State Considers Bill Treating Fetus As Person
Opponents Say Bill Has Abortion Implications
POSTED: 10:46 am EST February 15, 2010
CONCORD, N.H. -- The New Hampshire House will vote Wednesday whether to allow prosecutors to charge people who kill a fetus with murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide.
Opponents said the bill is an attempt to define an unborn child in statute.
Supporters said it has nothing to do with abortion and is in response to a 2006 case in which a speeding driver slammed his car into a cab, killing a passenger. The cab driver was pregnant and delivered a baby who wasn't breathing but was kept alive temporarily on life support.
The state Supreme Court threw out the driver's conviction in the baby's death because state law does not consider a fetus a person unless the baby shows evidence of life.
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http://www.wmur.com/politics/22568593/detail.html?treets=man&tid=26511201650813&tml=man_12pm&tmi=man_12pm_1_11000102152010&ts=H
Isabella Brooke Knightly and Austin Gamez-Knightly
In Memory of my Loving Husband, William F. Knightly Jr. Murdered by ILLEGAL Palliative Care at a Nashua, NH Hospital
Monday, February 15, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Who's looking out for next Amariana ?(Dead Foster child)
Foster child Amariana Crenshaw died in Tracy Dossman's care.
Tracy Dossman
Foster child Amariana Crenshaw died in Tracy Dossman's care.
More Information
Special Report: Read The Bee's investigative report 'Who killed Amariana?'
Popular Comment
“Interesting - from what I know about CPS they can take someone's kid away armed with nothing more than an anonymous allegation and ask questions later, yet when presented with evidence of abuse and neglect by a pivately certified foster care provider they suddenly have no authority. Heaven help any kids who get pulled into this system - especially by mistake. Kids seem like they're better off with parents with drug problems and anger issues than with this woman.”
Buzz up!Published: Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 6E
The unsolved death of Amariana Crenshaw raises many disturbing questions. Here is one of the most immediate: Why is Tracy Dossman, Amariana's foster mother, still caring for five other children, even during renewed investigations by police and state and county child welfare officials?
The official answer: She hasn't been charged with a crime.
The state Department of Social Services says that until it completes the inquiry it reopened after a series of stories in The Bee, and unless it then finds Dossman in "noncompliance," it won't move to decertify her as a foster parent. Only then would the department require the private agency that certifies Dossman to remove the other children.
"We're not there yet," says DSS spokeswoman Lizelda Lopez, who said it's not clear when a decision will come.
Here's the troubling part: When a foster parent is certified by a nonprofit agency, there's no provision under state law to suspend a certification during an investigation, even when there are serious doubts about the parent's fitness. There should be.
DSS already has such authority if a foster parent is directly licensed by the state or a county. That distinction makes no sense, especially when the private foster family agencies place the more needy children.
While it's an imperfect analogy, think of situations where police officers are put on administrative leave after shooting someone. Such suspensions are routine procedure, even if there's no proof of wrongdoing.
This is only one issue facing the state's sprawling foster care system, which includes about 22,000 providers and is responsible for about 70,000 children. Leaders of this system face numerous trade-offs and hard decisions. When there is a death or serious injury in a home, officials must determine whether there's any imminent danger, then weigh what's in the best interest of each child: Would it be more nurturing in a new home? Or would it be more traumatic to start over with a new parent?
At the same time, years of budget cuts have hollowed out the system so that there is far less supervision of foster parents. While the state investigates complaints, county social workers monitor the children, and counties contract with private agencies to check and certify foster parents. It's a multi-layered system that can lead to lack of communication and accountability.
All those considerations come into play in Dossman's case.
She became Amariana's foster mother when the girl was 2. Amariana was 4½ in January 2008 when she was found in Doss-man's rental home near South Natomas, burned beyond recognition. Dossman was cleared as a suspect within 24 hours and the children were returned to her. Although officials still harbored some concern about their welfare, they say they didn't have sufficient cause to suspend Dossman as a foster parent.
That isn't the case now.
The series of stories by The Bee's Marjie Lundstrom has uncovered strong evidence that Amariana may have been abused or severely neglected for some time, and might have been killed before her body was burned by at least one Molotov cocktail.
According to medical records obtained by The Bee, Amariana was reportedly hurt at least 11 times in Dossman's care, including unusually similar cuts and bruises on her face. When she died, she weighed only 29 pounds and had gained only 1 pound in three years. Twice, state regulators found the refrigerator locked in the home.
Several people close to Dossman have been in trouble with the law.
A foster parent to nearly 50 kids since at least 2003, Dossman has jumped from one private agency to another – getting certified by six in all since 1995.
After the series, Sacramento police pledged anew to find Amariana's killer, and DSS and Sacramento County's Child Protective Services both said they were taking another look at the case.
We may never know everything that happened leading up to the discovery of Amariana's charred remains inside the house on Sweet Pea Way. But we know that this tragic case gives officials the opportunity to take a hard look at how to fix problems with the foster care system.
Finding a reasonable way to suspend foster parents while they're under investigation for serious wrongdoing – and thus safeguard the children – would be a good place to start.
http://www.sacbee.com/325/story/2534212.html
Tracy Dossman
Foster child Amariana Crenshaw died in Tracy Dossman's care.
More Information
Special Report: Read The Bee's investigative report 'Who killed Amariana?'
Popular Comment
“Interesting - from what I know about CPS they can take someone's kid away armed with nothing more than an anonymous allegation and ask questions later, yet when presented with evidence of abuse and neglect by a pivately certified foster care provider they suddenly have no authority. Heaven help any kids who get pulled into this system - especially by mistake. Kids seem like they're better off with parents with drug problems and anger issues than with this woman.”
