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Abuse case leaves questions

Child protection staffers had visited the 9-year-old girl twice before she was found malnourished.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN and MOISES MENDOZA
Published August 4, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Child protection investigators twice visited the abused 9-year-old girl recently removed from her home, but found nothing to alarm them.

They returned a third time June 30 after getting yet another complaint about the girl's welfare - seven months since the first of their recent trips last November - and decided the girl was in an unsafe home.

During that visit on June 30, the girl weighed 42 pounds, about a third less than the average for a girl her age and height, and her skin was stretched tightly over her rib cage and spine.

St. Petersburg police on Wednesday arrested the girl's mother and the mother's live-in partner on charges of aggravated child abuse, saying they starved the girl, locked her in a bedroom, tied her hands with a white cord and forced her to wear a diaper for hours.

It is the type of case that inevitably raises questions about why nothing was done earlier to help the child. There were no clear answers on Thursday.

Child protection investigators from the Sheriff's Office and St. Petersburg police visited the girl in November to examine an allegation of physical abuse. The girl received a medical examination at Help-a-Child and weighed 58 pounds, court records show, close to the average of 60 pounds for her age and height. After learning that the family was getting mental health services, investigators didn't follow up.

The investigators returned in February to look into another complaint that the girl hadn't been attending school. They learned the girl was being homeschooled, and the Sheriff's Office says they "observed no hazards within the home, and the child appeared to be healthy."

When Dr. Sally Smith, the medical director of Help-a-Child, conducted another examination June 30, she found the girl had lost 16 pounds since November and weighed so little that she had "pinpoint red dots on her very dry skin, which is a symptom of malnutrition," according to court records obtained by the St. Petersburg Times.

Authorities say they're looking over the matter but don't anticipate any internal investigations.

"Administrators have reviewed this and will continue to review this, but at this point there appears to be no indication of any policy or procedural violation," said Mac McMullen, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

The local Department of Children and Families contracts with the Sheriff's Office to carry out all child protective investigations in Pinellas County. When asked if DCF was investigating the matter, spokesman Andy Ritter replied that the agency for now was "continuing to gather as much information as we can" about the case.

The family received mental health services at the Suncoast Mental Health Coalition, McMullen said.

The answers could shed light on how a 9-year-old girl could be so severely starved and abused without anyone knowing about it. She was under the care of her mother Melissa Samoraj, 27, and Raymond LaFountain, 31, Samoraj's partner.

Driver's license records show LaFountain is a male. But jail records listed LaFountain as a female. Police say LaFountain's gender is uncertain, and that he once went by the name Renee.

The girl's father, James Hays of Lecanto, a registered sex offender himself who was convicted of lewd and lascivious assault of a child under 16, says he wishes authorities had informed him of the allegations quicker. He hasn't seen his daughter in 8 years.

"I thought she was in a good home," he said.

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 727 893-8472.

[Last modified August 4, 2006, 01:09:17]