July 2
TEXAS:
Slain tot's mom had Michigan abuse record
Long before she arrived in Texas, Kimberly Alexander had an extensive
record as a low-functioning mother who struggled with homelessness and
alcohol - and who abused and neglected her first 4 children.
The troubles that bedeviled Kimberly Alexander in Michigan, where her
rights to her children were terminated in 2001, resurfaced in San Antonio,
where she settled a year later and had 2 more children.
She quickly came under the glare of Child Protective Services in San
Antonio. But in a sense, she started over here with a clean slate.
The extensive Michigan records might have served the Bexar County judge
who ultimately decided to return to her the 2-year-old, Texas-born
daughter she now stands accused of beating to death.
But neither attorneys nor caseworkers delved into the well-documented
Michigan history in the half-dozen court hearings that led up to the
handover of Diamond Alexander-Washington in April, 2 months before she
died.
"I'm not sure we knew the specifics," said Malcolm "Kip" McClinchie III,
the state prosecutor in the case.
He said his office wasn't able to obtain the Permanent Wardship Petition
that detailed the mother's three-year involvement with the Ingham County
child welfare office. He blamed uncooperative workers in Michigan.
It took the San Antonio Express-News less than a day to access the 20-page
public record from Michigan's 30th Judicial Circuit Court.
"I would have loved to have had this," McClinchie said. "We got limited
information. Some states are better than others."
Michigan, he recalled, wasn't very forthcoming.
In San Antonio's family court, it's rare for prior out-of-state abuse and
neglect records to become part of the debate about where children should
be placed, court observers said.
"Getting records from other states? That's tough," said Associate Judge
Peter Sakai, who handles the county's child abuse and neglect docket.
"Whenever I ask for records, they tell me we can write and ask."
Citing an investigation into Diamond's death, Sakai, who issued the April
7 order that sent the child back to her mother, said he couldn't comment
on whether having the Michigan file might have changed his decision.
The death of the little girl prompted a county investigation into the
general handling of abuse cases. On Thursday, citing a "breakdown in the
safety net that must protect abused children," Gov. Rick Perry ordered a
statewide investigation into the practices and procedures of Child
Protective Services.
Already, attention on the agency has uncovered shortcomings such as the
failure to look closely at parents' past troubles in other states, despite
a Texas law intended to prevent just that.
The law enables courts to sever parental rights here if rights were
involuntarily terminated in another state because of emotional or physical
endangerment.
The Michigan file indicates that all four children who lived with
Alexander there were exposed to violence, inappropriate discipline, verbal
abuse and emotional neglect. The report included allegations that the
children endured homelessness and that they witnessed the sale and use of
drugs.
But even if state caseworkers had known the details of the Michigan file,
it may not have altered their recommendation to reunite the Alexander
family.
The grounds cited in the Michigan termination order (which reads in part
that the parent "fails to provide proper care" and that "the child will be
harmed" if returned) did not neatly correspond to the grounds required
under the endangerment law, McClinchie said.
He said the state has to make every reasonable effort at family
reunification. "You can have 20 years of history," he said. "You still
have to give the parents a chance and try to rehabilitate."
And that, critics charge, is precisely the problem. They say federal and
state laws requiring government agencies to make reasonable efforts at
reunifying families are overwhelmingly biased in favor of adults.
"We're hanging these kids out to dry waiting for their parents to get
their lives together," said Jack Downey, president and CEO of the
Children's Shelter, a San Antonio nonprofit organization.
"We've had children in the shelter three and four times while the state
tries to get the adults straight," he said. "The kids are in total chaos
while Mom goes to rehab, drops out, relapses, returns to rehab."
Arabia Vargas, a lawyer who often represents children in court, said
reunifying families "is always a leap of faith."
The troubles that plagued Alexander, 24, in Michigan followed her to
Texas.
Though she had been investigated for neglect as early as 1998, authorities
in Lansing, Mich., opened their first case against Kimberly Alexander in
July 2000 on allegations of physical and medical neglect.
She was 20 at the time, unwed and unemployed, and she had just given birth
to her fourth child. 3 of the children's four fathers were imprisoned for
violent crimes.