Buzz up!Published: Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 6E
The unsolved death of Amariana Crenshaw raises many disturbing questions. Here is one of the most immediate: Why is Tracy Dossman, Amariana's foster mother, still caring for five other children, even during renewed investigations by police and state and county child welfare officials?
The official answer: She hasn't been charged with a crime.
The state Department of Social Services says that until it completes the inquiry it reopened after a series of stories in The Bee, and unless it then finds Dossman in "noncompliance," it won't move to decertify her as a foster parent. Only then would the department require the private agency that certifies Dossman to remove the other children.
"We're not there yet," says DSS spokeswoman Lizelda Lopez, who said it's not clear when a decision will come.
Here's the troubling part: When a foster parent is certified by a nonprofit agency, there's no provision under state law to suspend a certification during an investigation, even when there are serious doubts about the parent's fitness. There should be.
DSS already has such authority if a foster parent is directly licensed by the state or a county. That distinction makes no sense, especially when the private foster family agencies place the more needy children.
While it's an imperfect analogy, think of situations where police officers are put on administrative leave after shooting someone. Such suspensions are routine procedure, even if there's no proof of wrongdoing.
This is only one issue facing the state's sprawling foster care system, which includes about 22,000 providers and is responsible for about 70,000 children. Leaders of this system face numerous trade-offs and hard decisions. When there is a death or serious injury in a home, officials must determine whether there's any imminent danger, then weigh what's in the best interest of each child: Would it be more nurturing in a new home? Or would it be more traumatic to start over with a new parent?
At the same time, years of budget cuts have hollowed out the system so that there is far less supervision of foster parents. While the state investigates complaints, county social workers monitor the children, and counties contract with private agencies to check and certify foster parents. It's a multi-layered system that can lead to lack of communication and accountability.
All those considerations come into play in Dossman's case.
She became Amariana's foster mother when the girl was 2. Amariana was 4½ in January 2008 when she was found in Doss-man's rental home near South Natomas, burned beyond recognition. Dossman was cleared as a suspect within 24 hours and the children were returned to her. Although officials still harbored some concern about their welfare, they say they didn't have sufficient cause to suspend Dossman as a foster parent.
That isn't the case now.
The series of stories by The Bee's Marjie Lundstrom has uncovered strong evidence that Amariana may have been abused or severely neglected for some time, and might have been killed before her body was burned by at least one Molotov cocktail.
According to medical records obtained by The Bee, Amariana was reportedly hurt at least 11 times in Dossman's care, including unusually similar cuts and bruises on her face. When she died, she weighed only 29 pounds and had gained only 1 pound in three years. Twice, state regulators found the refrigerator locked in the home.
Several people close to Dossman have been in trouble with the law.
A foster parent to nearly 50 kids since at least 2003, Dossman has jumped from one private agency to another – getting certified by six in all since 1995.
After the series, Sacramento police pledged anew to find Amariana's killer, and DSS and Sacramento County's Child Protective Services both said they were taking another look at the case.
We may never know everything that happened leading up to the discovery of Amariana's charred remains inside the house on Sweet Pea Way. But we know that this tragic case gives officials the opportunity to take a hard look at how to fix problems with the foster care system.
Finding a reasonable way to suspend foster parents while they're under investigation for serious wrongdoing – and thus safeguard the children – would be a good place to start.
http://www.sacbee.com/325/story/2534212.html
CPS had visited mom accused of starving girl -CPS Screws up again!
Note from unhappygrammy-CPS is too busy taking children from innocent parents to worry about the truly abused. Will they ever learn?
CPS had visited mom accused of starving girl
Mother, a drug addict, arrested in 2009 death of 8-year-old daughter
By TERRI LANGFORD and DALE LEZON
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 6, 2010, 11:10AM
.
Harris County Sheriff's Office
Almita Nicole Lockhart is charged with injury to a child.
1993: Complaint of neglectful supervision of two sons. Family moved; CPS closed the case before making a determination.
1994: Physical abuse complaint of the same boys and medical neglect complaint of another brother and sister. CPS records could not be located.
1996: Complaint that Lockhart’s four children were abandoned. CPS records could not be located.
1999: Complaint of neglectful supervision of Lockhart’s now five children. “Ruled out” by CPS.
2000: On Feb. 24, the day Halle was born, Lockhart tested positive for drugs. CPS ruled the incident “reason to believe” and ordered her to drug treatment. “Mother failed to complete services.” Case was closed.
2001: Complaint of physical neglect reported involving six of Lockhart’s children. “Ruled out” by CPS.
2003: Complaint of neglectful supervision of three children. Ruled “unable to determine” by CPS.
2005: Lockhart tested positive for drugs on the day of her eighth child’s birth. CPS ruled “reason to believe.” She was again ordered to drug treatment. She didn’t go. Case was closed.
2009: Halle declared dead Jan. 16. CPS removed Lockharts’ nine children.
2010: Lockhart charged Jan. 14 with injury to a child in Halle’s death.
Source: Texas CPS, Harris County District Attorney’s Office. For 17 years, Texas Child Protective Services workers suspected that Almita Nicole Lockhart, a drug addict now accused of starving her daughter to death, was unable to care for her children.
They investigated in 1993 and 1994. In 1996 and 1999. And five other times between 2000 and 2009, the year her 8-year-old daughter, Halle Shamille Smith, died of starvation, records show.
Lockhart, 34, who has nine other children, was arrested this week and remained in jail Friday in lieu of $30,000 bail, charged with injury to a child, accused of allowing Halle to starve to death a year ago.
