SBS: Wisconsin: Craig Tolonen "Was properly convicted" appeals court rules

 Mar 23, 2011
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A state appeals court says a man accused of shaking an infant to death was properly convicted.

A jury in 2007 convicted Craig C. Tolonen of first-degree reckless homicide in the death of 6-month-old Serenitee Halbert about a year earlier in Allenton. Tolonen told police he shook the baby and threw her onto a couch when she wouldn't stop crying.
Tolonen, now 27, argues on appeal that his statements should have been suppressed, prosecutors didn't prove his actions killed the baby and he deserves a new trial because research on shaken baby syndrome has advanced.
The 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled police properly questioned him and medical evidence tied the baby's injuries to Tolonen's actions.
An attorney listed for Tolonen in online court records didn't immediately return a message.
http://www.wfrv.com/news/wisconsin/118500619.html

SBS: Wisconsin: Quentin Louis Court of Appeals decision

admin on March 15, 2011

court of appeals decision (not recommended for publication); for Louis: Edward J. Hunt; amicus, Wis. Innocence Project: Keith A. Findley, Peter Shawn Moreno; case activity
Interest of Justice – Shaken Baby Syndrome
Trial court grant of new trial in interest of justice upheld as proper exercise of discretion:  the issue in controversy wasn’t fully and fairly tried, given failure to adduce at trial medical testimony that the deceased baby’s injuries didn’t result from shaken baby syndrome.
A number of State’s experts testified at trial that the injuries were consistent with shaken baby syndrome, while the defense presented no expert testimony. On postconviction motion, however, the defense presented experts who testified either that cause of death could not be determined or that it was definitively not attributable to shaken baby syndrome. One of the State’s own experts also testified that his opinion had changed in critical respects. Thus, although “the one-sided testimony at trial suggested unanimity in medical opinion regarding shaken baby syndrome,” postconviction evidence revealed that this picture was distorted, ¶16.

¶14      Circuit courts have the discretion to set aside a verdict and order a new trial in cases where the real controversy was not fully tried, regardless of the type of error involved.  See State v. Harp, 161 Wis. 2d 773, 775, 469 N.W.2d 210 (Ct. App. 1991); see also Henley, 328 Wis. 2d 544, ¶65 (criminal defendants may request a new trial in the interest of justice as part of their postconviction motions and appeal).  The court need not find a substantial likelihood of a different result on retrial.  Harp, 161 Wis. 2d at 775.  A new trial may be justified where competent and persuasive evidence was not introduced.  See id. at 778 (citing Lien v. Pitts, 46 Wis. 2d 35, 44, 174 N.W.2d 462 (1970)).  For example, in State v. Hicks, 202 Wis. 2d 150, 152-53, 549 N.W.2d 435 (1996), our supreme court concluded Hicks was entitled to a new trial because the jury did not hear DNA evidence relevant to the critical identification issue in the case and the state “assertively and repetitively” used the hair sample from which the DNA evidence was derived as proof of Hicks’ guilt.
¶15      Here, the jury did not hear testimony on three topics relevant to the medical diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.  First, no testimony offered at trial advised the jury of the legitimate medical debate surrounding shaken baby syndrome.  Second, the jury was not adequately advised about the possibility of a lucid interval between the trauma and the onset of specific symptoms.  Third, the jury was not adequately informed of the medical findings regarding Madelyn’s purported spinal injury.  All of these topics are highly relevant to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome and directly challenge the State’s theory at trial.

The court reviews this discretionary grant of interest-of-justice relief deferentially, ¶13 n. 3 (State argument in favor of de novo review rejected). The trial court properly applied law to facts, and its conclusion is therefore sustained, ¶19. (Louis confessed, but the court “note(s) that the jury may view Louis’s confession in a different light with the aid of the new medical testimony.”)

Confessions – Voluntariness

¶23      While a close case, we conclude, as did the circuit court, that Louis’s confession was voluntary.  Louis was a twenty-four-year-old of average intelligence.  He was short on rest and no doubt grieving over the loss of his child, but was generally alert during the questioning.  Louis acknowledged all of the officers’ questions and gave responsive, coherent answers.  The circuit court concluded Louis’s grief and lack of sleep did not render him particularly susceptible to coercion.
¶24      Against that backdrop, we do not view the confession as the product of overwhelming police pressure.  Louis was interviewed at the police station, but was told he was free to leave.  He was offered breaks during the approximately three-hour questioning.  And although the officers used aggressive tactics to elicit the confession, none were so overbearing that we must consider Louis’s confession the product of police stratagem rather than free will.  The two interviewing officers adopted a permissible “good cop/bad cop” strategy.  See State v. Owen, 202 Wis. 2d 620, 642, 551 N.W.2d 50 (Ct. App. 1996).  They confronted Louis with incriminating medical evidence that they believed inconsistent with his explanation of events, an acceptable tactic that does not amount to “the utilization of overwhelming force or psychology.”  Barrera v. State, 99 Wis. 2d 269, 292, 298 N.W.2d 820 (1980) (citing Krueger v. State, 53 Wis. 2d 345, 356, 192 N.W.2d 880 (1972)).  The exchange between Louis and the interviewing officers became heated at times, but a confrontational tone to the questioning does not establish coercion.  See State v. Markwardt, 2007 WI App 242, ¶¶41-42, 306 Wis. 2d 420, 742 N.W.2d 546.
¶25 We conclude the circuit court properly denied Louis’s suppression motion.  Louis’s confession is therefore admissible at his new trial.

