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NEW YORK - Couple charged with assault in boy's horrific death; childwelfare agency under scrutiny



 
 
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Old June 10th 08, 09:03 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
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Default NEW YORK - Couple charged with assault in boy's horrific death; childwelfare agency under scrutiny

NYC couple charged with assault in boy's horrific death; child welfare
agency under scrutiny

By KAREN MATTHEWS , Associated Press

http://www.startribune.com/nation/19...refer=Homepage

NEW YORK - Two people have been charged with beating a 3-year-old boy
who died in their care in a home just blocks from where a girl's brutal
death in 2006 spurred calls for reform in the city's child-welfare agency.

Police and social workers had gone several times to the Brooklyn
apartment where Kyle Smith lived but never saw any problems. Neighbors
said they saw abuse, but never reported it.

Kyle was sodomized, beaten, doused with cold water and forced to do
push-ups and march in place as punishment, according to court papers.
His numerous injuries included a torn tongue, bruises to his back,
buttocks, legs and scrotum, and lacerations inside his anus.

The boy was pronounced dead at a hospital Friday after police were
called to the Brooklyn apartment where he lived with Nymeen Cheatham,
30, and her companion Lemar Martin, 25.

The death has been ruled a homicide. Cheatham and Martin were arrested
Saturday and arraigned Sunday on charges including assault and
endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors said in a criminal
complaint that the pair confessed to police that they beat the boy.

Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes,
said charges against Cheatham and Martin could be upgraded following an
investigation.

Martin's attorney, Spiro Ferris, did not return a call seeking comment
Monday. Attempts to reach Cheatham's attorney, Joseph Miller, were
unsuccessful.

Ferris and Miller argued for their clients to be released on bail Sunday
because the top charge was assault. Supreme Court Justice John Walsh
ordered them held without bail.

Neighbors told the Daily News that they saw the boy being abused and now
regret failing to report it to authorities.

"Everyone could have said something but nobody did," Hason Parker told
the paper. "Now this little boy is dead."

Parker said he once saw Cheatham screaming at Kyle outside in the cold.
"It was 15 degrees and she had this heavy jacket on and he was in pajama
shorts and a tank," Parker said. "The little boy was shivering and crying."

Police and social workers from the city's Administration for Children's
Services had visited the home and reported no signs of abuse. Cheatham
and Martin did not have legal custody of Kyle, but he was living with
them after his drug-addicted mother gave him up last year.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said officers were called to the home
four times since late 2007, all for issues related to visitation with
Kyle's biological father, Darien Smith.

Spokeswoman Sheila Stainback said the agency conducted a court-ordered
investigation of the home last October after Cheatham filed for legal
custody of Kyle.

"We found the house in order and the child happy and healthy at that
time," she said.

Cheatham did not pursue legal custody, and the agency had no further
official role in the matter.

Cheatham's and Martin's apartment is in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant
section, the same neighborhood where 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown was
killed in January 2006.

Nixzmary's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, was sentenced last month to up
to 29 years in prison in her death. Her mother faces a separate trial
later this year. The scrawny and battered girl was bound to a chair,
starved and forced to urinate in a litter box before she was killed with
a fatal blow to the head.

That case shocked the city and created pressure for reforms. The agency
hired 20 "protective agents" with previous law enforcement experience to
serve as consultants and help caseworkers improve their investigative
skills.

The city also started a campaign to try to get New Yorkers to "say
something" and dial 311 if they suspect abuse.

Stainback said no one reported Cheatham or Martin for abuse.

"The terrible case of abuse involving Kyle Smith is deeply felt here at
ACS," she said. "We are again asking neighbors, family and friends to
call 311 (or 911 in an emergency) if they suspect child abuse or neglect."

___

Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.






An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"

Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS.

every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

Perpetrators of Maltreatment

Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.

THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST

Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…

THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia

http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/...s.php?filter=6

This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.

http://www.jbs.org/node/4632

Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...nion-rightrail

FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILU. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler

http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc

HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN

http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html

Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News

http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/...May/mayds4.htm

A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster ca

30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed

Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support

80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.

The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991

Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent housing.

This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.

Front-page story in USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...m?csp=34#Close

Read the studies online.

Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Ca Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"

http://www.casey.org/Resources/Publi...lumniStudy.htm

MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"

http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fo...arch07_aer.pdf

http://www.cftl.org/documents/2008/FCfullreport.pdf

Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" reports:

www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren

The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...

CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...

BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
 




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