Lockhart's court-appointed defense attorney, Daphne Pattison, did not return a phone call Friday.
Born prematurely at 27 weeks, Halle had suffered convulsions, meningitis, tuberculosis, a broken arm and a stroke in the years before she died.
She weighed 15½ pounds when she was brought into Methodist Willowbrook Hospital on Jan. 16, 2009, a bundle of “skin and bones,” officials later told CPS.
Halle, fed her entire life through a feeding tube, was five weeks shy of her ninth birthday when she was declared dead in the hospital's emergency room.
According to medical records, Halle weighed 35 pounds at age 2, dropped to 23 pounds by age 4 and weighed 27 pounds in November 2006, the last time it appears she was seen by doctors or nurses.
She lost 40 percent of her body weight between that last visit and the date of her death because of malnutrition and dehydration.
Kept her children
As the Harris County District Attorney's Office moves to prosecute Lockhart, Halle's case is the latest child abuse death involving a child and a family well-known to CPS investigators.
Among the eight previous CPS investigations involving Lockhart's children before Halle's death, only two involved abuse confirmed by CPS.
On the day Halle was born in 2000, Lockhart tested positive for drugs at the hospital. The same thing happened when Halle's brother was born in 2005.
In both cases, the evidence was irrefutable. In both cases, CPS required Lockhart to enroll in treatment for her drug addiction if she wanted to keep her children.
In both cases, Lockhart failed to complete drug treatment. In fact, in the 2005 case she even tried to alter her drug test, CPS spokesman Estella Olguin confirmed.
Yet CPS workers in 2000 and 2005 closed the cases, and no one considered removing Lockhart's other children from her care.
Didn't check with doctor
Halle was last seen by a CPS worker in 2006, the same year Lockhart was convicted on a drug charge. Halle was described by a caseworker as “healthy” despite being on a feeding tube.
However, the caseworker never contacted Halle's pediatrician, despite all her physical needs, to check on her care, Olguin said.
The lack of a check with the girl's doctor and the fact Lockhart never completed drug treatment should have kept the case open. Instead, it was closed.
"At that point in the case, we could have consulted with our attorneys about a possible removal," CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. "We did not do so. In hindsight, that can certainly be viewed as a mistake."
CPS heard nothing more until Methodist Willowbrook notified authorities that Halle was dead.
CPS says that when it received the call about Halle's death, workers suspected immediately they had an abuse death on their hands. But Lockhart was not arrested.
“The information I received about why the mother was not detained by law enforcement or hospital officials is that there was ‘chaos at the time' and the mother fled from the hospital,” a CPS caseworker wrote in an affidavit filed last year with the 308th District Court.
It took a year of scouring through Halle's medical records and subsequent forensic tests to determine that the girl's death was a homicide.
Once the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office made the ruling, county prosecutors filed charges last month.
Parents cut off care
Lockhart received monthly federal disability checks for Halle's care, Medicaid for the girl's medical treatment, and in-home medical care from the time she was 20 months old.
But there was no sign of this type of care a year ago, when officials arrived at Lockhart's apartment in the 13500 block of Northborough in the Greenspoint area of north Houston.
“When the police arrived at the residence given by the mother the home contained no furnishing, no food and only contained a feeding pump and formula,” court documents stated.
Other records show Halle's in-home nursing care had been discontinued by Lockhart and her father, who is not charged.
He told prosecutors they discontinued it because they tired of medical personnel coming in and out.
The other children, who range in age from 2 to 18, were living elsewhere and taken into state custody, where five remain today. The four oldest have been placed with their father, Olguin said.
Lockhart's next court appearance is set for Feb. 24, the day Halle would have turned 10.
Halle was declared dead within minutes of her arrival at the hospital; her sole belongings listed as a shirt and a purple blanket.
Today, she lies buried in an unmarked grave at Paradise North Cemetery.
terri.langford@chron.com
dale.lezon@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6852586.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Fmetro+%28chron.com+-+Houston+%26+Texas%29
CPS had visited mom accused of starving girl
Mother, a drug addict, arrested in 2009 death of 8-year-old daughter
By TERRI LANGFORD and DALE LEZON
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 6, 2010, 11:10AM
.
Harris County Sheriff's Office
Almita Nicole Lockhart is charged with injury to a child.
1993: Complaint of neglectful supervision of two sons. Family moved; CPS closed the case before making a determination.
1994: Physical abuse complaint of the same boys and medical neglect complaint of another brother and sister. CPS records could not be located.
1996: Complaint that Lockhart’s four children were abandoned. CPS records could not be located.
1999: Complaint of neglectful supervision of Lockhart’s now five children. “Ruled out” by CPS.
2000: On Feb. 24, the day Halle was born, Lockhart tested positive for drugs. CPS ruled the incident “reason to believe” and ordered her to drug treatment. “Mother failed to complete services.” Case was closed.
2001: Complaint of physical neglect reported involving six of Lockhart’s children. “Ruled out” by CPS.
2003: Complaint of neglectful supervision of three children. Ruled “unable to determine” by CPS.
2005: Lockhart tested positive for drugs on the day of her eighth child’s birth. CPS ruled “reason to believe.” She was again ordered to drug treatment. She didn’t go. Case was closed.
2009: Halle declared dead Jan. 16. CPS removed Lockharts’ nine children.
2010: Lockhart charged Jan. 14 with injury to a child in Halle’s death.
Source: Texas CPS, Harris County District Attorney’s Office. For 17 years, Texas Child Protective Services workers suspected that Almita Nicole Lockhart, a drug addict now accused of starving her daughter to death, was unable to care for her children.
