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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

2-year-old boy alive before brutal decapitation

by KATIE ZEZIMANEWARK, N.J. -- Autopsy results released Thursday show that a 2-year-old boy was alive before he was decapitated, and his mother, who authorities said killed him, died from a self-inflicted knife wound to the neck.

Police found the body of 2-year-old Zahree Thomas in the family's Camden rowhouse early Wednesday. His head was in the freezer. His mother, Chevonne Thomas, stabbed herself in the neck minutes after placing a rambling, sometimes incoherent call to 911. Thomas told a dispatcher that she had stabbed her son.

Thomas lost custody of the boy in 2010 after admitting to police that she smoked marijuana laced with the hallucinogenic drug PCP, blacked out and left Zahree alone in a car. She regained custody in April 2010 under an order signed by Judge Angelo DiCamillo of Camden County Superior Court's Family division, according to Tamara Kendig, a court spokeswoman.

Kendig said all standard procedures for placing a child in a home, including substance abuse, mental health and parenting skill evaluations were carried out in Thomas's case.

Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, said it will take weeks for toxicology tests to come back. But there were indications that Thomas might have still been using drugs, Laughlin said.

Thomas told 911 dispatchers she was on the anti-depressant Prozac but didn't take it that day.

"I didn't take it today, but I should have. I should have," she said.

The case raises questions about New Jersey's Department of Children and Family Services, which has been under federal oversight for more than a decade. Agency spokeswoman Kristine Brown said it's still investigating the circumstances of Zahree and Chevonne Thomas' deaths.

The department said Wednesday it had an open case on the Thomases and its "staff visited with the family regularly, and was in communication with all service providers." The state said it provided the family with substance abuse testing, reunification services, counseling and other services.

The case comes a month after a report from a federal court monitor showed that social worker caseloads at the Department of Children and Families were starting to rise and only 55 percent of children put in foster care placement had two documented visits by caseworkers each month, the number mandated by the federal settlement.

"The Monitor continues to be very concerned by this low performance given the importance of visitation by caseworkers during the first few months of placement to assess children and families' needs and to ensure stability," the report states.

The state Legislature cut $11.5 million from the 2013 DCF budget.

Mary Coogan, the assistant director of Advocates for Children of New Jersey, a nonprofit children's organization, said it will try to get more detail on the Thomas case.

"How often were people actually out to this home?" Ms. Coogan asked. "We hope the department really looks at a case like this in detail and really has a public conversation about it."

TRANSCRIPT FROM 911 CALL

Chevonne Thomas: Hell no, hell no, hell no. Keep thinking that. Keep thinking that.

Dispatcher: 911 where's your emergency.

Thomas: Yes, somebody just stabbed my baby. Please get here.

Dispatcher: They just did what?

Thomas: Stabbed my baby Dispatcher: Do they know who it was, ma'am?

Thomas: Yes, it's my ex, it's my boyfriend. My current boyfriend.

Dispatcher: What's your address?

Thomas: 1415 Kaighn. You know what? (dispatcher comments indecipherable) I did it. I'm lying. I'm lying. I'm lying. I'm lying. I did it.

Dispatcher: Do you need an ambulance, ma'am?

Thomas: No. I mean, no. He don't need, no.

Dispatcher: What's your name?

Thomas: Chevonne Thomas. Chevonne Thomas.

Dispatcher: Chevonne, you said your baby was stabbed. Is this your son? How old is he?

Thomas: Yes, yes, yes, yes. My son is 2. He is 2.

Dispatcher: He was the one that was stabbed?

Thomas: Yes.

Dispatcher: He was stabbed with what?

Thomas: A knife.

Dispatcher: Is he bleeding? Where is he bleeding? Is he bleeding from anywhere?

Thomas: No. I mean he is, but not much.

Dispatcher: From where.

Thomas: Not much.

Dispatcher: Chevonne, where is he bleeding from?

Thomas: Not much. He's not bleeding that much. Not bleeding that much.

Dispatcher: Where's your boyfriend at?

Thomas: I think ... I knew it. I knew it.

Dispatcher: Chevonne, Where's he at?

Thomas: My boyfriend is, he's gonna come in the back door. He's gonna come in the back door.

Dispatcher: Who did it? Your boyfriend stabbed him?

Thomas: Yes.

Dispatcher: Who else is in the house?

Thomas: I knew it. Nobody. Nobody at all. Nobody. Nobody at all.

Dispatcher: And your boyfriend is outside?

Thomas: Yep. Yep.

Dispatcher: You guys were fighting?

Thomas: Yep. Yep.

Dispatcher: Aright, we're going to send officers out there, OK?

Thomas: Yep, yep. Yep.

Dispatcher: You're at 1415 Kaighn Avenue, right?

Thomas: Yep, yep, yep.

Dispatcher: All right, we're going to send somebody out there.

Thomas: You better, wait, wait. You know what? I don't even want to play this. I did it. OK? I did it. I did it. I did it.

Dispatcher: Stay on the phone, OK?

Thomas: I keep trying to make it, I'm about to, no, I have to find some money, I got to. I got to try to find some money. I got to, I got to, I got to. I don't care.

Dispatcher: Chevonne, what's the problem?

Thomas: I knew it. I knew it. I knew it.

Dispatcher: You knew what?

Thomas: I knew it. I know. I knew it, I knew it.

Dispatcher: You knew what, Chevonne? What did you know? You need the police?

Thomas: Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, uh-UH, uh-UH. Nope. Nope.

Dispatcher: Do you need the police?

Thomas: Nope. mm-MM. mm-MM. I don't need nothing.

Dispatcher: Do you need the police?

Thomas: Nope. Um-um. I don't need nothing. I don't need nothing.

