, 60, was arrested in May 2001 for fatally shooting daughters Faith, nine, and Liberty, six, at his Dallas apartment after calling their mother, Mary Jean Pearle.
Battaglia is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday. He is appealing the US Supreme Court and the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals for more time to prove he is mentally incompetent.
Attorney Gregory Gardner, who is petitioning to represent Battaglia, claims he is delusional and should be entitled to a reprieve so he can get a fair hearing to determine his psychological state.
'The Supreme Court has ruled that since before our country was founded, society does not tolerate the execution of the insane,' Gardner told NBC News.
Battaglia said he didn't feel like he killed his daughters, whom he referred to as his 'best little friends', during an interview with the Dallas Morning News in 2014.
'I am a little bit in the blank about what happened,' he said, adding that he had photos of his girls displayed on the walls of his prison cell.
Battaglia is also petitioning for a new attorney. Gardner argued that his court-appointed lawyer abandoned Battaglia after the US Supreme Court refused to review his case in January.
At the time of the shootings, Battaglia was on probation for a Christmas 1999 attack on Pearle, who he beat up in front of his daughters. The couple divorced in 2000.
Battaglia violated his probation the following year with a threatening phone call to Pearle in which he called her names and swore at her.
Pearle reported the incident and Battaglia learned on May 2, 2001 that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.
That night was meant to be his last visit with his daughters, before he surrendered.
Pearle soon received a message from her mother that one her girls wanted to speak to her.
When Pearle called them, Battaglia put her on speakerphone and told Faith to ask her mother: 'Why do you want Daddy to go to jail?'
That's when Pearle heard her daughter cry out: 'No, Daddy, please don't, don't do it.'
Pearle yelled into the phone for the girls to run and heard gunshots, followed by Battaglia telling her: 'Merry f****** Christmas'.
Evidence showed Faith had been shot three times, and Liberty five. A semiautomatic pistol found near the kitchen door was among more than a dozen firearms recovered from Battaglia's apartment.
Battaglia went to a bar with a girlfriend following the shootings, and then to a tattoo parlor. He was inked with two large roses on his left arm, meant to represent his daughters.
When he walked outside, it took four officers to subdue and arrest him at 2am. A fully loaded revolver was found in his truck.
It was later discovered that Battaglia had recorded one last message to his daughters.
'Goodnight my little babies,' he said. 'I hope you're resting in a different place. I love you, and I wish that you had nothing to do with your mother.'
'She was evil and vicious and stupid. I love you dearly.'
Battaglia's trial attorneys called no witnesses during the guilt-innocence portion of his capital murder trial in 2002, and a Dallas County jury deliberated only 19 minutes before convicting him.
During the punishment phase, jurors heard defense testimony that Battaglia's bipolar disorder and other mental illness issues should convince them that a life prison sentence would be appropriate. They did not agree.
'To think a father could just gun down his little girls, it was just unbelievable,' Howard Blackmon, the lead prosecutor in the case, recalled last week.
'It was such a compelling case for the death penalty.'
The Texas Attorney General's Office argued there is no evidence in his prison medical file that suggests Battaglia is 'mentally ill, delusional, divorced from reality, on psychiatric medication, or otherwise does not comprehend his imminent execution'.
'His last-minute appeal amounts to a fishing expedition,' said Erich Dryden, an assistant Texas attorney general. 'The Court should deny his request.'
Pearle revealed that Battaglia had a history of physical abuse, both against her and his ex-wife.
'He did tell me before we married that he had gotten into an argument and hit his ex-wife,' Pearle told ABC News in 2002.
'He didn't tell me that he'd broken her nose.'
Pearle endured nine years of marriage littered with Battaglia's verbal abuse and short temper, where he would call her names and go on tirades that could last for 20 minutes.
But not once, she said, did he ever lay a hand on their daughters.
'He never spanked the children. He never raised his voice to the children. He never grabbed their arm,' she said. 'He did nothing but was loving to them.'
And yet, a father with this history was still granted custody/visitation rights with two young girls. That's what's insane.
Children are abused by definition when they are forced to live in a home where the mother, their caretaker, is beaten up and verbally abused on a regular basis.
That the father had reportedly never physically abused the children up to this point is irrelevant. That is not uncommon. But kids are never safe with a violent narcissist who sees other humans--especially women and children--as mere objects he can use and dispose of as he sees fit. Clearly, the kids were simply collateral damage in his efforts to further abuse/control their mother.
Dad is identified as JOHN BATTAGLIA.
See the Killer Dads and Custody List for Texas.
People sometimes ask why the data is not easily broken down by year. Here's an example. These murders took place in 2001, before this blog/project was started. A news account about the crime didn't come into any of my news feeds until 15 years had passed.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3514282/Dallas-man-set-executed-death-daughters-9-6.html
'I'm too delusional to die': Accountant who killed his two daughters, nine and six, while his ex-wife listened on the phone makes last-ditch plea to avoid execution
TODAY John David Battaglia, 60, killed daughters Faith and Liberty in 2001
He is appealing for more time to prove he is mentally incompetent
The murders came after his ex-wife reported he was harassing her
Was arrested at a tattoo parlor, getting two roses to remember his girls
Battaglia is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday in Huntsville
ByAnneta Konstantinides For Dailymail.comand
Associated Press
Published: 12:19 EST, 29 March 2016 | Updated: 23:58 EST, 29 March 2016
A Texas accountant who is set to die by lethal injection for killing his two young daughters while his ex-wife was listening on the phone has appealed for a stay of execution.
John Battaglia, 60, was arrested in May 2001 for fatally shooting daughters Faith, nine, and Liberty, six, at his Dallas apartment after calling their mother, Mary Jean Pearle.
Battaglia is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday. He is appealing the US Supreme Court and the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals for more time to prove he is mentally incompetent.
Attorney Gregory Gardner, who is petitioning to represent Battaglia, claims he is delusional and should be entitled to a reprieve so he can get a fair hearing to determine his psychological state.
'The Supreme Court has ruled that since before our country was founded, society does not tolerate the execution of the insane,' Gardner told NBC News.
Battaglia said he didn't feel like he killed his daughters, whom he referred to as his 'best little friends', during an interview with the Dallas Morning News in 2014.
'I am a little bit in the blank about what happened,' he said, adding that he had photos of his girls displayed on the walls of his prison cell.
Battaglia is also petitioning for a new attorney. Gardner argued that his court-appointed lawyer abandoned Battaglia after the US Supreme Court refused to review his case in January.
At the time of the shootings, Battaglia was on probation for a Christmas 1999 attack on Pearle, who he beat up in front of his daughters. The couple divorced in 2000.
Battaglia violated his probation the following year with a threatening phone call to Pearle in which he called her names and swore at her.
Pearle reported the incident and Battaglia learned on May 2, 2001 that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.
That night was meant to be his last visit with his daughters, before he surrendered.
Pearle soon received a message from her mother that one her girls wanted to speak to her.
When Pearle called them, Battaglia put her on speakerphone and told Faith to ask her mother: 'Why do you want Daddy to go to jail?'
That's when Pearle heard her daughter cry out: 'No, Daddy, please don't, don't do it.'
Pearle yelled into the phone for the girls to run and heard gunshots, followed by Battaglia telling her: 'Merry f****** Christmas'.
Evidence showed Faith had been shot three times, and Liberty five. A semiautomatic pistol found near the kitchen door was among more than a dozen firearms recovered from Battaglia's apartment.
Battaglia went to a bar with a girlfriend following the shootings, and then to a tattoo parlor. He was inked with two large roses on his left arm, meant to represent his daughters.
When he walked outside, it took four officers to subdue and arrest him at 2am. A fully loaded revolver was found in his truck.
It was later discovered that Battaglia had recorded one last message to his daughters.
'Goodnight my little babies,' he said. 'I hope you're resting in a different place. I love you, and I wish that you had nothing to do with your mother.'
'She was evil and vicious and stupid. I love you dearly.'
Battaglia's trial attorneys called no witnesses during the guilt-innocence portion of his capital murder trial in 2002, and a Dallas County jury deliberated only 19 minutes before convicting him.
During the punishment phase, jurors heard defense testimony that Battaglia's bipolar disorder and other mental illness issues should convince them that a life prison sentence would be appropriate. They did not agree.
'To think a father could just gun down his little girls, it was just unbelievable,' Howard Blackmon, the lead prosecutor in the case, recalled last week.
'It was such a compelling case for the death penalty.'
The Texas Attorney General's Office argued there is no evidence in his prison medical file that suggests Battaglia is 'mentally ill, delusional, divorced from reality, on psychiatric medication, or otherwise does not comprehend his imminent execution'.
'His last-minute appeal amounts to a fishing expedition,' said Erich Dryden, an assistant Texas attorney general. 'The Court should deny his request.'
Pearle revealed that Battaglia had a history of physical abuse, both against her and his ex-wife.
'He did tell me before we married that he had gotten into an argument and hit his ex-wife,' Pearle told ABC News in 2002.
'He didn't tell me that he'd broken her nose.'
Pearle endured nine years of marriage littered with Battaglia's verbal abuse and short temper, where he would call her names and go on tirades that could last for 20 minutes.
But not once, she said, did he ever lay a hand on their daughters.
'He never spanked the children. He never raised his voice to the children. He never grabbed their arm,' she said. 'He did nothing but was loving to them.'
Sunday, September 13, 2015
"Custody dispute" dad pleads not guilty to throwing 7-month-old son off bridge (Middletown, Connecticut)
Okaay. So now Daddy's going to argue that he's crazy, so he's not guilty of throwing his infant son off the bridge. But golly, just a few days earlier, the Judge thought he was just fine when he denied the baby's mother a restraining order.
Dad is identified as TONY MORENO. We've posted on him before.
http://www.torontosun.com/2015/09/11/father-accused-of-throwing-baby-off-connecticut-bridge-pleads-not-guilty
Father accused of throwing baby off Connecticut bridge pleads not guilty
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Friday, September 11, 2015 01:52 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, September 11, 2015 02:03 PM EDT
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- A man accused of throwing his 7-month-old son off a bridge into the Connecticut River has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
Police say 21-year-old Tony Moreno threw his son Aaden off the Arrigoni Bridge on July 5. A police affidavit states Moreno called his mother from the bridge asking her to pick up a phone with pictures of the baby and a stroller. Police say he then jumped over the railing into the river once she arrived with his brother and police officers.
Documents show Moreno and Aaden's mother were going through a custody dispute. A judge denied a permanent restraining order against him days earlier.
He appeared Thursday in Superior Court in Middletown. His public defender would not say if Moreno is planning to pursue an insanity defence.
Dad is identified as TONY MORENO. We've posted on him before.
http://www.torontosun.com/2015/09/11/father-accused-of-throwing-baby-off-connecticut-bridge-pleads-not-guilty
Father accused of throwing baby off Connecticut bridge pleads not guilty
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Friday, September 11, 2015 01:52 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, September 11, 2015 02:03 PM EDT
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- A man accused of throwing his 7-month-old son off a bridge into the Connecticut River has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
Police say 21-year-old Tony Moreno threw his son Aaden off the Arrigoni Bridge on July 5. A police affidavit states Moreno called his mother from the bridge asking her to pick up a phone with pictures of the baby and a stroller. Police say he then jumped over the railing into the river once she arrived with his brother and police officers.
Documents show Moreno and Aaden's mother were going through a custody dispute. A judge denied a permanent restraining order against him days earlier.
He appeared Thursday in Superior Court in Middletown. His public defender would not say if Moreno is planning to pursue an insanity defence.
New charges against custodial dad accused of leaving dead baby daughter in crib for weeks (Medina, Ohio)
Notice how the media is now "forgetting" to mention that this father who was allegedly and insane cokehead living in a motel was granted sole custody of two kids. Why don't we ever hear about that?
Dad is identified as ERIC WARFEL. We've posted on him before.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/09/new_charges_filed_against_medi.html
New charges filed against Medina father accused of leaving dead baby daughter in crib for weeks
Northeast Ohio Media Group
By Cory Shaffer on September 13, 2015 at 11:14 AM, updated September 13, 2015 at 11:57 AM
MEDINA, Ohio -- A Medina father accused of leaving his dead baby daughter in a crib for a month is facing additional charges.
A Medina County grand jury on Wednesday handed up a four-count indictment charging Eric Warfel, 35, with child endangering and possession of cocaine charges, according to court documents.
The new charges were added to the gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence charges that Warfel already faced after a cable company employee discovered 1-year-old Ember's body in a crib in Warfel's apartment in the Forest Meadows complex July 29.
Warfel remains jailed on $1 million bond after he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence charges.
The child's death remains under investigation, according to the Medina County Coroner's Office.
The new charges allege that on June 18, the day investigators estimate that Ember died, as well as on July 26-28, Warfel endangered a 7-year-old child whose name was redacted.
Warfel's father wrote in a letter asking Judge Christopher Collier to reduce his $1 million bond that Warfel's 7-year-old daughter "means everything to him."
The 7 year old has been in the custody of other family members since Warfel's arrest, officials said.
The new indictment also alleges Warfel possessed an unspecified amount of cocaine on July 28 and 29.
Detectives said in late July that they found what they suspected was cocaine in a room at a Middleburg Heights motel where Warfel had been staying in the days leading up to the discovery of the child's body.
Warfel's case is set to go to trial in November.
Dad is identified as ERIC WARFEL. We've posted on him before.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/09/new_charges_filed_against_medi.html
New charges filed against Medina father accused of leaving dead baby daughter in crib for weeks
Northeast Ohio Media Group
By Cory Shaffer on September 13, 2015 at 11:14 AM, updated September 13, 2015 at 11:57 AM
MEDINA, Ohio -- A Medina father accused of leaving his dead baby daughter in a crib for a month is facing additional charges.
A Medina County grand jury on Wednesday handed up a four-count indictment charging Eric Warfel, 35, with child endangering and possession of cocaine charges, according to court documents.
The new charges were added to the gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence charges that Warfel already faced after a cable company employee discovered 1-year-old Ember's body in a crib in Warfel's apartment in the Forest Meadows complex July 29.
Warfel remains jailed on $1 million bond after he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence charges.
The child's death remains under investigation, according to the Medina County Coroner's Office.
The new charges allege that on June 18, the day investigators estimate that Ember died, as well as on July 26-28, Warfel endangered a 7-year-old child whose name was redacted.
Warfel's father wrote in a letter asking Judge Christopher Collier to reduce his $1 million bond that Warfel's 7-year-old daughter "means everything to him."
The 7 year old has been in the custody of other family members since Warfel's arrest, officials said.
The new indictment also alleges Warfel possessed an unspecified amount of cocaine on July 28 and 29.
Detectives said in late July that they found what they suspected was cocaine in a room at a Middleburg Heights motel where Warfel had been staying in the days leading up to the discovery of the child's body.
Warfel's case is set to go to trial in November.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Dad in custody after holding 3-year-old child hostage at gunpoint (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
UNNAMED DAD. This kind of crime is nearly always dads.
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/09/04/man-in-custody-after-overnight-police-standoff-in-south-mpls/
Man In Custody After Overnight Police Standoff In South Mpls.
September 4, 2015 5:50 AM
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — After hours of negotiations, a man is now in custody. Minneapolis police received the call around 10:30 p.m. Thursday night from a home in the 3900 block of Garfield Avenue South. When they arrived, they learned a three-year-old child was inside the home with her armed father.
Police say, at one point, the suspect refused to communicate with authorities, so the SWAT team entered the home. They arrested the father and the child is now safe and sound.
Shots were fired around 1:00 a.m. when the suspect appeared to be shooting in the air. Police believed the suspects’s three-year-old child was in great danger and, as a precaution, an ambulance was on standby.
After conversations broke down between the SWAT team and the suspect, and authorities exhausted all possibilities, they entered the home.
The suspect is now in custody. His name has not been released, but a spokesperson for the Minneapolis Police Department says the incident could be the result of a mental health issue. Authorities haven’t yet said what charges the suspect will face.
His daughter is now with her mother. Police say the mother was not home at the time of the standoff. Prior to the incident, she left the home with the couple’s second child.
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/09/04/man-in-custody-after-overnight-police-standoff-in-south-mpls/
Man In Custody After Overnight Police Standoff In South Mpls.
September 4, 2015 5:50 AM
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — After hours of negotiations, a man is now in custody. Minneapolis police received the call around 10:30 p.m. Thursday night from a home in the 3900 block of Garfield Avenue South. When they arrived, they learned a three-year-old child was inside the home with her armed father.
Police say, at one point, the suspect refused to communicate with authorities, so the SWAT team entered the home. They arrested the father and the child is now safe and sound.
Shots were fired around 1:00 a.m. when the suspect appeared to be shooting in the air. Police believed the suspects’s three-year-old child was in great danger and, as a precaution, an ambulance was on standby.
