SBS: Missouri: Shelley Richter trial postponed

Kate Walls Lauman: June 13 2011

The trial for Shelley Richter was scheduled to start Monday. According to online court documents, the trial has been pushed back to January.

Last September, the Taos woman was charged with child abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. A grand jury alleged she hit and shook 7-month-old Lane Schaeffer.
Richter said she dropped Lane on a concrete floor after tripping over another child at her home daycare. However, doctors testified that the baby's injuries were consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/story.aspx?id=629101

SIDS: Missouri child-care facilities must put babies on backs to sleep

BY NANCY CAMBRIA •

 June 15, 2011

Christian Gooden

Eleven-week old Ava Vorst sleeps on her back in a crib at Downtown Children's Center in St. Louis on June 14, 2011, as volunteer Maddie Smith tends to eight-month-old Adelyn Simpson after she wakes. The downtown facility has always adhered to a new state regulation that will require children below a certain age to sleep on their back.

SIDS Resources of Missouri recommends the following sleep practices to protect children up to a year in age from sudden infant death syndrome or accidental suffocation:
• Practice the ABCs of safe sleep: Babies should sleep Alone, on their Backs in a safety-approved Crib at nighttime and nap time.
• Babies should not be exposed to smoke, and mothers should not smoke during pregnancy.
• Nothing should be in the crib except the baby — no wedges, bumper pads, pillows, stuffed animals, quilts or blankets.
• Consider using a wearable blanket, such as a sleep sack or footed sleeper, instead of blankets.
• The mattress should be firm and well-fitted. If more than two fingers can be placed between the side of the mattress and the crib, the mattress is too small.

It's been 15 years since the American Academy of Pediatrics first recommended putting babies on their backs to sleep to prevent sudden infant death syndrome and accidental suffocation.
Yet, until now, Missouri has failed to incorporate the potentially life-saving practice in any of its child care licensing rules.
That's why SIDS prevention advocates are celebrating a forthcoming state rule that requires licensed child-care facilities in the state to place infants a year and under on their backs at nap time.
"This is a very important rule," said Lori Behrens, executive director of SIDS Resources of Missouri. "We're glad we have it on the books, and it gives us the lead that we need to get in with child-care providers — especially those home-care providers — to do our education on safe sleep."
The rule is in addition to another new one that child safety advocates said has long been lacking: At least one staff member trained in CPR must be on duty at all times in both licensed centers and licensed home day cares.
In an interview earlier this spring, Margaret Donnelly, director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said both rules were highly significant and would save lives. The department regulates child care in the state through its Section for Child Care Licensing.
The "back-to-sleep" rule is expected to go into effect by late summer and the CPR regulation by January 1. They will affect about 2,200 centers and another 1,440 licensed home-based child cares. From 2007 to 2009, the Missouri Child Fatality Review Program, which reviews unexpected deaths in young children in Missouri, recorded two infant deaths in licensed child care facilities because of SIDS or suffocation.
The new rules do not, however, apply to the unknown number of legally unlicensed home-based child-care businesses in Missouri, estimated to number well over 5,000, nor to the 670 faith-based child-care centers in churches and other settings that are exempted from licensing in Missouri.
Nevertheless, it's a start, say advocates of quality child care, many of whom have been waiting for such changes.
Missouri has not had a wholesale revision of its child-care rules in two decades. Efforts within the past five years by the state to update those rules have faltered because of budget cuts, changes in leadership and concerns on the part of smaller providers about costs and the scope of regulation. About two years ago, state licensing officials lost funding for consultants to help with the effort, because of state revenue shortfalls. Officials said then that the state would attempt to do the revisions piece by piece.
The new back-to-sleep and CPR requirements are the first new rules to come out of that process. Another rule mandating disaster plans is still under review by the state. Those plans would deal with evacuations, lockdowns and other procedures in the event of weather disasters, fires, kidnapping, bomb threats or other emergencies.
"We are very pleased that child-care licensing has taken this step in the right direction," said Carol Scott, executive director of Child Care Aware of Missouri. "But it's been 20 years almost since we revised the licensing rules in Missouri, and we've learned a lot in 20 years. Over that time, organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics have made strong suggestions about better protections for children. Missouri hasn't kept up with those recommendations."
Many established licensed child-care providers — particularly accredited ones with independent reviewers — have been abiding by the back-to-sleep rule on their own for more than a decade.
"If I'm giving advice out to parents, I tell them, 'You just need to put your child to sleep on their backs,'" said Lynn Navin, director of the University Child Development Center on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, which has had such a policy for years. "Too many children are dying because of policies that could be in place that are not."
Susan Horn, head of school of the Downtown Children's Center in St. Louis, said that most of her parents expected to have a back-to-sleep policy and that the center had had one for years. The center posts the policy and prevention message in its handbook, its enrollment papers and on posters in all its classrooms, she said.
"I actually was surprised it wasn't a licensing rule," Horn said. "Just, to me, it's obvious."
But such practices aren't always adhered to in child care — particularly in home-based child care businesses where providers often aren't regulated, have little or no training and are generally older. Until this rule, it had not been a given that licensed centers and homes were adhering to back-to-sleep practices.
National researchers on SIDS have long lamented that most children are dying in home-based care, where providers put babies on their tummies for naps because that is how they raised their babies years ago.
A study nearly a decade ago by Rachel Moon, a pediatrician and SIDS researcher with Children's National Medical Center, determined that 20 percent of all SIDS deaths occur in child care, when that rate should be about 8 percent given babies sleep more hours at home than in child care.
Behrens, of SIDS Resources, said the back-to-sleep rule should be just a start.
"I think that every child-care provider should receive training on exactly what safe sleep means, and that every center and home should have a safe sleep policy — something in writing that says this baby will sleep on their back," she said.
She notes that SIDS Resources also does not recommend crib bumpers or any other type of suffocation hazard in a crib, and advises parents to use blanket sleepers or wearable swaddlers instead of plain blankets.
Navin has personal experience. In the 1980s — long before current research about SIDS prevention — an infant died of SIDS during her first job in a child-care center in another state. When a parent asks Navin to put her child on his or her tummy for a nap because that is what they do at home or the child sleeps better, Navin has no problem saying no.
"It's been 25 years, and I can still see that little baby that was dead in the crib, and I won't do it. I won't."
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_9b68519e-3812-5191-bed7-ca7635901f4c.html

