Sacramento CPS Has Blood on Their Hands, Again…

Once again the Sacramento CPS has allowed another child to die. As reported here and here  CPS has serious issues telling the truth and keeping accurate records.

The SacBee.com has a very telling story about how a little girl was brutally beaten and killed.

A 3-year-old Fair Oaks girl beaten to death in her home this year had suffered a broken arm and burned hand eight months earlier, but Sacramento County’s Child Protective Services never divulged those injuries to the court or to the attorneys overseeing her welfare, The Bee has learned.

Instead, a CPS social worker assured the court in August 2007 there were “no health or safety concerns” about Valeeya Brazile and recommended that the little girl remain in her home without further court supervision.

The court agreed, and the case of Valeeya Brazile was closed – until she was brutally beaten and died.

“This kid didn’t have to die,” said a furious Robert Wilson of Sacramento Child Advocates, whose attorneys represent children in dependency court, including Valeeya.

Had Wilson’s attorney advocates been told the full story by CPS, they would have aggressively investigated the circumstances and pushed to keep the case open, he said.

“Had we seen that information anywhere along the line, we would have escalated our investigation,” Wilson said. “There would have been red lights and red flags at our end.”

Valeeya died Feb. 5 from a severe beating, though the coroner concluded that the 31½-pound girl had been a victim of battered child syndrome, suffering numerous injuries over time. The mother’s boyfriend, Thomas Jerome Martin, has been charged with her murder.

The revelations about CPS’ knowledge of the child’s injuries – and its lack of disclosure to the court – are contained in internal agency records and juvenile court documents released to The Bee after a seven-month legal effort by the newspaper.

CPS documents chronicle the girl’s injuries. But the juvenile court files show that the girl’s attorneys and the court’s referee – who ultimately decided Valeeya’s placement – were told by CPS social worker Alexis Hince in a court report only that Valeeya was up to date on medical and dental exams. The girl “appears to be meeting normal developmental milestones for her age group,” the social worker stated.

Hince did not respond to a request for comment. CPS spokeswoman Laurie Slothower, in an e-mail response to a list of questions, wrote, “We cannot discuss specific case details because the information is confidential. However, it is CPS practice to provide all relevant information in court documents.”

Juvenile Court Referee Peter Helfer, who made the decision to remove Valeeya from the court’s oversight based on the social worker’s recommendation, did not respond to a request for comment.

Children had been placed in foster care

Valeeya and her older sibling had been taken away from their mother, Milicca Holmes, in October 2006 after Holmes was arrested for trying to run over a man, whom she had been dating, in a Jiffy Lube parking lot. At the time, Valeeya was in the back seat, in a car seat not belted in.

Initially, the girl and her brother were placed into foster care but were returned home to their two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment Feb. 15, 2007, under CPS supervision. The court was asked to decide in August 2007 whether the children should remain dependents of the court.

In her July 23, 2007, “In-Home Review Report” to the court, social worker Hince praised Holmes for successfully completing counseling, parenting classes, a 15-week domestic violence support group and alcohol and drug treatment and testing. As a result, Hince determined that the children’s risk was “low.”

“The mother immediately recognized the error of her ways and focused on changing her behaviors and reunifying with her children,” wrote Hince in her summary. The summary also bears the name of Lynn Frank, director of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Hince would acknowledge after the death that she never met Martin and did not know he was living in the home, according to CPS documents.

Helfer, the Juvenile Court referee, agreed with the recommendation on Aug. 2, 2007, and Valeeya and her sibling were removed from the court’s jurisdiction and placed in the “sole legal and physical custody of the mother.”

Enough is enough…

As I have stated on numerous occasions, there needs to be a full investigation at CPS. They need to start at the top and hand out a few pink slips.