By LESLIE KAUFMAN and AL BAKER
January 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/nyregion/31child.html
A 4-year-old Bronx boy whose family was being investigated by child welfare officials died yesterday after suffering a fractured skull and severe lacerations to his liver in the messy, cold two-bedroom apartment he shared with four siblings and two adults, officials said.
The boy's mother, 26, and her companion, 18, were being held last night for questioning in the child's death, the police said. Law enforcement officials said they were also investigating whether the boy's siblings, who were taken into custody by the Administration for Children's Services, had been abused.
The death of the boy, Quachon Browne, was at least the fifth fatality since November of a child whose family was known to the child welfare authorities. The previous cases included the death of Nixzmary Brown, a 7-year-old Brooklyn girl who the police said was killed by her stepfather.
That case, shot through with a litany of missed opportunities to save the girl, put intense public scrutiny on the agency and its efforts to protect children.
"This is just so sad," said Daisy Castro, a neighbor of Quachon's family. "He was a beautiful little kid. We just can't understand how it happened."
Hours after Quachon's death, the child welfare agency released a review of the mistakes it made in the Nixzmary Brown case including a failure to quickly interview a guidance counselor who had made the original complaint to the child abuse hotline and the agency's commissioner, John B. Mattingly, weathered intense questioning during a City Council hearing. [Page B1.]
Mr. Mattingly said child welfare workers had made "a timely visit to the home" after a recent allegation that one of Quachon's sisters was not attending school. He could not say how recent the visit had been.
As the story of Quachon's life and death unfolded, it quickly took on many of the familiar dark aspects of deaths of children whose families had come to the agency's attention: warnings by school officials who suspected problems in the family; a visit by the police; suspicions by neighbors; and the recent arrival into a troubled home of a new boyfriend for a struggling mother.
Officers went to Quachon's family's first-floor apartment on Kossuth Avenue in the Norwood section of the Bronx about 3:30 a.m. after the mother, identified as Aleshia Smith, called 911 to report that the child was unconscious. Quachon was taken to North Central Bronx Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 4:18 a.m., the police said.
The mother and her boyfriend, identified as Jose Calderon, were immediately taken for questioning to the 52nd Precinct station house, where they spent the day.
A law enforcement official said the mother told the police that Quachon was struck by a falling television on Friday and began vomiting on Sunday night.
The police said that Quachon and four siblings were jammed into a single bedroom in the first-floor apartment, which was unusually cold due to a broken window, and that there was no food in the refrigerator.
Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city's medical examiner's office, said the cause of death had not been determined. A law enforcement official said, however, that the medical examiner's office had told detectives that the child had had a lacerated liver, old and new bruises, and atrophied leg muscles.
Detectives said that they were told by hospital personnel that Quachon had a fractured skull. They said they believed that the child had been assaulted and that the assault had caused his death, a law enforcement official said. He and other law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
Complaints about the family had been made to child welfare authorities three times twice by school officials and once by the police, officials said. The first report came on May 16, when Public School 280, which two of Quachon's older sisters attended, filed an allegation of educational neglect, meaning that the girls were missing too much school, an education official said.
Officials at that school contacted the State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment regarding both girls. Then, in June, the police took Quachon and his five siblings ranging from 1 year old to 10 from the home when they found them abandoned for the weekend.
"Officers responded to that location; the six children were there by themselves," said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. "The mother had apparently gone to Atlantic City and had thought that the grandmother was going to go and take care of the children.
"That didn't happen," he continued. "All of the children were removed from the home at the time. A.C.S. conducted an investigation. Ultimately, the children, I think five of the six children, were brought back to the home; that's the contact we had."
It was not clear yesterday how long the children had spent away from the home. The sixth sibling is believed to be staying with relatives in Brooklyn.
On Nov. 15, P.S. 280 filed another allegation of educational neglect for the two sisters. Both had been chronically absent, the education official said.
Rhona Weiss, the guidance counselor at P.S. 280, said last night that she was saddened by the death.
"The school did everything we could," she said in a brief telephone interview. "We filed the necessary paperwork."