SBS: Wisconsin: Quentin Louis to get new trial

Mar 16, 2011
The Athens man sentenced to 20 years behind bars for killing his 4-month old daughter by shaking her will get a new trial.

An appeals court upheld a Marathon County judge's decision to retry the case of 29-year-old Quentin Louis.

Louis admitted to investigators he shook the girl before her death in 2005. But because of new debate in the medical community over what causes symptoms that are associated with shaken baby syndrome, a new trial was ordered.

That way, a new jury will get to hear medical evidence that challenges shaken baby syndrome.

http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/Man_Convicted_in_Shaking_Death_of_Baby_Will_Get_a_New_Trial_118112044.html?storySection=story

SBS: Wisconsin: Joshua Booth charged

March 1, 2011

Release from Columbus Police Department: Today in Columbia County Circuit Court Joshua Booth, 24, Columbus was formally charged with physical abuse of a child-causing great bodily harm and physical abuse of a child-causing bodily harm following his February 24 arrest by Columbus Police.
On Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at approximately 4:27p.m, officers and EMS were dispatched to a Columbus residence for a 4 month old infant who was reportedly having difficulty breathing. EMS arrived and at one point he became pulseless. EMS performed CPR on the infant, successfully resuscitating him. He was alter transported to UW Hospital.
The following day UW Hospital child abuse staff discovered injuries that were inconsistent with Booth's initial accounts of events to police and medical staff. Upon further questioning, Booth admitted shaking the infant who would not stop crying for 30-60 seconds until the infant became unresponsive.
The infant remains hospitalized with brain related injuries. Further examination discovered additional injuries, including fractures, to the infant that are believed to have occurred prior to this incident.
http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/Man_Charged_in_Shaken_Baby_Case_117192318.html

SIDS: infant deaths statistics in Milwaukee

Crocker Stephenson of the Journal Sentinel: Jan. 24, 2011

Milwaukee Health Commissioner Bevan K. Baker vowed Monday to place infant mortality at the top of the city's health agenda, and Mayor Tom Barrett called for a communitywide effort to reduce the rate at which Milwaukee children die before their first birthday.

The news conference at the Southside Health Center announcing the efforts was a short drive from where a 5-month-old baby died Sunday while sleeping beside her mother in an adult bed.
Near the podium from which Barrett and Baker spoke was a poster used by the city in its Safe Sleep campaign.
It was a life-size photo of an adult bed with a gravestone for a headboard.
Engraved in the stone: "For too many babies last year, this was their final resting place."
"We will have to change," Barrett said. "But real change requires real commitment. If we are serious about turning this around, then it is going to take each and every one of us."
The purpose of the news conference was to release the city's 2010 Fetal Infant Mortality Report, which examines the 499 infant deaths that occurred in Milwaukee from 2005 to 2008.
A story in Sunday's Journal Sentinel, titled "Empty Cradles," used the report and other sources to place Milwaukee's infant mortality crisis in context.
The story found:
• Babies in Milwaukee die at rate greater than in all but six of the nation's 53 largest cities.
• Black infants die in Milwaukee at about 2.5 times the white rate.
• In some parts of Milwaukee, the infant mortality rate is higher than in the Gaza Strip.
Barrett noted from the report that complications from prematurity account for more than half of all infant deaths.
Sudden infant death syndrome, including unsafe sleep and accidental suffocation, accounted for nearly one in five deaths.
Barrett said the city would play host to a summit on premature births in May.
Baker called the city's infant mortality rate a crisis, but one that can be addressed.
"This is something we can do," he said. "This is something we must do.
"The Health Department will make this our major health issue in the years ahead," he said.
The baby who died Sunday is the second Milwaukee infant this year to die while sleeping with an adult.
The child's mother, a nursing student, told investigators that it is her custom to sleep with her daughter to facilitate breast feeding. She had recently begun feeding the girl formula and was beginning to place the child in her own crib, according to a medical examiner's report.
The mother told investigators that she was playing with her daughter late Saturday and the child fell asleep in the mother's bed, according to the medical examiner's report.
The mother covered the baby with three comforters, which she pulled up to the girl's chest, according to the report.
The mother told investigators that she does not smoke, drink heavily or use drugs.
The medical examiner's report said the mother's apartment was clean and well equipped with baby supplies. There were no signs of smoking or alcohol use.
The city Health Department recommends that children sleep alone, in a crib, on their back, without blankets and toys and with a tight fitting sheet.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/114527764.html

SIDS: Wisconsin: For Milwaukee's children, an early grave

Jan. 22, 2011

Martin Kaiser, editor: Rick Wood:

Ben Poston of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Lakisha Stinson and her daughter, Rashyia, who was born last month and is healthy, live in a Milwaukee neighborhood where the rate at which African-American babies die is worse than Botswana.