After conversations broke down between the SWAT team and the suspect, and authorities exhausted all possibilities, they entered the home.
The suspect is now in custody. His name has not been released, but a spokesperson for the Minneapolis Police Department says the incident could be the result of a mental health issue. Authorities haven’t yet said what charges the suspect will face.
His daughter is now with her mother. Police say the mother was not home at the time of the standoff. Prior to the incident, she left the home with the couple’s second child.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Dad in "child custody conflict" kept 10-year-old son locked in home without food for five days (Jakarta, Indonesia)
So if UNNAMED DAD had a "clinically proven" mental disorder, then who allowed him to wage this "child custody conflict" against the mother? Once again, we see that too often fathers fighting the mother for custody have no interest in the welfare of the children.
Unfortunately, the worldwide influence of the fathers rights movement has emboldened control freak abuser dads everywhere--and authorities let them get by with this sh**.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/08/24/greater-jakarta-father-reported-confining-son.html
Greater Jakarta: Father reported for confining son
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Jakarta | Mon, August 24 2015, 9:26 AM
The Indonesian Commission on Child Protection (KPAI) and the North Jakarta Police took a 10-year-old boy from his father on Friday after his mother, identified as AF, reported the father for confinement.
Based on her report, the father was not only keeping the boy inside the house, but also did not allow him to eat and go to school for five days, KPAI secretary-general Erlinda said as quoted by wartakotalive.com on Saturday.
Erlinda added that the parents were involved in a child custody conflict.
“We need to conduct further psychology and health examinations to know whether the father has committed violence,” she said, adding that the father had once been clinically proven to suffer from a mental disorder.
The boy is currently staying at Safe House, the KPAI’s shelter for children who are in need of protection.
Meanwhile, the North Jakarta Police chief, Sr. Comr. Susetio Cahyadi Susetio, said that the police would investigate further to uncover the father’s motive.
Unfortunately, the worldwide influence of the fathers rights movement has emboldened control freak abuser dads everywhere--and authorities let them get by with this sh**.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/08/24/greater-jakarta-father-reported-confining-son.html
Greater Jakarta: Father reported for confining son
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Jakarta | Mon, August 24 2015, 9:26 AM
The Indonesian Commission on Child Protection (KPAI) and the North Jakarta Police took a 10-year-old boy from his father on Friday after his mother, identified as AF, reported the father for confinement.
Based on her report, the father was not only keeping the boy inside the house, but also did not allow him to eat and go to school for five days, KPAI secretary-general Erlinda said as quoted by wartakotalive.com on Saturday.
Erlinda added that the parents were involved in a child custody conflict.
“We need to conduct further psychology and health examinations to know whether the father has committed violence,” she said, adding that the father had once been clinically proven to suffer from a mental disorder.
The boy is currently staying at Safe House, the KPAI’s shelter for children who are in need of protection.
Meanwhile, the North Jakarta Police chief, Sr. Comr. Susetio Cahyadi Susetio, said that the police would investigate further to uncover the father’s motive.
Monday, August 17, 2015
How abusive dad got custody in seven minutes (Worcester, Massachusetts)
The ONLY reason such a travesty could have taken place is the utter triumph of Fathers Rights in the family court system. Fathers are coddled and indulged despite histories of domestic violence, severe mental illness, drugs/alcohol abuse, evidence of child abuse...none of it matters in terms of gaining and retaining custody.
We've reported on custodial dad RANDALL LINTS before.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/08/15/seven-minutes-that-sealed-boy-fate/lLqEG1IEo4aDzBbFEZFXfI/story.html
7 minutes that set a child’s course for tragedy
Hearing that gave a Hardwick boy to father who allegedly beat and starved him was terse, incurious, disastrous
By Michael Levenson Globe Staff August 15, 2015
WORCESTER — It took seven minutes of rustling papers and perfunctory questions uttered in rapid-fire monotone, and the deal was done. A Worcester probate judge had transferred custody of a young boy from the grandmother who had raised him almost since birth to the father whom he barely knew. A year later, the father would be charged with nearly killing the boy by beating him and refusing him food and water.
Even though family members now say that the father had a history of violence and mental illness, and though he had only recently acknowledged that he was the father, Judge Lucille A. DiLeo never questioned Randall Lints’s fitness to raise his son.
And no party to the case suggested she should.
“OK, I think we have everything,” DiLeo said in a matter-of-fact voice, after reading aloud the main points of the custody papers, and ensuring that they had been signed by the father, mother, and grandmother standing before her. “Thank you, everybody.”
Legal experts say such quick approval is typical in cases like this one.
There was no dispute over the father’s petition for custody, because the family members had signed it before the brief hearing on June 30, 2014, a recording of which was obtained by the Globe. The judge simply ratified the family consensus. There was no one in court to speak specifically for the child.
The tragic fallout from the custody ruling has raised questions about whether probate courts can do more to protect the children whose lives their decisions most deeply affect. ‘They’re all standing there, they all agree, they all signed off on it, and that’s it.’
“We must reform our probate and family courts so that, in every case, the interests of children outweigh the desires and preferences of adults,” said Gail Garinger, a former juvenile court judge who heads the state Office of the Child Advocate. “Children in our courts need experienced professionals who will listen to them and help identify their genuine needs, skilled advocates for their interests, and decision-makers who will make the welfare of the children before them their highest priority.”
Other legal specialists, even as they acknowledge the horrors allegedly inflicted by Lints, recoil at the notion that judges should intervene in cases in which an entire family is in agreement about who should gain custody.
“The idea that the state gets to tell you whether you have it together enough to bring up your child is really a little bit scary,” said Mary E. O’Connell, a professor of child and family law at Northeastern University School of Law.
Indeed, in a custody case that is not disputed, the judge must presume that the adults have the child’s best interests at heart, said Edward M. Ginsburg, a retired probate court judge who served 25 years in Middlesex County.
“In this case, there is nothing that the judge should have done that she didn’t do: They’re all standing there, they all agree, they all signed off on it, and that’s it,” Ginsburg said. “In that context, it’s an administrative function.”
The 7-year-old boy has been in a coma since July 14, when paramedics carried him from Lints’s home in Hardwick with bruises across his body and burns on his feet.
He weighed just 38 pounds, having lost 12 to 15 pounds in recent weeks. Authorities say Lints had kept his son in his bedroom and starved and dehydrated him to stop him from urinating on the floor.
The case has focused intense scrutiny on the state Department of Children and Families, which had been monitoring the boy since February when it received back-to-back complaints that Lints was neglecting the child.
Officials have acknowledged that a state social worker visited the home just two weeks before the boy fell into a coma and his father called 911.
A year earlier, DiLeo had made what would turn out to be the fateful decision to transfer custody of the boy. In court, she ticked off the nuts and bolts of the deal: The maternal grandmother, who had been the boy’s legal guardian since 2008, would hand custody to Lints, 26.
Reading from the agreement, she confirmed his promise to enroll the boy in counseling and add him to his Medicaid plan. She affirmed the visitation rights of the boy’s mother, Amber Loiselle, who had been estranged from her son for two years.
No one present raised any objections that might have prompted DiLeo to question the arrangement. The judge sealed the deal with a series of questions to each family member.
“Did you sign here? Did you review it with your lawyer before you signed it? Understood it? Signed it freely and voluntarily?” And, finally, “Thank you.”
DiLeo could have appointed an attorney for the child or an independent advocate, called a guardian ad litem, to assess whether placing him with the father was in the boy’s best interests, said Sanford N. Katz, a professor emeritus at Boston College Law School and a specialist in family law.
“The focus of the case has to be on the child, not on the parents or anybody else,” Katz said. “Even though all the parties may agree the father is the one, an independent look at this might say no.”
DiLeo did not respond to several messages.
Still, it would have been highly unusual for her to intervene when there was no dispute over custody, said Robin M. Deutsch, the director of the Center of Excellence for Children, Families and the Law at William James College in Newton.
“If people don’t bring forward a concern, it’s really not up to the court to go on a fishing expedition,” Deutsch said. “It would be very inappropriate to say, ‘Wait a moment. Let’s get an evaluation.’ Instead, you say, ‘How great that they agreed; how wonderful.’ ”
If DiLeo had scrutinized the case, she might have discovered cause for concern.
In 2007, when Lints was first told that he was going to be a father, “He would call me and threaten to cut [the baby] out of my stomach,” Amber Loiselle told the Globe last month.
A year later, a judge in Fitchburg granted Loiselle a restraining order against Lints after he allegedly shoved her to the ground. Lints was not listed on the boy’s birth certificate, and the boy was told that his father was dead, according to relatives.
Lints only became involved in his son’s life in 2013, after he was sued by the state to provide child support and was ordered to take a paternity test, court records show.
Lints’s mother, Tina LaValley, said she warned her son, who has bipolar disorder and borderline schizophrenia, not to seek custody of the boy.
“I says, ‘You don’t want to put yourself in that situation,’ ” LaValley told NECN. “[He said], ‘I don’t want nobody calling me a deadbeat dad. I’m not going to be a deadbeat dad. That is my son. I’m going to raise my son.’ ”
We've reported on custodial dad RANDALL LINTS before.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/08/15/seven-minutes-that-sealed-boy-fate/lLqEG1IEo4aDzBbFEZFXfI/story.html
7 minutes that set a child’s course for tragedy
Hearing that gave a Hardwick boy to father who allegedly beat and starved him was terse, incurious, disastrous
By Michael Levenson Globe Staff August 15, 2015
WORCESTER — It took seven minutes of rustling papers and perfunctory questions uttered in rapid-fire monotone, and the deal was done. A Worcester probate judge had transferred custody of a young boy from the grandmother who had raised him almost since birth to the father whom he barely knew. A year later, the father would be charged with nearly killing the boy by beating him and refusing him food and water.
Even though family members now say that the father had a history of violence and mental illness, and though he had only recently acknowledged that he was the father, Judge Lucille A. DiLeo never questioned Randall Lints’s fitness to raise his son.
And no party to the case suggested she should.
“OK, I think we have everything,” DiLeo said in a matter-of-fact voice, after reading aloud the main points of the custody papers, and ensuring that they had been signed by the father, mother, and grandmother standing before her. “Thank you, everybody.”
Legal experts say such quick approval is typical in cases like this one.
There was no dispute over the father’s petition for custody, because the family members had signed it before the brief hearing on June 30, 2014, a recording of which was obtained by the Globe. The judge simply ratified the family consensus. There was no one in court to speak specifically for the child.
The tragic fallout from the custody ruling has raised questions about whether probate courts can do more to protect the children whose lives their decisions most deeply affect. ‘They’re all standing there, they all agree, they all signed off on it, and that’s it.’
“We must reform our probate and family courts so that, in every case, the interests of children outweigh the desires and preferences of adults,” said Gail Garinger, a former juvenile court judge who heads the state Office of the Child Advocate. “Children in our courts need experienced professionals who will listen to them and help identify their genuine needs, skilled advocates for their interests, and decision-makers who will make the welfare of the children before them their highest priority.”
Other legal specialists, even as they acknowledge the horrors allegedly inflicted by Lints, recoil at the notion that judges should intervene in cases in which an entire family is in agreement about who should gain custody.
“The idea that the state gets to tell you whether you have it together enough to bring up your child is really a little bit scary,” said Mary E. O’Connell, a professor of child and family law at Northeastern University School of Law.
Indeed, in a custody case that is not disputed, the judge must presume that the adults have the child’s best interests at heart, said Edward M. Ginsburg, a retired probate court judge who served 25 years in Middlesex County.
“In this case, there is nothing that the judge should have done that she didn’t do: They’re all standing there, they all agree, they all signed off on it, and that’s it,” Ginsburg said. “In that context, it’s an administrative function.”
The 7-year-old boy has been in a coma since July 14, when paramedics carried him from Lints’s home in Hardwick with bruises across his body and burns on his feet.
He weighed just 38 pounds, having lost 12 to 15 pounds in recent weeks. Authorities say Lints had kept his son in his bedroom and starved and dehydrated him to stop him from urinating on the floor.
The case has focused intense scrutiny on the state Department of Children and Families, which had been monitoring the boy since February when it received back-to-back complaints that Lints was neglecting the child.
Officials have acknowledged that a state social worker visited the home just two weeks before the boy fell into a coma and his father called 911.
A year earlier, DiLeo had made what would turn out to be the fateful decision to transfer custody of the boy. In court, she ticked off the nuts and bolts of the deal: The maternal grandmother, who had been the boy’s legal guardian since 2008, would hand custody to Lints, 26.
Reading from the agreement, she confirmed his promise to enroll the boy in counseling and add him to his Medicaid plan. She affirmed the visitation rights of the boy’s mother, Amber Loiselle, who had been estranged from her son for two years.
No one present raised any objections that might have prompted DiLeo to question the arrangement. The judge sealed the deal with a series of questions to each family member.
“Did you sign here? Did you review it with your lawyer before you signed it? Understood it? Signed it freely and voluntarily?” And, finally, “Thank you.”
DiLeo could have appointed an attorney for the child or an independent advocate, called a guardian ad litem, to assess whether placing him with the father was in the boy’s best interests, said Sanford N. Katz, a professor emeritus at Boston College Law School and a specialist in family law.
“The focus of the case has to be on the child, not on the parents or anybody else,” Katz said. “Even though all the parties may agree the father is the one, an independent look at this might say no.”
DiLeo did not respond to several messages.
Still, it would have been highly unusual for her to intervene when there was no dispute over custody, said Robin M. Deutsch, the director of the Center of Excellence for Children, Families and the Law at William James College in Newton.
“If people don’t bring forward a concern, it’s really not up to the court to go on a fishing expedition,” Deutsch said. “It would be very inappropriate to say, ‘Wait a moment. Let’s get an evaluation.’ Instead, you say, ‘How great that they agreed; how wonderful.’ ”
If DiLeo had scrutinized the case, she might have discovered cause for concern.
In 2007, when Lints was first told that he was going to be a father, “He would call me and threaten to cut [the baby] out of my stomach,” Amber Loiselle told the Globe last month.
A year later, a judge in Fitchburg granted Loiselle a restraining order against Lints after he allegedly shoved her to the ground. Lints was not listed on the boy’s birth certificate, and the boy was told that his father was dead, according to relatives.
Lints only became involved in his son’s life in 2013, after he was sued by the state to provide child support and was ordered to take a paternity test, court records show.
Lints’s mother, Tina LaValley, said she warned her son, who has bipolar disorder and borderline schizophrenia, not to seek custody of the boy.
“I says, ‘You don’t want to put yourself in that situation,’ ” LaValley told NECN. “[He said], ‘I don’t want nobody calling me a deadbeat dad. I’m not going to be a deadbeat dad. That is my son. I’m going to raise my son.’ ”
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Sole custody dad pleads not guilty for reasons of insanity; 18-month-old daughter's body found decaying in crib (Cleveland, Ohio)
Getting caught up on cases over the past week or so.
We posted on dad ERIC WARFEL earlier. Notice that the press is no longer mentioning that this POS had sole custody, much less delving into what POS judge gave it to him.
We've been previously told that the mother had drug problems too. Fine. But Daddy now claims he's crazy in addition to his OWN drug problems and basically being homeless.
Please explain to me just how it is the Killer Daddy is the superior parent. I'm not seeing it.
Looks like classic Father Favoritism to me.
http://news.yahoo.com/father-ohio-child-found-weeks-dead-pleads-not-173638447.html
Father of Ohio child found weeks-dead pleads not guilty, insanity .
Reuters
By Kim Palmer August 10, 2015 1:36 PM
CLEVELAND (Reuters) - An Ohio man charged with leaving the decomposing body of his 18-month-old daughter in a crib surrounded by garbage entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on Monday, according to Medina County court documents.
Eric Warfel, 35 was charged with one count of abuse of a corpse after a cable installer discover the body of Ember Warfel late last month in his apartment south of Cleveland. She had been dead for at least a month.
Prosecutors added a tampering with evidence charge, also a felony and set bond at $1 million. They said they expect more charges once a cause of death for the child is determined.
Police found cocaine in the motel room where Warfel had been living before the discovery of his daughter. Drug possession and endangering children charges are expected, according to prosecutors.
Police are also looking into the 2013 death of Warfel's 5-month-old child whose cause of death was ruled undetermined by a Cuyahoga County medical examiner.
Warfel will receive a psychological evaluation and Medina County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Collier set a pretrial date for Nov. 5 and a trial date for Nov. 9.
We posted on dad ERIC WARFEL earlier. Notice that the press is no longer mentioning that this POS had sole custody, much less delving into what POS judge gave it to him.
We've been previously told that the mother had drug problems too. Fine. But Daddy now claims he's crazy in addition to his OWN drug problems and basically being homeless.
Please explain to me just how it is the Killer Daddy is the superior parent. I'm not seeing it.
Looks like classic Father Favoritism to me.
http://news.yahoo.com/father-ohio-child-found-weeks-dead-pleads-not-173638447.html
Father of Ohio child found weeks-dead pleads not guilty, insanity .