School absenteeism is often a red flag for child abuse, child welfare professionals have said. In the case of Nixzmary Brown, officials of Children's Services acknowledged the agency erred when it did not determine that the girl was a victim of educational neglect, even though she had missed 46 days of school.
One of Quachon Browne's sisters, education officials said they believed, soon went to live with other relatives. She transferred to P.S. 145 in Brooklyn by mid-December. Her case was closed on Dec. 16. School officials closed the other sister's case on Dec. 15 because she had returned to school, officials said.
Child welfare officials say their caseworkers were still in the process of evaluating allegations regarding the older children when Quachon died.
At the City Council hearing, Mr. Mattingly said, "A preliminary review of this case showed that home visits were made immediately after the report, at which time the household was found to be in order." He declined to elaborate when reporters asked him to do so after the hearing.
The family was also known to the Department of Homeless Services, which had provided Ms. Smith with the apartment as part of a long-term shelter arrangement. Angela Allen, a spokeswoman for the agency, would not discuss details of its involvement with the family.
Neighbors from the large apartment building on Kossuth Avenue said they believed trouble started in Apartment 1A when Mr. Calderon, a nephew of the building's superintendent, moved in about eight weeks ago. He brought his pit bull, named Blue, they said, and had loud arguments with Ms. Smith.
Lisa Cashin Overton, a neighbor and friend, said Ms. Smith was a good mother. "She would get up early in the morning, drop her kids at school and pick them up," she said, "But when Jose moved in she became real isolated."
Several of Ms. Smith's friends said that when the city caseworker visited last month, the caseworker noticed that the house was well kept and the refrigerator was well stocked.
At least three neighbors said, however, that since Mr. Calderon moved in, they had seen or heard things that had made them contact child welfare or the city's 311 complaint line. The child welfare agency would not confirm any complaint other than the one received on Nov. 15 from the children's school.
Guadalupe Garcia, who lives next door to the family, said she had been calling 311 since December to complain about noise and fighting coming from the apartment. Speaking Spanish being translated by neighbors, she said that fighting broke out in the apartment again at 10 o'clock on Monday night and just got louder and louder. "At about 12:40 screaming started," she said.
Reporting for this article was contributed by Kareem Fahim, Elissa Gootman, Kate Hammer, Corey Kilgannon, Colin Moynihan, Nate Schweber and Matthew Sweeney.
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By AL BAKER and LESLIE KAUFMAN
February 1, 2006
NYT
Even though the city's child welfare agency had received six complaints about the family of Quachaun Browne since 2004 and even though caseworkers had been inside his home four times since November it failed to act before a weekend-long torrent of abuse and neglect that ended with the 4-year-old's death late Sunday, the authorities said yesterday.
In all the encounters, including the most recent visit, on Jan. 12, caseworkers did not detect a dangerous new presence in the family's Kossuth Avenue apartment in the Norwood section of the Bronx: Jose Calderon, the boyfriend of the boy's mother, who was charged yesterday with second-degree murder in his death, officials said.
The police said Mr. Calderon, 18, told detectives that he lost his temper and hit Quachaun, whom he blamed for toppling a television Friday afternoon, and that the boy's mother, Aleshia Smith, 26, did nothing to intervene until it was too late. She was charged with second-degree manslaughter.
The Administration for Children's Services still reeling from the death last month of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown in Brooklyn outlined its encounters with Quachaun's family in a squalid apartment where the police said cold air streamed in through a broken window, most of the children slept in a single room and there was little food in the refrigerator.
"After reviewing the history in this case, the obvious evidence of chronic neglect should have prompted a stronger response rather than addressing and resolving each incident separately," said John B. Mattingly, the child welfare agency's commissioner. "However, nothing in the record suggests A.C.S. failed to act in a way that might have prevented this fatality."
The police described a chilling weekend of victimization for the boy that began when the television fell. Based on physical evidence, as well as the statements of Mr. Calderon, Ms. Smith and some of her children, the police said Mr. Calderon beat Quachaun off and on through Saturday, went with the family to a nearby Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant where the boy vomited blood, and then beat him at home again that night.
At times, the police said, Mr. Calderon grabbed the boy's neck, pushed his face into the wall and grabbed him by the ankles, swung him and hurled him into the wall. A law enforcement official said Mr. Calderon had beaten the boy with his fists, a belt and a plastic bat. Quachaun suffered a fractured skull and a lacerated spleen and pancreas.