They investigated in 1993 and 1994. In 1996 and 1999. And five other times between 2000 and 2009, the year her 8-year-old daughter, Halle Shamille Smith, died of starvation, records show.
Lockhart, 34, who has nine other children, was arrested this week and remained in jail Friday in lieu of $30,000 bail, charged with injury to a child, accused of allowing Halle to starve to death a year ago.
Lockhart's court-appointed defense attorney, Daphne Pattison, did not return a phone call Friday.
Born prematurely at 27 weeks, Halle had suffered convulsions, meningitis, tuberculosis, a broken arm and a stroke in the years before she died.
She weighed 15½ pounds when she was brought into Methodist Willowbrook Hospital on Jan. 16, 2009, a bundle of “skin and bones,” officials later told CPS.
Halle, fed her entire life through a feeding tube, was five weeks shy of her ninth birthday when she was declared dead in the hospital's emergency room.
According to medical records, Halle weighed 35 pounds at age 2, dropped to 23 pounds by age 4 and weighed 27 pounds in November 2006, the last time it appears she was seen by doctors or nurses.
She lost 40 percent of her body weight between that last visit and the date of her death because of malnutrition and dehydration.
Kept her children
As the Harris County District Attorney's Office moves to prosecute Lockhart, Halle's case is the latest child abuse death involving a child and a family well-known to CPS investigators.
Among the eight previous CPS investigations involving Lockhart's children before Halle's death, only two involved abuse confirmed by CPS.
On the day Halle was born in 2000, Lockhart tested positive for drugs at the hospital. The same thing happened when Halle's brother was born in 2005.
In both cases, the evidence was irrefutable. In both cases, CPS required Lockhart to enroll in treatment for her drug addiction if she wanted to keep her children.
In both cases, Lockhart failed to complete drug treatment. In fact, in the 2005 case she even tried to alter her drug test, CPS spokesman Estella Olguin confirmed.
Yet CPS workers in 2000 and 2005 closed the cases, and no one considered removing Lockhart's other children from her care.
Didn't check with doctor
Halle was last seen by a CPS worker in 2006, the same year Lockhart was convicted on a drug charge. Halle was described by a caseworker as “healthy” despite being on a feeding tube.
However, the caseworker never contacted Halle's pediatrician, despite all her physical needs, to check on her care, Olguin said.
The lack of a check with the girl's doctor and the fact Lockhart never completed drug treatment should have kept the case open. Instead, it was closed.
"At that point in the case, we could have consulted with our attorneys about a possible removal," CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. "We did not do so. In hindsight, that can certainly be viewed as a mistake."
CPS heard nothing more until Methodist Willowbrook notified authorities that Halle was dead.
CPS says that when it received the call about Halle's death, workers suspected immediately they had an abuse death on their hands. But Lockhart was not arrested.
“The information I received about why the mother was not detained by law enforcement or hospital officials is that there was ‘chaos at the time' and the mother fled from the hospital,” a CPS caseworker wrote in an affidavit filed last year with the 308th District Court.
It took a year of scouring through Halle's medical records and subsequent forensic tests to determine that the girl's death was a homicide.
Once the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office made the ruling, county prosecutors filed charges last month.
Parents cut off care
Lockhart received monthly federal disability checks for Halle's care, Medicaid for the girl's medical treatment, and in-home medical care from the time she was 20 months old.
But there was no sign of this type of care a year ago, when officials arrived at Lockhart's apartment in the 13500 block of Northborough in the Greenspoint area of north Houston.
“When the police arrived at the residence given by the mother the home contained no furnishing, no food and only contained a feeding pump and formula,” court documents stated.
Other records show Halle's in-home nursing care had been discontinued by Lockhart and her father, who is not charged.
He told prosecutors they discontinued it because they tired of medical personnel coming in and out.
The other children, who range in age from 2 to 18, were living elsewhere and taken into state custody, where five remain today. The four oldest have been placed with their father, Olguin said.
Lockhart's next court appearance is set for Feb. 24, the day Halle would have turned 10.
Halle was declared dead within minutes of her arrival at the hospital; her sole belongings listed as a shirt and a purple blanket.
Today, she lies buried in an unmarked grave at Paradise North Cemetery.
terri.langford@chron.com
dale.lezon@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6852586.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Fmetro+%28chron.com+-+Houston+%26+Texas%29
Another dead foster child-Braxton Taylor
HIS NAME USE TO BE BRAXTON TAYLOR. NOW IT’S “THE BODY”.
February 14, 2010 – 12:20 pm
When a child is abused or killed in foster care or when the child was adopted, CPS and CASA immediately move to shut down all information about the child claiming it5s “Confidentiality”
I sincerely doubt if the dead child gives a shit whether or not it is disclosed how he died, who he use to be, and who is responsible for his death.
His foster “Mother” in this case is in jail, and she will plead out to manslaughter for killing him. She MIGHT spend 10 years in prison.
However, the CPS and CASA workers who placed the child will go home tonight with a paycheck and forget Braxton was ever alive.
They need to be charged as an accomplice to the murder. They need to be charged with negligence and dereliction of duty. Only when they are sitting in prison for a few years will the CPS and CASA workers who follow them are held accountable for the abuse or death of a child in their care. Maybe then they’ll try a little harder to vet the placement.
Braxton’s story is going to be told. His relatives are being contacted, and neither CASA nor CPS can stop it from becoming public. I REFUSE to allow them to bury Braxton like they buried Pedro after he had his throat ripped out by the foster families pit bull. In that case, I was only surprised that CPS and CASA didn’t place him with pythons or lions.