Reuters
By Kim Palmer August 10, 2015 1:36 PM
CLEVELAND (Reuters) - An Ohio man charged with leaving the decomposing body of his 18-month-old daughter in a crib surrounded by garbage entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on Monday, according to Medina County court documents.
Eric Warfel, 35 was charged with one count of abuse of a corpse after a cable installer discover the body of Ember Warfel late last month in his apartment south of Cleveland. She had been dead for at least a month.
Prosecutors added a tampering with evidence charge, also a felony and set bond at $1 million. They said they expect more charges once a cause of death for the child is determined.
Police found cocaine in the motel room where Warfel had been living before the discovery of his daughter. Drug possession and endangering children charges are expected, according to prosecutors.
Police are also looking into the 2013 death of Warfel's 5-month-old child whose cause of death was ruled undetermined by a Cuyahoga County medical examiner.
Warfel will receive a psychological evaluation and Medina County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Collier set a pretrial date for Nov. 5 and a trial date for Nov. 9.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Social workers violate court order, so dad molested kids during unsupervised visitation (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
Very typical of so-called child protection agencies that are too often controlled by and/or heavily influenced by fathers rights and pro-pedophile types. This is right by the playbook. Label the protective mother as mentally ill and give Daddy a free pass to rape the kids with no interference.
http://www.timescolonist.com/watchdog-has-no-confidence-in-b-c-ministry-s-review-of-child-sex-abuse-case-1.2003010
Watchdog has 'no confidence' in B.C. ministry's review of child sex abuse case
The Canadian Press July 16, 2015 11:09 AM
VICTORIA - British Columbia's children's minister has promised a review after social workers violated a court order and allowed a father who had molested his kids unsupervised visits.
Stephanie Cadieux said Thursday her ministry will examine all the policy, practice and human resource concerns raised by a scathing B.C. Supreme Court ruling.
"This family, and the rest of British Columbia, deserve to know the child welfare system is responsive and accountable for the decisions it makes," Cadieux told the legislature as the Opposition New Democrats demanded she apologize.
The province's children and youth representative, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, said she has "no confidence" in the ministry's ability to investigate itself.
"This is a child welfare ministry that for some time has felt that it doesn't have to answer to independent oversight or to a court," she said in an interview. "They're not capable of holding each other to account. They do not have the structures to do that."
Turpel-Lafond, who heads the independent body that oversees the child welfare system, said she wants to participate in the review or see a third party hired to do it.
The ministry said it was working with the Public Service Agency to determine what kind of staff conduct review would work best, and details would be announced later.
Justice Paul Walker said in a written decision released Tuesday that the ministry showed "reckless disregard" when it falsely accused a mother of being mentally ill and removed four children from her care in 2009.
Social workers failed to investigate the kids' claims that their father had sexually abused them and knowingly violated a court order banning unsupervised visits, the ruling said.
Turpel-Lafond said the ministry needs to take immediate action against the workers named in the judgment and examine all other child welfare cases on which they worked.
She said the ministry's decision to eliminate the provincial director of child welfare between 2007 and 2011 created a system akin to the "Wild West" and that even now the director has no power over regional bosses.
Social workers employed by the government are not required to register in the B.C. College of Social Workers, meaning they are not regulated by a professional body, Turpel-Lafond said.
Children's Ministry spokesman Sheldon Johnson said all child protection workers must take specialized university courses and get on-the-job training including interviewing kids who may have been sexually abused. He said workers must have the skills required by the college although they don't need to register.
Johnson said the ministry cannot comment on the individuals named in the judgment due to privacy legislation.
The mother's lawyer, Jack Hittrich, has said that a team leader involved in her case, William Strickland, is still employed by the ministry.
In the legislature, NDP Leader John Horgan questioned how many other court orders the ministry had ignored.
"How many other children are being put at risk because the government believes it's above the law?" he said.
Walker concluded in 2012 that the father physically and sexually abused the couple's three eldest children and gave the mother sole guardianship.
In his decision released Tuesday, Walker determined that the father had also molested his youngest child while the couple's kids were in ministry care.
The ministry has not said yet whether it plans to appeal the ruling.
http://www.timescolonist.com/watchdog-has-no-confidence-in-b-c-ministry-s-review-of-child-sex-abuse-case-1.2003010
Watchdog has 'no confidence' in B.C. ministry's review of child sex abuse case
The Canadian Press July 16, 2015 11:09 AM
VICTORIA - British Columbia's children's minister has promised a review after social workers violated a court order and allowed a father who had molested his kids unsupervised visits.
Stephanie Cadieux said Thursday her ministry will examine all the policy, practice and human resource concerns raised by a scathing B.C. Supreme Court ruling.
"This family, and the rest of British Columbia, deserve to know the child welfare system is responsive and accountable for the decisions it makes," Cadieux told the legislature as the Opposition New Democrats demanded she apologize.
The province's children and youth representative, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, said she has "no confidence" in the ministry's ability to investigate itself.
"This is a child welfare ministry that for some time has felt that it doesn't have to answer to independent oversight or to a court," she said in an interview. "They're not capable of holding each other to account. They do not have the structures to do that."
Turpel-Lafond, who heads the independent body that oversees the child welfare system, said she wants to participate in the review or see a third party hired to do it.
The ministry said it was working with the Public Service Agency to determine what kind of staff conduct review would work best, and details would be announced later.
Justice Paul Walker said in a written decision released Tuesday that the ministry showed "reckless disregard" when it falsely accused a mother of being mentally ill and removed four children from her care in 2009.
Social workers failed to investigate the kids' claims that their father had sexually abused them and knowingly violated a court order banning unsupervised visits, the ruling said.
Turpel-Lafond said the ministry needs to take immediate action against the workers named in the judgment and examine all other child welfare cases on which they worked.
She said the ministry's decision to eliminate the provincial director of child welfare between 2007 and 2011 created a system akin to the "Wild West" and that even now the director has no power over regional bosses.
Social workers employed by the government are not required to register in the B.C. College of Social Workers, meaning they are not regulated by a professional body, Turpel-Lafond said.
Children's Ministry spokesman Sheldon Johnson said all child protection workers must take specialized university courses and get on-the-job training including interviewing kids who may have been sexually abused. He said workers must have the skills required by the college although they don't need to register.
Johnson said the ministry cannot comment on the individuals named in the judgment due to privacy legislation.
The mother's lawyer, Jack Hittrich, has said that a team leader involved in her case, William Strickland, is still employed by the ministry.
In the legislature, NDP Leader John Horgan questioned how many other court orders the ministry had ignored.
"How many other children are being put at risk because the government believes it's above the law?" he said.
Walker concluded in 2012 that the father physically and sexually abused the couple's three eldest children and gave the mother sole guardianship.
In his decision released Tuesday, Walker determined that the father had also molested his youngest child while the couple's kids were in ministry care.
The ministry has not said yet whether it plans to appeal the ruling.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Teen commits suicide after being forced to live with custodial dad; protective mom files lawsuit (Chesterfield, Virginia)
Unfortunately, this is in many ways a typical scenario. Abusive dad secures custody (total control) over victim and shuts Mom off from any contact with the child whatsoever. Daddy then plays games with the kid's mental health supports, for which, of course, he is apparently not being held responsible for at all. Notice that this is an UNNAMED DAD....
http://www.nbc12.com/story/29208327/mom-of-teen-who-committed-suicide-files-wrongful-death-suit
Mom of teen who committed suicide files wrongful death suit
Posted: Jun 01, 2015 1:23 PM EDT Updated: Jun 02, 2015 12:52 AM EDT
By NBC12 Newsroom
CHESTERFIELD, VA (WWBT) - The mother of a Chesterfield high school student who committed suicide in 2013 has filed a wrongful death suit against two therapists, a counseling group, and the teen's biological father.
#17-year-old Cal Reilly hanged himself inside a tunnel at Chesterfield's Hampton Park, just days before graduation in May of 2013. His friends and former classmates later spray painted messages inside the tunnel in a gesture meant to memorialized the teen, but were arrested for graffiti and the messages were removed.
#Now Cal's mother, Darci Reilly, has filed suit against several people whom she claims did not prevent her son from taking his life. Reilly is seeking $6 million in damages.
#Darci Reilly's attorney, Mandy Wilson, says Cal's death stemmed from a nasty custody battle where he allegedly told one psychologist that if he had to live with his father, he would kill himself. Despite that, Wilson says one of the psychologists sent him to live with his father. At the time of the child's death, Reilly says she had no contact with her son, because of what she alleges are false accusations from these psychologists.
"What is alleged is heartbreaking, and includes everything from calling the police on (the child) out of anger, to requesting removal of him early from the one place that was actually treating him for a previous suicide attempt. We would ask anyone to reserve judgement against anyone unless and until they have read the full scope of the complaint," said Wilson in a statement to NBC12.
http://www.nbc12.com/story/29208327/mom-of-teen-who-committed-suicide-files-wrongful-death-suit
Mom of teen who committed suicide files wrongful death suit
Posted: Jun 01, 2015 1:23 PM EDT Updated: Jun 02, 2015 12:52 AM EDT
By NBC12 Newsroom
CHESTERFIELD, VA (WWBT) - The mother of a Chesterfield high school student who committed suicide in 2013 has filed a wrongful death suit against two therapists, a counseling group, and the teen's biological father.
#17-year-old Cal Reilly hanged himself inside a tunnel at Chesterfield's Hampton Park, just days before graduation in May of 2013. His friends and former classmates later spray painted messages inside the tunnel in a gesture meant to memorialized the teen, but were arrested for graffiti and the messages were removed.
#Now Cal's mother, Darci Reilly, has filed suit against several people whom she claims did not prevent her son from taking his life. Reilly is seeking $6 million in damages.
#Darci Reilly's attorney, Mandy Wilson, says Cal's death stemmed from a nasty custody battle where he allegedly told one psychologist that if he had to live with his father, he would kill himself. Despite that, Wilson says one of the psychologists sent him to live with his father. At the time of the child's death, Reilly says she had no contact with her son, because of what she alleges are false accusations from these psychologists.
"What is alleged is heartbreaking, and includes everything from calling the police on (the child) out of anger, to requesting removal of him early from the one place that was actually treating him for a previous suicide attempt. We would ask anyone to reserve judgement against anyone unless and until they have read the full scope of the complaint," said Wilson in a statement to NBC12.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Dad charged with manslaughter after alcohol found in blood of 5-month-old son during autopsy (Norwalk, Connecticut)
Notice that dad JORGE CHICLANA also has a history of domestic violence. Not a big surprise. Men who choke their wives are statistically very dangerous around their kids as we see here.
http://foxct.com/2015/05/19/father-arrested-after-alcohol-found-in-his-infant-sons-blood-during-autopsy/
Father arrested after alcohol found in his infant son’s blood during autopsy
Posted 6:42 PM, May 19, 2015, by Tony Terzi, Updated at 06:43pm, May 19, 2015
NORWALK–Jorge Chiclana, 22, had no previous criminal record, but when his 5-month-old boy was found unresponsive in his crib last year, Chiclana’s now ex-wife, who was cleared of any wrongdoing, could think of no other suspect.
Five months after the May 16, 2014 death of Jacob Isaiah Chiclana, the state lab for toxicology issued a report saying the contents of the baby’s bottle contained 20 percent ethanol by weight, equivalent to 25 percent alcohol by volume, meaning a 50-proof cocktail.
“Police were looking into that and kept asking me if I saw him do it,” said Odalis Galarza, the baby’s mother. “I personally did not see him do that.”
She was referring to Chiclana, who was arraigned in Norwalk Superior Court on charges of second-degree manslaughter and risk of injury to a minor.
“I do know he made the bottle and, because it looked normal, I fed my son,” said Galarza. “You know, after three years of him doing this (making bottles), I would never have thought of ever looking into the bottles.”
Jorge Chiclana and Odalis Galarza have two children together. She says he swore up-and-down to her that he did not put alcohol in the baby’s bottle. But, his actions, she insists, said otherwise.
“He kept disappearing for short periods of time,” Galarza said. “He flew off to Puerto Rico. He kept changing his number every single time I gave the detective his new number.”
According to Galarza, her ex-husband started spray-painting a large toy inside their apartment the night before the baby’s death. Given the baby’s asthma, Galarza thought the paint fumes might be responsible for his death. But she didn’t want to question Chiclana too much on the matter because of an incident that happened just weeks before baby Jacob was born in December 2013.
“He got upset and he choked me in front of the kids and that’s when the Department of Children and Families came into our lives the first time,” claims Galarza.
It was revealed today in court that Chiclana, who was apprehended by U.S. Marshals Monday at the Honeyspot Inn motel in Stratford, has a history of mental health issues. The manager of the motel told Fox CT Chiclana had been staying there for two or three days in a room that was reserved in his mother’s name.
Chiclana’s case was transferred to Stamford Superior Court, where he is next due to appear on June 2.
According to a police report, police seized three cans of Krylon spray paint and a fan that Chiclana said he was using for ventilation for the painting project.
Two days after the child died, Dr. Susan Williams of the chief medical examiner’s office stated that the infant appeared to have died by asphyxiation due to aspiration. However, the cause remained unknown until further toxicology tests were performed on the infant’s tissue samples and his lungs were examined.
On August 18, 2014, Norwalk investigators received information from the office of the chief medical examiner that the victim had alcohol in his liver tissue and urine consistent with a .04 blood alcohol content.
A week before Jacob’s death, there was a poisoning incident in their home involving their then 16-month-old toddler. The baby had ingested liquid incense, which Galarza said Chiclana poured into container he left within reach of the child.
On March 16 of this year, Norwalk police received autopsy reports saying alcohol was present in the blood liver, gastric contents and urine. The cause of death remained undetermined, as did the manner of death.
The medical examiner’s office determined the child’s lungs were clear and the child did not die of aspiration, as originally thought. The OCME said he most likely died due to the fact that the asthmatic child was placed faced face down in the crib, which could affect the child’s breathing, especially given the central nervous system was depressed due to the presence of alcohol.
http://foxct.com/2015/05/19/father-arrested-after-alcohol-found-in-his-infant-sons-blood-during-autopsy/
Father arrested after alcohol found in his infant son’s blood during autopsy
Posted 6:42 PM, May 19, 2015, by Tony Terzi, Updated at 06:43pm, May 19, 2015
NORWALK–Jorge Chiclana, 22, had no previous criminal record, but when his 5-month-old boy was found unresponsive in his crib last year, Chiclana’s now ex-wife, who was cleared of any wrongdoing, could think of no other suspect.
Five months after the May 16, 2014 death of Jacob Isaiah Chiclana, the state lab for toxicology issued a report saying the contents of the baby’s bottle contained 20 percent ethanol by weight, equivalent to 25 percent alcohol by volume, meaning a 50-proof cocktail.
“Police were looking into that and kept asking me if I saw him do it,” said Odalis Galarza, the baby’s mother. “I personally did not see him do that.”
She was referring to Chiclana, who was arraigned in Norwalk Superior Court on charges of second-degree manslaughter and risk of injury to a minor.
“I do know he made the bottle and, because it looked normal, I fed my son,” said Galarza. “You know, after three years of him doing this (making bottles), I would never have thought of ever looking into the bottles.”
Jorge Chiclana and Odalis Galarza have two children together. She says he swore up-and-down to her that he did not put alcohol in the baby’s bottle. But, his actions, she insists, said otherwise.
“He kept disappearing for short periods of time,” Galarza said. “He flew off to Puerto Rico. He kept changing his number every single time I gave the detective his new number.”
According to Galarza, her ex-husband started spray-painting a large toy inside their apartment the night before the baby’s death. Given the baby’s asthma, Galarza thought the paint fumes might be responsible for his death. But she didn’t want to question Chiclana too much on the matter because of an incident that happened just weeks before baby Jacob was born in December 2013.
“He got upset and he choked me in front of the kids and that’s when the Department of Children and Families came into our lives the first time,” claims Galarza.
It was revealed today in court that Chiclana, who was apprehended by U.S. Marshals Monday at the Honeyspot Inn motel in Stratford, has a history of mental health issues. The manager of the motel told Fox CT Chiclana had been staying there for two or three days in a room that was reserved in his mother’s name.
Chiclana’s case was transferred to Stamford Superior Court, where he is next due to appear on June 2.
According to a police report, police seized three cans of Krylon spray paint and a fan that Chiclana said he was using for ventilation for the painting project.
Two days after the child died, Dr. Susan Williams of the chief medical examiner’s office stated that the infant appeared to have died by asphyxiation due to aspiration. However, the cause remained unknown until further toxicology tests were performed on the infant’s tissue samples and his lungs were examined.
On August 18, 2014, Norwalk investigators received information from the office of the chief medical examiner that the victim had alcohol in his liver tissue and urine consistent with a .04 blood alcohol content.
