SBS: California: Shirley Ree Smith seeks Governor's clemency

Bob Egelko, , December 24, 201

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A 51-year-old woman convicted of fatally shaking her 7-week-old grandson - a conviction overturned three times by a federal appeals court, and reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court - has asked Gov. Jerry Brown for clemency.
In its Oct. 31 ruling, the high court said doubts about Shirley Ree Smith's guilt were "understandable," but that federal judges had no authority to second-guess the jury that convicted the Los Angeles woman in 1997 or the state courts that upheld the verdict.

Only recourse

The majority in the 6-3 ruling said Smith's only recourse was to seek executive clemency. In papers sent to Brown on Friday, her lawyers asked the governor to commute her sentence to the 10 years she has already spent behind bars, and spare her from returning to prison for the rest of a 15-to-life sentence.
Clemency is justified by "the paucity of evidence supporting Ms. Smith's finding of guilt, the fact that she has been a law-abiding citizen for more than 50 years" apart from this conviction, and the Supreme Court's apparent qualms about her case, defense lawyers said.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which prosecuted Smith, has not seen the clemency petition and has no comment, spokeswoman Jane Robinson said.
The filing comes amid debate among scientists about shaken-baby syndrome, a term doctors have used for 40 years to describe often-fatal head injuries suffered by small children with no outward signs of abuse.
A minority of researchers have questioned whether violent shaking of a child can cause such severe injuries. A state appeals court in Wisconsin cited those researchers' findings in a 2008 ruling overturning a woman's homicide conviction, a ruling cited by the dissenting Supreme Court justices in Smith's case.
"Doubt has increased in the medical community over whether infants can be fatally injured through shaking alone," said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, quoting the Wisconsin court.
Smith's grandson, Etzel Dean Glass, went to sleep on a couch at Smith's brother's apartment the evening of his death in November 1996 with his mother and grandmother sleeping nearby.
Smith said she awoke at one point, found the child on the floor, and put him back on the couch without noticing anything unusual. She said she awoke again around 3:20 a.m. and saw him lying motionless, with blood on one nostril. Attempts to revive him failed, and he was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Prosecutors said Smith shook the baby to stop him from crying. Smith denied it, and defense witnesses described her as a loving grandmother who had never shown anger toward Etzel.
But county medical examiners said the blood was evidence that the child had been violently shaken. Although there was no sign of the bleeding or swelling of brain tissue normally present in such cases, the medical witnesses said the shaking must have been so severe that it tore away parts of the brain.

Reversal in 2006

After unsuccessful appeals in state courts, Smith won a reversal in 2006 from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which said there was no credible evidence that the child was intentionally killed.
She has remained free for four years while the appeals court reaffirmed its conclusion twice, after Supreme Court orders to reconsider the case under recent precedents limiting federal court review of state convictions. The high court ended the duel with its latest ruling.
"It is not the job of this court, and was not that of the Ninth Circuit, to decide whether the state's theory was correct," the majority said. "The jury decided that question, and its decision is supported by the record."

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/23/BAIN1MGG06.DTL#ixzz1iJBJ2VMk

SIDS: California: Sheila Caceres arrested

Marjie Lundstrom and Sam Stanton
mlundstrom@sacbee.com

By Marjie Lundstrom and Sam Stanton The Sacramento Bee

Last modified:  Nov. 6, 2011

Sacramento County's former "family child care provider of the year" was arrested Thursday on a charge of felony child neglect in the February death of an infant in her care.
Sheila Caceres, a 31-year-old mother of three, turned herself in at the Sacramento County jail Thursday night, where she was expected to be booked and then released on $50,000 bail, authorities said.
She had operated Sheila's Garden Daycare from her 2,800-square-foot home since 2005.
Caceres had been under investigation in the Feb. 23 death of 2-month-old Avin Rominger, who was found unresponsive in the upstairs of her Mather home.
She also is being charged with "repeatedly" violating the state Health and Safety Code by placing unattended infants in the upstairs of her home, while watching older children on the first floor.
Caceres faces up to eight years in prison if convicted of felony child neglect.
"My husband and I are very pleased with the District Attorney's Office for continuing with these charges," Rachelle Rominger, Avin's mother, said late Thursday. "We feel this is the start of the justice process for our son."
Caceres' arrest stands in stark contrast to the image she presented in February 2008, when the Sacramento Child Care Coalition honored her as provider of the year at a downtown gala. Nominated by parents, she was lauded by government leaders and education professionals for her "commitment to building strong, trusting relationships" and her welcoming spirit.
Three years later, the woman praised for pumpkin patch outings and backyard barbecues was being pursued by both the Sheriff's Department and the California Department of Social Services.
Sheriff's detectives say the case proved difficult to untangle because Caceres told conflicting stories about what happened to the baby that winter day.
According to Dave Rominger, Avin's father, Caceres greeted him as usual around 4 p.m. and calmly went upstairs, then came running back down screaming for him to call 911.
But Caceres initially told a detective she found Avin unresponsive in a downstairs crib. Later, she amended her version, telling Detective Darin Pometta that she left Avin sleeping upstairs in a car seat and sometime that afternoon found him unresponsive.
She said she picked him up, then placed him on his side in a portable playpen, rubbed his back and went downstairs until Dave Rominger arrived, Pometta told The Bee.
The baby was later pronounced dead at Mercy San Juan Medical Center.
"The reality is, with immediate medical intervention, Avin might have had a chance to live," said Sgt. Jeff Reinl of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Child Abuse Unit.
"Sheila's action – or inaction – eliminated any possibility for him to survive."
Reinl said Caceres' role as a trained, professional child care provider factored into her arrest. He said Caceres would be expected to provide "a higher standard of care than if you had teenagers next door watching your kids."
Caceres did not respond to numerous requests for comment from The Bee last month, but the attorney who handled her licensing case with the state said Caceres had nothing to do with Avin's death.
For the Romingers, the arrest of a neighbor they entrusted with Avin and his older sister marks a critical juncture in their search for legal justice.
But it does little to explain the medical mystery that still shrouds the death of their second child.
While the public has become familiar with a finding of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, that was not the case with Avin. Following an autopsy, the Sacramento County Coroner's Office listed his cause of death as sudden unexpected infant death, or SUID – an important distinction.
SIDS is defined as the sudden death of an infant under 1 year old that cannot be explained after a thorough investigation. It is, says Sacramento County Coroner Gregory Wyatt, a "finding of exclusion."
In contrast, sudden unexpected infant death is a broader classification that applies to any sudden and unexpected death of a child under 1, whether explained or unexplained. About half of these are due to SIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A sudden explained death might be caused by infections, poisoning or an accidental suffocation.
The manner of death in Avin's case was ruled "undetermined" – meaning the coroner could not conclude whether it was natural, accidental or homicide. But the pathologist noted that the delay in calling 911 was "a factor of concern since it is unknown if he could have been revived from whatever event caused his death."
In a similar case, a day care operator in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was charged this month with two felonies after a 5-month-old infant died in her care. As with Avin, the baby's cause of death was ruled to be sudden unexpected infant death.
Since Avin's death, Rach- elle and Dave Rominger said, they have been ostracized and shunned by other parents who used the day care, blaming them for Caceres' legal woes.
Caceres' day care license was suspended after Avin's death. State licensing documents show she also faced a number of other allegations, including lying to law enforcement, violating fire safety clearance, letting a child wander away from the home and engaging in sex in front of at least one child in her care.
Last month, in a deal struck with the state Department of Social Services, she agreed to a lifetime ban on operating, working in or being present in a day care home.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/28/4013151/infants-death-leads-to-arrest.html#ixzz1d22TtJcE