This is located on “Legally kidnapped”, probably the best site on the web that keeps track of CASA and CPS murders and abuse of children.
http://www.flds.ws/
February 14, 2010 – 12:20 pm
When a child is abused or killed in foster care or when the child was adopted, CPS and CASA immediately move to shut down all information about the child claiming it5s “Confidentiality”
I sincerely doubt if the dead child gives a shit whether or not it is disclosed how he died, who he use to be, and who is responsible for his death.
His foster “Mother” in this case is in jail, and she will plead out to manslaughter for killing him. She MIGHT spend 10 years in prison.
However, the CPS and CASA workers who placed the child will go home tonight with a paycheck and forget Braxton was ever alive.
They need to be charged as an accomplice to the murder. They need to be charged with negligence and dereliction of duty. Only when they are sitting in prison for a few years will the CPS and CASA workers who follow them are held accountable for the abuse or death of a child in their care. Maybe then they’ll try a little harder to vet the placement.
Braxton’s story is going to be told. His relatives are being contacted, and neither CASA nor CPS can stop it from becoming public. I REFUSE to allow them to bury Braxton like they buried Pedro after he had his throat ripped out by the foster families pit bull. In that case, I was only surprised that CPS and CASA didn’t place him with pythons or lions.
This is located on “Legally kidnapped”, probably the best site on the web that keeps track of CASA and CPS murders and abuse of children.
http://www.flds.ws/
NH Families Request Audit of NH DHHS/DCYF
Please go to the Petition site and sign the Petition for NH Families Request Audit of NH DHHS/DCYF. We are trying to get this audit pushed through with the help of the NH Legislature. We need everyones help. If we can get the audit in NH, it will certainly push the other states to do the same. This is exactly what we need to put DCYF/CPS out of business nationwide.Our childrens lives depend on us.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/nh-families-request-audit-of-nh-dhhsdcyfnh-dcyf
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/nh-families-request-audit-of-nh-dhhsdcyfnh-dcyf
Clinic records reveal more injuries of dead Foster child
Clinic records reveal more injuries
Marjie Lundstrom
Feb 05, 2010 (The Sacramento Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Amariana Crenshaw, the Sacramento foster child found dead at 4 1/2 after a fire caused by a Molotov cocktail, had suffered more injuries in foster care than appear to have been known by county and state regulators.
New medical records obtained by The Bee reveal that Amariana was reportedly injured at least 11 times in her foster home before the arson that authorities believe killed her in January 2008.
"How do you explain that? That's horrible," said Dr. Carol Berkowitz, a prominent Los Angeles pediatrician and past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"Somebody should have said, 'This doesn't happen to normal kids.' "
The medical charts, obtained from a Del Paso Boulevard clinic where she was taken by her foster mother, Tracy Dossman, include four injuries not reflected in government files -- including one Amariana suffered after being pushed from a car.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services said the investigation of the case published in The Bee last week has "raised additional concerns we are reviewing." Sacramento County Child Protective Services issued its own statement, saying the agency also was taking another look at the case.
"Whenever new information comes to light, a child's case is reviewed from top to bottom," the CPS statement says. "Consistent with this practice, we are re-looking at Amariana's case."
The new medical records were obtained by Amariana's biological father, Curtis Crenshaw, 48, whose parental rights were terminated a year before his only daughter's death. Her biological mother, Anisha Hill, had previously secured early childhood records.
The new records peel back another layer on the tumultuous life of Amariana Crenshaw. The girl and her two siblings were placed in the care of Dossman, a 41-year-old foster provider who has been cited for numerous licensing violations -- including two instances of locking the refrigerator while Amariana lived with her, the second time over Christmas 2007.
The girl was dead a month later, burned beyond recognition after a Molotov cocktail, possibly two, landed on or near her as she reportedly slept on the floor of her foster mom's vacant rental property.
Two years after Amariana's death, the case remains unsolved, and Dossman continues to be a foster provider in Sacramento with five children in her care. She has repeatedly declined to be interviewed.
The Bee's investigation raised questions about the official version of events, and whether Amariana was breathing when the fire broke out on Jan. 11, 2008. Some forensic pathologists who reviewed her autopsy for The Bee said the lack of soot in her lungs and carbon monoxide in her blood led them to conclude she was already dead when her small body caught fire.
Sacramento police spokesman Norm Leong said Thursday that, since the newspaper's series ran, investigators have "received some tips that we are looking into."
Record of stunted growth
Besides the chronic injuries, the new records provide additional evidence of Amariana's alarming lack of growth while in foster care.
The records show that from age 20 months, shortly before entering foster care, until her death -- a three-year period -- Amariana grew 3 inches and gained one pound, dropping from the 83rd to the 3rd percentile for weight. When she died, she also had fallen under the 3rd percentile for height.
Berkowitz, along with a renowned Colorado child abuse expert, said Amariana's growth curve is a classic indication of "deprivational dwarfism." The rare syndrome, characterized by stunted growth, is observed in children who experience intense emotional and physical neglect.
Other signs include food hoarding, drinking from the toilet, gorging and vomiting -- all behaviors exhibited by Amariana in foster care, county and state documents show.
"Some children who are severely emotionally neglected don't grow," said Dr. Richard Krugman, a pediatrician and Colorado medical school dean who once headed the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect. "When they're put in an environment that's nurturing, they take off."
A more complete picture of life inside Dossman's foster home also is emerging in Amariana's medical records, confidential documents released by the county, and state licensing files and court records.
Together, these documents show that the county was aware of at least seven instances in which Amariana allegedly was injured in foster care between January 2006 and August 2007. Social workers concluded the girl was "accident-prone."