A week before Jacob’s death, there was a poisoning incident in their home involving their then 16-month-old toddler. The baby had ingested liquid incense, which Galarza said Chiclana poured into container he left within reach of the child.
On March 16 of this year, Norwalk police received autopsy reports saying alcohol was present in the blood liver, gastric contents and urine. The cause of death remained undetermined, as did the manner of death.
The medical examiner’s office determined the child’s lungs were clear and the child did not die of aspiration, as originally thought. The OCME said he most likely died due to the fact that the asthmatic child was placed faced face down in the crib, which could affect the child’s breathing, especially given the central nervous system was depressed due to the presence of alcohol.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Custodial dad jailed for stabbing death of 1-year-old daughter (Richlands, North Carolina)
Once again, you have to wonder whether ANTHONY WAYNE YOUNG is a single father. Lots of showy stuff performed for the neighbors, of Daddy playing with the little girl outside--just a day before he (allegedly) stabbed her to death. NOT ONE mention of a mother in the home or anywhere else.
What happened to Mom?
Update: Confirmed here that father had LEGAL CUSTODY. And check this out: "Young has a criminal record in North Carolina, including drug convictions in 1995, 2001 and 2008, according to information from N.C. Department of Public Safety." Who the hell thought it was a good idea to give this father custody of an infant girl?
http://www.twcnews.com/nc/coastal/news/2015/05/4/father-charged-in-baby-death.html
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Father Charged in Death of Infant Daughter
By Amanda Wilcox Updated Monday, May 4, 2015 at 04:59 PM EDT
RICHLANDS - In a quiet country neighborhood on the outskirts of town, the Onslow County Sheriff said a father murdered his one-year-old daughter early Sunday morning.
Anthony Wayne Young, 37, is being held in the Onslow County jail without bond, after Sheriff Hans Miller said the suspect called 911 early Sunday morning to admit to killing his daughter, Ruby Young.
"It appears that the cause of the death was severe loss of blood, of that little child, from a single laceration. There was blood at the scene,” said Miller.
Miller said the suspected murder weapon is a kitchen knife. He said they are still investigating a motive.
"Regardless of what the motive may be in the murder, it's not a proper thing to do, to take the life of a small child," Miller said.
Brett Futrell, who lives nextdoor, said he was surprised to hear Young was accused of murdering his daughter.
"Day before yesterday he was outside playing for hours with his daughter, picking flowers, and it just was a surprise to me," said Futrell, who has a two-year-old son himself.
Monday, Futrell and his son played outside among the crime scene tape draping through the trees of his property line. His young boy was unaware of the tragedy that happened next door.
"When I found out about it, I started crying," Futrell said. "I said I couldn't take it, because the first thing I thought about was [my son]. And it just drove me crazy. I couldn't deal with something like that."
The crime scene tape remained up most of the day Monday, as deputies continued to investigate and remove evidence from the scene, while an autopsy was being performed on the baby.
"We feel sorry for the loss of that little child, for no reason whatsoever," Miller said. Young was scheduled to make a first appearance at the Onslow County courthouse Monday, but court official said Young's attorney appeared for him instead.
The attorney said he was not in the right mental state to appear before a judge.
What happened to Mom?
Update: Confirmed here that father had LEGAL CUSTODY. And check this out: "Young has a criminal record in North Carolina, including drug convictions in 1995, 2001 and 2008, according to information from N.C. Department of Public Safety." Who the hell thought it was a good idea to give this father custody of an infant girl?
http://www.twcnews.com/nc/coastal/news/2015/05/4/father-charged-in-baby-death.html
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Father Charged in Death of Infant Daughter
By Amanda Wilcox Updated Monday, May 4, 2015 at 04:59 PM EDT
RICHLANDS - In a quiet country neighborhood on the outskirts of town, the Onslow County Sheriff said a father murdered his one-year-old daughter early Sunday morning.
Anthony Wayne Young, 37, is being held in the Onslow County jail without bond, after Sheriff Hans Miller said the suspect called 911 early Sunday morning to admit to killing his daughter, Ruby Young.
"It appears that the cause of the death was severe loss of blood, of that little child, from a single laceration. There was blood at the scene,” said Miller.
Miller said the suspected murder weapon is a kitchen knife. He said they are still investigating a motive.
"Regardless of what the motive may be in the murder, it's not a proper thing to do, to take the life of a small child," Miller said.
Brett Futrell, who lives nextdoor, said he was surprised to hear Young was accused of murdering his daughter.
"Day before yesterday he was outside playing for hours with his daughter, picking flowers, and it just was a surprise to me," said Futrell, who has a two-year-old son himself.
Monday, Futrell and his son played outside among the crime scene tape draping through the trees of his property line. His young boy was unaware of the tragedy that happened next door.
"When I found out about it, I started crying," Futrell said. "I said I couldn't take it, because the first thing I thought about was [my son]. And it just drove me crazy. I couldn't deal with something like that."
The crime scene tape remained up most of the day Monday, as deputies continued to investigate and remove evidence from the scene, while an autopsy was being performed on the baby.
"We feel sorry for the loss of that little child, for no reason whatsoever," Miller said. Young was scheduled to make a first appearance at the Onslow County courthouse Monday, but court official said Young's attorney appeared for him instead.
The attorney said he was not in the right mental state to appear before a judge.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Dad with CONFIRMED history of domestic violence, severe mental illness, and child sexual abuse GETS CUSTODY OF NEWBORN and 2-year old; kills baby within two months (Denver, Colorado)
Just unbelievable incompetence and abuser father coddling.
Dad is identified as MICHAEL HERRON.
See the Killer Dads and Custody list for Colorado.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/call7-investigators/childs-death-after-being-placed-with-troubled-dad-raises-new-questions-about-denver-human-services
Child's death after being placed with troubled dad raises new questions about Denver Human Services
By: John Ferrugia Posted: 10:55 AM, May 1, 2015
DENVER - Two month D'anthony Herron arrived at the Denver Health emergency room near death, with horrific trauma to his head.
His father, Michael Herron, who was caring for the baby and his two year old brother alone, claimed the infant had fallen off a counter while he was giving D’Anthony a bath.
Herron called his girlfriend and mother of the children telling her there had been an accident.
“I get to the hospital…and they have D'anthony hooked up to all these wires already,” said Amber Lucero, “And they have his head wrapped. And he wasn't even conscious.”
The scene overwhelmed her. “I just broke down and I couldn't believe it,” she said.
Doctors told Amber that her two month old baby had likely been abused by her boyfriend and that his story didn’t match the grave injuries her son had suffered.
“He had a skull fracture,” she said. “He had bleeding in the brain and his brain was swollen and his skull was pushed up and he had suffered from seizures and a stroke.”
Doctors told her there was no hope of saving this tiny child who had been born bright-eyed and healthy.
Now, her baby had nearly no brain function and simply could not survive.
Amber and her mother held the baby for two hours after nurses un-hooked him from life support. “He finally took his last breath,” she said, “And I just remember he went (soft breath) and his had just rolled to the side ... And that is when we just knew."
“Do you think Michael should have had those children by himself?” asked CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia.
“No,” she said through tears, “No.”
A CALL7 investigation has found that Michael Herron had a long history of mental illness, a police record that includes domestic violence and drug use, and a list of referrals -- or complaints -- to Denver Human Services that stretches back to 2002.
In fact, a complaint was made to DHS when D'anthony was born in May of 2014. At the time, the parents were living apart, Michael in transitional housing and Amber in a motel with her mother.
The morning after D’Anthony’s birth, Amber says Michael was in her hospital room.
“He started calling me names. He started calling my mom names. He started getting loud. So security came in,” she said. “Hospital security?” asked Ferrugia.
“Yeah”, she replied, "And he was threatening to take D’Anthony and just leave that day.”
“That's when the social worker came in,” she said.
According to D-H-S documents submitted to juvenile court -- and obtained from the family -- that social worker called DHS.
"Hospital staff concerned about Mr. Herron’s ability to care for D’Anthony and was very angry at the hospital," the document reads.
And there was a second call the following day by an unlisted party.
Records show the complaints were "not accepted" and determined to be "unfounded."
Michael Herron took home the newborn to care for him and their other two-year old son.
Amber says, at the time, she believed the child was given to Michael because he was living in transitional housing at Decatur House, a Mercy Housing Project in Denver.
But she says she was concerned about the children’s safety.
“Because of the way he was with his temper and attitude, I don't think he should have the kids," she said.
Records show that on July 15th, 2014 DHS was called again.
The complaint, or "referral," read: "Heard Mr. Herron screaming at the kids. The next day (his two year old son) had a scratch on his face."
Sources familiar with the investigation tell CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia that there was also concern by the caller that Michael Herron was overwhelmed by caring for the newborn and the two-year old.
Despite all the apparent red flags and concerns about child safety, DHS left the kids with him.
Heron is accused of beating D’Anthony five days later, and doctors found it wasn't the first time the baby had been injured.
"He had previous injuries that were already healing," said Amber. "His ribs were broken."
That is confirmed by the autopsy report obtained by the CALL7 Investigators.
Records confirm that DHS caseworkers and supervisors knew Michael Herron was a serious risk.
In 2013 a complaint was "founded" - or confirmed - for domestic violence. "Mr. Herron was punching and choking Ms. Lucero," the report read.
Again in 2013 a complaint called in was "not accepted."
"Mr. Herron screaming at Ms. Lucero and pushing her,” read the report. “Mr. Herron reports that he does not know how to calm a crying baby.”
In 2009 a complaint was "founded" for "sex abuse."
Michael Herron was arrested for sexually assaulting his daughter by a previous marriage.
The child was 7-years old, and had significant health problems.
While D-H-S was convinced the assault occurred, the charges were dropped as the child may have been too young to testify.
In 2004 D-H-S records show that caseworkers and supervisors knew Michael Herron suffered from mental illness.
"Mr. Herron is bipolar," read he report.
Herron’s father, Danny Herron, told CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia that his son has long suffered from mental problems.
“He started writing suicide notes when he was about seventeen, maybe 18 talking about how he's going to kill himself”, said Danny Herron “So I called the police and they came and got him and took him to this mental hospital,” he said.
“And that's when they diagnosed that he had bi-polar “.
“He had bi-polar disorder?" asked Ferrugia.
Danny Herron nod his head.
Danny Herron is guardian of his granddaughter who made the sexual abuse complaint against Michael Herron when she was 7 years old.... The claim "founded" by DHS.
“Danny, does it make any sense to you that human services, knowing what they knew, gave him children?” asked Ferrugia.
“No, no”, he said. “I don't see why they would have did that at all.”
What's more, amber claims when she and Michael applied for food stamps in 2013 for one of their children, Michael was referred to a mental health facility by DHS for an evaluation.
“He told me they were talking about putting him on medication for being bipolar and schizophrenic,” she said.
Records make clear, and amber admits, the couple was often violent with one another.
In the past, Amber has also pled guilty to domestic violence against Michael Herron and had a protection order filed against her.
But despite all the referrals and complaints to DHS during their tumultuous relationship she says that, other than at the hospital when D’Anthony was dying she has not been interviewed by DHS.
“Have you ever seen a caseworker from Denver Human Services?” asked Ferrugia
“No,” Amber replied.
“Never?" Ferrugia asked.
“No,” she replied.
A spokesman for the Denver Department of Human Services says DHS officials have no comment on the case as they claim they are legally prohibited from talking about the case.
Michael Herron remains in jail, charged with the murder of his two-month old son.
This is yet another case uncovered by an ongoing CALL7 investigation that raises questions about DHS practice, supervision of caseworkers, and judgment in the placement of vulnerable children.
Dad is identified as MICHAEL HERRON.
See the Killer Dads and Custody list for Colorado.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/call7-investigators/childs-death-after-being-placed-with-troubled-dad-raises-new-questions-about-denver-human-services
Child's death after being placed with troubled dad raises new questions about Denver Human Services
By: John Ferrugia Posted: 10:55 AM, May 1, 2015
DENVER - Two month D'anthony Herron arrived at the Denver Health emergency room near death, with horrific trauma to his head.
His father, Michael Herron, who was caring for the baby and his two year old brother alone, claimed the infant had fallen off a counter while he was giving D’Anthony a bath.
Herron called his girlfriend and mother of the children telling her there had been an accident.
“I get to the hospital…and they have D'anthony hooked up to all these wires already,” said Amber Lucero, “And they have his head wrapped. And he wasn't even conscious.”
The scene overwhelmed her. “I just broke down and I couldn't believe it,” she said.
Doctors told Amber that her two month old baby had likely been abused by her boyfriend and that his story didn’t match the grave injuries her son had suffered.
“He had a skull fracture,” she said. “He had bleeding in the brain and his brain was swollen and his skull was pushed up and he had suffered from seizures and a stroke.”
Doctors told her there was no hope of saving this tiny child who had been born bright-eyed and healthy.
Now, her baby had nearly no brain function and simply could not survive.
Amber and her mother held the baby for two hours after nurses un-hooked him from life support. “He finally took his last breath,” she said, “And I just remember he went (soft breath) and his had just rolled to the side ... And that is when we just knew."
“Do you think Michael should have had those children by himself?” asked CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia.
“No,” she said through tears, “No.”
A CALL7 investigation has found that Michael Herron had a long history of mental illness, a police record that includes domestic violence and drug use, and a list of referrals -- or complaints -- to Denver Human Services that stretches back to 2002.
In fact, a complaint was made to DHS when D'anthony was born in May of 2014. At the time, the parents were living apart, Michael in transitional housing and Amber in a motel with her mother.
The morning after D’Anthony’s birth, Amber says Michael was in her hospital room.
“He started calling me names. He started calling my mom names. He started getting loud. So security came in,” she said. “Hospital security?” asked Ferrugia.
“Yeah”, she replied, "And he was threatening to take D’Anthony and just leave that day.”
“That's when the social worker came in,” she said.
According to D-H-S documents submitted to juvenile court -- and obtained from the family -- that social worker called DHS.
"Hospital staff concerned about Mr. Herron’s ability to care for D’Anthony and was very angry at the hospital," the document reads.
And there was a second call the following day by an unlisted party.
Records show the complaints were "not accepted" and determined to be "unfounded."
Michael Herron took home the newborn to care for him and their other two-year old son.
Amber says, at the time, she believed the child was given to Michael because he was living in transitional housing at Decatur House, a Mercy Housing Project in Denver.
But she says she was concerned about the children’s safety.
“Because of the way he was with his temper and attitude, I don't think he should have the kids," she said.
Records show that on July 15th, 2014 DHS was called again.
The complaint, or "referral," read: "Heard Mr. Herron screaming at the kids. The next day (his two year old son) had a scratch on his face."
Sources familiar with the investigation tell CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia that there was also concern by the caller that Michael Herron was overwhelmed by caring for the newborn and the two-year old.
Despite all the apparent red flags and concerns about child safety, DHS left the kids with him.
Heron is accused of beating D’Anthony five days later, and doctors found it wasn't the first time the baby had been injured.
"He had previous injuries that were already healing," said Amber. "His ribs were broken."
That is confirmed by the autopsy report obtained by the CALL7 Investigators.
Records confirm that DHS caseworkers and supervisors knew Michael Herron was a serious risk.
In 2013 a complaint was "founded" - or confirmed - for domestic violence. "Mr. Herron was punching and choking Ms. Lucero," the report read.
Again in 2013 a complaint called in was "not accepted."
"Mr. Herron screaming at Ms. Lucero and pushing her,” read the report. “Mr. Herron reports that he does not know how to calm a crying baby.”
In 2009 a complaint was "founded" for "sex abuse."
Michael Herron was arrested for sexually assaulting his daughter by a previous marriage.
The child was 7-years old, and had significant health problems.
While D-H-S was convinced the assault occurred, the charges were dropped as the child may have been too young to testify.
In 2004 D-H-S records show that caseworkers and supervisors knew Michael Herron suffered from mental illness.
"Mr. Herron is bipolar," read he report.
Herron’s father, Danny Herron, told CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia that his son has long suffered from mental problems.
“He started writing suicide notes when he was about seventeen, maybe 18 talking about how he's going to kill himself”, said Danny Herron “So I called the police and they came and got him and took him to this mental hospital,” he said.
“And that's when they diagnosed that he had bi-polar “.
“He had bi-polar disorder?" asked Ferrugia.
Danny Herron nod his head.
Danny Herron is guardian of his granddaughter who made the sexual abuse complaint against Michael Herron when she was 7 years old.... The claim "founded" by DHS.
“Danny, does it make any sense to you that human services, knowing what they knew, gave him children?” asked Ferrugia.
“No, no”, he said. “I don't see why they would have did that at all.”
What's more, amber claims when she and Michael applied for food stamps in 2013 for one of their children, Michael was referred to a mental health facility by DHS for an evaluation.
