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New York Victims

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Hoosick Falls father indicted for infant daughter's death
By KENNETH C. CROWE II Staff Writer
Published: 05:36 p.m., Friday, August 13, 2010

TROY -- Joseph McElheny, 31, of Hoosick Falls, pleaded not guilty Friday afternoon to allegedly killing his 4-month-old daughter in May.

McElheny entered his plea at his arraignment following the opening of a sealed indictment by Rensselaer County Court Judge Andrew Ceresia.

The grand jury indicted McElheny in the May 11 death of Ina Jane McElheny. McElheny was charged with felony counts of second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter, three counts of second-degree assault and a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child.

McElheny was sent to the Rensselaer County Jail without bail.

Clarke gets 50 years to life for attempted murder, sexual assault on his child
Published: 12:08 PM - 06/25/10
Last updated: 1:45 PM - 06/25/10

MONTICELLO — Cory Clarke was sentenced to 50 years to life Friday for sexually abusing his 7-month old daughter and then leaving her in the woods to die on July 4.

Clarke, 27, will not be eligible for parole until he is 78.

Sullivan County Judge Frank LaBuda, in sentencing Clarke Friday, several times called him “evil incarnate.”

Clark was convicted in March of attempted murder, first-degree predatory sexual abuse on a child, incest and other first-degree felony sex crimes.

Clarke reported the baby missing to a Walmart employee. He maintained that the baby was snatched while he was changing her brother in a bathroom.

District Attorney Jim Farrell called Clarke's story preposterous, hammering home in his closing statements that DNA evidence conclusively proved the sexual assault and video cameras inside Walmart ruled out an abduction. He told the jury that Clarke planned to dump the baby and concoct a story to cover the sex abuse.

Farrell showed the jury a graphic photo demonstrating damage done to the baby, and the baby's blood-stained diaper. Clarke, who had visitation rights, had to return the baby to the mother on the Monday after a weekend visit and would have been discovered, Farrell said.

Clarke's attorney, Fred Neroni said he plans to appeal

A helpless 7-month-old Queens boy was beaten to death by his father, the latest in a rash of violence against small children in the borough, officials said Wednesday.

Xiah Greene died at Queens General Hospital Tuesday night after he was punched in the back by his dad Larry Greene, who flew into a rage when the child would not stop crying, police sources said.

Greene, 20, was charged with second-degree murder and is expected to be arraigned by Wednesday night, officials said.

Greene was babysitting at the baby's mother's home in St. Albans when he hit the infant just before 7 p.m., police said.

The baby fell unconscious, prompting Greene to call 911, police said. Xiah could not be revived.

Xiah became the fourth small child killed in Queens since the beginning of March, officials said.

On Sunday, 8-month-old Mario Patrice was taken off life support after he was violently shaken by his father Saul Cortez, police said.

Anniyah Levant, 19 months, and Dilan Crillo, 9 months, were also each shaken to death by their babysitters, both of whom were charged  with second-degree murder, officials said.

A fifth baby, 13-week-old Hailey Gomez, was hospitalized with a lacerated liver, a broken leg and fractured ribs after being abused by her father on March 16, police said.

Hailey was admitted to Schneider Children's Hospital in critical condition but is expected to survive, officials said.

Genessee County

Father: UNNAMED FATHER

Victim(s); Marcus Peters (6 years)

Date of Death: Oct. 2009

Child dies during weekend visitation with father, but authorities say death not "suspicious"

Monroe County

Father: MARK RESCH

Victim(s): Hunter Resch (7 years)

Date of Death: Feb. 2010

Child shot to death during court-ordered visitation. Father had history of DV, mother had filed two orders of protection.

NY man gets 25 to life for beating child to death

September 4, 2009 By The Associated Press  

OSWEGO, N.Y. (AP) — An upstate New York man found guilty of beating to death a former girlfriend's 15-month-old son is headed to prison for 25 years to life.