SBS: California: Shirley Ree Smith

By Warren Richey, Staff writer / October 31, 2011

The US Supreme Court summarily reversed a federal appeals court on Monday in a ruling that will force a California grandmother back to prison for the alleged shaking death of her infant grandson.

third time the justices have reversed a panel of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in the same case, Cavazos v. Smith (10-1115). The case involves the conviction of Shirley Ree Smith for allegedly shaking and killing 7-week-old Etzel. At her 1997 trial, jurors heard conflicting testimony about whether the infant died of shaken baby syndrome (SBS) or of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The jury decided that Ms. Smith had caused the death. She was subsequently sentenced to serve 15 years to life in prison.

The verdict was upheld by the trial judge, a state appeals court, and a federal judge. But the Ninth Circuit panel disagreed with the jury’s interpretation of the evidence, and reversed the conviction.

In vacating that opinion, the Supreme Court essentially scolded the Ninth Circuit for reaching a legal conclusion that was “plainly wrong,” and for substituting its view of the evidence in place of the jury’s conclusions.
“It is the responsibility of the jury – not the court – to decide what conclusions should be drawn from evidence admitted at trial,” the court said in an unsigned opinion. The justices said a reviewing court may set aside a jury’s verdict for insufficient evidence only when “no rational trier of fact could have agreed with the jury.”
“Because rational people can sometimes disagree, the inevitable consequence of this settled law is that judges will sometimes encounter convictions that they believe to be mistaken, but that they must nonetheless uphold,” the court said.
“The court of appeals in this case substituted its own judgment for that of a California jury on the question of whether the prosecution’s or the defense’s expert witnesses more persuasively explained the cause of a death.”

In a dissent, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer said justice is not served by the high court’s reversal. They said they would allow the Ninth Circuit panel’s decision to stand.

“What does this court achieve other than to prolong Smith’s suffering and her separation from her family,” Justice Ginsburg wrote in dissent. “Is this court’s intervention really necessary?”

Ginsburg said new information (obtained since Smith’s trial) about shaken baby syndrome “casts grave doubt” on the charges against Smith. She added that uncontraverted evidence shows that Smith poses no threat to her family or others.
The unsigned majority decision counters this point, saying that considerations of whether Smith has been punished enough and poses no danger to society would perhaps be grounds for executive clemency.
But the majority justices concluded: “The decision below cannot be allowed to stand.”
The court noted: “In light of the evidence presented at trial, the Ninth Circuit plainly erred in concluding that the jury’s verdict was irrational, let alone that it was unreasonable for the California Court of Appeal to think otherwise.”
“Doubts about whether Smith is in fact guilty are understandable. But it is not the job of this court, and was not that of the Ninth Circuit, to decide whether the state’s theory was correct,” the court said. “The jury decided that question, and its decision is supported by the record.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2011/1031/Supreme-Court-rebukes-Ninth-Circuit-again-in-shaken-baby-case

SBS: California: James Yang 10 year sentence affirmed

June 15, 2011 Rob Young/Appeal-Democrat

An appeals court on Wednesday affirmed the 10-year prison sentence given to an Olivehurst man who beat and shook his 3-month-old daughter, leaving her blind and brain-damaged.
James Yang was 26 when arrested in March 2009 on suspicion of cruelty to a child.
Yang became angry at the girl when she defecated while he was changing her diaper. He hit her hard across the face three times. When he gave her a bath, he noticed she was not breathing, according to a court document.
"After several attempts to revive her, she began gasping. He called 911," wrote Presiding Justice Vance W. Raye of the 3rd District Court of Appeal.
A year later, the girl still suffered the effects of shaken baby syndrome, including an abnormally small head and inability to control her arms and legs. She is blind and requires a feeding tube, Raye wrote.
Under a plea agreement with the Yuba County District Attorney's Office, Yang was to receive the mid-term prison sentence of 10 years. Judge Kathleen O'Connor refused to accept the plea, citing the circumstances of the offense.
A few weeks later, however, Judge Julia Scrogin accepted the plea and sentenced Yang to 10 years. She ordered him to pay $65,665 in restitution — the cost of his daughter's Medi-Cal care, according to the document
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/yang-107609-court-sentence.html

AHT: California: Fernando Loghlin sentenced

Paul T. Rosynsky
 04/22/2011

OAKLAND -- When Fernando Loughlin called 911 after his 3-month-old son stopped breathing, he told the operator that his son was alone and asleep when he noticed the baby's breathing had stopped. He told paramedics the same story and initially told police that he had no idea what had happened to his son Julian on the morning of March 3, 2007.