SBS: Missouri: Baby sitter Amy Johnson sentenced second time raises legal questions

VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN  May 3, 2011 

handout Baby sitter Amy Johnson.

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A woman who shook a baby girl in her care so severely that the girl died of her injuries in 2007 at age 13 was sentenced this morning to fourteen years in prison.
Amy Johnson shook 2-month-old Kelsey McGinnis as she cared for her at her home in Ellisville in July 14, 1994. Kelsey suffered severe brain damage, was blind, and could not walk, talk, or feed herself. Johnson served one year in jail for assaulting the child, but in March she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after being charged with second-degree murder in October 2008.
The case may have broken legal ground in Missouri because she had already been charged with a crime in the case. But prosecutors determined the charge did not violate Johnson's constitutional right against being tried twice for the same crime.
This morning in St. Louis County Circuit Court, Kelsey's father, Michael McGinnis, told Circuit Court Judge Richard Bresnahan how Johnson's decision to shake Kelsey changed their lives forever. In halting, tearful speech, McGinnis related how he, his wife Karen, and their three other children suffered financially and emotionally caring for Kelsey around the clock. "Our life was destroyed that day, not just our daughter, but our whole entire family," he said.
He said that he did not hate Johnson, but noted that she had never apologized for what had happened. "That would have made a big difference," he said.
Johnson, when given a chance to speak before the judge, said she was told not to contact the McGinnis family. "I did not intentionally hurt her," she said, noting that she had no idea at the time what Shaken Baby Syndrome was. "I'm truly sorry for all the family has gone through. And my family is suffering, too."
Johnson, who lives with her husband and children in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Her lawyer noted that one of her daughters is disabled and faces surgery, and requested that she be able to serve her sentence in a prison in South Dakota.
Johnson will likely serve about five years in prison before she is eligible for parole.
Bresnahan told Johnson that this was one of the most difficult cases he's seen in his law career. "You've sentenced them to a prison of pain," he told Johnson. "It's a different prison than the one you're going to go into, but a prison all the same.
But the difference was, he said, was that Johnson would get out one day.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_8d83c230-75a4-11e0-963a-0019bb30f31a.html

