"State watched family where boy died; Mother is charged in slaying of child, 2" by David Abel and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff | March 20, 2010
A Rehoboth woman whose family had been monitored by a state child protection agency was charged yesterday with killing her 2-year-old son, hours after he died at a hospital in Rhode Island, prosecutors said.
Related: They Died in Each Others Arms
Hey, Neighbor!
State doing a great job, aren't they?
Kim H. Peno, 38, was scheduled to be arraigned Monday on first-degree murder charges in Taunton District Court, the same courthouse where she pleaded not guilty Thursday to assault charges after authorities first learned that the boy had sustained serious head injuries, Bristol District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter said in a statement....
Peno, who previously pleaded no contest to charges she had assaulted others, had been required to undergo supervision by the state Department of Children and Families, which has custody of her other child, a 1-year-old boy.
Alison Goodwin, a DCF spokeswoman, declined to comment on why the department had been monitoring Peno’s family. She said the case was closed after about a year, but she would not say how long ago....
WTF? Why are we paying these people?
To her neighbors on Blanding Street in Rehoboth, where the family lived for about two years, Peno was an unsettling presence. She rarely talked to others and was often seen pacing outside her home.
“She was kind of weird,’’ said Samantha Victorino, who lives across the street from Peno and her husband, Joseph. “I never see her with the babies. She was always outside by herself. She would just walk around outside.’’
She added: “She was just odd. Everyone else in the neighborhood talks, except her. The shades are always completely closed, even during the day. It looks like no one lives in the house.’’
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Court records posted on the Rhode Island court system’s website showed that Kim Peno pleaded no contest in 1993 to charges of simple assault and assault and battery on a person over 60.
She pleaded no contest to attempted larceny in 1995, and she has an outstanding warrant in Uxbridge District Court on motor vehicle offenses.
--more--"Also see: Susan the Insane Stabber
