Phoenix-Arizona, Mother given second shot at son: This week's candidate

Mother given second shot at son

Aug. 17, 2007 06:17 PM
This week's candidate for mother of the year: Tina Tatum.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/column...ts0818-ON.html

When we last saw Tatum in May 2005, she was in court charged with child
abuse, sobbing to a judge how it wasn't her fault that her boyfriend
killed her baby. This, even though she knew he'd been shaking the infant
and had admitted to smacking her older son around herself.

"I've been through hell since this happened," she tearfully told the
judge. "I know that nothing is ever going to bring my son back and I
have to live with it the rest of my life. I shouldn't have to suffer any
more."



These days, Tatum's out of jail and apparently suffering still. Her
latest bout of misery came Sunday when police say she beat her surviving
son bloody in a Mesa Wal-Mart then dragged him off in front of horrified
customers.

So how could this happen, you ask? How could someone with her past even
have a son to use as a punching bag?

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas was so outraged by the matter he
called a press conference.

"It is very disturbing that a person who was involved in the violent
death of one child apparently was given unmonitored custody of a second
child . . . ," Thomas said. "The current system for protecting children
from violence and live-in adults is not working."

So says the man whose own office offered a deal to the woman two years
ago, reducing her role in the baby's death to attempted child abuse.

In 2003, Tatum was living with Pedro Peralta and her two sons by other
boyfriends, a 5-year-old and three-month old Anthony Nieves.

On the night the baby died, Peralta admitted that he had shaken Anthony
but Tatum appeared more concerned with her beloved than her dead baby.

"What am I supposed to do without you?" she told Peralta, in an exchange
taped by Phoenix police. "You mean (expletive) everything to me. And I
can't (expletive) do without you."

Tatum refused to cooperate with police and no charges were brought at
the time. It took 10 months and another dead child - by then Peralta had
moved in with another woman and smothered her son - before the pair was
prosecuted: Peralta for murder and Tatum for child abuse for failing to
protect her infant son.

In 2005, Thomas' office offered Tatum a deal: plead guilty to attempted
child abuse and we'll stipulate a year in jail and lifetime probation.
The plea also required that she get counseling for domestic violence and
have no "victim" contact without a probation officer's approval - though
given that the victim was dead such contact seemed highly unlikely.

Tatum took the deal. Meanwhile, Child Protective Services turned the
surviving son over to her father and closed the case. The agency says it
never again got a report of a problem.

When Tatum got out of jail in spring 2006, she went to live with her
father and son. Her probation officer notified the court, saying she
could find no orders from the judge barring such contact. "Therefore,"
she wrote, "this officer will allow her to remain in her father's
residence with this son unless the court opposes this arrangement."

It didn't.

Mike Goss, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Adult Probation
Department said they had no reason to believe she would abuse the boy.
"No information was presented to the court from either CPS or the
pre-sentence investigation that she was a danger to the child as a
perpetrator," he told me. "The danger was that she failed to protect him
from this other guy."

Court records indicate, meanwhile, that Peralta told police in 2003 that
Tatum had drawn blood when hitting her older son in the face. Tatum
denied it, saying she only smacks the boy. "I don't ever close my fist
to my kids," she said.

Tatum, 29, was arrested Sunday after Wal-Mart customers say she closed
her fist and repeatedly slugged her now 10-year-old son, bloodying his
nose then dragging him off by his feet. This, reportedly because of an
argument over a T-shirt.

Tatum, by the way, had just completed 51 of 52 court-mandated counseling
sessions for domestic violence.



Reach Roberts at or (602) 444-8635.
Read her blog at robertsblog.azcentral.com.





CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

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

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

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 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS 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...