It wasn't until Loughlin, 36, was told that his son was suffering from massive head trauma, and that a doctor at Children's Hospital Oakland believed it was caused by child abuse, that Loughlin broke down in tears and told police that he accidentally dropped Julian in the bathtub.
For those lies, Loughlin was sentenced Friday to prison for two years after agreeing to a surprising deal in which he pleaded no contest and was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the death of Julian.
Loughlin contends that he never intentionally hurt his child but said he initially lied about what happened because he was fearful his son would be taken from him and his wife.
It was a series of lies his attorney William Locke said Friday that will haunt Loughlin for the rest of his life.
"Certainly, he made that lie and he kept it up, that is something that he will regret for as long as he lives," Locke said. "He was deeply wrong."
The lies also prove that he was not acting in a reasonable manner when he reacted to dropping his son in the bathtub and for that he should serve prison time, Alameda
County Superior Court Judge Gloria Rhynes said.
"This is not the way that parents should conduct themselves," Rhynes said just before she sent Loughlin to prison as about 15 of his friends and family cried. "I, in no way, want Mr. Loughlin to believe in his own mind that he should be absolved."
Julian's death occurred the morning of March 3, 2007, after Loughlin had bathed him. According to Loughlin's attorney, Loughlin was in the process of lifting Julian out of the bathtub when an older son rushed into the bathroom and attempted to jump into the bath.
With one arm cradling Julian, Locke said, Loughlin tried to keep his older son from getting into the tub but in the process dropped Julian, who hit his head on the ceramic tub and a plastic infant bath seat.
The fall caused massive trauma to Julian's skull and matched the injuries many doctors say are caused by shaken baby syndrome.
But instead of immediately calling 911 and telling the truth, Loughlin attempted to hide his mistake by dressing his dead baby and then initially claiming that he did not know what happened.
The injuries suffered by Julian coupled with Loughlin's original lies convinced James Crawford of Children's Hospital Oakland that Julian was a victim of child abuse. Crawford's opinions then persuaded the district attorney's office to file murder charges.
But Locke was prepared to challenge Crawford's findings and present a cadre of character witnesses showing that Loughlin had never exhibited any violent tendencies toward his children.
Locke never had an opportunity to present his case because Loughlin agreed to the plea deal after just one day of testimony. At the time, Locke said the deal was made to avoid the risk of Loughlin being sent to prison for the rest of his life and because his older son had just been diagnosed with a return of leukemia after it was in remission for two years. Under the deal, Loughlin was allowed to remain free on bail until the sentencing Friday.
Deputy district attorney Tim Wellman, who began to try the case and then later accepted the plea, said the resolution of the case without a full trial was fair. At the time of the plea deal Wellman said the case had conflicting medical evidence and that the deal would guarantee that Loughlin is held responsible for Julian's death.
"Parents run into burning buildings to save their children but what did the defendant do? I ask the court to consider that," Wellman said Friday. "It is clear in this case that the defendant put his own self interest in front of his child's health."
Rhynes said she agreed to sentence Loughlin to the minimum two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter because of the conflicting medical evidence and the testimony that was expected to be presented during the trial showing that Loughlin had no criminal record and was supported by his wife, other family and friends.
But she said Loughlin could not be let free because he did not act as he should have after dropping his baby in the bathtub.
"We do know that Fernando Loughlin put in place a chain of events that led to his child's death including making a series of lies," the judge said. "That is not the act of a conscientious parent, that is not the act of a devoted parent."
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17911231?nclick_check=1

AHT: California: Esteban Alamo charged with murder

March 28^th, 2011

INDIO - A Los Angeles parolee pleaded not guilty today to fatally beating his girlfriend's 22-month-old son.
Esteban Alamo, 25, faces charges of murder and assaulting a child.
Serik Mathew Nieto died Oct. 9 -- five days after Alamo allegedly hit the boy repeatedly, inflicting head trauma while he was watching the toddler at his mother's house in Indio.
Serik's 4-year-old sister told detectives that Alamo had beaten and "killed" her brother and also said the defendant would, on occasion, slap her on the face, stomach and shoulders, according to a declaration filed in support of an arrest warrant by Indio police Detective Julio Diaz.
During an interview with police, Alamo said he was "cooking and cleaning" at his girlfriend's home during the hours between 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Oct. 4 while also watching her children, according to the declaration. Alamo told officers he heard the boy crying outside in the backyard and figured he had fallen, Diaz said.
He also allegedly told investigators that he "did not like children and would lose his temper very quickly," and advised his girlfriend to "slap the s---" out of her kids when they got on his nerves.
Alamo's girlfriend called police when she arrived home that afternoon and  found the toddler lying in his bed with white foam coming from his mouth, according to police.
Serik was airlifted to Loma Linda Medical Center. Doctors there initially thought the boy died as a result of "Shaken Baby Syndrome," but the pathologist who performed the autopsy determined the toddler was beaten to death, according to Diaz.
A man who lived with Alamo and his girlfriend at their apartment told investigators that Alamo slapped Serik's sister when she was trying to prevent him from hitting her brother, according to Diaz.
Jim Toro also told investigators that one day when the boy was crying, he heard Alamo tell the child, "Shut up you little brat! I'm going to kill you!", according to the declaration.
Alamo is being held on $1 million bail. He was extradited from Los Angeles County, where he was arrested on suspicion of violating terms of his parole for leaving the county. He had been in prison for a firearms violation, according to the arrest warrant.
Though Alamo was arrested in Los Angeles County on Oct. 14, charges in Riverside County were not filed until February.
Alamo is due back at the Larson Justice Center on April 7 for a felony settlement conference.

http://www.myvalleynews.com/story/55238/

SBS: California: foster parent Jovanee Reynolds accused of murder

3/19

A Fresno foster mother is facing murder charges Friday night nearly six months after the death of an infant in her care. The 23 year old foster parent, Jovannee Reynolds, is accused of the murder of her seven-week-old baby girl. Investigators believe the child died from shaken baby syndrome last September.

http://www.cbs47.tv/news/local/story/Foster-Mother-Faces-Murder-Charges/UFPlr7yaq0u-4Orwk39kyg.cspx

SBS: California: foster mother Jovanee Reynolds charged with murder

Mar 19, 2011

By Norma Yuriar

Fresno County, Calif.  (KMPH News) – Six months after valley doctors pronounce a Fresno baby dead; Fresno Police arrest the little girl's foster mother on charges of murder and willful injury to a child.  Jovannee Reynolds is in the Fresno County Jail.  Bail is set at $25,000.