An Oswego County judge sentenced 31-year-old Jay John Barboni of Clay to the maximum penalty Friday for the murder of toddler Nick Taylor. The boy died from severe head trauma in August 2008 at his mother's apartment in Fulton, 23 miles north of Syracuse.

Medical examiners concluded the child was hit on the head at least five times. Barboni maintained the baby was fine when he put him to bed.

Teen killed by dad was carrying his baby

A Bronx man who strangled his pregnant 14-year-old daughter and threw her naked body in a boiler last year was also the father of her unborn child, according to prosecutors.

Miguel Matias, 36, appeared in Bronx Supreme Court Tuesday as prosecutors consolidated the two indictments against him - an earlier one for his daughter's murder on Feb. 16, 2008, and the newest one for second-degree rape and incest.

DNA taken from Matias matches a sample taken from the fetus carried by his daughter, Anna, said Steven Reed, spokesman for Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson.

Matias confessed to the murder, saying he was driven to strangle Anna with an electrical cord when he caught her writing "sex things" on her computer, police said.

Matias has been declared fit to stand trial but has a history of mental illness and has attempted suicide several times, according to his lawyer Roy Schwartz.

The new indictment says Matias raped his daughter between Nov. 15 and Nov. 30, 2007, which means Anna was 2-1/2 to three months pregnant when she was murdered.

Matias' family had previously said Anna was pregnant with a boyfriend's baby.

Matias is scheduled to appear in court again on June 30 and lawyers for both sides said a plea agreement is likely.

Matias faced 25 years to life in prison for the murder charge. He now faces up to an additional seven years in prison for the rape charge.

West Point officer pleads guilty to child abuse

WEST POINT - A lieutenant colonel stationed at the U.S. Military Academy pled guilty to child abuse last week, Army officials confirmed Monday.
West Point officials refused to release the officer’s name in order to protect the privacy of his family living on base. He was an assistant professor.
According to West Point’s Director of Communications, Col. Bryan Hilferty, the officer pled guilty to four specifications of battery on a child under the age of 16 and two specifications of child endangerment during a court-martial held April 27. He was sentenced to eight months confinement, forfeiture of $4,500 pay per month for eight months and a reprimand.
Though researchers have sometimes linked child abuse cases to soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Hilferty said no such connection was discussed during the trial. The defendant had deployed to Kuwait, but not Iraq or Afghanistan.

Fulton doc says warnings of suspected child abuse were ignored by Oswego County DSS

by John O'Brien / The Post-Standard

Saturday March 21, 2009, 11:11 PM

David Lassman / The Post-StandardDr. Dennis Mullaney has accused Oswego County child protective workers of brushing off reports of suspected child abuse.

An emergency room doctor who treated 11-year-old Erin Maxwell just before she died last year says Oswego County's child protective workers have for years been unresponsive to reports of child abuse.

Dr. Dennis Mullaney, a former ER physician at A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital in Fulton, says his worst fears of that complacency were realized with the deaths of Maxwell and 15-month-old Nick Taylor two weeks earlier.

The county's Department of Social Services routinely ignored reports of suspected child abuse called in by doctors and nurses in the emergency room at Lee Memorial, Mullaney said in an interview last week. The medical staff talked frequently among themselves about DSS's complacency, he said.

Mullaney, an ER doctor for more than 30 years in three states, said he's never seen child protective workers as unresponsive as in Oswego County. In one case, he transferred a child to a hospital in Onondaga County so caseworkers there would get involved. The problem in Oswego County became so pervasive a year before Maxwell's death that he called for a meeting between DSS and hospital officials.

"I know it's hard to believe, but you'd call and they'd say, 'Why are you bothering us with this,'" he said.