The police believe he died late Sunday night. His mother woke early Monday morning to find Mr. Calderon trying to revive him, and then argued with him about calling for help. She got hold of his cellphone, about 3:30 a.m., and dialed 911.
Quachaun was declared dead about 45 minutes after the police and paramedics responded to the call and found the boy with a body temperature of 83 degrees, indicating that he had been dead for hours, the official said.
Yesterday, while the city medical examiner's office said it had not yet determined the official cause of death, because of the need for further tissue testing, Quachaun's mother and her companion were led in handcuffs from the Police Department's 52nd Precinct station house to face arraignment.
Mr. Calderon held his chin up, pursed his lips and defiantly scanned a crowd of reporters yelling questions at him as he walked from the old red-brick station house. Ms. Smith, who emerged moments later, kept her head mostly up but her eyes cast down, expressionless, as she walked from the building.
After a 24-hour investigation that included intense questioning of Mr. Calderon and Ms. Smith, the police said that two of Quachaun's five sisters, a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old, indicated that they saw Mr. Calderon deliver the blows to their brother's tiny body that the police believe led to his death.
During a court appearance last night, a prosecutor described some elements of Mr. Calderon's version of events that he told detectives. Mr. Calderon said that he thought Quachaun had damaged his stereo on Friday night, and admitted that he had hit the boy four times with a red belt, according to the prosecutor.
Mr. Calderon said he told Quachaun to go to his room. But, he said, Quachaun refused, cursing at him, which sent Mr. Calderon into a rage; he said he hit the boy seven times with his open hand, according to the prosecutors.
Two nights later, Mr. Calderon said in his statement, Quachaun soiled himself in bed and had blood in his stool. He said he took the boy to the bathroom to rouse him. When Mr. Calderon left the bathroom, Quachaun fell and hit his head on the floor, causing his ears to bleed, Mr. Calderon said.
Mr. Calderon was remanded and ordered to appear March 3.
Ms. Smith's lawyer, Lewis A. Mazzone, said her client wanted to help her son but felt threatened by her boyfriend. Bail was set at $40,000; it was not clear if she could post it.
A child welfare official said yesterday that complaints were made about how Ms. Smith was raising her children eight times in the last 10 years, including six times since October 2004. Most of the calls, which came from family friends, a school guidance counselor and a doctor, involved neglect.
"They were consistently about inadequate guardianship, poor housekeeping and school absences," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry into Quachaun's death was continuing.
Two of the reports indicted that there might be physical abuse in the house, one reported excessive corporal punishment, and one involved Quachaun being burned, the official said. While the child welfare agency investigated them all, it was unclear how many if any of the cases were substantiated.
The most recent compliant was made on Nov. 15 by a counselor at Public School/Middle School 280, which two of Quachaun's older half-sisters were attending. That investigation was continuing when Quachaun died, the official said.
The two girls were said to be "frequently absent, were hungry and didn't have adequate clothing and were not well supervised."
The official added that "nothing in it alleged anything about Quachaun; there were no physical abuse allegations."
The child welfare caseworker made a first visit to the house within 24 hours of the complaint and made five more visits. Two times, the family was not home. On four occasions, the caseworker was admitted to the home, most recently on Jan 12.
"The casework was solid and up-to-date," the official said. Even so, the official acknowledged, the caseworker apparently had no knowledge about Mr. Calderon.
"There is nothing in case file about Jose Calderon," the official said. "He wasn't known to us or to the Department of Homeless Services. He was never present when we were there."
Neighbors have said Mr. Calderon moved in about eight weeks ago with all his belongings and his pit bull. The police said they believed that he had been living there since August and that he discouraged Ms. Smith from seeing her friends, hid her keys and hit her friends' children.
They say they believed that Mr. Calderon may also have hit and neglected the other children but that Quachaun was the main target of his aggression.
When Quachaun was found, he was lying on a mattress in a makeshift bedroom in the apartment's living room, bleeding from the ears and rectum, the police said. The television was lying on the floor.