Mikayla Tabin was only 26–days–old when she died on September 20, 2010.

Catherine Huerta, Director of the Fresno County Department of Social Services says the arrest does not come as a shock, her department has been working with police.

"We have known for a series of months...ever since the child was taken to the hospital, that things were very suspicious then this poor child passed," Huerta said.  "So, we've known, we've been cooperating with police.

Investigators say it was little Mikayla's own foster parents that drove her to Children's Hospital Central California on September 14, 2010.  The medical staff believed her injuries were "suspicious" and contacted the Fresno Police Department's Child Abuse Unit.  Mikayla died six days later.

"The Coroner's Office conducted an extensive investigation into this death as well.  Homicide Detectives determined that the victim died from Shaken Baby Syndrome," Lt. Mark Salazar said in a news release.

"We have kept very comprehensive records since 2003 and this is the first time since 2003 that we have had a child fatality... allegedly by a foster parent," Huerta said.

Child Protective Services removed Mikayla from her biological mother's care in August of 2010 and placed her with Reynolds.

Huerta says Fresno County pays foster parents $345 a month to care for a newborn.

"Had we had any indication, she would harm this child we would have taken action," Huerta said.

Huerta says Reynolds and her husband both passed an extensive background check, a home inspection and took part in a mandatory 9–week class before being accepted into the foster care program.

"Unfortunately, and maybe this is the case, you can pass all of that, have no record, have a home that meets all the physical standards and there are parts that we have no control over," Huerta said.

The foster father was not arrested.  Fresno police says he is not considered a suspect in the investigation.

CALIFORNIA: Fernando Loughlin plea deal

Paul T. Rosynsky
 02/03/2011

OAKLAND — Fernando Loughlin said he didn't kill his son.

It was an accident, Loughlin told police, caused when he was distracted and dropped the 3-month-old baby into the bathtub as he was trying to pick him up.
Loughlin, 36, hoped to convince a jury that the death of Julian Loughlin was a mistake and clear his name from a charge of murder filed against him by a skeptical District Attorney's Office.
Loughlin's attorney was prepared to attack the diagnosis of a Children's Hospital doctor who declared the death a result of a child abuse and had dozens of witnesses, including Loughlin's wife and mother-in-law, standing by to testify as character witnesses on behalf of Loughlin.
But that defense ended Wednesday, after just one day of testimony, when Loughlin agreed to a plea deal that will most likely send him to prison for 10 months.
The unexpected deal was made, said Loughlin's attorney, William Locke, to both avoid the risk of his client spending his life in prison and because Loughlin's older son, a 5-year-old, had just been diagnosed with leukemia return after being in remission for two years.
"My client was facing a life sentence if he was convicted so I understand he has made a rational decision under these circumstances and under these risks," Locke said. "I am disappointed because I am persuaded about his innocence."
Under the deal, Loughlin pleaded no contest to and therefore was found guilty of one count
of involuntary manslaughter with an indication from Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gloria Rhynes that she will sentence him to the minimum two years in prison.
With credits for time served, Loughlin, who will remain free on a $350,000 bail until sentencing in April, will likely serve 10 months in prison.
Locke said the deal will allow Loughlin to be by his older son's hospital bedside as he faces another round of treatment for leukemia. The son must stay in critical care at a hospital for several months.
Deputy district attorney Tim Wellman said his office agreed to the deal because the case had conflicting evidence and the deal guarantees that Loughlin will be held responsible for the death of his child.
"There was going to be conflicting medical evidence, there was going be a lack of certain corroborating evidence, the defendant had no criminal history and no history of abuse on children or others. It was also understood that he had strong family support," Wellman said. "From our perspective we wanted a resolution that would hold him accountable for taking the life of a child and bring certainty to the case."
Wellman's case against Loughlin was based largely on a diagnosis by a Children's Hospital doctor who declared Julian Loughlin's injuries could only be caused by child abuse.
The 3-month-old was brought to hospital with severe brain trauma, broken ribs and a damaged liver.
Wellman also told a jury Monday that he would show that Loughlin initially lied to both a 911 operator and later police about what happened to his son claiming, at first, that the baby was sleeping when he stopped breathing.
Loughlin didn't speak about dropping his son until he was confronted by the opinion of Dr. James Crawford, who specializes in child abuse cases, and who never wavered from his initial diagnosis that Julian suffered child abuse.
But Locke was prepared to challenge the opinions of Crawford with another doctor who has also worked extensively on child abuse cases and who has found fault with the shaken-baby syndrome, a medical diagnosis of child abuse that is now being challenged.
Locke also was going to call Loughlin's friends and family members to the witness stand in hopes of convincing the jury that Loughlin never showed aggression toward his children or others.
Locke said during opening statements that his client initially lied about what happened to his son because he panicked and was scared that he would be found to be an incompetent parent for dropping his son in a bathtub.
"He made a reasonable decision under horrible circumstances," Locke said.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17275256?nclick_check=1

SIDS: Orange County's infant mortality rate lowest in 10 years

Linda Shrieves, Orlando Sentinel  January 10, 2011

The number of babies dying before their first birthday dropped in Orange County in 2009 — and the county's infant-mortality rate reached its lowest level in 10 years, according to a county task force.
"One year is not a trend, so we have to be cautious with a single year's statistics, but we are pleased with this year's indicator. Infant mortality is an important measure for the overall health of our community," said Dr. Kevin M. Sherin, director of the Orange County Health Department.
In 2009, the latest year for which data is available, the county's infant-mortality rate was 6.1 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2008, the county's infant-mortality rate was 9.1 deaths for every 1,000 live births.
Although Orange County's infant-mortality rate is usually higher than Florida's overall rate, that ratio was reversed in 2009. The state infant-mortality rate was 6.9 deaths per 1,000 births in 2009.
Infant mortality is the number of infant deaths (or babies under 1 year of age) for every 1,000 live births.
At Orange County's Healthy Start Coalition, which is dedicated to improving moms' and babies' health, executive director Linda Sutherland cheered the news.
The 2009 mortality rate, she said, translates into 94 infant deaths in 2009 compared with 150 deaths during 2008. That, say county officials, means that 56 fewer babies died than the previous year.
"Saving one baby is potential for us all," Sutherland said. "You never know what that child could have achieved."
In the U.S., infant-mortality rates are traditionally higher among black babies, who are more than twice as likely to die in their first year as other babies. In 2009, the infant-mortality rate for black babies was 12.2 per 1,000 live births. In 2008, the infant-mortality rate for black babies was 17.8 per 1,000 births.
Experts say several factors contribute to infant mortality, including: late prenatal care; and expectant mothers who are overweight, smoke, abuse drugs, eat poorly or are the victims of domestic violence. Pre-term labor and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome also are culprits.
Sutherland hopes the county's infant-mortality rate dropped because of programs her organization has instituted. For example, Save Our Babies reaches out at churches, nail salons and hair salons in the black community to educate women about maternal health, including the need for folic acid and multivitamins during pregnancy.
"We've also had a huge push on babies sleeping on their backs" to prevent SIDS, she said. And the Healthy Start Coalition has been teaching parents about the dangers of sleeping with their babies — because of an increase in the number of babies suffocated by parents who rolled onto their children in bed.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-orange-county-infant-mortality-20110106,0,6195869.story

