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Mom reported abuse before baby's death
By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- As 18-year-old Evelyn Saez rested in a hospital July 2, the day her baby girl was born, she filled out a survey provided by a hospital social worker. When asked whether there was a history of domestic violence in her home, Saez checked "yes." Her boyfriend, Juan Ferrer, had punched her in the right arm on New Year's Eve, after she slapped him, Saez said this week. A case worker for the Department of Children and Families visited Saez at her hospital bed, urging her to call a hotline so she could receive counseling and sign up for parenting classes, Saez said. She called the number the next day and hours later a DCF worker went to investigate at the Ybor City home Saez shared with her boyfriend and his mother. The employee determined it was safe for Saez to return home with her baby, said DCF spokeswoman Shawnna Lee. Three weeks later, baby Yarine was dead. Police say Ferrer threw the infant against a dresser after she vomited on him while he burped her. Police have charged him with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. DCF officials are now left wondering what went wrong. "It looked like it was an isolated incident," Lee said of the New Year's Eve altercation. "Obviously, we didn't know the full extent." According to Saez, Ferrer completed an anger management course in Massachusetts a few years ago and he had been seeing a therapist here. She would not say who ordered that he enroll in the class or why, but she defended Ferrer, saying he was a loving and doting father and that he would never hurt Yarine. Ferrer told doctors he accidentally dropped the child about 3:30 p.m. Monday and she hit the dresser. Saez was drying her hair and did not witness it, they told police. Early the next morning, Saez said, she noticed bruising across the child's stomach and she was cool to the touch. Yarine stopped breathing on the way to a hospital and died Wednesday afternoon. An autopsy listed the cause of death as a lacerated liver. The injuries were so extensive, "there was very little that could have been done to save this little girl," said Dr. Daniel Spitz, associate medical examiner. Psychologists say that while anger is a normal human emotion, genetic or psychological factors dictate how people deal with it. Some harbor tendencies to make quick, impulsive actions, which can turn destructive, said Jerry Deffenbacher, a Colorado State University psychology professor and an expert on anger management. "It's not a consciously planned kind of behavior," Deffenbacher said. "It's uncontrolled. But its results can be tragic." Deffenbacher said in some cases, anger management classes are not enough, that domestic violence intervention is needed. "We need to separate our anger management from dealing with aggressive and compulsive behavior. They go together, but are not one and the same.
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