Mr. Calderon was arrested on Jan. 19, when the police said he was stopped driving a stolen vehicle in the Bronx.
Janon Fisher contributed reporting for this article.
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January 31, 2006
New York Times
Aleshia Smith and her six young children were a familiar sight to residents along Kossuth Avenue in the Norwood section of the Bronx.
Several years ago, the family, facing homelessness, was placed by the city in a ground-floor apartment in a six-story building near 210th Street that is home to many large families. Social services provided rent money and a monthly support check, and Ms. Smith made extra money by braiding neighbors hair in the hallway, friends said.
Many neighbors sympathized with Ms. Smith for having to raise six children largely on her own, so they baby-sat and cooked meals, and brought their children over to play.
"It was a team effort, raising that family," said one neighbor, Harold Banks, 28, who said he was one who watched the children: five girls, the oldest a 10-year-old named Latasha, and one boy, Quachon, 4.
Latasha is now believed to be staying with relatives in Brooklyn, but when they lived together, the children slept in one room, sharing four beds. "This was one woman with no money trying to raise six kids," Mr. Banks said. "She needed help."
Despite the neighbors' watchful eyes, however, something terrible happened in that apartment over the past weekend.
In the early hours yesterday, the authorities say, the body of Quachon Browne was removed from the home. A law enforcement official said Ms. Smith told the police that the boy had been struck by a falling television. Ms. Smith and her new live-in boyfriend, Jose Calderon, 18, were taken in for questioning.
Yesterday, neighbors described a spirited group of children who had the run of the apartment, which was usually slightly messy but not extremely so, for a large family living in a small space. The children could be often seen leaning out the window over the sidewalk and playing in the hallways; sometimes the little ones had little or no clothing. Ms. Smith welcomed neighbors' help.
But last night a neighbor, Ronald Overton, 39, said rotting food could be smelled in the apartment while detectives were inside, scraping vomit and blood from the floor. He said detectives told him Quachon had been found lying in feces and vomit.
Just before 10:30 p.m., police carried out bags of evidence, many with orange biohazard stickers, as well as what appeared to be a television set wrapped in brown paper.
Community helpfulness seemed to melt when Ms. Smith met Jose Calderon and let him move into her two-bedroom apartment. Manny Brown, the father to three of Ms. Smith's children Quachon and two sisters has been in jail at Rikers Island for about seven months on a robbery charge.
Mr. Calderon was known on the block as P.R., having come from Puerto Rico two years earlier, and was known for having epileptic seizures and for his temper, neighbors said. When he moved in, he brought along his pit bull, Blue.
"I told Aleshia, 'You're crazy letting that pit bull in with those babies,' but she said, 'No, it's O.K., it's Jose's,' " recalled Mr. Overton's wife, Lisa Cashin Overton, 34. "He set up a section of the apartment with only his stuff and told the children they were forbidden to go near it."
Ms. Cashin Overton described Mr. Calderon as "very controlling." Soon, Ms. Smith stopped seeing her friends. Fewer visitors were welcome.
"He had a temper, and when he didn't get his way, he'd explode," said Ms. Cashin Overton, who no longer allowed her 8-year-old to play with Ms. Smith's children.
Mr. Banks called Mr. Calderon extremely strict and overbearing, but not physically abusive.
"I warned him, 'They are not your children, and if you don't ease up on them, I'll take care of you myself,' " he said.
But Carmelo Conde, 30, a friend of Mr. Calderon's, said Mr. Calderon was helping to support and care for the children. Mr. Conde said he was eating dinner with Mr. Calderon on Friday night at the family's apartment while Ms. Smith was out shopping.
"We heard a boom in the other room and heard Quachon screaming," he said. "We went over there, and I just saw the TV on top of the baby. He seemed O.K., though. He slept for a little while, but was up later running around like nothing happened."
He added: "I told Jose, 'You got to take him to the hospital and make sure he's all right,' but he said, 'Nah, I'm going to wait till later.' "
Some neighbors recalled an incident in June when Ms. Smith left the children alone, possibly overnight, and the children were taken away in police cars but later returned.
"I remember she left them alone and the baby needed changing and the kids were out of diapers," said a neighbor, Celia Colon.
Colin Moynihan contributed reporting for this article.