“He told me they were talking about putting him on medication for being bipolar and schizophrenic,” she said.
Records make clear, and amber admits, the couple was often violent with one another.
In the past, Amber has also pled guilty to domestic violence against Michael Herron and had a protection order filed against her.
But despite all the referrals and complaints to DHS during their tumultuous relationship she says that, other than at the hospital when D’Anthony was dying she has not been interviewed by DHS.
“Have you ever seen a caseworker from Denver Human Services?” asked Ferrugia
“No,” Amber replied.
“Never?" Ferrugia asked.
“No,” she replied.
A spokesman for the Denver Department of Human Services says DHS officials have no comment on the case as they claim they are legally prohibited from talking about the case.
Michael Herron remains in jail, charged with the murder of his two-month old son.
This is yet another case uncovered by an ongoing CALL7 investigation that raises questions about DHS practice, supervision of caseworkers, and judgment in the placement of vulnerable children.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Dad convicted of assaulting 7-week-old son (Montgomery County, Pennsylvania)
Dad is identified as STEVE EDWARD THOMPSON.
http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20150428/limerick-father-convicted-of-shaking-injuring-infant-son
Limerick father convicted of shaking, injuring infant son
By Carl Hessler Jr., The Mercury Posted: 04/28/15, 4:46 PM EDT
A Limerick father seriously injured his 7-week-old son when he acted recklessly by shaking the infant, a judge has determined.
“I think basically dad lost it and took his frustrations out, when the baby wouldn’t calm down, on the baby,” Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy said Tuesday as she convicted Steve Edward Thompson of charges of aggravated and simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the May 2014 incident at his home.
“I do think the injuries were caused by violent shaking…and it wasn’t just a one and done,” Demchick-Alloy added. “How long he shook him, I don’t know. But enough to cause the injuries to which the doctors inferred, significant. I do believe there was physical impairment to this baby.”
Thompson, 44, of the 200 block of Troon Court, showed no emotion as the judge rendered her verdict after a two-day, non-jury trial. The judge deferred sentencing so that Thompson can undergo drug, alcohol and mental health evaluations.
Thompson, supported in court by his wife and several relatives, faces a possible maximum sentence of 16 to 32 years in prison.
By convicting Thompson of the aggravated assault charge, the judge found that Thompson attempted to cause or recklessly caused serious bodily injury to the 2-month-old child under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.
The aggravated assault charge can include intentional or reckless conduct.
The child suffered a subdural bleed to the brain, retinal hemorrhages and ligament injuries to his neck, according to testimony. The infant had to wear a neck brace for several weeks after the incident.
“This was a violent shaking of a 7-week-old baby who is completely helpless and reliable on his parents for everything,” argued Assistant District Attorney Laura Adshead, who sought the aggravated assault conviction and alleged Thompson’s conduct was intentional. “The baby didn’t go limp and stop breathing normally until after the defendant shook him.”
Defense lawyer Steven Marino suggested members of the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Team at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia were predisposed to conclude that the child’s injuries were the result of child abuse and that the opinion was “not consistent with the medical evidence.”
Marino further maintained doctors did not investigate alternate sources for the infant’s injuries including cardio pulmonary resuscitation performed on the child or the “traumatic birth that took place” weeks earlier.
“The doctor blames the injury on my client. It’s a huge leap and it causes pause. It causes doubt,” Marino argued. “There is no evidence of prolonged shaking. The evidence doesn’t support an intentional finding.”
The judge, who reviewed “voluminous” medical records, “respectfully disagreed” with Marino, explaining reports indicate doctors did consider the CPR and traumatic birth of the child in reaching an opinion and determined they were not factors in the child’s injuries.
“I do not believe the medical personnel performed in any manner that was less than professional. It was a stellar handling of the situation,” said Demchick-Alloy, adding doctors “methodically” reviewed medical evidence to reach their conclusion that Thompson’s conduct caused the injuries.
An investigation of Thompson began about 7:25 p.m. May 29, when Limerick police and an ambulance crew were dispatched to the Troon Court home for a report of an infant not breathing, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
“On arrival, officers found the baby in the care of his father,” Limerick Detective Ernie Morris wrote in the criminal complaint.
Originally taken to Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, the baby was eventually transported to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit, according to court papers.
The following day, a caseworker with the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth Services and Limerick detectives went to the hospital and spoke with those on the hospital’s Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Team.
“At that time, we were informed that the baby had suffered at least one subdural bleed to the brain,” Morris alleged.
During an interview by the caseworker and police, Thompson allegedly confirmed that he was alone with the child during the time the injury occurred.
Thompson allegedly claimed he “was carrying (the victim) in one arm” and that the victim “got fidgety and jerked his head” and “fell from his arms onto a very soft, plush couch,” according to the arrest affidavit. The victim, Thompson claimed, “went limp and stopped breathing,” according to the criminal complaint.
An ophthalmologist reportedly told police that the baby suffered “bilateral intra-retinal hemorrhages that were too numerous to count” and that it was a “new injury.”
The hospital’s forensic team “listed the injury as ‘consistent with abusive head trauma (shaken baby syndrome)’ from (the victim) being shaken violently to the point of near death,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Thompson also allegedly told a nurse during the baby’s care that he “shook the baby a bit.”
After interviewing Thompson a second time, detectives said he told them he shook the baby but “I don’t remember how many times or how hard,” claiming he did it to “get a response to wake him up” after the baby went limp after the initial drop, according to the arrest affidavit.
Medical personnel told police that going limp was not consistent with an injury sustained from the fall Thompson described.
A doctor allegedly found ligament injuries in the baby’s neck as well as “an old brain bleed injury,” which he indicated were “highly concerning for repeated abuse.” That doctor classified the injuries as being “consistent” with the victim being “violently shaken,” according to detectives.
In another interview June 3 by a Limerick detective and a caseworker, Thompson allegedly admitted, “I think I shook (the victim) harder than I should have,” according to the arrest affidavit. In another interview Thompson allegedly described “vigorously shaking” the baby because “he was upset with himself for dropping” him.
“He admitted to ‘taking out his frustrations’ on (the victim) because he was mad at himself,” Morris alleged in the arrest affidavit.
“Thompson admitted that (the victim) ‘went limp’ after he shook him. He admitted that he noticed (the victim’s) head being ‘tossed back and forth’ as he was shaking him.” Thompson also allegedly told police that he had been depressed since the birth of the child and that “he and his wife did everything together prior to (the victim) being born.”
http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20150428/limerick-father-convicted-of-shaking-injuring-infant-son
Limerick father convicted of shaking, injuring infant son
By Carl Hessler Jr., The Mercury Posted: 04/28/15, 4:46 PM EDT
A Limerick father seriously injured his 7-week-old son when he acted recklessly by shaking the infant, a judge has determined.
“I think basically dad lost it and took his frustrations out, when the baby wouldn’t calm down, on the baby,” Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy said Tuesday as she convicted Steve Edward Thompson of charges of aggravated and simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the May 2014 incident at his home.
“I do think the injuries were caused by violent shaking…and it wasn’t just a one and done,” Demchick-Alloy added. “How long he shook him, I don’t know. But enough to cause the injuries to which the doctors inferred, significant. I do believe there was physical impairment to this baby.”
Thompson, 44, of the 200 block of Troon Court, showed no emotion as the judge rendered her verdict after a two-day, non-jury trial. The judge deferred sentencing so that Thompson can undergo drug, alcohol and mental health evaluations.
Thompson, supported in court by his wife and several relatives, faces a possible maximum sentence of 16 to 32 years in prison.
By convicting Thompson of the aggravated assault charge, the judge found that Thompson attempted to cause or recklessly caused serious bodily injury to the 2-month-old child under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.
The aggravated assault charge can include intentional or reckless conduct.
The child suffered a subdural bleed to the brain, retinal hemorrhages and ligament injuries to his neck, according to testimony. The infant had to wear a neck brace for several weeks after the incident.
“This was a violent shaking of a 7-week-old baby who is completely helpless and reliable on his parents for everything,” argued Assistant District Attorney Laura Adshead, who sought the aggravated assault conviction and alleged Thompson’s conduct was intentional. “The baby didn’t go limp and stop breathing normally until after the defendant shook him.”
Defense lawyer Steven Marino suggested members of the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Team at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia were predisposed to conclude that the child’s injuries were the result of child abuse and that the opinion was “not consistent with the medical evidence.”
Marino further maintained doctors did not investigate alternate sources for the infant’s injuries including cardio pulmonary resuscitation performed on the child or the “traumatic birth that took place” weeks earlier.
“The doctor blames the injury on my client. It’s a huge leap and it causes pause. It causes doubt,” Marino argued. “There is no evidence of prolonged shaking. The evidence doesn’t support an intentional finding.”
The judge, who reviewed “voluminous” medical records, “respectfully disagreed” with Marino, explaining reports indicate doctors did consider the CPR and traumatic birth of the child in reaching an opinion and determined they were not factors in the child’s injuries.
“I do not believe the medical personnel performed in any manner that was less than professional. It was a stellar handling of the situation,” said Demchick-Alloy, adding doctors “methodically” reviewed medical evidence to reach their conclusion that Thompson’s conduct caused the injuries.
An investigation of Thompson began about 7:25 p.m. May 29, when Limerick police and an ambulance crew were dispatched to the Troon Court home for a report of an infant not breathing, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
“On arrival, officers found the baby in the care of his father,” Limerick Detective Ernie Morris wrote in the criminal complaint.
Originally taken to Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, the baby was eventually transported to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit, according to court papers.
The following day, a caseworker with the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth Services and Limerick detectives went to the hospital and spoke with those on the hospital’s Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Team.
“At that time, we were informed that the baby had suffered at least one subdural bleed to the brain,” Morris alleged.
During an interview by the caseworker and police, Thompson allegedly confirmed that he was alone with the child during the time the injury occurred.
Thompson allegedly claimed he “was carrying (the victim) in one arm” and that the victim “got fidgety and jerked his head” and “fell from his arms onto a very soft, plush couch,” according to the arrest affidavit. The victim, Thompson claimed, “went limp and stopped breathing,” according to the criminal complaint.
An ophthalmologist reportedly told police that the baby suffered “bilateral intra-retinal hemorrhages that were too numerous to count” and that it was a “new injury.”
The hospital’s forensic team “listed the injury as ‘consistent with abusive head trauma (shaken baby syndrome)’ from (the victim) being shaken violently to the point of near death,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Thompson also allegedly told a nurse during the baby’s care that he “shook the baby a bit.”
After interviewing Thompson a second time, detectives said he told them he shook the baby but “I don’t remember how many times or how hard,” claiming he did it to “get a response to wake him up” after the baby went limp after the initial drop, according to the arrest affidavit.
Medical personnel told police that going limp was not consistent with an injury sustained from the fall Thompson described.
A doctor allegedly found ligament injuries in the baby’s neck as well as “an old brain bleed injury,” which he indicated were “highly concerning for repeated abuse.” That doctor classified the injuries as being “consistent” with the victim being “violently shaken,” according to detectives.
In another interview June 3 by a Limerick detective and a caseworker, Thompson allegedly admitted, “I think I shook (the victim) harder than I should have,” according to the arrest affidavit. In another interview Thompson allegedly described “vigorously shaking” the baby because “he was upset with himself for dropping” him.
“He admitted to ‘taking out his frustrations’ on (the victim) because he was mad at himself,” Morris alleged in the arrest affidavit.
“Thompson admitted that (the victim) ‘went limp’ after he shook him. He admitted that he noticed (the victim’s) head being ‘tossed back and forth’ as he was shaking him.” Thompson also allegedly told police that he had been depressed since the birth of the child and that “he and his wife did everything together prior to (the victim) being born.”
Friday, April 24, 2015
Dad kills 9-year-old son, 6-year-old daughter despite order of protection, supervised visitation (New Zealand)
Lots of crocodile tears here by moronic officials who refused to act on any number of red flag, refused to look at all the evidence, ignored the mother's concerns, and thus allowed two kids be viciously murdered by their father.
Dad is identified as EDWARD LIVINGSTONE.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/68011537/killer-dad-edward-livingstone-high-risk
Killer dad Edward Livingstone 'high risk'
A Dunedin inquest into the deaths of the Livingstone children has ended with top officials fighting back tears.
Bradley, 9, and his sister Ellen, 6, were shot dead by Livingstone at their home in the Dunedin suburb of St Leonards, shortly before 10pm on January 15 last year.
Livingstone, 51, was later found dead in the front bedroom of the house at 9 Kiwi St. A shotgun lay next to him.
He left a final note at his flat before the killings.
Katharine Webb, Livingstone's former wife and the mother of Bradley and Ellen, was the first of 18 witnesses called to give evidence at an inquest into the three deaths, which began on Tuesday in Dunedin.
She escaped the shooting unharmed.
OFFICIALS EMOTIONAL AS INQUEST CLOSES
Chief Coroner Deborah Marshall on Friday closed the inquest and reserved her decision.
She thanked Katharine Webb for her quiet dignity.
It reminded everyone "how much you have suffered", Marshall said, voice breaking.
Shortly before, Southern District Commander Andrew Coster underlined the emotional weight of the inquiry by also fighting back tears as he defended the police performance under a grilling from Webb's lawyer Anne Stevens. Police were "totally committed" to do better but "we can't change what happened", he said.
Coster said he had moved to close the cracks the Livingstone case had highlighted and more resources had been allocated to family violence in the district.
Police received 2000 family violence reports per year just in its Dunedin office.
Coster said if Livingstone's convictions in Australia from 1988 (arson and assault) had been known to the court dealing with his protection order breach, it was still questionable whether it would have made a difference.
At the time of the hearing, police still needed to know more about the convictions and the circumstances.
He said the information had come from a cell interview for intelligence purposes and entered into the police intelligence system..
If the officer he had known more detail about the case, it might have been an error not to have taken further action. In a best case scenario, a family violence meeting co-ordinator would have noticed the new information and followed it up.
The police prosecutor who opposed a discharge without conviction for Livingstone's second breach of his protection order could have sought an adjournment to investigate further his convictions in Australia.
"It's most likely it would have been granted."
Two constables who attended an incident at Livingstone's house on August 7 and were handed empty bullet shells which Livingstone had given his children, should have recorded it.
"It was a very significant matter and staff did not attach sufficient weight to it."
The fact police did not investigate a rape allegation by Webb was a failure and too much reliance was placed on Webb's desire not to take it further.
Police and other agencies did have a level of awareness of risk factors in the case and "there were a lot of things in place that led this group to believe the case was well managed."
Nothing of great significance suggested an major escalation of risk, he said.
"But if the police had taken ownership of the rape there is a distinct possibility we would not be here?" Stevens said.
Police would have needed a reliable confession from Livingstone to proceed with a prosecution if his wife did not want to pursue charges.
"I accept if convicted he would be in custody."
He agreed complainants could change their mind. Webb had engaged with Women's Refuge, she had a protection order, Livingstone had engaged with Emergency Psychiatric Services and the children were in a programme.
He was not sure much more could have been done.
"You can't make the right call in every instance."
Even if Livingstone had not received a discharge without conviction, he would almost certainly not have gone to prison, Coster said.
But each little step made here ultimately affected the outcome, Stevens said. Coster said it was unfair to assume outcomes would have been different if the case was handled better.
In other evidence, Mel Foot, who lived next door to the Livingstone house, remained adamant she had telephoned police in August to tell them about a threat Livingstone made to kill his family with an axe.
She had also told two constables who attended an incident at the Livingstone house on August 7.
"I'd warned everybody but nobody listened."
Coster said police were unable to verify Foot's claim.
LIVINGSTONE WAS 'HIGH RISK'
On Friday, former Dunedin probation officer Liqueshia Dougherty told the inquest she was briefed about Livingstone at an inter-agency family violence meeting about a week after he had breached a protection order on August 6, 2013, preventing him from contacting Webb.
The meeting was attended by several agencies including Police, Corrections, Child, Youth and Family and Women's Refuge. Dougherty noted on a document that she was told Livingstone was considered "high risk" and had narcissistic personality disorder, a high sense of entitlement and refused to accept his relationship with Webb was over.
She also noted that he had given his children bullet casings at a supervised visit as a "message for her [Webb]".
It was brought to her attention that Livingstone worked at Otago Correctional Facility and she made a note so she could pass it on to management at the prison.
"At the time it seemed like I was the only person in the room that wasn't aware of the information.
"Everybody seemed quite concerned. People felt there was more underneath it."
Dougherty said the reference to the bullet casings made her particularly concerned.
She did not recall knowing anything about an allegation that Livingstone had raped Webb.
Minutes of the meeting noted there had been two family violence incidents involving Livingstone and Webb, most recently on May 27.
They also noted that Livingstone had mental health issues and Women's Refuge was working closely with Webb who had written about wanting to end her relationship.
Livingstone's name was added to a high risk register.
People on that register were "kept a closer eye on", Dougherty said.
