Jaded
May 31st, 2008, 07:07 AM
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The Fulton County child welfare agency said Friday it could have done more to protect a 16-month-old baby who police say was killed by her mother and a boyfriend — only days after the child had suffered serious injuries which the agency knew about.
Amiya Brown died Wednesday night from blunt-force trauma to the face and head, said Atlanta police homicide commander Lt. Keith Meadows.
Her mother, LaBoiya Brown, 19, and her mother's boyfriend, 18-year-old Brandon Hall, both of Atlanta, were arrested Thursday and charged with felony murder and cruelty to children.
The infant had been in Hall's care at the couple's apartment on Reeve's Circle in southwest Atlanta, police said. Police received a call about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday from medical staff at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding, saying an infant was dead from injuries "believed to be foul play," the police report said. Police say circumstances of the killing remain unclear.
Days before the girl's death, on May 19, Amiya had been taken to Hughes Spalding with fractures of her arm and leg, police said.
A caseworker from the Fulton County office of the state Division of Family and Children Services visited the hospital and opened a case file on the girl. The agency would not identify that caseworker.
The agency then allowed Amiya to return home, DFCS officials said.
In the nine days between the injuries and the child's death, no caseworker had any follow-up meetings with Amiya's mother or relatives, said Fulton DFCS Director Dannette Smith.
Considering the girl's injuries, Smith said she would have wanted the caseworker to visit the family in that time, but no policy required it.
"It (the follow-up) was probably not as thorough as we would have liked it to be done," Smith said.
DFCS said it is still investigating the case. Smith said she will act "very quickly and very swiftly" to deal with any employees found to have erred in Amiya's case.
Meadows, the Atlanta police homicide commander, said that the boyfriend, Hall, has not been truthful to investigators. During the earlier May 19 injury incident, Brown told authorities that Amiya was in the custody of the infant's grandmother when she was injured, Meadows said. When police interviewed the grandmother, she said that wasn't true and said she'd been homeless for the past two months, Meadows said.
Smith, the county DFCS director, said that at the time, her agency did not believe Brown had caused Amiya's injuries, and it did not know that Hall was in the picture.Smith said that while the details were murky, the social worker allowed Amiya back into her mother's custody, setting up a "safety plan" to make sure Brown was able to properly care for her.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/05/30/baby_dead.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab&imw=Y
The Fulton County child welfare agency said Friday it could have done more to protect a 16-month-old baby who police say was killed by her mother and a boyfriend — only days after the child had suffered serious injuries which the agency knew about.
Amiya Brown died Wednesday night from blunt-force trauma to the face and head, said Atlanta police homicide commander Lt. Keith Meadows.
Her mother, LaBoiya Brown, 19, and her mother's boyfriend, 18-year-old Brandon Hall, both of Atlanta, were arrested Thursday and charged with felony murder and cruelty to children.
The infant had been in Hall's care at the couple's apartment on Reeve's Circle in southwest Atlanta, police said. Police received a call about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday from medical staff at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding, saying an infant was dead from injuries "believed to be foul play," the police report said. Police say circumstances of the killing remain unclear.
Days before the girl's death, on May 19, Amiya had been taken to Hughes Spalding with fractures of her arm and leg, police said.
A caseworker from the Fulton County office of the state Division of Family and Children Services visited the hospital and opened a case file on the girl. The agency would not identify that caseworker.
The agency then allowed Amiya to return home, DFCS officials said.
In the nine days between the injuries and the child's death, no caseworker had any follow-up meetings with Amiya's mother or relatives, said Fulton DFCS Director Dannette Smith.
Considering the girl's injuries, Smith said she would have wanted the caseworker to visit the family in that time, but no policy required it.
"It (the follow-up) was probably not as thorough as we would have liked it to be done," Smith said.
DFCS said it is still investigating the case. Smith said she will act "very quickly and very swiftly" to deal with any employees found to have erred in Amiya's case.
Meadows, the Atlanta police homicide commander, said that the boyfriend, Hall, has not been truthful to investigators. During the earlier May 19 injury incident, Brown told authorities that Amiya was in the custody of the infant's grandmother when she was injured, Meadows said. When police interviewed the grandmother, she said that wasn't true and said she'd been homeless for the past two months, Meadows said.
Smith, the county DFCS director, said that at the time, her agency did not believe Brown had caused Amiya's injuries, and it did not know that Hall was in the picture.Smith said that while the details were murky, the social worker allowed Amiya back into her mother's custody, setting up a "safety plan" to make sure Brown was able to properly care for her.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/05/30/baby_dead.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab&imw=Y