SBS: Missouri: caregiver Rebecca Harris takes Alford plea

Trish Feldt |  March 21, 2011

It was was an ordinary day in the Wakefield home. On October 26, 2007, Caprina, a busy mom, was headed out to work and dad, Aaron, had a few hours before he had to go to work himself. He fed his 4-month-old son, Kaleb and 2-year-old daughter, Ayden breakfast, then spent the rest of the morning playing with the children.
After lunch, Aaron left for work and entrusted his precious children to be cared for by Rebecca Lynn Harris. This was their new routine after Caprina returned to work full time on October 1, 2007. Harris, formerly of O’Fallon, was hired by the Wakefield’s as an in-home caregiver.
At 4:57 p.m., Caprina received a phone call from Harris, telling her that Kaleb wasn’t breathing and that paramedics were transporting him to Barnes-St. Peters Hospital.
“I arrived at the hospital and was met with a wall of hospital personnel who wouldn’t let me see him, nor did they tell me what was wrong. Finally, a pediatric doctor ascended to the hallway with the news that changed everything,” Caprina said.
Kaleb had a skull fracture and bleeding in the brain. The doctors couldn't tell how severe the damage was with their limited equipment. Kaleb was transported to St. Louis Children’s Hospital for further treatment.
“The next several weeks at Children’s Hospital were touch and go. Kaleb’s status would take one step forward and then two back. We didn’t know for two weeks if our son was going to survive,” Wakefield said.
Kaleb did survive. The Wakefields knew they had a long road ahead of them, but hoped Kaleb’s condition would continue to improve.

It was determined that Kaleb had been violently shaken. Caprina Wakefield said the family is still involved in an ongoing legal battle with Harris, who took an Alford Plea last November.
Also known as Shaken Baby Syndrome, this type of abuse oftentimes causes severe brain damage in the victim. Shaking a baby causes the brain to rock back and forth in the skull. When a child is shaken, the brain suffers contusions, or bruising from hitting the skull and thousands of tiny blood vessels in the brain break causing bleeding on the brain. The combination of the contusions and bleeding causes the brain to swell. When this happens, the brains intercranial pressure becomes excessive, causing brain damage. This damage is what results in the baby’s life long struggles.
A month after being released from the hospital, Kaleb began to have myoclonic seizures and was put on three different seizure medicines to control them. The medicines significantly retarded his brain activity, which delayed Kaleb’s development further. Kaleb also suffered from chronic respiratory diseases, such as pneumonia and chronic bronchitis because he was unable to move like a normally developing child. He took nebulizer treatments four times a day along with his seizure medicines. He was admitted to the hospital a couple of times because of high fevers.
“Taking Kaleb to the E.R. at Children’s practically became a routine exercise for our family. Much like a fire drill, we had a plan that we followed when we suspected Kaleb needed to go to the hospital. In addition to all of this, we were also facing the stress of dealing with the legal aspect of Kaleb’s injury,” Caprina said.
Eventually, Kaleb was successfully weaned off the seizure medications, which has improved his rehabilitation. Kaleb still has a long way to go.  At almost 4 years old, he is just now learning to walk. Most children his age are feeding and dressing themselves, but for Kaleb, those are skills he has yet to master.
http://ofallon.patch.com/articles/kalebs-journey-ofallon-fundraiser-to-raise-awareness-of-child-abuse

SIDS: Missourii: Buchanan County has higher rate of child abuse deaths

Kim Norvell St. Joseph News-Press

January 28, 2011

As with any age, infants can die at any moment. Sometimes from natural causes, other times from accidents. But when a child dies as a result of serious physical injury, the public collectively becomes concerned.

“The type (of infant death) we have way too many of is abuse,” said Joyce Estes, executive director of the Northwest Missouri Children’s Advocacy Center. “We are higher than other areas of Missouri, definitely.”