It indicated an issue that needed more intervention.
There were 31 new family violence related matters discussed at the meeting.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY ONE
* Katharine Webb said Edward Livingstone raped her in May 2013 shortly before they separated. She did not pursue charges because she wanted to focus on getting out of the house and keeping her children safe. She knew where to go for help if needed.
* In 2013, Livingstone twice (August 6-7 and September 14) breached a protection order preventing him from contacting Webb in the months before the shooting. He obtained police diversion on one charge and a discharge without conviction on the other.
* Livingstone had an historic conviction for arson in Australia dating back to 1988. The court heard he set fire to his former fiance's home after coming home to find her in bed with another man.
* Livingstone gave bullet casings to his children during a supervised visit after he separated from Webb.
* Livingstone told associates he had thoughts about killing his family and himself in the months before the shooting. Livingstone's neighbour Mel Foot said she contacted police in August 2013 and told them that Livingstone had talked about killing his family. Foot alleged the complaint was never followed up by police.
* Psychiatrist Christopher Wisely was unaware of Livingstone's historic conviction for arson or the incident involving the bullet casings. If Wisely had known it may have altered the risk assessment he gave to a judge at a sentencing hearing at Dunedin District Court on November 15, 2013, in relation to the second breach of the protection order. Livingstone was discharged without conviction.
* Police prosecutor Sergeant Kate Saxton said she was not fully aware of Livingstone's criminal offending in Australia at the time of the hearing. She could have sought an adjournment on the matter until she was sent all the information, but decided not to. Interpol sent her a copy of Livingstone's Australian criminal history on December 9. Saxton conceded that the information could have altered the outcome of the sentencing.
* Saxton also told the court that Livingstone should not have received diversion for the first breach of the protection order. Diversion was not available for breaching a court order, she said.
* Wisely said Edward Livingstone sourced the shotgun used in the shooting from a former flatmate's home. The flatmate did not know Livingstone had taken the gun until police came to his home after the shooting.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY TWO
* Southern District Commander Andrew Coster said police had failed to pick up red flags in the case and the Criminal Investigation Branch should have investigated an allegation, admitted by Livingstone, that he had brutally raped his wife Katharine in May, 2013. The police effort was well intentioned but inadequate and too much weight had been given to Katharine Webb's wishes. Livingstone should not have been considered eligible for diversion and police should have pursued the allegation despite the victim's desire not to pursue the allegation. Steps had been taken to address the failures, he said, with a specialist investigation unit set up.
* Detective Senior Sergeant Kallum Croudis, of the Dunedin police, admitted a series of significant failings by police staff who dealt with Livingstone and his family in the months before the shooting. Police had failed to follow-up in a timely way information Livingstone had an arson conviction in Australia. Bullet casings Livingstone gave to his children at a supervised visit and then handed to police should have been investigated.
* Livingstone drove to the Kiwi St property with a red fuel container full of petrol, a shotgun stolen from his former flatmate and ammunition. There were beers in the car, but blood tests would later show he was not over the legal limit. Livingstone entered the house through a side door using a key before shooting his children in their bedrooms.
* Police investigations showed Livingstone claimed he was abused at a boys' school in Sydney and had a violent father. His mother left the family when he was very young. He has a younger sister called Suzanne.
* Police received information, probably on August 8 last year, that Livingstone was harassing his former wife's neighbour by phone calls and text messages mainly wanting to know if his wife was still wearing her wedding ring. Police were also told Livingstone was sneaking around his former family home when his wife was at work. The informant (name suppressed) told police Livingstone was, "f...... nuts".
* The general practitioner treating Livingstone says she doubts the drugs she prescribed on May 16, 2013 (zyban and escitalopram) could have caused a psychotic episode leading him to rape his wife. He had not reported problems with past use of zyban. Livingstone's psychiatrist Chris Wisely believes Livingstone had an adverse reaction to the drugs that led to the rape his wife. The couple separated after the rape.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY THREE
* Livingstone deceived his psychotherapist by not telling her fully about his past or the full details of the incidents relating to his first breach of a protection order. The psychotherapist, whose name is suppressed, did not seek details of the police case and provided a letter, which was later produced in court, saying she did not believe Livingstone was a violent man, despite knowing he had raped Webb. Livingstone once told the psychotherapist he was a "sex addict".
* Barnardos employee Rebecca Cadogan, who supervised five of Livingstone's six arranged visits with Bradley and Ellen, said she was not surprised to learn he had killed his children. Cadogan said she had seen Livingstone become very aggressive and dominating during one of the sessions and instinctively thought of him when she heard about the shooting.
* Former flatmate Philip Mans said Livingstone's drinking increased while they lived together to a point, in the months before the shooting, where he could hardly stand some evenings and went to bed very depressed. Livingstone stole the gun used in the shooting from Mans' locked gun safe. Mans said he felt Livingstone had deceived and manipulated him.
* Forensic psychiatrist Dr David Chaplow said a clinical review identified that elements of Livingstone's care were inadequate. The review's main finding was that information held by various clinicians about Livingstone could have been shared better. Collectively they failed to ascertain Livingstone's danger to Webb. He had deceived them. However, while Livingstone's care could have been better, the review found there was nothing clinicians could have done to change the end result.
* Mark Godwin, from the Department of Corrections, said during Livingstone's recruitment for a job at Otago Correctional Facility checks indicated he had no criminal convictions, nor did he declare any. If the department had been aware Livingstone had an historic conviction for arson in Australia he may not have been hired. In December 2013, Livingstone received a final warning from Corrections after he was was discharged without conviction for breaching a protection order. If Livingstone had been convicted he may have lost his job, Godwin said.
Coster said Mel Foot's claim she told the police on August 8, 2013, about Livingstone wanting to kill his family with an axe emerged through the media.
Police investigated the claim thoroughly but nothing was available to verify the claim.
Police had gone through the calls made by Foot from her telephone and she had accepted no call had been made to convey the information.
She now maintained she had told police in person when officers called at the address on August 7, Coster said..
However the officers had no recollection of that information and believed they would have recorded such a significant thing.
Coster said Mel Foot's claim she told the police on August 8, 2013, about Livingstone wanting to kill his family with an axe emerged through the media.
Police investigated the claim thoroughly but nothing was available to verify the claim.
Police had gone through the calls made by Foot from her telephone and she had accepted no call had been made to convey the information.
She now maintained she had told police in person when officers called at the address on August 7, Coster said..
However the officers had no recollection of that information and believed they would have recorded such a significant thing.
Dad is identified as EDWARD LIVINGSTONE.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/68011537/killer-dad-edward-livingstone-high-risk
Killer dad Edward Livingstone 'high risk'
A Dunedin inquest into the deaths of the Livingstone children has ended with top officials fighting back tears.
Bradley, 9, and his sister Ellen, 6, were shot dead by Livingstone at their home in the Dunedin suburb of St Leonards, shortly before 10pm on January 15 last year.
Livingstone, 51, was later found dead in the front bedroom of the house at 9 Kiwi St. A shotgun lay next to him.
He left a final note at his flat before the killings.
Katharine Webb, Livingstone's former wife and the mother of Bradley and Ellen, was the first of 18 witnesses called to give evidence at an inquest into the three deaths, which began on Tuesday in Dunedin.
She escaped the shooting unharmed.
OFFICIALS EMOTIONAL AS INQUEST CLOSES
Chief Coroner Deborah Marshall on Friday closed the inquest and reserved her decision.
She thanked Katharine Webb for her quiet dignity.
It reminded everyone "how much you have suffered", Marshall said, voice breaking.
Shortly before, Southern District Commander Andrew Coster underlined the emotional weight of the inquiry by also fighting back tears as he defended the police performance under a grilling from Webb's lawyer Anne Stevens. Police were "totally committed" to do better but "we can't change what happened", he said.
Coster said he had moved to close the cracks the Livingstone case had highlighted and more resources had been allocated to family violence in the district.
Police received 2000 family violence reports per year just in its Dunedin office.
Coster said if Livingstone's convictions in Australia from 1988 (arson and assault) had been known to the court dealing with his protection order breach, it was still questionable whether it would have made a difference.
At the time of the hearing, police still needed to know more about the convictions and the circumstances.
He said the information had come from a cell interview for intelligence purposes and entered into the police intelligence system..
If the officer he had known more detail about the case, it might have been an error not to have taken further action. In a best case scenario, a family violence meeting co-ordinator would have noticed the new information and followed it up.
The police prosecutor who opposed a discharge without conviction for Livingstone's second breach of his protection order could have sought an adjournment to investigate further his convictions in Australia.
"It's most likely it would have been granted."
Two constables who attended an incident at Livingstone's house on August 7 and were handed empty bullet shells which Livingstone had given his children, should have recorded it.
"It was a very significant matter and staff did not attach sufficient weight to it."
The fact police did not investigate a rape allegation by Webb was a failure and too much reliance was placed on Webb's desire not to take it further.
Police and other agencies did have a level of awareness of risk factors in the case and "there were a lot of things in place that led this group to believe the case was well managed."
Nothing of great significance suggested an major escalation of risk, he said.
"But if the police had taken ownership of the rape there is a distinct possibility we would not be here?" Stevens said.
Police would have needed a reliable confession from Livingstone to proceed with a prosecution if his wife did not want to pursue charges.
"I accept if convicted he would be in custody."
He agreed complainants could change their mind. Webb had engaged with Women's Refuge, she had a protection order, Livingstone had engaged with Emergency Psychiatric Services and the children were in a programme.
He was not sure much more could have been done.
"You can't make the right call in every instance."
Even if Livingstone had not received a discharge without conviction, he would almost certainly not have gone to prison, Coster said.
But each little step made here ultimately affected the outcome, Stevens said. Coster said it was unfair to assume outcomes would have been different if the case was handled better.
In other evidence, Mel Foot, who lived next door to the Livingstone house, remained adamant she had telephoned police in August to tell them about a threat Livingstone made to kill his family with an axe.
She had also told two constables who attended an incident at the Livingstone house on August 7.
"I'd warned everybody but nobody listened."
Coster said police were unable to verify Foot's claim.
LIVINGSTONE WAS 'HIGH RISK'
On Friday, former Dunedin probation officer Liqueshia Dougherty told the inquest she was briefed about Livingstone at an inter-agency family violence meeting about a week after he had breached a protection order on August 6, 2013, preventing him from contacting Webb.
The meeting was attended by several agencies including Police, Corrections, Child, Youth and Family and Women's Refuge. Dougherty noted on a document that she was told Livingstone was considered "high risk" and had narcissistic personality disorder, a high sense of entitlement and refused to accept his relationship with Webb was over.
She also noted that he had given his children bullet casings at a supervised visit as a "message for her [Webb]".
It was brought to her attention that Livingstone worked at Otago Correctional Facility and she made a note so she could pass it on to management at the prison.
"At the time it seemed like I was the only person in the room that wasn't aware of the information.
"Everybody seemed quite concerned. People felt there was more underneath it."
Dougherty said the reference to the bullet casings made her particularly concerned.
She did not recall knowing anything about an allegation that Livingstone had raped Webb.
Minutes of the meeting noted there had been two family violence incidents involving Livingstone and Webb, most recently on May 27.
They also noted that Livingstone had mental health issues and Women's Refuge was working closely with Webb who had written about wanting to end her relationship.
Livingstone's name was added to a high risk register.
People on that register were "kept a closer eye on", Dougherty said.
It indicated an issue that needed more intervention.
There were 31 new family violence related matters discussed at the meeting.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY ONE
* Katharine Webb said Edward Livingstone raped her in May 2013 shortly before they separated. She did not pursue charges because she wanted to focus on getting out of the house and keeping her children safe. She knew where to go for help if needed.
* In 2013, Livingstone twice (August 6-7 and September 14) breached a protection order preventing him from contacting Webb in the months before the shooting. He obtained police diversion on one charge and a discharge without conviction on the other.
* Livingstone had an historic conviction for arson in Australia dating back to 1988. The court heard he set fire to his former fiance's home after coming home to find her in bed with another man.
* Livingstone gave bullet casings to his children during a supervised visit after he separated from Webb.
* Livingstone told associates he had thoughts about killing his family and himself in the months before the shooting. Livingstone's neighbour Mel Foot said she contacted police in August 2013 and told them that Livingstone had talked about killing his family. Foot alleged the complaint was never followed up by police.
* Psychiatrist Christopher Wisely was unaware of Livingstone's historic conviction for arson or the incident involving the bullet casings. If Wisely had known it may have altered the risk assessment he gave to a judge at a sentencing hearing at Dunedin District Court on November 15, 2013, in relation to the second breach of the protection order. Livingstone was discharged without conviction.
* Police prosecutor Sergeant Kate Saxton said she was not fully aware of Livingstone's criminal offending in Australia at the time of the hearing. She could have sought an adjournment on the matter until she was sent all the information, but decided not to. Interpol sent her a copy of Livingstone's Australian criminal history on December 9. Saxton conceded that the information could have altered the outcome of the sentencing.
* Saxton also told the court that Livingstone should not have received diversion for the first breach of the protection order. Diversion was not available for breaching a court order, she said.
* Wisely said Edward Livingstone sourced the shotgun used in the shooting from a former flatmate's home. The flatmate did not know Livingstone had taken the gun until police came to his home after the shooting.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY TWO
* Southern District Commander Andrew Coster said police had failed to pick up red flags in the case and the Criminal Investigation Branch should have investigated an allegation, admitted by Livingstone, that he had brutally raped his wife Katharine in May, 2013. The police effort was well intentioned but inadequate and too much weight had been given to Katharine Webb's wishes. Livingstone should not have been considered eligible for diversion and police should have pursued the allegation despite the victim's desire not to pursue the allegation. Steps had been taken to address the failures, he said, with a specialist investigation unit set up.
* Detective Senior Sergeant Kallum Croudis, of the Dunedin police, admitted a series of significant failings by police staff who dealt with Livingstone and his family in the months before the shooting. Police had failed to follow-up in a timely way information Livingstone had an arson conviction in Australia. Bullet casings Livingstone gave to his children at a supervised visit and then handed to police should have been investigated.
* Livingstone drove to the Kiwi St property with a red fuel container full of petrol, a shotgun stolen from his former flatmate and ammunition. There were beers in the car, but blood tests would later show he was not over the legal limit. Livingstone entered the house through a side door using a key before shooting his children in their bedrooms.
* Police investigations showed Livingstone claimed he was abused at a boys' school in Sydney and had a violent father. His mother left the family when he was very young. He has a younger sister called Suzanne.
* Police received information, probably on August 8 last year, that Livingstone was harassing his former wife's neighbour by phone calls and text messages mainly wanting to know if his wife was still wearing her wedding ring. Police were also told Livingstone was sneaking around his former family home when his wife was at work. The informant (name suppressed) told police Livingstone was, "f...... nuts".
* The general practitioner treating Livingstone says she doubts the drugs she prescribed on May 16, 2013 (zyban and escitalopram) could have caused a psychotic episode leading him to rape his wife. He had not reported problems with past use of zyban. Livingstone's psychiatrist Chris Wisely believes Livingstone had an adverse reaction to the drugs that led to the rape his wife. The couple separated after the rape.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY THREE
* Livingstone deceived his psychotherapist by not telling her fully about his past or the full details of the incidents relating to his first breach of a protection order. The psychotherapist, whose name is suppressed, did not seek details of the police case and provided a letter, which was later produced in court, saying she did not believe Livingstone was a violent man, despite knowing he had raped Webb. Livingstone once told the psychotherapist he was a "sex addict".
* Barnardos employee Rebecca Cadogan, who supervised five of Livingstone's six arranged visits with Bradley and Ellen, said she was not surprised to learn he had killed his children. Cadogan said she had seen Livingstone become very aggressive and dominating during one of the sessions and instinctively thought of him when she heard about the shooting.
* Former flatmate Philip Mans said Livingstone's drinking increased while they lived together to a point, in the months before the shooting, where he could hardly stand some evenings and went to bed very depressed. Livingstone stole the gun used in the shooting from Mans' locked gun safe. Mans said he felt Livingstone had deceived and manipulated him.
* Forensic psychiatrist Dr David Chaplow said a clinical review identified that elements of Livingstone's care were inadequate. The review's main finding was that information held by various clinicians about Livingstone could have been shared better. Collectively they failed to ascertain Livingstone's danger to Webb. He had deceived them. However, while Livingstone's care could have been better, the review found there was nothing clinicians could have done to change the end result.
* Mark Godwin, from the Department of Corrections, said during Livingstone's recruitment for a job at Otago Correctional Facility checks indicated he had no criminal convictions, nor did he declare any. If the department had been aware Livingstone had an historic conviction for arson in Australia he may not have been hired. In December 2013, Livingstone received a final warning from Corrections after he was was discharged without conviction for breaching a protection order. If Livingstone had been convicted he may have lost his job, Godwin said.
