Related: Fitchburg Up First
As state fails Fitchburg boy, finger-pointing is warranted
Plenty to go around:
"Social worker said Fitchburg family needed no further oversight" by Michael Levenson, Brian MacQuarrie and Travis Andersen | Globe Staff, December 18, 2013
FITCHBURG — A state social worker not only failed to carry out mandatory monthly visits to the home where 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver lived, but also recommended that the family, which has a history of drug abuse and violence, be released from state oversight because it was doing well, the commissioner of the state Department of Children and Families said Wednesday.
The recommendation in September to end supervision of the troubled household came even though it had been four months since social workers had seen the boy, state officials acknowledged. Jeremiah is now missing and feared dead.
Governor Deval Patrick, in his first comments on the case Wednesday, called the events “devastating.” The governor said he wants to know if other children have been missed and if someone up the chain of command should have noticed the agency’s failure to check on Jeremiah.
Patrick also said he is concerned whether an agency review this year of 16,000 children under age 5 is credible, given that Jeremiah’s case was checked in September and raised no alarms. That review followed two brutal assaults on infants within weeks of each other in July, when a 3-month-old Lynn infant died and a Martha’s Vineyard baby nearly died.
Also on Wednesday, Speaker Robert A. DeLeo announced that the House would hold oversight hearings into the department. He made the disclosure after state Representative Bradley H. Jones Jr., the Republican leader of the House, called on the chamber to hold hearings with DCF officials and caseworkers about their policies and procedures.
As usual, they are always late to the problem and the solutions they legislate will do nothing and make things worse.
Overall, Olga I. Roche, the DCF commissioner, said that the social worker failed to check regularly on eight of the 18 households in her caseload. “The social worker, again, was putting other families at risk,” said Roche, who added that other caseworkers have since found that those families are stable and well.
The social worker and her supervisor, who allegedly did not enforce the visitation policy, have been fired. The social worker had more than five years of experience, Roche said, and the supervisor had been in that role for three years after several years as a caseworker.
And the union is making a stink!
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Patrick said that he does not consider Jeremiah’s case to be an indictment of the department. “I don’t think it’s a systemwide breakdown, and this is not to diminish the incredible, profound significance of what happened,” the governor said. “There are hundreds of triumphs every day in the lives of children, thanks to the people who work at DCF. They don’t get any attention. When there is a tragedy like this, it gets a lot of attention, and it should. But that has to be kept in balance.”
Yeah, you guys are all great. This is tiresome and old, folks. Mouthpiece media just ain't getting it done for me anymore.
However, Patrick said, “I want the public to know that when they mess up, the hammer is going to have to come down.”
I'm glad he only has one more year left. The failure of the DCF will be one of his legacies.
Roche said the review of all cases involving young children showed the agency is working well. Of 16,000 children under age 5 that were reviewed, 16 had to be removed from their homes, she said.
This is what we call damage control here in Massachusetts. I don't know what you call it where you are.
In Fitchburg Wednesday night, about 50 people attended a candlelight vigil across the street from the three-story, multifamily home where Jeremiah lived. Police circulated missing person fliers with his picture, and a moment of silence was held. In brief remarks, speakers in English and Spanish prayed for his safe return and urged anyone with information to contact police....
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Another authority that failed:
"‘Deficiencies’ found in handling of Jared Remy case, DA says; Remy charged with murdering girlfriend after DA did not seek bail" by Eric Moskowitz | Globe Staff, December 18, 2013
WOBURN — Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan said Wednesday that her office erred in failing to request bail or ask a judge to hold Jared Remy as a potential danger during his Aug. 14 arraignment. She was responding to an outside review that found a deficiency in how her office handled that matter.
Remy, charged with slamming his girlfriend’s head into a bathroom mirror, walked away from court after his arraignment, and police say he stabbed and killed the girlfriend, Jennifer Martel, the following night.
Too many non-violent drug offenders occupying cells?
Amid widespread criticism in ensuing days, Ryan defended her office’s handling of the assault arraignment, but ordered an external review. On Wednesday, the two outside prosecutors she asked to conduct the review issued their conclusions, saying the assistant district attorney in the courtroom that day made the wrong judgment in deciding that Remy did not need to be held.
They said he was too influenced by the fact that Martel did not appear in court to extend an emergency restraining order. Remy’s extensive criminal history and the fact their young daughter was present during the alleged assault should have been given more weight, they said.
“Looking at what we know now, it is impossible not to say that a different recommendation should have been made,” Ryan said, announcing new policies along with the review.
Former state secretary of public safety Kevin Burke, who led the review, said he found no evidence that Remy, now 35, received special treatment that morning as the son of celebrated Red Sox broadcaster Jerry Remy.
The special treatment is pretty much automatic now. There are two $y$tems of AmeriKan ju$tice. Cla$$ and celebrity have their privilege. Always have.