Dispatcher: How old are you, Chevonne?

Thomas: I don't need nothing. I'm 33.

Dispatcher: 33?

Thomas: 33 years old.

Dispatcher: Where do you live at?

Thomas: 1058. 1058.

Dispatcher: Where?

Dispatcher: 1058 what?

Thomas: 10. 10.

Dispatcher: 1058 what? Chevonne? Who lives at 1415 Kaighn?

Thomas: Nobody. Not me. My boyfriend is right here. He's right.

Dispatcher: Can I speak to him?

Thomas: (indecipherable) Dispatcher: Do you take medicine?

Thomas: I used to.

Dispatcher: What kind did you take?

Thomas: Prozac.

Dispatcher: Prozac. OK, you don't take it anymore?

Thomas: Nope. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, I do.

Dispatcher: Do you still take it?

Thomas: I still take it.

Dispatcher: Did you take it today?

Thomas: I still take it. I still take it. No. no, no. I did, no. I didn't take it today, but I should have. I should have. I should have took it today.

Dispatcher: Ok, where are you? She didn't take her Prozac today.

Thomas: I did. I did. I did. Keep playing.

---
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new jersey, murder suicide, new jersey news

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Saturday, May 19, 2012

Girls don't receive prom dresses days before big dance

WAYNE, New Jersey (WABC) -- Just days from the big dance, teens in one New Jersey community say a dress shop took their money and didn't deliver.

It's turned some girl's dream night into a nightmare situation.

Samantha Aparo is getting ready for prom. It's stressful enough and the last thing she needed to worry about is not having a dress.

"Three weeks went by and no calls nothing. We started going by every day and nothing," she said.

Samantha is just one of many teens who ordered and paid in full for a dress at Red Carpet Pageant and Prom in Wayne.

It didn't take long for her to realize something was not right.

"Just not even answering the phone or the door or something," she adds.

The store's owner Patricia Dowling wouldn't return phone calls and recently reported a robbery at her store of more than 40 dresses. But there have been other financial problems.

"It's not the money I'll take care of that. It it's these other girls who don't have a dress," adds Frank Davis.

Davis's daughter Mariah worked at Red Carpet for months and wasn't getting paid so she quit.

He says Dowling has Cancer.

Eyewitness News called all of the numbers on the door. One was not in service and nobody answered the other.

Samantha is lucky. A company called http://www.promgirl.com/ heard about her prom problem and offered to help out.

She now has a dress and learned an important life lesson.

"Make sure you check up because you can't just order someone and trust that it's gonna happen," she says.

---
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Saturday, June 18, 2011

NJ agency gets complaint 9 days before child dies

By SAMANTHA HENRYNEWARK -- New Jersey child protection officials disclosed Friday their agency received an anonymous report of suspected abuse nine days before an 8-year-old Irvington girl was found dead in her mother's apartment, but did not order a field visit.

The Department of Children and Families is looking into why the report of the phone call, in which the caller gave an address where DCF previously had an open investigation, was not linked to the other case files. The agency had an open investigation on the family from 2006 to 2008, and classified four previous complaints of suspected abuse and neglect in the home unfounded before closing the case.

"This is a child protection agency, and it's really hard to absorb if there was a failure of this magnitude," said Commissioner Allison Blake.

The agency only learned of the fifth complaint in its recent investigation into the child's death.

Blake said DCF has not yet determined whether the oversight was an isolated or systemic failure in the safeguards. She also emphasized that the agency has made many improvements since a court-ordered federal monitor became involved, and said many of the current policies, protocols and training were not in place when the agency was first involved with the family.

"While the handling of this fifth referral raises concerns, this should not serve as an indictment of the entire child welfare system, nor does it reverse the significant progress that has been made to date," she wrote in a letter to colleagues updating them on the investigation.

Records released by the agency late Friday mention an anonymous call, received May 13, from a person reporting "concern about the appearance and wellbeing of two unknown children." The call was recorded as "information and referral, requiring no response by (the) field."

Eight-year-old Christina Glenn was found dead May 22 in her family's apartment from malnutrition and an untreated fracture in her femur. Her two young siblings were removed from the home, injured and severely malnourished.

The children's mother, 30-year-old Venette Ovilde, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child. Her roommate, Myriam Janvier, 23, has pleaded not guilty to child endangerment.

Friends and acquaintances said the women, both Haitian nationals who emigrated to New Jersey at a young age, had recently come under the sway of a religious leader who made them dress themselves and the children in head-to-toe white garments and engage in fasting and all-day prayer sessions. Ovilde allegedly removed the children from school and no longer allowed them to interact with outsiders.

The agency previously reported only that it had contact with the family between 2006 and 2008. A report from the commissioner updating stakeholders on the investigation into the handling of Glenn's case said the agency had reviewed the way the four complaints during that time period had been handled and determined they had been correctly classified as unfounded.

Investigators at the time found the children to be in school, receiving medical attention, getting the proper amount of food and said the children appeared "cooperative and loving."

"It appears there was a seismic shift in this family sometime after DYFS closed its case in 2008," the report states.

The case has drawn comparisons to when four boys were found starving in Collingswood in 2003, leading to an overhaul of the child welfare system. In 2004, the state settled a lawsuit filed by the children's advocacy group Children's Rights Inc., seeking changes to the way New Jersey deals with children who need protection.

The state has hired more caseworkers and improved their training. It has upgraded a computer system used to track children. Now, siblings are more likely to stay together when they are removed from a home and there are more services for foster children as they age out of the child-welfare system. With an emphasis on helping families, far fewer children are ever removed from their families' homes.

new jersey, newark, irvington, child abuse, child death, new jersey news

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