Coster said Mel Foot's claim she told the police on August 8, 2013, about Livingstone wanting to kill his family with an axe emerged through the media.
Police investigated the claim thoroughly but nothing was available to verify the claim.
Police had gone through the calls made by Foot from her telephone and she had accepted no call had been made to convey the information.
She now maintained she had told police in person when officers called at the address on August 7, Coster said..
However the officers had no recollection of that information and believed they would have recorded such a significant thing.
Coster said Mel Foot's claim she told the police on August 8, 2013, about Livingstone wanting to kill his family with an axe emerged through the media.
Police investigated the claim thoroughly but nothing was available to verify the claim.
Police had gone through the calls made by Foot from her telephone and she had accepted no call had been made to convey the information.
She now maintained she had told police in person when officers called at the address on August 7, Coster said..
However the officers had no recollection of that information and believed they would have recorded such a significant thing.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Evidence that dead boy beaten, sexually abused in home of custodial dad; authorities did nothing (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
Once again, we see the total double standard. Alcoholism/substance abuse is treatable. But Mom loses custody after what is reportedly one incident. There are MULTIPLE abuse complaints against the custodial dad and step, including PHYSICAL INJURIES and SEXUAL ABUSE. The authorities just shrug. And now the boy is dead.
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/28612449/calls-to-hotline-warned-now-dead-boy-was-being-abused
Calls to hotline warned now-dead boy was being abused
Posted: Mar 25, 2015 12:26 PM EDT Updated: Mar 25, 2015 12:26 PM EDT FORT
LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Child welfare officials were warned three times about possible abuse or neglect regarding a 3-year-old Hollywood boy whose body was found hidden last week in his father's home.
The Department of Children and Families released a report Wednesday revealing that someone called the child abuse hotline last year concerned that Ahziya Osceola had bumps and bruises and complained of a sore bottom. He was examined but a doctor couldn't determine whether his bruised rectum was from constipation or sexual abuse.
The child lived with his father and stepmother after his mother was arrested for child neglect. A DCF report says the child was found wandering a hotel alone while his mother was passed out.
His stepmother checked herself into a psychiatric ward Friday after Osceola's siblings were taken from her home. An investigation continues.
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/28612449/calls-to-hotline-warned-now-dead-boy-was-being-abused
Calls to hotline warned now-dead boy was being abused
Posted: Mar 25, 2015 12:26 PM EDT Updated: Mar 25, 2015 12:26 PM EDT FORT
LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Child welfare officials were warned three times about possible abuse or neglect regarding a 3-year-old Hollywood boy whose body was found hidden last week in his father's home.
The Department of Children and Families released a report Wednesday revealing that someone called the child abuse hotline last year concerned that Ahziya Osceola had bumps and bruises and complained of a sore bottom. He was examined but a doctor couldn't determine whether his bruised rectum was from constipation or sexual abuse.
The child lived with his father and stepmother after his mother was arrested for child neglect. A DCF report says the child was found wandering a hotel alone while his mother was passed out.
His stepmother checked herself into a psychiatric ward Friday after Osceola's siblings were taken from her home. An investigation continues.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Non-custodial mom: They ran my little girl to death (Birmingham, Alabama)
In many ways this is a typical custodial father story. Dad ROBERT HARDIN outlawyers Mom, buries her in unfounded child abuse allegations, moves out of state, denies Mom all contact. Mom can't even get legal help.
Notice that there are hints of wife abuse as well.
And of course, Daddy isn't interested in parenting. He's only interested in hurting Mom--just as he told her at the outset of his custodial war. And then what does Daddy do after he gets custody? He promptly moves out of state with no warning, then HE moves out of the country and dumps the girl on wife #2, that even HE claims was unstable and violent.
If moms are responsible for violent boyfriends and the like--even when they are being battered themselves--then surely this dude is responsible as well. But as very often happens, fathers are virtually never held accountable for failure to protect.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/19/they-ran-my-little-girl-to-death.html?source=TDB&via=FB_Page
03.19.15
They Ran My Little Girl to Death
Heather Walker's daughter, Savannah, died after her grandmother and stepmother allegedly forced her to run laps until she collapsed.
Heather Walker thought she had finally reached the end of a grueling three-year custody battle for her 9-year-old daughter, Savannah Hardin. But the next time she saw Savannah, the little girl was in a coma after allegedly being forced to run laps for hours as a punishment for eating candy bars.
Now, Savannah’s grandmother Joyce Hardin Garrard is on trial for capital murder in connection with Savannah’s death, and the girl’s stepmother, Jessica Hardin, has been charged with murder for allegedly failing to intervene when Savannah pleaded for help.
Walker, who declined to speak publicly about the tragedy for three years, told her story in an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast. Heather Walker sat beside 9-year-old Savannah in a Birmingham children’s hospital on February 19, 2012. Savannah's mop of blond hair had been pulled into a tight ponytail on the top of her head, and it looked as if she was just sleeping.
Heather wiped the blood off Savannah’s face and hands with a warm cloth and thought how big the little girl had gotten in the two years since she’d seen her last.
She didn’t know if Savannah could hear her—she had learned in radiology school that doctors don’t really know how sentient the brain of a coma patient really is—but there were so many things Heather wanted to say to her daughter, and so many questions she’d wanted to ask. So Heather just talked like Savannah was there with her, though part of her knew that this was her last chance to tell her daughter anything again.
What was daily life like for Savannah? Was she still cheerleading like she had been at home? How was she doing in school? Did she have pets at her new house? Had she received any of the packages Heather had been sending? Did she know Heather had been fighting for her, that she didn’t just give her away?
“I just want you to know that mommy fought for you and never gave up on you,” Heather told her. “I love you with all of my heart,” Heather said, making the secret circle with her hands that she and Savannah had done back and forth so many times.
A tear ran down Savannah’s face.
Maybe it didn’t mean anything. A nurse said it was just a nerve, a reflex, and maybe she was right.
But for Heather, it was goodbye. And she felt Savannah let go.
***
What happened to Savannah?
According to doctors, Savannah had suffered from seizures triggered by low sodium, brought on by “prolonged physical exertion.”
Savannah’s grandmother, 49-year-old Joyce Hardin Garrard, had taken Savannah to the hospital. She told Heather that Savannah was practicing for a race at school. “She keeps coming in second place,” Heather says Garrard told her. “So we were outside practicing in the yard and I don’t know what happened.” Neighbors testified they thought the punishment would stop when they saw Savannah down on all fours, vomiting in the yard.
When Heather heard Garrard telling the seizure story to her sister, the details had changed: Now Savannah had tripped and fallen.
“Joyce’s story kept changing. Nothing was consistent,” Heather says. (A paramedic, a school counselor, and an investigator would all later say that Garrard had changed her story with them as well.)
When Heather finally arrived at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital—after 12 hours of travel, where the doctor’s “Ma’am, how soon can you get here?” echoed in her brain—she says it was Joyce who tried to stop her from seeing Savannah. Heather says she walked into the ICU as Joyce shouted behind her to the nurses, “Don’t you let her in there with that baby alone!”
When Joyce finally agreed to let Heather see her daughter, she told her that she would only be able to sit a minute, that she would have to switch with her and Jessica Hardin, Savannah’s stepmother. “And don’t be touching her a lot,” Heather says Joyce said when she hugged Savannah.
“When you looked at Joyce you didn’t see an upset person. There was just…nothing,” Heather says of her ex-mother-in-law’s demeanor. After they had taken Savannah off the breathing machines, Heather says, Joyce started to panic.
“She pinned Jessica up against the side of the hospital wall. She was staring into her eyes and telling her in a low stern voice, ‘Listen here, you need to pull it together. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you? There’s a lot on the line here.’”
“And I knew something wasn’t right,” Heather says.
***
Savannah’s grandmother had reason to worry.
Both she and Jessica Hardin would be arrested the next day on charges of murder for Savannah’s death. Joyce Garrard currently is on trial in Alabama facing capital murder charges. She maintains her innocence, but if found guilty, she could receive a death sentence or life without parole.
According to investigators, on the afternoon of February 17, 2012, Garrard—whom prosecutors have dubbed the “drill sergeant from hell”—forced little Savannah to run 50-foot sprints for close to three hours while carrying firewood the size of cinder blocks, until the girl collapsed from vomiting and dehydration. It was corporal punishment, officials say, for eating chocolate bars on the school bus and lying about it.
At Garrard’s trial, witnesses for the prosecution have testified about what went on during Savannah’s last hours.
A neighbor said he watched Savannah as she begged Garrard to stop.
“Keep running,” Garrard replied. “I didn’t tell you you could stop.” When Savannah pleaded for her stepmother, Jessica Hardin, to stop the punishment, Garrard reportedly said, “‘Don't look at her. She won’t help you.”
It seems Garrard was right. Officials say Savannah’s mother and father were miles away and Savannah’s stepmother (who has also been charged with murder for failing to intervene), her neighbors, and the bus driver who all watched as the punishment was taking place, did nothing to stop it.
A surveillance video taken from the bus Savannah rode to school captured a conversation between bus driver Raeanna Holmes and Garrard. On it, Garrard tells the driver, “She’s going to run until I tell her to stop.”
“She’s going to learn,” Garrard said.
Savannah ran until she couldn’t anymore. Neighbors testified they thought the punishment would stop when they saw Savannah down on all fours, vomiting in the yard. Garrard was pouring water in her mouth. Eventually Savannah just collapsed and her stepmother finally called 911.
When an ambulance arrived, medics found the 75-pound girl in panties and a T-shirt, passed out on the lawn, freezing and soaked to the bone, a wet blanket laid on top of her. Cuts from the firewood lined Savannah’s arms.
***
When a child suffers such a horrific ordeal, the natural question follows: Where were her parents? In Savannah’s case the answer is simple: Her mother was in Florida, her father overseas working as a civilian contractor. The “why” behind Savannah’s separation from her mother is much more complicated.
Robert and Heather Hardin got married young after getting pregnant with Savannah. Robert’s mother, Joyce Garrard, had arranged the shotgun wedding, Heather says. “In two weeks we planned to get married by a pastor I didn’t know, in a church I had never been to,” she says.
Robert joined the military and was gone for long stretches. Before long, the two had grown apart and by the time Savannah was 3 years old, her parents’ divorce was final and Heather had moved with her daughter to Plant City, Florida. The divorce wasn’t amicable. As Heather boarded the plane to Florida, she says Robert said, “I hate you and you’ll pay for this one day.”
But it was Robert who started paying, $200 a month in child support, and even when he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 2006, he didn’t see much of Savannah. By 2009, he was remarried, to Jessica Hardin, and had had another child, their son Gavin. According to Heather, his new family sparked a desire on Robert’s part to be a bigger part of Savannah’s life.
Heather says Robert started asking to take Savannah on the holidays and weekends. He would come to see her cheer at Little League games and the co-parenting arrangement was working well. Savannah went to visit her dad on spring break in 2009—but when Heather arrived at the usual exchange point in Daytona, she says Robert never showed. Heather says Robert was adamant: “I’m not giving her back,” he said.
Later that day, she got a call from an investigator at the Florida Department of Children and Families; Robert had charged her with abandonment, claiming that she had relinquished rights to their daughter by going on a weeklong trip to visit a boyfriend in Wyoming during Robert’s scheduled visit with Savannah. When she got home, a sheriff met her at the door with paperwork asking a judge to turn over full custody.
When Robert decided he wanted Savannah, he hired a lawyer and started an aggressive campaign to keep the child away from her mother. According to Florida Department of Children and Family records, Robert filed at least five complaints between 2009 and 2012. The state investigations found his accusations—from physical and mental abuse of Savannah to inhabitable living conditions—to be unfounded and each of the cases were closed. In one of the reports, an investigator said Savannah sounded as if she had been “coached” by her father.
On top of the constant DCF investigations, and a legal process that she had to make her way through without the help of a lawyer, Heather was laid off from her job as a catering truck delivery driver. She had been forced to move from her home and while she was waiting for her new job at a hardware store to start, she had to move into an ex-boyfriend’s home. Robert reported the man to the court for being a former felon. (An investigation found the boyfriend not to be a threat to Savannah’s well-being). Other reports were specifically aimed at Savannah’s babysitter, who subsequently refused to watch Savannah anymore, reportedly fearing for her own children’s safety.
“Robert took every avenue to make things more difficult for me,” Heather says.
They were going back and forth to court. Robert’s attorney filed petitions on his behalf while Heather went to the courthouse alone and sought out pro bono legal services, which would help her fill out forms, but wouldn’t give legal advice. One service could only help if she was a victim of domestic abuse, which she wasn’t.
“He had an attorney and I didn’t. He was in the military, and people look highly on that,” Heather says. “I was afraid that we would go to court and a judge would say, ‘Well, how do you think you’re going to take care of her?’ So I brought myself to terms with voluntarily letting her live there, against my better judgment, because if I thought if I don’t, the judge is probably going to take her anyway.”
And so the couple agreed that Savannah would temporarily move into her father’s Jacksonville home in September of 2009. A court-ordered parenting plan shows that Heather and Robert shared custody—school and medical decisions and the like would be made jointly—and Heather would visit with Savannah on designated weekends. Heather sent Savannah trinkets and treats in care packages and they would talk on the phone. In the meantime, Heather was going to school and working a new full-time job. Soon she moved into a little house with her 3-year-old son, Savannah’s younger half-brother.
Things looked like they were settling down. She would have Savannah back soon; that was the plan. On Martin Luther King Day weekend 2010, Heather took Savannah to get pictures made at Walmart. Their birthdays were close together so they bought a cake, too. Savannah asked the woman behind the bakery counter to write, “Happy Birthday, Savannah and Mommy.”
“And that was the last birthday we ever shared together,” Heather says. “It was the last time I saw her outside of a hospital bed.”
Heather says Robert never told her that he was moving his family back to Alabama. When Savannah’s birthday package was returned to Heather’s address and Robert stopped answering his phone, Heather called Joyce Garrard, who told her that Savannah was at her home. Heather says she was allowed to speak to her only once, and Savannah told her they had moved into “Maw-maw’s house.” It was the last time she would be able to talk to her daughter.
What happened during the next two years that Savannah lived in Alabama with her father and stepmother is still something of a mystery to Heather. Robert was working as a civilian contractor overseas; a spokeswoman for the Etowah County Sheriff's office told the AP that Robert “lived outside the country,” leaving Jessica and Joyce to do the majority of the caregiving.
Still, the custody fight continued in Alabama. Robert filed for a petition to modify custody, an action that, if granted, would strip Heather of her parenting rights, reasoning he could “provide a more stable home” for Savannah. Heather answered in court documents that Robert was on “a crusade to keep Savannah away” from her.
She continued: “[Savannah] was doing well in school, enrolled in cheerleading, and was a well-rounded child. Since residing with Robert she is now in counseling and seeing therapists…I am extremely concerned for the welfare of Savannah as I am concerned that there may be things going on in their home that are the cause of the problem.”
Though Heather didn’t know it, she had reason to be concerned. At Joyce Garrard’s trial, Savannah’s pediatrician, Dr. Deborah Smith, cryptically testified that the relationship between Joyce, Savannah, and her stepmother Jessica "was not normal" and said she almost contacted authorities, but in the end didn't.
Meanwhile, Robert and Jessica had been going through a divorce and custody dispute as well.
Records show an environment far from stable. Robert’s divorce complaint charged Savannah’s stepmother with verbal and emotional abuse. He claimed she had a drinking problem and suffered from bipolar disorder that she refused to treat.
Jessica, in turn, filed for a restraining order against Robert in August 2010. In her petition, she said Robert had become physically and mentally abusive. He “pushed her against a wall and threw her on the couch” and threatened her. “Robert has said I will never be allowed to see my son and will do whatever it take to make sure of it,” the complaint says.
The following day, Robert filed an affidavit claiming Jessica was “not financially, mentally, or physically able to provide a safe environment for the child.”
Five months later, Robert and Jessica reconciled and asked a judge to dismiss their case.
Heather didn’t know any of this as she drove back and forth to Alabama half a dozen times between 2010 and 2011 to appear in court in her attempt to win Savannah back. She’d stop by Savannah’s new home but no one was ever there. She’d leave packages for Savannah on the porch but still doesn’t know if she ever received them. The Hardins changed their phone numbers so contact was impossible.
Robert never appeared in court for the custody hearings, Heather says. She says Robert’s lawyer explained his client’s absence by saying her ex-husband was working or training. The repeated motions for continuances were wearing on Heather and at their final court appearance in December 2011, Heather says Robert made new accusations that she was too mentally unstable to take care of Savannah. At every appearance, Heather says the judge would tell her the same thing: “You need to get an attorney.” That’s when she says she broke down in the judge’s chambers.
“I just need to see my daughter,” Heather says she told the judge. “I don’t have money for an attorney and I just need someone to tell me what to do. I’m not crazy, but if I was, it’s because he took my child away from me and hasn’t let me see or talk to her for two years.”