At the time, Alexander and her 4 Michigan children were living in a
2-bedroom apartment with 4 others, including an aunt and a grandmother
identified in the Michigan file as having abused their own children.
The Alexander children appeared to have been sleeping on a mattress on the
floor without sheets, blankets or pillows. A floor fan, which was in use,
had no front cover.
The family became homeless a month later, bouncing between low-end motels
and relatives' homes. Later that year, 2 of the children reportedly
witnessed the aunt stabbing a boyfriend.
Caseworkers heard that drugs were being used in front of the kids and that
a boyfriend of Alexander's was beating them.
"This worker is quite concerned with the emotional and physical safety of
the children who are placed in Kim Alexander's care," the report reads.
The report mentions a history of physical and sexual abuse that Alexander
was said to have suffered as a child and details her "cognitive and
academic deficits."
"It seems clear that interventions which focus on learning and relearning
will be difficult for her. Personality testing reveals psychological
dysfunction. ... What she lacks is self-esteem, good judgment, and
reliable impulse control. ...
"It is difficult to approach rehabilitation planning with optimism given
the kind of wounds she has sustained throughout her life, her compromised
cognition and the absence of coping skills, coupled with financial assets
and job skills inadequate to insure more than a modest standard of
living."
Her rights to her children were severed in August 2001.
Sometime within the next year, Alexander wound up in San Antonio and had
two more children. She caught the attention of Child Protective Services
when she gave birth to Diamond - the 1st of the 2 - in March 2002 and
tested positive for barbiturates.
The agency took custody of Diamond but allowed the mother and her
boyfriend, Tarri Washington Sr., to keep their young son, Tarri Jr., when
he was born last year.
Caseworkers began working with Alexander on a "service plan" in an attempt
to reunify the family. She and Washington often missed appointments with
their therapists and caseworkers and even the supervised visits with
Diamond, according to transcripts from a half-dozen hearings held over two
years.
Gradually, however, with intensive services, Alexander began showing signs
of improvement. By early last fall, she found stable housing and stable
work as a nurse's aide; she separated from Washington and kept more of her
appointments. Workers involved in the case said that while her parenting
skills needed improvement, they felt that reunification was the best
option.
On April 7, based on the recommendation of all involved, Sakai signed the
order that sent Diamond back to her mother.
Attorneys say the details of Diamond's case are no different from the
thousands that wind their way through the courthouse each year - except
that this one resulted in a child's death.
(source: San Antonio Express-News)
*********************
Man gets life term for '03 slayings of 2 clerks -- Ethiopian immigrants
shot to death in robbery at convenience store
Jurors deliberated less than 2 hours Friday before convicting a
23-year-old Dallas man of capital murder in a June 2003 robbery in which 2
convenience store clerks were fatally shot.
In closing arguments, prosecutor Nancy Mulder described Ted Petty as the
leader who with three other men robbed the Red Coleman's Red-E Mart in the
8400 block of Walnut Hill Lane in northeast Dallas.
"This man shot both of these men twice just to make sure they were dead,"
she said. "This man shot two unarmed men in the back - what a coward."
Mr. Petty showed no visible reaction after he was found guilty of capital
murder and received an automatic sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors
did not seek the death penalty. By law, Mr. Petty must serve at least 40
years in prison before he's eligible to seek parole.
A witness to the robbery described how the two clerks complied with the
robbers' demands and pleaded for mercy before they were shot repeatedly.
The man testified that he was spared only because a gun apparently
malfunctioned when one of the men tried to shoot him as he lay face down
on the store's floor.
3 other men - Tarnarius Fisher, Zachery Bundage and Charles Akeen - still
face capital murder charges in connection with the robbery and shooting
deaths of 35-year-old Messele Gebremichael and 28-year-old Habtamu Ayane.
After his arrest, Mr. Petty told police investigators that he had been
present during the robbery, but he denied shooting the 2 Ethiopian
immigrants.
But Mr. Bundage testified in the trial that Mr. Petty was 1 of the 2
gunmen. Another friend told jurors that Mr. Petty had bragged about
"hitting a lick," or robbing someone, and advised him to watch out for
news reports about the robbery.
Jurors told prosecutors after the trial that they believed Mr. Petty was 1
of 2 shooters who killed the store clerks.
(source: Dallas Morning News)