According to the 2009 Missouri Kids Count study, Buchanan County had a higher rate per 100,000 child deaths (not necessarily criminal in nature), ages 1 to 14, than the rest of the state; the county also had a higher rate per 1,000 child abuse and neglect cases.

In 2010, three infants were victims of homicides that were criminal in nature, which included neglect and abuse. In January, an investigation into the death of an almost 2-year-old boy was launched by the St. Joseph Police Department. Charges have yet to be filed, but police believe his death was not from natural causes.

While there is no specific cause as to why infants are victims of child abuse, the trend seems to indicate the tragic deaths happen when a single mom is forced to trust her child with another caregiver, said Robin Hammond, executive director of the St. Joseph Youth Alliance. The national trend indicates that infant deaths as a result of trauma happen when a father is left alone with the child; in St. Joseph it’s typically the boyfriend of the child’s mother, Ms. Hammond said.

Ms. Estes said typically, infant deaths related to neglect will be the fault of the mother, while infant deaths related to abuse will be that of the father or male figure. Typically these deaths are also related to drug or alcohol abuse, which is also high in St. Joseph, Ms. Estes said.

Usually, the incidents that result in death are severe and garner media attention, said Joey Thompson, circuit manager for the Missouri Department of Social Services in Buchanan County. However, Ms. Thompson said most cases of infant deaths are the result of natural causes, such as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It is rare for infant deaths to be caused by serious physical abuse, she said.

Of the 2,000 calls of suspected child abuse that Andrew and Buchanan County receive per year, only one or two are investigated as a death that is criminal in nature, Ms. Thompson said.

“It’s all preventable, none of it’s necessary,” she said. “Our agency is very threatening because we make determinations on children’s safety, but most of the work we do is to prevent further abuse and reduce the risk of abuse.”

There is a need for resources for victims of child abuse under 6 years old, said Jennifer Soper, chairwoman of the Crisis Nursery Committee. She said the need grew a few years ago from a community response to “previous child abuse and unfortunate deaths.” She said currently there are gaps in services where infants and toddlers can stay if they are victims of abuse, which the Crisis Nursery hopes to address. The nursery will be housed at the Noyes Home for Children, which provides services for children ages 6 to 18. There is no timeline as to when the service will be completed.

Those who believe their child may be a victim of abuse can contact the Missouri Department of Social Services, St. Joseph Youth Alliance, Northwest Missouri Children’s Advocacy Center, Noyes Home for Children or their local law enforcement.

Kim Norvell can be reached at kim.norvell@newspressnow.com.

http://www.newspressnow.com/localnews/26658544/detail.html

SIDS: Missouri: Child-abuse detectives

ST. LOUIS • Authorities are investigating the overnight death of an infant boy, but say they don't consider the death to be suspicious.
The boy, about 6 weeks old, died early Friday.
Police got a call that the baby had stopped breathing at a home north St. Louis.
The boy was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police say there were no signs of trauma on the boy. Police released no further details about the circumstances surrounding the his death.
Child-abuse detectives are investigating, but according to the police department's policy, child-abuse detectives are called out any time a child dies in the city, even if the death is a result or illness or sudden-infant death syndrome.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_540fec80-1ff6-11e0-bd1d-0017a4a78c22.html

SBS: Missouri: Greg Walker

Justin Kendall,  Dec. 21 2010

 

Damarion Walker before his body was broken.

​Three-month old Damarion Walker has a blood clot on his brain, two broken femurs and an injured wrist. His injuries have been called "critical," and doctors believe his injuries are a case of "shaken- baby syndrome."

KMBC Channel 9 interviewed Damarion's mother, Kinsey Starling, who told reporter Peggy Breit that she was shocked when authorities charged Damarion's father, Greg Walker, with aggravated battery. Starling told Breit there's no way Walker could have injured their son. Authorities say otherwise.
Walker, 34, has "spent half of his life in prison," but Starling claimed those were crimes he didn't commit. "We're a happy family and we would never think of hurting our children, ever," she told Breit. "It's horrible and it's confusing to me because I know there's other things that can cause this, and all they're trying to focus on is child abuse."
Starling and Walker have been together for two-and-a-half years. Starling was at work last week when Walker called and told her Damarion had been "fussing" and was now "unresponsive." When the baby boy was taken to the hospital, doctors believed they had a case of shaken-baby syndrome.
Right then and there, they told me, 'Well, he had a blood clot on his brain and this is caused by a blow to the head,'" she said. "We thought, 'A blow to the head? Like who would really hit a child in their head?'"
Authorities apparently believe Walker would -- despite Starling's protests. Now, as investigators sort out what happened, Starling has lost custody of Damarion as well as her other child. She's not allowed to see her son. Today, she'll reportedly be in court fighting for visitation.
Meanwhile, Walker is locked up in the Johnson County jail, and we can only hope Damarion survives.
http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2010/12/damarion_walker_shaken-baby_syndrome.php