Finally she says—and court documents show—the judge told her, “Look. You need to go get a psychiatric evaluation and when it comes back the way I’m pretty sure it will, I will make up the time you’ve lost with your daughter.”
“We left that day and never made it to the next trial,” Heather says. “I did everything I knew to do, but in the end, everything I knew to do wasn’t enough.”
***
It’s been three years since Savannah’s death. The little girl who loved the color blue and horses should be in the sixth grade. Time hasn’t dulled Heather Walker's loss; the Florida mother has a 9-year-old, a 10-month-old, and two stepchildren with her new husband, who she met the weekend before Savannah’s death. Heather finished her radiology degree in 2011, but can’t bear to step foot in a hospital anymore, so she says she’s in a kind of limbo. She works two jobs in Florida while her husband is training to be an EMT.
Heather sometimes finds herself picking up trinkets at the store that Savannah would love before remembering there’s no way to send them to her. And she doesn’t know how to reply when people ask how many children she has—to say two feels like a betrayal of Savannah, to say three opens herself up to questions that are hard to answer.
And she’s keeping an eye on the trial in Alabama. Heather has been subpoenaed as a potential witness, but says prosecutors haven’t called her yet. She may go to Alabama for the verdict, but says the thought of seeing Joyce and listening to the closing statements where prosecutors will relive Savannah’s final moments may be too much to handle.
“I feel like she’s guilty,” Heather says. “It might not have been her intention, but ultimately it all falls on Joyce. As an adult and a parent and a grandparent, you should know when enough is enough. Even if Savannah really did do what they are saying she did, you don’t punish a child like that.”
Notice that there are hints of wife abuse as well.
And of course, Daddy isn't interested in parenting. He's only interested in hurting Mom--just as he told her at the outset of his custodial war. And then what does Daddy do after he gets custody? He promptly moves out of state with no warning, then HE moves out of the country and dumps the girl on wife #2, that even HE claims was unstable and violent.
If moms are responsible for violent boyfriends and the like--even when they are being battered themselves--then surely this dude is responsible as well. But as very often happens, fathers are virtually never held accountable for failure to protect.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/19/they-ran-my-little-girl-to-death.html?source=TDB&via=FB_Page
03.19.15
They Ran My Little Girl to Death
Heather Walker's daughter, Savannah, died after her grandmother and stepmother allegedly forced her to run laps until she collapsed.
Heather Walker thought she had finally reached the end of a grueling three-year custody battle for her 9-year-old daughter, Savannah Hardin. But the next time she saw Savannah, the little girl was in a coma after allegedly being forced to run laps for hours as a punishment for eating candy bars.
Now, Savannah’s grandmother Joyce Hardin Garrard is on trial for capital murder in connection with Savannah’s death, and the girl’s stepmother, Jessica Hardin, has been charged with murder for allegedly failing to intervene when Savannah pleaded for help.
Walker, who declined to speak publicly about the tragedy for three years, told her story in an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast. Heather Walker sat beside 9-year-old Savannah in a Birmingham children’s hospital on February 19, 2012. Savannah's mop of blond hair had been pulled into a tight ponytail on the top of her head, and it looked as if she was just sleeping.
Heather wiped the blood off Savannah’s face and hands with a warm cloth and thought how big the little girl had gotten in the two years since she’d seen her last.
She didn’t know if Savannah could hear her—she had learned in radiology school that doctors don’t really know how sentient the brain of a coma patient really is—but there were so many things Heather wanted to say to her daughter, and so many questions she’d wanted to ask. So Heather just talked like Savannah was there with her, though part of her knew that this was her last chance to tell her daughter anything again.
What was daily life like for Savannah? Was she still cheerleading like she had been at home? How was she doing in school? Did she have pets at her new house? Had she received any of the packages Heather had been sending? Did she know Heather had been fighting for her, that she didn’t just give her away?
“I just want you to know that mommy fought for you and never gave up on you,” Heather told her. “I love you with all of my heart,” Heather said, making the secret circle with her hands that she and Savannah had done back and forth so many times.
A tear ran down Savannah’s face.
Maybe it didn’t mean anything. A nurse said it was just a nerve, a reflex, and maybe she was right.
But for Heather, it was goodbye. And she felt Savannah let go.
***
What happened to Savannah?
According to doctors, Savannah had suffered from seizures triggered by low sodium, brought on by “prolonged physical exertion.”
Savannah’s grandmother, 49-year-old Joyce Hardin Garrard, had taken Savannah to the hospital. She told Heather that Savannah was practicing for a race at school. “She keeps coming in second place,” Heather says Garrard told her. “So we were outside practicing in the yard and I don’t know what happened.” Neighbors testified they thought the punishment would stop when they saw Savannah down on all fours, vomiting in the yard.
When Heather heard Garrard telling the seizure story to her sister, the details had changed: Now Savannah had tripped and fallen.
“Joyce’s story kept changing. Nothing was consistent,” Heather says. (A paramedic, a school counselor, and an investigator would all later say that Garrard had changed her story with them as well.)
When Heather finally arrived at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital—after 12 hours of travel, where the doctor’s “Ma’am, how soon can you get here?” echoed in her brain—she says it was Joyce who tried to stop her from seeing Savannah. Heather says she walked into the ICU as Joyce shouted behind her to the nurses, “Don’t you let her in there with that baby alone!”
When Joyce finally agreed to let Heather see her daughter, she told her that she would only be able to sit a minute, that she would have to switch with her and Jessica Hardin, Savannah’s stepmother. “And don’t be touching her a lot,” Heather says Joyce said when she hugged Savannah.
“When you looked at Joyce you didn’t see an upset person. There was just…nothing,” Heather says of her ex-mother-in-law’s demeanor. After they had taken Savannah off the breathing machines, Heather says, Joyce started to panic.
“She pinned Jessica up against the side of the hospital wall. She was staring into her eyes and telling her in a low stern voice, ‘Listen here, you need to pull it together. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you? There’s a lot on the line here.’”
“And I knew something wasn’t right,” Heather says.
***
Savannah’s grandmother had reason to worry.
Both she and Jessica Hardin would be arrested the next day on charges of murder for Savannah’s death. Joyce Garrard currently is on trial in Alabama facing capital murder charges. She maintains her innocence, but if found guilty, she could receive a death sentence or life without parole.
According to investigators, on the afternoon of February 17, 2012, Garrard—whom prosecutors have dubbed the “drill sergeant from hell”—forced little Savannah to run 50-foot sprints for close to three hours while carrying firewood the size of cinder blocks, until the girl collapsed from vomiting and dehydration. It was corporal punishment, officials say, for eating chocolate bars on the school bus and lying about it.
At Garrard’s trial, witnesses for the prosecution have testified about what went on during Savannah’s last hours.
A neighbor said he watched Savannah as she begged Garrard to stop.
“Keep running,” Garrard replied. “I didn’t tell you you could stop.” When Savannah pleaded for her stepmother, Jessica Hardin, to stop the punishment, Garrard reportedly said, “‘Don't look at her. She won’t help you.”
It seems Garrard was right. Officials say Savannah’s mother and father were miles away and Savannah’s stepmother (who has also been charged with murder for failing to intervene), her neighbors, and the bus driver who all watched as the punishment was taking place, did nothing to stop it.
A surveillance video taken from the bus Savannah rode to school captured a conversation between bus driver Raeanna Holmes and Garrard. On it, Garrard tells the driver, “She’s going to run until I tell her to stop.”
“She’s going to learn,” Garrard said.
Savannah ran until she couldn’t anymore. Neighbors testified they thought the punishment would stop when they saw Savannah down on all fours, vomiting in the yard. Garrard was pouring water in her mouth. Eventually Savannah just collapsed and her stepmother finally called 911.
When an ambulance arrived, medics found the 75-pound girl in panties and a T-shirt, passed out on the lawn, freezing and soaked to the bone, a wet blanket laid on top of her. Cuts from the firewood lined Savannah’s arms.
***
When a child suffers such a horrific ordeal, the natural question follows: Where were her parents? In Savannah’s case the answer is simple: Her mother was in Florida, her father overseas working as a civilian contractor. The “why” behind Savannah’s separation from her mother is much more complicated.
Robert and Heather Hardin got married young after getting pregnant with Savannah. Robert’s mother, Joyce Garrard, had arranged the shotgun wedding, Heather says. “In two weeks we planned to get married by a pastor I didn’t know, in a church I had never been to,” she says.
Robert joined the military and was gone for long stretches. Before long, the two had grown apart and by the time Savannah was 3 years old, her parents’ divorce was final and Heather had moved with her daughter to Plant City, Florida. The divorce wasn’t amicable. As Heather boarded the plane to Florida, she says Robert said, “I hate you and you’ll pay for this one day.”
But it was Robert who started paying, $200 a month in child support, and even when he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 2006, he didn’t see much of Savannah. By 2009, he was remarried, to Jessica Hardin, and had had another child, their son Gavin. According to Heather, his new family sparked a desire on Robert’s part to be a bigger part of Savannah’s life.
Heather says Robert started asking to take Savannah on the holidays and weekends. He would come to see her cheer at Little League games and the co-parenting arrangement was working well. Savannah went to visit her dad on spring break in 2009—but when Heather arrived at the usual exchange point in Daytona, she says Robert never showed. Heather says Robert was adamant: “I’m not giving her back,” he said.
Later that day, she got a call from an investigator at the Florida Department of Children and Families; Robert had charged her with abandonment, claiming that she had relinquished rights to their daughter by going on a weeklong trip to visit a boyfriend in Wyoming during Robert’s scheduled visit with Savannah. When she got home, a sheriff met her at the door with paperwork asking a judge to turn over full custody.
When Robert decided he wanted Savannah, he hired a lawyer and started an aggressive campaign to keep the child away from her mother. According to Florida Department of Children and Family records, Robert filed at least five complaints between 2009 and 2012. The state investigations found his accusations—from physical and mental abuse of Savannah to inhabitable living conditions—to be unfounded and each of the cases were closed. In one of the reports, an investigator said Savannah sounded as if she had been “coached” by her father.
On top of the constant DCF investigations, and a legal process that she had to make her way through without the help of a lawyer, Heather was laid off from her job as a catering truck delivery driver. She had been forced to move from her home and while she was waiting for her new job at a hardware store to start, she had to move into an ex-boyfriend’s home. Robert reported the man to the court for being a former felon. (An investigation found the boyfriend not to be a threat to Savannah’s well-being). Other reports were specifically aimed at Savannah’s babysitter, who subsequently refused to watch Savannah anymore, reportedly fearing for her own children’s safety.
“Robert took every avenue to make things more difficult for me,” Heather says.
They were going back and forth to court. Robert’s attorney filed petitions on his behalf while Heather went to the courthouse alone and sought out pro bono legal services, which would help her fill out forms, but wouldn’t give legal advice. One service could only help if she was a victim of domestic abuse, which she wasn’t.
“He had an attorney and I didn’t. He was in the military, and people look highly on that,” Heather says. “I was afraid that we would go to court and a judge would say, ‘Well, how do you think you’re going to take care of her?’ So I brought myself to terms with voluntarily letting her live there, against my better judgment, because if I thought if I don’t, the judge is probably going to take her anyway.”
And so the couple agreed that Savannah would temporarily move into her father’s Jacksonville home in September of 2009. A court-ordered parenting plan shows that Heather and Robert shared custody—school and medical decisions and the like would be made jointly—and Heather would visit with Savannah on designated weekends. Heather sent Savannah trinkets and treats in care packages and they would talk on the phone. In the meantime, Heather was going to school and working a new full-time job. Soon she moved into a little house with her 3-year-old son, Savannah’s younger half-brother.
Things looked like they were settling down. She would have Savannah back soon; that was the plan. On Martin Luther King Day weekend 2010, Heather took Savannah to get pictures made at Walmart. Their birthdays were close together so they bought a cake, too. Savannah asked the woman behind the bakery counter to write, “Happy Birthday, Savannah and Mommy.”
“And that was the last birthday we ever shared together,” Heather says. “It was the last time I saw her outside of a hospital bed.”
Heather says Robert never told her that he was moving his family back to Alabama. When Savannah’s birthday package was returned to Heather’s address and Robert stopped answering his phone, Heather called Joyce Garrard, who told her that Savannah was at her home. Heather says she was allowed to speak to her only once, and Savannah told her they had moved into “Maw-maw’s house.” It was the last time she would be able to talk to her daughter.
What happened during the next two years that Savannah lived in Alabama with her father and stepmother is still something of a mystery to Heather. Robert was working as a civilian contractor overseas; a spokeswoman for the Etowah County Sheriff's office told the AP that Robert “lived outside the country,” leaving Jessica and Joyce to do the majority of the caregiving.
Still, the custody fight continued in Alabama. Robert filed for a petition to modify custody, an action that, if granted, would strip Heather of her parenting rights, reasoning he could “provide a more stable home” for Savannah. Heather answered in court documents that Robert was on “a crusade to keep Savannah away” from her.
She continued: “[Savannah] was doing well in school, enrolled in cheerleading, and was a well-rounded child. Since residing with Robert she is now in counseling and seeing therapists…I am extremely concerned for the welfare of Savannah as I am concerned that there may be things going on in their home that are the cause of the problem.”
Though Heather didn’t know it, she had reason to be concerned. At Joyce Garrard’s trial, Savannah’s pediatrician, Dr. Deborah Smith, cryptically testified that the relationship between Joyce, Savannah, and her stepmother Jessica "was not normal" and said she almost contacted authorities, but in the end didn't.
Meanwhile, Robert and Jessica had been going through a divorce and custody dispute as well.
Records show an environment far from stable. Robert’s divorce complaint charged Savannah’s stepmother with verbal and emotional abuse. He claimed she had a drinking problem and suffered from bipolar disorder that she refused to treat.
Jessica, in turn, filed for a restraining order against Robert in August 2010. In her petition, she said Robert had become physically and mentally abusive. He “pushed her against a wall and threw her on the couch” and threatened her. “Robert has said I will never be allowed to see my son and will do whatever it take to make sure of it,” the complaint says.
The following day, Robert filed an affidavit claiming Jessica was “not financially, mentally, or physically able to provide a safe environment for the child.”
Five months later, Robert and Jessica reconciled and asked a judge to dismiss their case.
Heather didn’t know any of this as she drove back and forth to Alabama half a dozen times between 2010 and 2011 to appear in court in her attempt to win Savannah back. She’d stop by Savannah’s new home but no one was ever there. She’d leave packages for Savannah on the porch but still doesn’t know if she ever received them. The Hardins changed their phone numbers so contact was impossible.
Robert never appeared in court for the custody hearings, Heather says. She says Robert’s lawyer explained his client’s absence by saying her ex-husband was working or training. The repeated motions for continuances were wearing on Heather and at their final court appearance in December 2011, Heather says Robert made new accusations that she was too mentally unstable to take care of Savannah. At every appearance, Heather says the judge would tell her the same thing: “You need to get an attorney.” That’s when she says she broke down in the judge’s chambers.
“I just need to see my daughter,” Heather says she told the judge. “I don’t have money for an attorney and I just need someone to tell me what to do. I’m not crazy, but if I was, it’s because he took my child away from me and hasn’t let me see or talk to her for two years.”
Finally she says—and court documents show—the judge told her, “Look. You need to go get a psychiatric evaluation and when it comes back the way I’m pretty sure it will, I will make up the time you’ve lost with your daughter.”
“We left that day and never made it to the next trial,” Heather says. “I did everything I knew to do, but in the end, everything I knew to do wasn’t enough.”
***
It’s been three years since Savannah’s death. The little girl who loved the color blue and horses should be in the sixth grade. Time hasn’t dulled Heather Walker's loss; the Florida mother has a 9-year-old, a 10-month-old, and two stepchildren with her new husband, who she met the weekend before Savannah’s death. Heather finished her radiology degree in 2011, but can’t bear to step foot in a hospital anymore, so she says she’s in a kind of limbo. She works two jobs in Florida while her husband is training to be an EMT.
Heather sometimes finds herself picking up trinkets at the store that Savannah would love before remembering there’s no way to send them to her. And she doesn’t know how to reply when people ask how many children she has—to say two feels like a betrayal of Savannah, to say three opens herself up to questions that are hard to answer.
And she’s keeping an eye on the trial in Alabama. Heather has been subpoenaed as a potential witness, but says prosecutors haven’t called her yet. She may go to Alabama for the verdict, but says the thought of seeing Joyce and listening to the closing statements where prosecutors will relive Savannah’s final moments may be too much to handle.
“I feel like she’s guilty,” Heather says. “It might not have been her intention, but ultimately it all falls on Joyce. As an adult and a parent and a grandparent, you should know when enough is enough. Even if Savannah really did do what they are saying she did, you don’t punish a child like that.”
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