SBS: California: Shirley Ree Smith

By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times

December 16, 2010

Shirley Ree Smith spent 10 years behind bars for the death of her grandson before her conviction was overturned.  Now she waits on skid row as the courts sort out whether a jury's verdict — even if wrong — must prevail.

From a second-floor room in skid row's Russ Hotel, Shirley Ree Smith spends sleepless nights listening to the knife fights and profanity-laced taunts of the drug dealers, pimps and brawlers who populate South San Julian Street. She ventures out after dark only as far as she needs to get cellphone reception for the nightly call from her daughter, Tomeka, in Kankakee, Ill. It is the emotional high point of each day spent looking for work no one will give her. Smith has been separated from her daughter and grandchildren for 14 years, since her arrest in the 1996 death of her 7-week-old grandson. After a Van Nuys jury accepted a prosecution theory that Smith must have shaken the baby violently to stop him from crying, she spent 10 years behind bars. Then in 2006, an appeals court ruled the evidence against her was so flimsy it violated her constitutional right to a fair trial. She was ordered freed.
But a long-running legal dispute among the nation's most influential judges has continued to put restraints on Smith. She has been confined to Southern California while the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals exchange contradictory musings, not about her guilt or innocence, but on whether a jury verdict should be respected — right or wrong. Smith still could be locked up in prison for the rest of her life, if the high court justices take another look at the 9th Circuit's release order and conclude it failed to respect the jury's guilty finding.
**
Smith says she was dozing on her sister's living room carpet, the TV tuned to the western she'd been watching. She recalls being awakened by "a little cry," and found her two baby grandsons had slipped off the sofa cushions onto the floor. She put 14-month-old Yondale and 7-week-old Etzel back on the sofa. Their 3-year-old sister, Yolanda, was asleep on the nearby love seat, Smith said. "They were fine," she insists, despite the short tumble. She woke again a couple of hours later to use the bathroom. On her way back to the living room, she checked on Etzel, thinking he needed a diaper change. In the flickering light from the TV screen, she saw blood trickling from the infant's nostril and something white and foamy at his mouth.
"His head just flopped back," Smith said, her eyes widening in terror at the recollection.
She raced the infant to Tomeka, who had fallen asleep in a bedroom. Mother and daughter called 911 and took turns giving the baby CPR, guided over the telephone by paramedics as an ambulance rushed to the Van Nuys home and emergency dispatchers recorded the women's anguished pleas for help. Etzel was pronounced dead on arrival at Mission Community Hospital about 4 a.m., Nov. 30, 1996. The attending physician listed the cause of death as suspected sudden infant death syndrome.
Within a few days, though, a preliminary autopsy finding would quash that diagnosis and compound the family's grief. The death was ruled a homicide and Smith was the suspect.
A tiny patch of blood found under the skull and a scrape the size of a match head prompted the autopsy doctor to call Los Angeles County's child abuse hotline. A social worker with the Department of Children and Family Services showed up at Smith's sister's apartment two days later to take Yondale and Yolanda into protective custody, commenting disparagingly on Tomeka's having borne three children by the age of 18.
Two months later, before the cause of death was made final or all postmortem test results had been received, Smith was arrested and accused of causing her grandson's death by shaken baby syndrome.
None of the usual signs of violent shaking were present, experts for the prosecution and defense testified at her 1997 trial. The blood on the brain wasn't enough to have caused the death, nor could the small abrasion have been fatal, jurors were told. There was no telltale blood in the baby's retinas, nor was there hemorrhaging around the brain stem or the bruising and fractures that usually speak to abuse.
Associate Deputy Medical Examiner Stephanie Erlich was four months into a two-year forensic training program when she discovered the small brain bleed — the first autopsy she performed that raised suspicion of child abuse. She testified that other indicators of shaken baby syndrome may have been missing because the shaking was so violent that tiny blood vessels in the brain stem suffered "shearing," causing instantaneous death without bleeding because the heart had stopped.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Falomi Pierson objected every time a witness referred to Smith's loving and patient nature, as well as all accounts by paramedics, police and emergency room doctors of her shock and grief. The trial transcript records Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp, clearly irritated by the rambling, inarticulate questioning of witnesses by defense lawyer Ubiwe K. Eriye, sustaining most of Pierson's objections and offering many of her own.
Just weeks after the headline-grabbing trial of British nanny Louise Woodward brought shaken baby syndrome to the nation's attention, the jury convicted Smith of causing her grandson's death. She was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Jurors apparently gave more credence to Erlich and her supervisor, Eugene Carpenter, than to the two pathologists called by the defense who disputed the abuse conclusions and said the baby, born with jaundice, a heart murmur and low birth weight, was probably a victim of sudden infant death syndrome.
"I never thought I could be convicted because I knew there couldn't be evidence of something I didn't do," says Smith, still baffled by the verdict. "You can't send a person to prison on a theory."
The 9th Circuit panel agreed when it ordered her release in 2006. But since then, the appeals court has been engaged in a legal chess match with the U.S. Supreme Court in which Smith isn't a player but a pawn. The high court has twice sent her case back for the 9th Circuit to reconsider in light of Supreme Court rulings that recognize a jury verdict as beyond question.
"My attorney says it's not about me. But who is it about, if not me? It's my life that is being ruined day after day. I'm the one living through all this," she says with a gesture sweeping in the skid row squalor.
The 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act prohibits an appeals court from second-guessing a jury's evaluation of the evidence except when it constitutes a clear violation or unreasonable application of the law. Smith's conviction was one of those rare but patently wrong judgments, insisted the 9th Circuit panel comprising three appointees of President Carter — Circuit Judges Harry Pregerson and William C. Canby Jr., and U.S. District Judge Edward C. Reed of Nevada.
Another round of legal jousting is already under way. Attorneys for the state have petitioned the 9th Circuit for a full 11-judge hearing and are expected to appeal again to the Supreme Court if they don't get it. In a Nov. 10 filing, the office of Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown scolded the three-judge panel for a decision that "once again failed to follow an implied directive from the United States Supreme Court to change the outcome in this case" by restoring the jury's conviction.
"The sad part is that the science used in her defense has been validated in the intervening years," said Jeff Chinn, associate director of the California Innocence Project, a law student project dedicated to winning release of the wrongly convicted. "With the current research, I don't think she would have been convicted."
**
After her release from the Central California Women's Facility at Chowchilla, Smith bounced between the homes of her brother and sister. But her brother has a new girlfriend, and her sister wanted some space. A few weeks ago she moved to "emergency housing" arranged by agents of the court to whom she must report.
In the four years since being freed from prison, Smith had been forbidden to leave the state because appeals of her release are pending. But earlier this month, a state court relented and told Smith she could go to Illinois to live with Tomeka and her grandchildren while the judges ponder the validity of her conviction. She has been asking relatives for bus or airfare in hopes of being home by Christmas.
Tomeka Smith works nights packing candy at a warehouse south of Chicago, eagerly awaiting her mother's help raising her two teenagers and 12-year-old Marquis, whom Shirley met just once, a year ago, when she was allowed to leave Los Angeles to attend her mother's funeral.
"It's just been terrible, terrible, terrible," Tomeka says of the criminal case that has branded her mother a baby-killer. "She isn't capable of doing this. She never even hollered at me when I was growing up....I miss my mother dearly. All we ever wanted was to be together and make a life."
Citing her faith and her confidence that "there are people with consciences on the Supreme Court," Smith says she firmly believes her ordeal is nearing an end and the high court won't step in again to question the 9th Circuit judgment.
On other days, she is haunted by the darker scenario.
"I won't go back to prison," she vows, shaking her head with conviction. "I'll take my own life first, but I won't go back there."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1216-shaken-baby-verdict-20101216,0,6598490,full.story