But he said the assistant district attorney who received the case — and who had less than three years of experience as a prosecutor — made the decision single-handedly not to seek bail or request a dangerousness hearing without consulting a supervisor. Burke recommended in the report that such consultations become mandatory, a change Ryan said she has already implemented.
“In this case, we think if that had been in place, it would have diminished the possibility that tragedy could occur,” said Burke, who is also the former Essex district attorney.
Burke said the prosecutor who handled Remy’s Aug. 14 arraignment had no supervisor at Waltham District Court to consult that day, because of vacation staffing and other constraints, and the assistant district attorney felt confident making his decision without calling a higher-level prosecutor.
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Ryan, speaking to reporters alongside Burke, stressed that even if her office had sought bail or a dangerousness hearing, it might not have prevented the death of Martel, a devoted mother and aspiring school teacher killed shortly before her 28th birthday....
Yeah, there was nothing anyone could do.
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Related: Sunday Globe Special: Middlesex D.A. Committed Error on Remy Murder
And I think we all know why.
Also see:
If I find anything else in my great Globe piles and throwaways I may link it. Then again, I may not.
While we are on the subject of sick and psychopathic murderers:
"Edwin Alemany socialized after killing Amy Lord, prosecutor says" by Maria Cramer | Globe Staff, December 11, 2013
Hours after he allegedly robbed and killed a young South Boston woman, Edwin Alemany went to a Dedham restaurant with friends for a bite and a few drinks, Suffolk prosecutors said Wednesday.
Alemany, according to officials, was at the Tahiti Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge on Route 1, drinking and eating Polynesian food, as the parents of Amy Lord frantically waited for word of their daughter, who had been reported missing that morning....
Alemany, a 29-year-old father of a little girl, stood in the prisoner dock, rarely looking at the courtroom gallery, [and] spoke in a voice barely above a whisper as he answered “not guilty” to the 20 charges he now faces....
After later hanging out with his friends in Dedham, he went to his girlfriend’s apartment in South Boston, where the couple argued, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney John Pappas said. He walked toward Gates Street, where he allegedly attacked another woman just after midnight. Alemany stabbed her repeatedly — she was only saved because her screams drew the attention of neighbors, police have said.
Alemany’s lawyer, Jeffrey Denner, has described his client as a troubled man who has struggled for years with schizophrenia [and] is not conceding that the Commonwealth’s allegations are true, but railed against the criminal justice and education system that he said failed to realize that Alemany was troubled.
As a child, Alemany was part of a special Boston public schools program for children with learning disabilities and emotional problems, and later was repeatedly arrested for crimes including theft and assault. After some of those arrests he threatened to kill himself, according to police reports.
Denner has not said whether he will argue that Alemany was criminally insane at the time of the killing, but prosecutors seem to be preparing for such a strategy....
The description of him carousing with friends, painted a picture of a man who tried to cover his tracks, then showed no remorse about his actions....
Execute Alemany!
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Related: Thank Lord Alemany Indicted
I suppose that is the sacrifice she made.
Hours after he allegedly robbed and killed a young South Boston woman, Edwin Alemany went to a Dedham restaurant with friends for a bite and a few drinks, Suffolk prosecutors said Wednesday.
Alemany, according to officials, was at the Tahiti Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge on Route 1, drinking and eating Polynesian food, as the parents of Amy Lord frantically waited for word of their daughter, who had been reported missing that morning....
Alemany, a 29-year-old father of a little girl, stood in the prisoner dock, rarely looking at the courtroom gallery, [and] spoke in a voice barely above a whisper as he answered “not guilty” to the 20 charges he now faces....
After later hanging out with his friends in Dedham, he went to his girlfriend’s apartment in South Boston, where the couple argued, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney John Pappas said. He walked toward Gates Street, where he allegedly attacked another woman just after midnight. Alemany stabbed her repeatedly — she was only saved because her screams drew the attention of neighbors, police have said.
Alemany’s lawyer, Jeffrey Denner, has described his client as a troubled man who has struggled for years with schizophrenia [and] is not conceding that the Commonwealth’s allegations are true, but railed against the criminal justice and education system that he said failed to realize that Alemany was troubled.
As a child, Alemany was part of a special Boston public schools program for children with learning disabilities and emotional problems, and later was repeatedly arrested for crimes including theft and assault. After some of those arrests he threatened to kill himself, according to police reports.
Denner has not said whether he will argue that Alemany was criminally insane at the time of the killing, but prosecutors seem to be preparing for such a strategy....
The description of him carousing with friends, painted a picture of a man who tried to cover his tracks, then showed no remorse about his actions....
Execute Alemany!
--more--"
Related: Thank Lord Alemany Indicted
I suppose that is the sacrifice she made.