County and state licensing records document five black eyes and/or split and swollen lips, plus an injured leg and a molestation allegation. Only one of the injuries -- a swollen eye and scabbed lip in February 2007 -- prompted any official action. That came from the state, after an evaluator cited Dossman for failing to properly supervise the girl.
But there were other injuries that Amariana's governmental watchdogs may have known nothing about.
Medical records from the Sacramento Community Clinic on Del Paso Boulevard reveal four injuries not noted in county or state records provided to The Bee. These were described as an injured leg in June 2006 after the girl was "push (sic) out of the car;" a "rug burn" on her back in July 2006; a cut scalp in August 2006 following a fall; and an injury to her eye at age 3 following a "fight with sibling."
Crenshaw said he is devastated by the thought of his "angel" being tormented. Crenshaw and Hill had complained frequently to CPS about her injuries but felt rebuffed for making waves.
"I tried to tell everybody, I tried and tried," said Crenshaw, who completed anger management, counseling and parenting classes in an effort to get his daughter back. "But nobody wanted to see it. ... That's the hard, crushing part of it that kills me."
The records Crenshaw obtained this week show that Amariana was taken to the North Sacramento clinic 15 times between October 2005 and September 2007.
In July 2006, a year after Amariana was taken into protective custody, the clinic ordered that the 3-year-old child be tested for sexually transmitted diseases because the caregiver reported the little girl "came from a family (with) multiple problems," and may have been sexually abused.
There is no indication in the records that CPS workers ever suspected Amariana's biological family of physically or sexually abusing her. When she was removed from her mother's care in 2005, the agency cited the mom's "chronic substance abuse" but stated that reunification was possible.
However, four months after Dossman had the toddler tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia (results were negative), a social worker for Doss-man's foster family agency recorded that someone allegedly touched Amariana's genitals in the bathroom of the foster home. The name of the alleged perpetrator was redacted from the record given to The Bee, suggesting that it was a child.
The social worker stated that the accused denied the accusation, but other children said "they observed the incident" through an open door.
Leg injury was serious
The new set of medical records also sheds light on one of Amariana's injuries, which required multiple medical visits and appeared to be serious. The county would determine there was no abuse involved.
On July 27, 2007, an unknown "mandated reporter" notified CPS that Amariana had been hit or kicked in the leg a week or two earlier by someone in the foster home and had not been taken to the doctor. The person said the child was unable to bear weight on her legs.
Dossman told CPS social worker Miri Mee that the clinic "appeared closed" so she took Amariana in six days later, on Aug. 2, 2007, and to a specialist a week after that.
The injury apparently was so painful and debilitating that Amariana was brought three times to the Del Paso Boulevard clinic. There, the provider commented that she was limping and noted that one leg was shorter than the other.
It is unknown whether Amariana ever saw a specialist, as the county and Juvenile Court have not released her full medical records to The Bee -- despite a court decision that her case file be opened.
However, CPS records show that adoptions social worker Mee -- assigned to monitor Amariana -- dismissed the abuse allegation as "unfounded" after Dossman explained the girl had fallen from a swing.
Amariana fell a lot, according to the combined records.
In an 18-month period, Dossman told doctors and social workers that the girl had fallen from a countertop, fallen down stairs, fallen on a toilet bowl, fallen and cut her scalp, and had been pushed from a car.
"Any time there are repeat injuries like that, it's very, very worrisome," said Krugman, the pediatrician and medical school dean from Denver.
Berkowitz, who has served with Krugman on the board of the National Center on Child Fatality Review, said plotting Amariana's size on a growth chart lends credence to suspicions of "deprivational dwarfism," because her height and weight both stalled. In starvation cases, Berkowitz said, the growth chart looks much different, with weight dropping rapidly before height is noticeably affected.
"This kid deserved better," she said. "Some kids seem to have guardian angels. And some kids' guardian angels go away. She didn't have a guardian angel."
http://www.denverpost.com/crime/ci_14340314
Marjie Lundstrom
Feb 05, 2010 (The Sacramento Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Amariana Crenshaw, the Sacramento foster child found dead at 4 1/2 after a fire caused by a Molotov cocktail, had suffered more injuries in foster care than appear to have been known by county and state regulators.
New medical records obtained by The Bee reveal that Amariana was reportedly injured at least 11 times in her foster home before the arson that authorities believe killed her in January 2008.
"How do you explain that? That's horrible," said Dr. Carol Berkowitz, a prominent Los Angeles pediatrician and past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"Somebody should have said, 'This doesn't happen to normal kids.' "
The medical charts, obtained from a Del Paso Boulevard clinic where she was taken by her foster mother, Tracy Dossman, include four injuries not reflected in government files -- including one Amariana suffered after being pushed from a car.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services said the investigation of the case published in The Bee last week has "raised additional concerns we are reviewing." Sacramento County Child Protective Services issued its own statement, saying the agency also was taking another look at the case.
"Whenever new information comes to light, a child's case is reviewed from top to bottom," the CPS statement says. "Consistent with this practice, we are re-looking at Amariana's case."
The new medical records were obtained by Amariana's biological father, Curtis Crenshaw, 48, whose parental rights were terminated a year before his only daughter's death. Her biological mother, Anisha Hill, had previously secured early childhood records.
The new records peel back another layer on the tumultuous life of Amariana Crenshaw. The girl and her two siblings were placed in the care of Dossman, a 41-year-old foster provider who has been cited for numerous licensing violations -- including two instances of locking the refrigerator while Amariana lived with her, the second time over Christmas 2007.
The girl was dead a month later, burned beyond recognition after a Molotov cocktail, possibly two, landed on or near her as she reportedly slept on the floor of her foster mom's vacant rental property.