State review says Oswego County didn't do enough for Erin Maxwell (3/18/2009)

Friend's mother: Palermo girl was 'living in a litter box' (9/16/2008)

Lawyer says Erin Maxwell death an accident (9/26/2008)

DSS report on Maxwell case says department went by the book (10/3/2008)

Child often locked in room, underfed, police say (10/8/2008)

Erin Maxwell's stepbrother charged with murder; parents also charged (video) (10/8/2008)

Statements show Erin Maxwell was lonely, hungry (10/9/08)

Group circulates petition to oust director of Oswego County DSS (10/15/2008)

Erin Maxwell's Western relatives describe Palermo girl's life (11/12/2008)

Lawyer talks about evidence in Maxwell case (1/15/2009)

Defense of Alan Jones in Erin Maxwell case could cost Oswego County taxpayers big bucks (3/1/2009)

Mullaney saw Maxwell in the ER on Aug. 29 and she died the next morning. Her stepbrother, Alan Jones, is charged with strangling her in their Palermo home. DSS received complaints in 2003, 2005 and 2006 about her living conditions, and workers had visited the home but did not remove her. State officials last week issued a report criticizing DSS's handling of the case.

Two weeks before Maxwell's death, Taylor died from severe trauma to the head. His mother's boyfriend, Jay John Barboni, was charged with murder. The night Taylor arrived in the ER, Mullaney got the boy's medical records from Crouse Hospital. They showed that two weeks earlier, the case had been referred to child protective workers, Mullaney said. He doesn't know what the agency did.

Mullaney, who left Lee Memorial in September, said he and other medical professionals there had become so frustrated with DSS that they requested a meeting with agency officials in the summer of 2007. He feared some children might die, he said.

"I was at the end of my rope," Mullaney said. "I knew what was coming down the road."

About 10 people attended the meeting -- four from DSS, he said. Mullaney told them child protective workers were brushing off calls from the ER of suspected child abuse.

Mullaney said he reported about 12 cases of suspected child abuse in his four years at A.L. Lee. Only once or twice did a child protective worker go to the hospital to investigate, he said. They would usually tell him they'd interview the child's parents the next day, he said. He said he laid out his concerns to DSS officials at the meeting.

Their response was that they were professionals and knew what they were doing, Mullaney said.

DSS Commissioner Frances Lanigan did not return phone requests for an interview. In an email response, she said she was not at the meeting. She said confidentiality laws prevented her from discussing cases publicly.

She wrote in her email that DSS officials sometimes meet with "community stakeholders" such as hospital workers about promoting child safety.

"There are times we cannot agree," she wrote. "However, our approach is always one where we are open to hearing concerns and responding in a professional manner."

Tammy Brown, the former nursing director of the ER at Lee Memorial, confirmed that the meeting took place with the Oswego County DSS leaders, but declined to comment further.

After the meeting in a board room at the hospital, Mullaney told the hospital's administrator, Dennis Casey, that he feared the county's apathy could have devastating results, Mullaney said.

"I told him, 'We'll have dead kids upstairs,'" referring to the ER, Mullaney said. Casey did not return phone requests for an interview.

A week after the meeting, Mullaney contacted the Syracuse office of the state Office of Children and Family Services and complained about Oswego County's lack of interest in suspected child abuse cases, he said. A spokeswoman for the office confirmed that Mullaney made the complaint, but was unable to say what became of it.

Mullaney's meeting with DSS officials was prompted by the case of an 18-month-old who'd suffered a spiral fracture to his leg, Mullaney said. It's the kind of injury in a child that's almost always caused by abuse -- usually an adult twisting the child's leg, Mullaney said. He called the state child abuse hotline that night, but got a cold response from the Oswego County DSS worker who called back, Mullaney said. The worker refused to come to the hospital, he said.

"She said, 'Why are you bothering us with this? You decide which parent did it and send him home with the other one,'" Mullaney said. As in other cases, the worker told Mullaney an investigator would look into the allegations the next day, he said.