SIDS: Missouri: Quintine Schmidt

 December 10, 2010

MICHELLE FRIEDRICH SEMO

The Dexter infant found dead inside his home in October died of sudden infant death syndrome. Quintine Jeffrey Alexander Schmidt, the 6-month-old son of Erik and Candice Schmidt, died Oct. 12 at his residence.
Dexter Police officers and Stoddard County Ambulance Service personnel responded to the Schmidt residence in the north sector of Dexter after a 911 call was received regarding a baby in cardiac arrest and not breathing. Upon their arrival, the infant was found unresponsive and subsequently was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Stoddard County Major Case Squad was activated to investigate the infant's death and an autopsy was performed Oct. 14 at Mineral Area Regional Medical Center in Farmington, Mo., by Dr. Russell Deidiker.
Dexter authorities recently received Deidiker's final autopsy report, which listed Quintine's cause of death as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and his manner of death as natural, said Dexter Police Detective Trevor Pulley.

SBS: Missouri: Caringer: Timetable of infant's death disputed during trial

Kathryn Wall November 11, 2010

Doctor says baby's injuries within hours of death; defense disagrees.
While prosecutors worked to prove an infant died of an abusive head injury in a single day, the defense questioned a pattern of injuries that they say were the real cause of the 9-month-old's death.

Lucas Theede-Bennett died Jan. 6, 2009. His baby-sitter, Brenda Caringer, is charged with his murder.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors have argued that Caringer was the only person who could be responsible for the traumatic head injuries that ultimately lead to Lucas' death.
The defense claims Caringer was preparing a bottle for Lucas when she heard a thump and came into the living room to see the infant falling back from her coffee table. He stopped breathing a short time later, the defense has said.
They contend that a series of falls Lucas experienced in the eight days prior to the Jan. 6 incident were a slow lead-up that triggered his death.
The prosecution presented Dr. Martin Jones, the trauma doctor who directed Lucas' care after he was flown to Cox South hospital.
"His injury was severe. His presentation was just as dramatic ... I have not seen a minor fall like that ever cause that type of injury," Jones said.
Jones noticed shortly after Lucas' death that he had retinal hemorrhages -- bleeding in the arteries of the eyes most commonly connected with Shaken Baby Syndrome.
CT scans performed on Lucas after his death revealed a skull fracture and bleeding and swelling of his brain. Jones declared Lucas' cause of death "abusive head trauma."
Caringer's defense attorneys cited the mention of an older area of bleeding on the brain in Jones' report that they say points to previous, older injuries that slowly contributed to Lucas' death.
Jones acknowledged that the CT scans showed an area that could have been another, smaller area of bleeding that was older than other areas in the brain, but he said those areas were considered "questionable" in the scans and could have easily been an overlap or another error in the image. He said if the area was bleeding, it was unrelated to the skull fracture and the massive bleeding that caused Lucas' death.
"It's not significant enough to cause the profound injury we found on the child," he said of the possible past injury.
Jones also said the extent of Lucas' injuries would have been immediately apparent. He said the skull fracture and subsequent bleeding had to have occurred within hours of Lucas' death.
The prosecution presented five other witnesses Wednesday -- including police personnel who responded to the scene, paramedics who treated Lucas and another woman whose daughter was being watched by Caringer at the time.
Police and paramedics who responded to Caringer's home said many of the same things heard Tuesday -- Lucas was cold to the touch when they arrived, Caringer was frantic and wasn't answering questions and that Caringer's story seemed to change as the time went on.