SBS: California: Tanubagijo

 December 8, 2010

FAIRFIELD, Calif. -- The foster parent accused of shaking a baby to death appeared in a Solano County courtroom Wednesday, while the child’s family members were asking some tough questions of child welfare officials.

53-year-old Reginald Tanubagijo pleaded not guilty to shaking Christian Bito O'Campo to death last week.

Prosecutors said Tanubagijo shook the child on November 29th. The child never regained consciousness and was taken off life support Sunday afternoon.

Tanubagijo's attorney Jaye Ryan-Maas said this was all just a tragedy and that her client will be exonerated.

“This is a terrible tragedy and my client is innocent,” said Ryan-Maas. “Follow along. You'll see it in the court proceedings.”

The boy's relatives said Solano County child welfare services took Christian shortly after he was born when methamphetamines were found in his system.

His mother Christina Bito said she was trying to work out her problems and trusted the county to look after Christian.

“I'm more hurt than angry, because i thought I could depend on the county to help me,” said Bito. “And they just let me down.”

Now the boy's family is asking tough questions of the county’s child welfare system.

Christian's uncle and Aunt Dee Dee Bito were willing to take the baby in and were in the process of getting approved by the county to take custody. But they said the social worker in charge of their case went on vacation and the file was put on the back burner until it was too late.

“We wanted Christian out of foster care and with family,” said Dee Dee Bito.

The county said Christian’s death was a tragedy and that all foster parents undergo a rigorous background check.

“There are statewide requirements on how to do that, and we meet or exceed all those standards to make sure the kids are into a loving family home,” said Solano County Spokesperson Stephen Pierce.

Three-month-old Christian will be buried on Saturday. The man accused of shaking him to death will be back in court next week.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/26072602/detail.html

SBS: Karl Aspelin, California

Ari Burack, Bay City News
A San Francisco man accused of causing the death of his infant son was charged today with felony assault on a child, though his attorney maintained it was a tragic accident.
Karl Aspelin, 39, is suspected by police of violently shaking his 4-month-old son Johan on Nov. 8 at their home in the 500 block of Vicente Street. The boy was hospitalized and was taken off life support over the weekend.
Aspelin was arrested two days after the incident, and prosecutors today charged him with felony assault on a child causing death, which carries a potential sentence of 25 years to life in prison, according to the district attorney's office. He is also charged with felony child endangerment.
He was being held today under psychiatric observation at San Francisco General Hospital.
His attorney, Stuart Hanlon, said his client would be released from the hospital and brought to jail soon, so his arraignment was postponed until Wednesday. He is being held on $2 million bail.
"It's a tragic case," Hanlon said by phone this afternoon. "Every piece of evidence we have is that he's a loving and wonderful father. It just seems the prosecution has jumped the gun here as to what occurred."
According to Hanlon, Aspelin runs his own software company in San Francisco and had just returned home that day from day care.
He trying to calm the infant, who was crying, when he heard a crash in the kitchen, where his other child, a 2-and-a-half-year-old, and the family dog were, Hanlon said.
In the kitchen, Aspelin saw the older child and the dog on the floor in the middle of some spilled food, and when he bent down with his infant in his arms, slipped and fell backwards, and the baby tumbled to the floor, Hanlon said.
Aspelin then called 911, according to Hanlon.
The call "will show that he was totally freaked out and hysterical" about the incident, Hanlon said.
Prosecutors were not immediately available to respond today to Hanlon's contentions.
Hanlon also questioned the accusation by police of "shaken baby syndrome."
"We're being contacted already by numerous doctors in the field that say the theory has been debunked," he said. "We'll get our experts to look at the evidence and try to figure out what happened."
In the meantime, Hanlon said he will file a motion to reduce bail for his client, whom he said has not had the chance to begin grieving the death of his son.
"When a child dies, I think the process of a family is just devastating," Hanlon said. "And without any real evidence...they've taken his family apart."
http://sfappeal.com/news/2010/11/lawyer-for-man-charged-in-shaken-baby-death-says-it-was-accidental.php

