Child Abuse Los Angeles County

The man accused of beating his 5-year-old son to death and burying him in a shallow forest grave had been charged with child abuse involving another of his children in 1996, according to police and court records. But police said they can find no evidence that the case was reported to child welfare workers, who said police routinely report such cases.

Trying to stop child abuse before it becomes deadly, Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo announced Thursday that he is forming a child abuse prosecution unit to go after misdemeanor crimes that previously had not been investigated. Until now, the county Department of Children and Family Services has not passed on reports of child abuse and neglect to the city attorney's office, where the cases can be prosecuted as misdemeanors.

In an effort to reduce a surge in child abuse, Los Angeles County health and law enforcement officials called on people to be alert for abused and neglected children and report suspicions to authorities.

By the time he died, Danzel Bailey's full cheeks had hollowed. His ribs, facial bones and the knobby bones of his spinal cord all protruded. The skin of his buttocks and thighs hung in deep folds. There were bald spots on his head. He had no teeth. Danzel was 11 months old. He weighed 12 pounds--the average weight of a 2-month-old. He had wasted away in a child welfare system intended to protect him and the county's other 40,000 foster children.

Child abuse in Los Angeles County declined slightly in 1997, but far too many children were abused or killed by their parents or caretakers--and they often fell through the cracks of a safety net that was too uncoordinated to protect them. Those were some of the conclusions of the county's Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, which is to release today its annual report on the status of child-protection efforts in Los Angeles.

The number of babies reported as being born addicted to drugs in Los Angeles County dropped by 10% during 1990, the first decrease since such statistics have been kept, according to a study to be released today. Experts called the finding encouraging, but also cautioned that the statistics may reflect, at least in part, a decline in reporting. As one county doctor said, "The battle is not won."

It is a nightmarish roster even in Los Angeles County, where violent crime has become commonplace. A 9-month-old boy is shaken to death; a 5-month-old girl is fatally drugged; a newborn is killed and left in a dumpster; a 13-month-old girl dies after being raped and sodomized; another newborn is killed and left in a trash bag, and a little girl is beaten to death. These cases might seem like the work of a maniac on the loose.

The parents of a disabled 15-year-old girl who died in a Fontana hospital two years ago were arrested at their home in Lake Los Angeles on Thursday morning for allegedly neglecting and underfeeding her. Michael and Kathleen Gentry, 54 and 44, were taken into custody after a two-year investigation by Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide detectives and the district attorney's office into the death of Lindsay M. Gentry, who died in the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Fontana Feb.

The estranged wife of Santa Monica Police Chief James T. Butts has accused him of molesting and physically abusing their daughter, who is now 6 years old. An attorney for the chief disclosed in Los Angeles family law court on Friday that the district attorney's office is conducting a criminal investigation of the allegations. In an interview Friday, Butts said the charges are "patently untrue. This all came out because I filed for divorce and asked for temporary custody."

The Antelope Valley had more serious child abuse victims per capita than any other area of Los Angeles County patrolled by sheriff's deputies in 1992, despite growing efforts to combat the problem, according to the Sheriff's Department. Deputies conducted criminal investigations involving alleged abuses against 774 children in the Antelope Valley last year, more than in any of the 18 other Sheriff's Department reporting areas. That was 13% higher than the area's 1991 count of 683 children.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's sergeant and his school principal wife were charged Tuesday with abusing their teenage son, allegedly forcing him to sleep outside on a dog mat, preventing him from using the bathroom and pouring water on him as he slept. Orange County prosecutors said the Yorba Linda teenager was abused over five months as punishment for such behavior as not finishing his math assignments or failing to come home from school when told.

Foster children at a Los Angeles County emergency shelter have been physically abused and arrested on unjustified charges as ways of controlling them, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday.

A Lancaster man and woman suspected of trying to strangle the woman's children after beating them with a pipe, stick and a belt were jailed Monday on attempted-murder charges. Chivonne Campbell, 29, and Abraham Johnson, 38, were being held without bail at the Los Angeles County sheriff's Lancaster station. Deputies arrested the couple after responding to a 911 call at 11:30 p.m. Sunday from a neighbor, Deputy Dan Burdick said.

A Long Beach man was found innocent Monday of murdering his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter and entombing the body in concrete but was convicted of child abuse. Randy Lonell Foster, 22, also had been charged with involuntary manslaughter and assaulting a child under 8 years old and causing the child's death. Prosecutors alleged he helped his girlfriend kill the child and hide the body in a concrete block, which was discovered in the trunk of his car.

Police have arrested on suspicion of conspiracy a former assistant to a Pasadena dentist accused of child abuse for allegedly over-sedating dozens of youngsters and leaving one teenage girl with brain damage. Tina Yvette Tate, 34, a former assistant to Dr. Drueciel Ford, was taken into custody in Iowa on a warrant in connection with 11 counts of child abuse and one count of conspiracy.

In what would be one of the largest settlements in county history, a Los Angeles County panel recommended paying $4 million to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of a severely brain-damaged girl who was fed a steady diet of psychotropic drugs without the required court consent. The girl, now 4 years old and referred to in legal papers as Baby S.

A 19-year-old El Monte woman who authorities allege was treated as the family slave for most of her life tearfully testified against her mother Monday, describing her tortures and showing her wounds. The mother, Maria Carmen Salcedo, 41, is accused of beating her daughter Melissa, who is slightly retarded, never sending her to school and ordering her into a closet when visitors came.

Stunned child abuse investigators said Friday that a Burbank couple kept a 12-year-old girl in a "slave setting" for at least two years, beating her and feeding her only table scraps. Erlinda Reyes Allan, 37, and Marcus Allan, 42, admitted physically abusing and neglecting the girl, Burbank Police Lt. Don Brown said, after authorities found her hiding near her home. Brown, a 40-year police veteran who heads the juvenile and gang unit, said he has never seen such an abused child survive.

Stunned child abuse investigators said Friday that a Burbank couple kept a 12-year-old girl in a "slave setting" for at least two years, beating her and feeding her only table scraps. Erlinda Reyes Allan, 37, and Marcus Allan, 42, admitted physically abusing and neglecting the girl, Burbank Police Lt. Don Brown said, after authorities found her hiding near her home. Brown, a 40-year police veteran who heads the juvenile and gang unit, said he has never seen such an abused child survive.

School nurses saw bruises. Teachers were so worried about bone-thin Lindsay Gentry that they brought her extra food and weighed her every day. They reported their suspicions of child abuse at least 15 times to social workers, who investigated but found nothing wrong before the severely disabled girl died in 1996. On Tuesday, a jury held her parents responsible for her starvation and neglect.