Two years after Amariana's death, the case remains unsolved, and Dossman continues to be a foster provider in Sacramento with five children in her care. She has repeatedly declined to be interviewed.
The Bee's investigation raised questions about the official version of events, and whether Amariana was breathing when the fire broke out on Jan. 11, 2008. Some forensic pathologists who reviewed her autopsy for The Bee said the lack of soot in her lungs and carbon monoxide in her blood led them to conclude she was already dead when her small body caught fire.
Sacramento police spokesman Norm Leong said Thursday that, since the newspaper's series ran, investigators have "received some tips that we are looking into."
Record of stunted growth
Besides the chronic injuries, the new records provide additional evidence of Amariana's alarming lack of growth while in foster care.
The records show that from age 20 months, shortly before entering foster care, until her death -- a three-year period -- Amariana grew 3 inches and gained one pound, dropping from the 83rd to the 3rd percentile for weight. When she died, she also had fallen under the 3rd percentile for height.
Berkowitz, along with a renowned Colorado child abuse expert, said Amariana's growth curve is a classic indication of "deprivational dwarfism." The rare syndrome, characterized by stunted growth, is observed in children who experience intense emotional and physical neglect.
Other signs include food hoarding, drinking from the toilet, gorging and vomiting -- all behaviors exhibited by Amariana in foster care, county and state documents show.
"Some children who are severely emotionally neglected don't grow," said Dr. Richard Krugman, a pediatrician and Colorado medical school dean who once headed the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect. "When they're put in an environment that's nurturing, they take off."
A more complete picture of life inside Dossman's foster home also is emerging in Amariana's medical records, confidential documents released by the county, and state licensing files and court records.
Together, these documents show that the county was aware of at least seven instances in which Amariana allegedly was injured in foster care between January 2006 and August 2007. Social workers concluded the girl was "accident-prone."
County and state licensing records document five black eyes and/or split and swollen lips, plus an injured leg and a molestation allegation. Only one of the injuries -- a swollen eye and scabbed lip in February 2007 -- prompted any official action. That came from the state, after an evaluator cited Dossman for failing to properly supervise the girl.
But there were other injuries that Amariana's governmental watchdogs may have known nothing about.
Medical records from the Sacramento Community Clinic on Del Paso Boulevard reveal four injuries not noted in county or state records provided to The Bee. These were described as an injured leg in June 2006 after the girl was "push (sic) out of the car;" a "rug burn" on her back in July 2006; a cut scalp in August 2006 following a fall; and an injury to her eye at age 3 following a "fight with sibling."
Crenshaw said he is devastated by the thought of his "angel" being tormented. Crenshaw and Hill had complained frequently to CPS about her injuries but felt rebuffed for making waves.
"I tried to tell everybody, I tried and tried," said Crenshaw, who completed anger management, counseling and parenting classes in an effort to get his daughter back. "But nobody wanted to see it. ... That's the hard, crushing part of it that kills me."
The records Crenshaw obtained this week show that Amariana was taken to the North Sacramento clinic 15 times between October 2005 and September 2007.
In July 2006, a year after Amariana was taken into protective custody, the clinic ordered that the 3-year-old child be tested for sexually transmitted diseases because the caregiver reported the little girl "came from a family (with) multiple problems," and may have been sexually abused.
There is no indication in the records that CPS workers ever suspected Amariana's biological family of physically or sexually abusing her. When she was removed from her mother's care in 2005, the agency cited the mom's "chronic substance abuse" but stated that reunification was possible.
However, four months after Dossman had the toddler tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia (results were negative), a social worker for Doss-man's foster family agency recorded that someone allegedly touched Amariana's genitals in the bathroom of the foster home. The name of the alleged perpetrator was redacted from the record given to The Bee, suggesting that it was a child.
The social worker stated that the accused denied the accusation, but other children said "they observed the incident" through an open door.
Leg injury was serious
The new set of medical records also sheds light on one of Amariana's injuries, which required multiple medical visits and appeared to be serious. The county would determine there was no abuse involved.
On July 27, 2007, an unknown "mandated reporter" notified CPS that Amariana had been hit or kicked in the leg a week or two earlier by someone in the foster home and had not been taken to the doctor. The person said the child was unable to bear weight on her legs.
Dossman told CPS social worker Miri Mee that the clinic "appeared closed" so she took Amariana in six days later, on Aug. 2, 2007, and to a specialist a week after that.
The injury apparently was so painful and debilitating that Amariana was brought three times to the Del Paso Boulevard clinic. There, the provider commented that she was limping and noted that one leg was shorter than the other.
It is unknown whether Amariana ever saw a specialist, as the county and Juvenile Court have not released her full medical records to The Bee -- despite a court decision that her case file be opened.
However, CPS records show that adoptions social worker Mee -- assigned to monitor Amariana -- dismissed the abuse allegation as "unfounded" after Dossman explained the girl had fallen from a swing.
Amariana fell a lot, according to the combined records.
In an 18-month period, Dossman told doctors and social workers that the girl had fallen from a countertop, fallen down stairs, fallen on a toilet bowl, fallen and cut her scalp, and had been pushed from a car.
"Any time there are repeat injuries like that, it's very, very worrisome," said Krugman, the pediatrician and medical school dean from Denver.
Berkowitz, who has served with Krugman on the board of the National Center on Child Fatality Review, said plotting Amariana's size on a growth chart lends credence to suspicions of "deprivational dwarfism," because her height and weight both stalled. In starvation cases, Berkowitz said, the growth chart looks much different, with weight dropping rapidly before height is noticeably affected.