SBS: Califonia: James Lujan

Samantha Yale

November 9, 2010

James Lujan escaped punishment for nearly beating to death the 17-month-old daughter of his girlfriend, only to fatally injure the son of another girlfriend three years later.
That was the scenario Senior Deputy District Attorney Jerry McBeth presented to jurors Tuesday morning in his opening statement for the trial of Lujan, who is charged with murdering 4-year-old Diego Calles, the son of Lujan’s then live-in girlfriend, Meagan Davis, in July 2009.
Lujan’s attorney, David Bixby, shifted the jury’s focus in his opening statement to Davis, who he said has changed her story to investigators and used cruel means of punishing her son.
The process of selecting a jury started Friday and continued and concluded Monday for Lujan, 30, of Lompoc.
Opening statements Tuesday morning were followed by testimony from witnesses for the prosecution.
Lujan is accused of physically abusing Diego for several days before the child died on July 18, 2009. He was arrested hours later.
Emergency medical responders had been summoned to a motel room in the 800 block of North H Street in Lompoc, where Diego, Lujan, Davis and Diego’s 5-year-old sister were staying.
Diego, who was not breathing, was taken to Lompoc Valley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Lujan is charged with murder, as well as assault on a child causing death and torture in Diego’s death. He also faces abuse allegations involving two other children in separate incidents, and a count of domestic violence against Davis.
She has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of child abuse based on her failure to protect her son. Davis was sentenced to a year in county jail, a year in a residential drug treatment program and five years probation.
The defendant’s trial before Superior Court Judge Edward Bullard in Santa Maria could last more than a month.
McBeth, the case prosecutor, said in his opening statement that the evidence will show that a 17-month-old identified as Lina suffered two fractured collar bones, a black eye and a serious head injury in 2006 — allegedly at the hands of Lujan.
Doctors at the time were unable to pinpoint the exact time the toddler suffered the injuries.
Lina’s mother, Stacy Burns, was convicted of child endangerment and lost custody of the girl.
Three years later, Diego suffered blunt-force trauma so severe that his small intestine was seriously damaged, McBeth said. Injuries to Diego’s fingernails were similar to those Lina received, the prosecutor added.
McBeth said the evidence will indicate that Lujan was angered by Diego’s potty-training problems and speech impediment. He beat the boy over the course of several days, forcing him to stand in a certain posture and kicking him when he was unable to hold the pose, McBeth said.
Davis sustained bruising when she tried to help her son.
Lujan’s attorney, Bixby, countered that the prosecution’s pieces of evidence don’t fit together.
Former neighbors of Davis will testify that they didn’t hear any of the abuse Davis will speak about in court, Bixby said, and that her focus was on scoring methamphetamine.
There will be testimony that Davis bit Diego’s fingers and put him in cold showers as a consequence for bad behavior, he said.
The bruising Diego suffered indicates he was abused over an extended period of time, not just in the last few days of his life as Davis will say, according to Bixby.
“I just ask you respectfully, listen to both sides,” the defense attorney concluded.
The testimony from prosecution witnesses Tuesday centered around the abuse of Lina.
Lompoc police Officer Agustin Arias testified that he responded to the call of Lina not breathing, and saw Lujan standing over the girl with his hand on her chest.
“She was pale, looked like she was turning blue,” the officer said.
“He said that she just fell,” Arias testified. “He was nervous, he was rubbing his face, covering his face.”
Lina’s mother, Burns, fidgeted nearby, he said. She had recently used methamphetamine, heroin and alcohol, Arias testified.
Under cross-examination by Bixby, Arias said that anyone would be nervous in a situation where a child is seriously hurt.
Dr. Steven Reichel, an emergency room doctor, said on the witness stand that Lina’s injuries indicated shaken baby syndrome, and that she was having trouble breathing because her brain was injured.
The trial continues this morning.
http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_3bc337fa-ec97-11df-879d-001cc4c002e0.html

SBS: Protection of children

IN RE R.P.

In re R.P. et al., Persons Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.

SACRAMENTO COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

R.P., Defendant and Appellant.

No. C064072.

Court of Appeals of California, Third District, Sacramento.

Filed October 29, 2010.

---

HULL, J.

R.P., the mother of four-year-old Pe.P., three-year-old twins C.P. and Pa.P., and two-year-old R.P., appeals from an order of the Sacramento County Juvenile Court terminating her parental rights to Pe.P., C.P., and R.P.; terminating dependency and establishing a legal guardianship for Pa.P.; and ordering visitation between mother and Pa.P. In January 2010, H.P., the father of the children, timely appealed from the judgment. We appointed counsel for father on appeal. Counsel filed a brief pursuant to In re Phoenix H. (2009) 47 Cal.4th 835, and father did not seek to show cause to file a supplemental brief. On June 18, 2910, this court ordered father's appeal dismissed.

Mother's sole appellate contention is that the visitation order impermissibly gives the legal guardian discretion as to whether any visitation would occur. We shall affirm the judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Pa.P. was born in August 2007. In January 2008, father shook Pa.P. with the intent to quiet her down but not to kill her. The next morning, mother was unable to rouse Pa.P. for her morning feeding. Father brought Pa.P. to a hospital.

Pa.P. suffered a brain injury that "has resulted in permanent bran [sic] damage. In turn, she is significantly developmentally delayed in all areas of development. Medically, [Pa.P.] has been diagnosed with Shaken Baby Syndrome and subsequently has been diagnosed with seizure disorder, left peritoneal shunt placement, gastrointestinal feeding tube placement and dependency, quadriplegic cerebral palsy, and reflux. [Pa.P.] is medicated in order to control seizures, reflux, constipation, eye complications, nasal inflammation, and respiratory distress. [Pa.P.'s] respiratory status is significantly compromised. She gets frequent pneumonias due to both aspiration and viral illness. [She] receives ten daily medications that are administered two to six times a day."