Fearing more harm to the child, Mullaney kept the child overnight in the emergency room, then had him transported to a Syracuse hospital, he said. There, Onondaga County caseworkers were called in and referred the case to Oswego County for investigation, Mullaney said. He doesn't know what became of the child or the case, and does not remember the boy's name.

Telling a doctor to decide who abused the child is an inappropriate response, according to Karen Schimke, president of the Albany-based Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy.

"That's why we have child protection," she said. "How's the doctor supposed to know?"

Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, said a toddler with a spiral fracture is a case that clearly should be investigated.

"I would argue that if they didn't investigate, they screwed up," he said.

But child protective workers shouldn't necessarily go to the hospital just because it's an ER doctor reporting abuse, Wexler said. The caseworkers should evaluate the evidence independently because some doctors report suspected child abuse just to cover themselves, he said. Innocent families can be needlessly torn apart by false accusations, he said.

Lanigan wrote in an email that caseworkers who get a call from the state hotline consider the information and determine whether the child is in imminent danger. They have 24 hours under the law to contact the alleged victim, she said.

"When a child is in the hospital and there is no plan for release within 24 hours, a reasonable assumption made by the department would be that the child is in a safe place," Lanigan said. The caseworker might have more pressing issues than getting to the hospital immediately, such as the safety of other children in the home, she said.

"If the hospital staff says release is imminent and they have concerns about the release, a child protective investigator would be sent immediately, no matter what time of day," Lanigan wrote.

Oswego County DSS child protective workers have been under scrutiny since Maxwell's death last year. The state's investigation found that DSS did inadequate long-term monitoring of the deplorable conditions in her home, even though it smelled of animal urine, animals were kept in the kitchen and there were more than 120 cats in the house. The report said Maxwell's death likely would not have been prevented had DSS acted differently.

Mullaney disagrees, and questions the thoroughness of the state's investigation. He was on duty in the ER when Maxwell was brought in, and gave state police a written statement about his medical findings. And he'd complained to the state a year earlier about Oswego County's caseworkers, he said. But he was never contacted by the state investigators who did the report, he said.

State investigators didn't interview Mullaney because they were focused on reviewing the work of Oswego County's caseworkers, not on the police investigation, said spokeswoman Susan Steele.

Mullaney, who heads the ER at Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport, said he blames himself for not going public sooner with his concerns. He said he can't shake the children's deaths.

"When you finish resuscitating them and they're lying there dead on a gurney and you're waiting for the police," he said, "that is burned into your mind. It never goes away."

Dad's fists killed baby boy, cops say

BY KERRY BURKE, SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM and LEO STANDORA
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Thursday, October 16th 2008, 12:35 AM

Rest in Peace Little Elijah Rodriguez

An 8-month-old boy was murdered by his father at a Bronx shelter for homeless families, police said Wednesday.

Little Elijah Rodriguez, who was being monitored by the city's child welfare agency, suffered "blunt trauma to the abdomen" Tuesday, the medical examiner's office said. He had fist-shaped bruises on his stomach.

His death was declared a homicide due to "fatal child-abuse syndrome."

SEE: NIXZMARY BROWN'S MOM COULDN'T HEAR HER DAUGHTER'S CRIES, DEFENSE SAYS

After hours of questioning, 42nd Precinct detectives charged Elijah's father, John Rodriguez, 21, with murder and manslaughter Wednesday night.

The baby's mother, Wanda Rosado, 21, branded him a killer.

"In front of me he was the perfect dad," Rosado said through tears outside the stationhouse. "I never saw him hit our baby, but he killed my son."

Rosado's mother, Rosa Ciruz, 47, of the Bronx, said detectives told her Rodriguez had "confessed to everything."

"He said to the detectives he was angry. The baby wouldn't stop crying, so he hit him in the stomach twice," Ciruz said.

SEE: TRYST PAROLE COMMISH PLANNED WASN'T HIS FIRST

The Administration for Children's Services said it had opened a case on the couple after Elijah suffered a broken arm in August, an injury Rodriguez said occurred in an accidental fall. "John said he put the baby in a bouncer [seat] and didn't strap him in," Rosado recalled.

