Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Records: DCF failed endangered girl

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 21, 2006

LEHIGH ACRES - Less than a week before a 13-year-old girl was raped and fatally beaten, two medical agencies urged child welfare workers to remove her from her home because they felt she was in danger, according to state records.

Michelle Fontanez died Feb. 23, three days after the attack. Her stepfather, Alberto Hernandez, is charged with first-degree murder and rape.

According to Department of Children and Families records, a social worker recommended that Michelle be removed from the home because she said Hernandez sexually abused her and she had "extreme hatred for her mother," who did not believe the allegations.

Social workers from the Ruth Cooper Center, a mental health facility that treated Michelle, also stated that they feared the eighth-grader's stepfather would further abuse her and that her mother, Migdalia Hernandez, 44, wouldn't protect her.

The DCF ordered Hernandez to move out of the house, but he was living just across the street when Michelle was attacked.

A DCF investigation into its caseworkers' and lawyers' conduct concluded that a number of policies were not followed and harm to Michelle was not adequately assessed.

Agency officials declined to say whether anyone will be disciplined.

"We are moving forward on implementing the recommendations set forth in the report and are confident that these measures will result in an improved child protection system," DCF spokesman Tim Bottcher said.

Another case: Grandma's warnings on infant ignored

WEST PALM BEACH - Child abuse investigators should have gone further in investigating claims that an infant who was later left to die in a canal was unsafe with his parents, according to a state review.

In April, the baby's father, Charles Edward Tyson, got into a dispute with the infant's mother and tossed the baby, C.J., from a car, according to police. Tyson then allegedly slammed C.J. onto the vehicle's hood and threw him into a canal. He is charged with first-degree murder.

According to the state report, C.J.'s grandmother had called the Department of Children and Families six months earlier, questioning whether his parents were capable of caring for him and detailing possible abuse.

The review found that workers should have discussed with attorneys whether there was enough evidence of abuse to take the child into state custody, referred the family to an agency that helps new parents and had the infant examined.

The boy's grandmother had told the DCF that Tyson was violent.

Child abuse investigators later said family members had resolved their differences and did not want state help. The case was later closed.

[Last modified June 21, 2006, 06:28:24]