Thread: This should piss you off

Posted on Fri, Apr. 18, 2003

Child placed by DCF is beaten to death
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND JENNIFER BABSON
cmarbin@herald.com

KEY WEST -Christopher Lamont Bennett's criminal history included arrests for selling cocaine, stalking and assault and battery. A domestic violence restraining order prevented him from going near the mother of his infant daughter.

Yet state child welfare workers thought Bennett was the best choice as caregiver for a sickly son he barely knew.

On Tuesday, police say, Bennett fatally beat his 5-year-old son Zachary, leaving him with a ruptured liver, a bleeding brain, and ''broken ribs consistent with having been stomped,'' an autopsy showed.

Zachary is the second child under the DCF's watch to die in as many months. Last month, 8-month-old Kelton Wright also was allegedly killed by his father.

Now, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman, a persistent critic of the Florida Department of Children & Families, wants to know why child-welfare workers told her Bennett was a suitable parent for his medically fragile son.

''How could anyone with that record have a positive home study?'' Lederman asked.

Zachary, she said, ''had a life of hell'' before he was ever sent to live with his father, having suffered years of alleged neglect at the hands of his mother.

''This child is my ultimate responsibility,'' Lederman said. ``But I can only rely on the information presented to me.''

Samara ''Sam'' Kramer, the DCF's interim district administrator in Miami, expressed sadness and regret over the boy's death. ''I have serious concerns about the way this case was handled,'' she said.

The DCF was investigating, ''but there is no dispute that a person with a criminal history, like this father had, would not be an appropriate placement for a child under the care of the department,'' Kramer said. ``As soon as our review of all aspects of the case is accomplished, appropriate action will be taken swiftly.''

Zachary was born prematurely with a heart murmur, asthma and severe reflux. When he left Parkway Regional Hospital, his mother, Lafaydra Puyol, had to hook him up to a heart monitor.

In April 2002, DCF investigators took Zachary into state custody after his maternal great-grandmother complained that his mother, an exotic dancer who allegedly abused drugs, left the boy with her for extended periods without his medication or provisions for his care.

She ''even drops Zachary off at the grandmother's house when there's no one home,'' the report said. ``Zachary has a seizure disorder, and mom spends his disability payments on drugs.''

Zachary was sheltered by child-abuse investigators on April 24, 2002, and sent to live with a great-grandmother, Virginia Rolle, in north Miami-Dade County.

The following August, Bennett, the boy's father, told authorities that Rolle did not even know where the boy's mother was, and he suggested that he would be a better caretaker.

When investigators went to Rolle's home, they discovered the child was away on an unsupervised visit with his mother, in violation of the agency's instructions. They removed Zachary again and placed him in foster care.

Child-welfare workers asked Lederman to send Zachary to live with his father in Key West, the judge said. She ordered workers to perform a home study. When that was not done, and Zachary continued to languish in a shelter, the judge threatened to hold the DCF in contempt.

''I would not give him custody of his son until we had a home study,'' Lederman said. ``On Oct. 4, I was told there was a positive home study on the father.''

Records show:

• Bennett had three arrests on charges of sale and possession of cocaine, one arrest for stalking and three for violation of probation. He had an outstanding 2001 arrest warrant calling him a ``fugitive from justice.''

• In October 2001, he was arrested in Miami on charges he failed to pay child support.

• In 2000, he was charged with violating an injunction forbidding him to go near a girlfriend who had accused him of domestic violence.

''I absolutely did not know that this father had any criminal record whatsoever,'' Lederman told The Herald.

Lederman said DCF investigators did not tell her they had received a December 2002 report that Zachary had sustained bruises on his face and jaw while living with Bennett.

The allegations were ruled unfounded. In February, Lederman ended department supervision of the boy.

Officials never saw Zachary again.

The last entry in the boy's court record, Lederman said, was a notation in February, when she ended her jurisdiction over the case.

Zachary, she was told, ``was doing perfect.''

Damn!
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Once a task you first begun,
Never finished until it’s done,
Be the labor great or small,
Do it well or not at all!
- Big Mama