Two days after Pa.P. was hospitalized, her twin C.P. was examined and found to have bruises all over her body, a possible bite mark on her thigh, and multiple fractures of both knees in various stages of healing.

In April 2008, the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services (department) filed amended petitions alleging that Pa.P. and her siblings were at risk of serious physical harm from father (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 300, subd. (a); further statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code unless otherwise indicated), that mother had failed to protect the children (§ 300, subd. (b)), that mother knew or reasonably should have known that father was abusing the twins (§ 300, subd. (e)), and that the siblings were being abused (§ 300, subd. (j)).

At a July 2008 jurisdiction hearing, the juvenile court sustained the petitions in their entirety. At the ensuing contested disposition hearing, the court adjudged the children dependants and ordered them removed from parental custody. Reunification services were denied for father, who was facing a lengthy state prison sentence stemming from his abuse of Pa.P. Services were ordered for mother, in that the children would benefit from her receipt of services.

In September 2008, mother gave birth to R.P. Because mother's progress in therapy had been inadequate, and because she was corresponding with and visiting father in custody, the department obtained a protective custody warrant for the newborn. The department filed a section 300 petition alleging that R.P. was at substantial risk of physical harm while in mother's care, in light of her failures to protect his siblings from father and, subsequently, to benefit from services provided in the siblings' dependency case. The juvenile court ordered R.P. detained. In December 2008, the department filed a first amended petition.

http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=In%20CACO%2020101029039.xml&docbase=CSLWAR3-2007-CURR

SBS: Custody decision (AH) : Fresno

A.H. v. SUPERIOR COURT OF FRESNO COUNTY

No. F060544.

Court of Appeals of California, Fifth District.

Filed November 2, 2010.

THE COURT ^*

Petitioner in propria persona seeks an extraordinary writ (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.452 (rule)) from the juvenile court's order setting a Welfare and Institutions Code section 366.26 hearing¹ as to her three minor children. We conclude her petition fails to comport with the procedural requirements of rule 8.452. Accordingly, we will dismiss the petition as facially inadequate.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE AND FACTS

Dependency proceedings were initiated in November 2006, when the youngest of petitioner's three children, then five-month-old E., was treated on an emergency basis for a subdural hematoma with retinal hemorrhages consistent with shaken baby syndrome. E. sustained the injuries while in the care and custody of her father, Jesus.

The Fresno County Department of Children and Family Services (department)² took E. and her siblings, then four-year-old J. and two-year-old D., into protective custody and filed a dependency petition on their behalf alleging E. suffered serious physical harm and severe physical abuse inflicted by her father, Jesus (§ 300, subds. (a) & (e)), that Jesus posed a risk of serious physical harm to his son, J. (E.'s sibling) (§ 300, subd. (a)) and that petitioner abused methamphetamine and failed to protect all three children (§ 300, subd. (b).) In July 2007, the juvenile court exercised its dependency jurisdiction, ordered the children removed from parental custody and ordered a plan of reunification for petitioner but denied Jesus services.

In June 2008, the juvenile court placed the children in petitioner's custody under a plan of family maintenance. The court ordered visitation for Jesus to be conducted under the supervision of the department or an approved agency. However, petitioner did not comply with the court's order. She allowed Jesus to live with the family. Consequently, in December 2008, the department removed the children from her custody and filed a supplemental petition (§ 387).

In January 2009, the juvenile court sustained the petition with modifications and, in March 2009, returned the children to petitioner's custody under family maintenance. The court ordered Jesus not to have any contact with the children while they were in petitioner's custody.

Over the ensuing year, the children remained with petitioner under family maintenance. However, during that time, petitioner began to abuse alcohol. In February 2010, police responded to a domestic violence disturbance at petitioner's apartment. She and her boyfriend, Joe G., had been drinking and Joe hit her in the face, causing redness and bleeding near her eye. The children were present in the apartment. Joe was arrested. Just two weeks prior to this incident, an investigator from the District Attorney's Office visited petitioner and the children to check on their welfare. Joe was in the living room and petitioner introduced him as her cousin. She said he only visited once or twice a month for short visits. She said he never spent the night.

In March 2010, the department filed a second supplemental petition and the children were taken into protective custody for a third time. The supplemental petition alleged petitioner continued to abuse substances, despite extensive services, and that she allowed Joe to have contact with her children without prior clearance. It also alleged petitioner tried to conceal Joe's identity by lying to the investigator.

In April 2010, the juvenile court found the allegations in the supplemental petition true. In July 2010, following a contested dispositional hearing, the juvenile court ordered the children removed from petitioner's custody, ordered no further services and set a section 366.26 hearing. This petition ensued.

http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=In%20CACO%2020101102036.xml&docbase=CSLWAR3-2007-CURR

SIDS: placenta abnormality research study

To determine whether placental abnormality (placental abruption or placental previa) during pregnancy

predisposes an infant to a high risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the authors conducted a

population-based case-control study using 1989-1991 California linked birth and death certificate data. They

identified 2,107 SIDS cases, 96% of whom were diagnosed through autopsy. Ten controls were randomly

selected for each case from the same linked birth-death certificate data, matched to the case on year of birth.

About 1.4% of mothers of cases and 0.7% of mothers of controls had either placental abruption or placenta

previa during the index pregnancy. After adjustment for potential confounders, placental abnormality during

pregnancy was associated with a twofold increase in the risk of SIDS in offspring (odds ratio = 2.1, 95%

confidence interval 1.3-3.1). The individual effects of placental abruption and placenta previa on the risk of SIDS

did not differ significantly. An impaired fetal development due to placental abnormality may predispose an infant

to a high risk of SIDS.
<http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/149/7/608.full.pdf>Am J Epidemiol 1999; 149:608-11.

SBS: California appeals court

Two-month-old J.M. came to the attention of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (Department) because she was found to have a medical condition of chronic subdural hematomas. Her parents L.Z. and O.M. had no explanation as to how the injuries occurred. An expert concluded that birth trauma was a possible explanation for the injuries. Others said it was unlikely. At the time of her injuries, she was under the exclusive care of the parents. J.M's 14-month-old sister, L.C., whose father is J.C., had no evidence of injury.
http://www.leagle.com/unsecure/page.htm?shortname=incaco20100920016