Police said they had two domestic abuse complaints against Rodriguez. People who knew the parents said they fought like cats and dogs but never were seen abusing Elijah.

Police said Rosado left Elijah with Rodriguez at the West Farms shelter when she went to her job as a home attendant Tuesday morning. The unemployed Rodriguez was filling in for the baby's regular baby-sitter, who had a doctor's appointment.

Shortly after 1 p.m., investigators said, Rodriguez brought the unconscious infant to the Bronx Health Center on Washington Ave. The doctors found the suspicious bruises on his stomach. Elijah underwent emergency surgery at Lincoln Hospital but could not be saved.

As cops escorted Rodriguez out of the stationhouse Wednesday night, about 20 outraged family members swarmed around him.

"Why did you do it?" they yelled. "You will suffer for this!"

After an impassive Rodriguez was put into a police vehicle, the mob pounded on the car.

"We waited for him to see us," said Rosado's sister Gloria Sanchez, 31. "He killed his own son and not one tear."

kburke@nydailynews.com

With Edgar Sandoval

 

Saturday, 31 January 2009 10:37PM 5-Month-Old In Critical Condition from Abuse

NEW YORK  -- A 5-month-old baby is in critical condition Saturday and police have charged the girl's father, Scott Archbold, 41,  with causing the injuries including multiple bone fractures, internal bleeding and signs of prior abuse. Christina Benjamin,  the infant's mother, has been charged with child endangerment for allegedly failing to get the child medical attention after the infant's grandmother suspected the abuse. The grandmother claims to have noticed bruises on the infant's leg when she was changing her diaper in Jamaica, Queens on Wednesday night and reportedly  told the infant's mother to seek medical care for the infant but the advise was ignored and the child's mother brought the baby home instead.   When Benjamin asked Archbold several days later about the bruises, police say he told Benjamin the baby "may have suffered some facial injuries." Police say that Benjamin eventually brought the baby to the pediatric intensive care unit at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park. Medical Center doctors discovered injuries to the girl's legs, ribs and clavicle, according to police. Doctors said the baby also showed signs of previous abuse, including broken bones mending.

Rest in Peace

Rest in Peace

Little Baby

Father arrested after infant son's death; Report shows sexual abuse

by jshabe

Friday August 17, 2007, 5:51 PM

Michael Oates/Staten Island AdvanceThe city Medical Examiner's report showed that Joseph A. Wallace's son had head trauma and lacerations in his rectum.

A 21-year-old Staten Island man has been arrested on manslaughter charges stemming from the death of his 2-month-old son in May.

Joseph A. Wallace, of Jewett Ave. in Port Richmond, was arrested on Thursday night after the city Medical Examiner determined that the child's death was a homicide.

After an examination of the child, Joseph A. Wallace Jr., showed that he had lacerations inside his rectum, police questioned the boy's father.

Wallace allegedly told police that he inserted his finger's into the child's rectum in an attempt to stop the child from crying. Instead, the child sustained internal injuries.

The Medical Examiner's report determined the child died from a blunt impact to the head.

In addition to the manslaughter charge, sources say Wallace could also be charged with aggravated sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

--Contributed by Peter N. Spencer

 

Queens father arrested in shaking of infant daughter

7:09 PM EST, December 20, 2007

NEW YORK - A Queens dad is under arrest on charges he severely shook his infant daughter while his wife was in the shower.

Prosecutors say the 2-month-old girl remains in critical condition four days after she was shaken. Doctors say she suffered bleeding on her brain.

The 31-year-old father is charged with first-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. He could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors say the child began to cry and was shaken violently and repeatedly. They say that after the mother got out of the shower, the girl was taken to a hospital.

Prosecutors say the mother won't be charged

Rest in Peace

Tkai