"This kid deserved better," she said. "Some kids seem to have guardian angels. And some kids' guardian angels go away. She didn't have a guardian angel."
http://www.denverpost.com/crime/ci_14340314
'Absurd' bid to deny attack on social workers
Note from unhappygrammy-Although I do not condone violence to get back at these ungodly "protector's of children", some people are just pushed too far. But violence is not the way to fight back. Using violence only stoops to their level. We as parents and grandparents are better than that. We abide by the law, unlike DCYF/CPS.
'Absurd' bid to deny attack on social workers
Published Date: 12 February 2010
A Wigan mum who attacked two social workers in front of her petrified children has been convicted of assault.
The 35-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denied beating the women, one of whom was pregnant, during a supervised visit at Kildare Family Resource Centre, in Hindley.
She reacted angrily as District Judge Lloyd found her guilty
ADVERTISEMENTSwiftcover Car Insurance1 in 4 People Save at least £100!AXA Car InsuranceGet up to 90% No Claims Discount Here Now!Standard Life HealthOnly pay for the health insurance you need.Churchill Home Insurance50% off home insurance for no claims in 5 years.of two counts of common assault at Wigan Magistrates Court.
The court heard how the mother-of-three arrived at the centre for a pre-
arranged contact visit with her children, on October 10.
Within minutes, she became angry and upset after discovering her eldest child, aged 12, would not be attending.
The woman then told her two other children that their father and social services were lying to them.
Despite being warned about her behaviour, the woman continued to act inappropriately, labelling the supervisors "the Gestapo".
For all the local news and sport Monday-Saturday, get the Wigan Evening Post ...
Giving evidence, social worker Marie Carroll described how she approached the woman to inform her the contact visit would have to be stopped, but was grabbed by the hair and pulled to the ground.
Ms Carroll was then punched in the head several times by the defendant before her colleague Leanne Cooper tried to intervene.
Ms Cooper, who was a few weeks into pregnancy at the time of the incident, told the court she tried to stop the attack, but was punched in the face and stomach by the defendant.
The court heard how the children were visibly upset as they witnessed the attack and tried to escape from the contact room.
The assault was finally stopped when two other social workers entered the room and the defendant walked out of the family centre.
She was arrested later that day after police picked her up.
The defendant told the court her hand had become accidentally entangled in Ms Carroll's hair and she had acted in self-defence when she hit Ms Cooper in the face.
But District Judge Lloyd labelled the mother's version of events as "absurd," and found her guilty of two counts of common assault.
Delivering her verdict, District Judge Lloyd said: "Her behaviour was almost immediately inappropriate. She used the contact visit to score points with the social workers.
"The mother lost control of herself and the children must have been very distressed."
Following the verdict, the defendant reacted angrily and began shouting to the courtroom before she was restrained.
She has been granted bail and will appear before Wigan Magistrates Court on March 5 for sentencing.
Page 1 of 1
Last Updated: 12 February 2010 11:30 AM
Source: Wigan Evening Post
Location: Wigan
http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Absurd-bid-to-deny-attack.6068092.jp
'Absurd' bid to deny attack on social workers
Published Date: 12 February 2010
A Wigan mum who attacked two social workers in front of her petrified children has been convicted of assault.
The 35-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denied beating the women, one of whom was pregnant, during a supervised visit at Kildare Family Resource Centre, in Hindley.
She reacted angrily as District Judge Lloyd found her guilty
ADVERTISEMENTSwiftcover Car Insurance1 in 4 People Save at least £100!AXA Car InsuranceGet up to 90% No Claims Discount Here Now!Standard Life HealthOnly pay for the health insurance you need.Churchill Home Insurance50% off home insurance for no claims in 5 years.of two counts of common assault at Wigan Magistrates Court.
The court heard how the mother-of-three arrived at the centre for a pre-
arranged contact visit with her children, on October 10.
Within minutes, she became angry and upset after discovering her eldest child, aged 12, would not be attending.
The woman then told her two other children that their father and social services were lying to them.
Despite being warned about her behaviour, the woman continued to act inappropriately, labelling the supervisors "the Gestapo".
For all the local news and sport Monday-Saturday, get the Wigan Evening Post ...
Giving evidence, social worker Marie Carroll described how she approached the woman to inform her the contact visit would have to be stopped, but was grabbed by the hair and pulled to the ground.
Ms Carroll was then punched in the head several times by the defendant before her colleague Leanne Cooper tried to intervene.
Ms Cooper, who was a few weeks into pregnancy at the time of the incident, told the court she tried to stop the attack, but was punched in the face and stomach by the defendant.
The court heard how the children were visibly upset as they witnessed the attack and tried to escape from the contact room.
The assault was finally stopped when two other social workers entered the room and the defendant walked out of the family centre.
She was arrested later that day after police picked her up.
The defendant told the court her hand had become accidentally entangled in Ms Carroll's hair and she had acted in self-defence when she hit Ms Cooper in the face.
But District Judge Lloyd labelled the mother's version of events as "absurd," and found her guilty of two counts of common assault.
Delivering her verdict, District Judge Lloyd said: "Her behaviour was almost immediately inappropriate. She used the contact visit to score points with the social workers.
"The mother lost control of herself and the children must have been very distressed."
Following the verdict, the defendant reacted angrily and began shouting to the courtroom before she was restrained.
She has been granted bail and will appear before Wigan Magistrates Court on March 5 for sentencing.
Page 1 of 1
Last Updated: 12 February 2010 11:30 AM
Source: Wigan Evening Post
Location: Wigan
http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Absurd-bid-to-deny-attack.6068092.jp
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