By Crocker Stephenson of the Journal Sentinel

Lakisha Stinson holds her newborn daughter, Rashyia, in their Milwaukee home. Stinson’s first daughter, Kelviana, died of sudden infant death syndrome in 2004. Infant mortality is a problem that plagues the Milwaukee area.

About This Series

The Journal Sentinel today takes on an issue we have too long ignored - the death of children before their first birthday. Infant mortality is a crisis not just of public health, but of ethics and morality. The rate at which infants die in our city is unacceptable. In 2011 we will examine the problem and point to solutions. -  

 

On a bitter January afternoon, a 22-year-old mother sits on the edge of her bed and feeds her infant daughter.

The child, Rashyia, born in December, is healthy. She coos, eyes closed. She touches her mother's cheek with her perfect hand.
Rashyia and her mother, Lakisha Stinson, live in a small attic apartment on Milwaukee's near north side.
Three modest rooms. The kitchen has just three chairs and a table that is missing its glass top. The living room has no furniture. The bedroom has a bed and a Pack 'n Play crib, a gift from Wheaton Franciscan-St. Joseph's Hospital, whose staff, nurses and doctors brought Rashyia through a high-risk pregnancy and into the world.
Rashyia and her mother live in a neighborhood where the rate at which African-American babies, such as Rashyia, die during their first year of life is worse than Botswana.
Public health experts have long considered the infant mortality rate to be an essential indicator of a community's well-being.
"It's like the canary in the mineshaft," said Geoffrey Swain, who is medical director of the Milwaukee Health Department and a scientist at the Center for Urban Population Health.
"The factors that drive the leading causes of infant mortality also drive the leading causes of death, illness and disability for all of us."
In Milwaukee, babies die during their first year of life at a rate greater than all but six of the nation's 53 largest cities.
In Milwaukee, babies die at rates associated with the Third World.
In Milwaukee, the infant mortality rate for all children, regardless of race, exceeds that of Uruguay, Bosnia or Kuwait.

Worldly comparisons

In 1900, the infant mortality rate in the United States was about 100 deaths for every 1,000 live births, or 1 in 10.
By 1960, it had been knocked down to 26 deaths per 1,000 births.
By 2008, it was 6.6.
Sounds good. But compare the U.S. infant mortality rate with the rest of the world.
With the caveat that some countries count and report infant deaths in different ways, the U.S., for all its wealth and medical sophistication, does poorly.
In recent years, the U.S. infant mortality rate has been twice that of nations as diverse as Japan, Sweden, Portugal and the Czech Republic.
One federal ranking, based on 2010 estimates, puts the U.S. rank at 46th among 222 nations. That puts it behind Cuba, Hungary and South Korea.
Wisconsin's 2008 rate - 6.9 deaths per 1,000 births - falls in the middle of the other states.
Still, the number of infant deaths was staggering: 501 babies died in Wisconsin in 2008 - more than three times the number of homicides, more than twice the number of drunken-driving deaths.
The story of infant mortality in Wisconsin is the tale of two worlds divided, at least on the surface, by race.
In 2008, the infant mortality rate for whites was 5.9 per 1,000 births.
It was 13.8 for blacks.
That means that in Wisconsin, black infants die during their first year of life at more than twice the rate of white infants. It is worse than Romania.
It is among the worst in the nation.
It wasn't always this way.
From 1979 to 1981, Wisconsin's black infant mortality rate averaged third best in the nation. By 2003 to 2005, the three-year average dropped to the second worst.
In this discouraging trend, Swain finds reason for optimism.
"That's not ancient history," he said. "It's not some unchangeable situation. It changed recently. It can change again."
The Northern Manhattan Perinatal Partnership often is cited by public health experts as an example of what communities can do.
In 1990, when the partnership began, the infant mortality rate for New York City's central Harlem neighborhood was 27.7 per 1,000 births. In 2008, it was 6.1.
Using the New York approach as one of its models, the Wisconsin Partnership Program and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health are launching a $10 million program to improve birth outcomes in four of Wisconsin's most troubled cities: Beloit, Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families is expected to complete its planning stage by July.

'Public health crisis'

How bad is the situation in Milwaukee?
The city Health Department on Monday is to release the 2010 Fetal Infant Mortality Review Report, based on an examination of all 499 infant deaths that occurred in Milwaukee from 2005 to 2008.
In that time frame, for every 1,000 babies born, 11 died.
"We have a public health crisis," said Bevan K. Baker, Milwaukee's commissioner of health.
"We have moved beyond the tipping point."
The disparity between black and white infant deaths is even more disturbing.
The city's 2005-'08 white infant mortality rate was 6.4. The Hispanic rate was close: 7.4.
The city's black infant mortality rate during that period was 15.7, about 2.5 times the white rate.
These deaths are concentrated in a handful of ZIP codes, where poverty, joblessness and crime also are high.
The ZIP code with the highest rate was 53210 - which includes central city areas as well as parts of the Sherman Park and Enderis Park neighborhoods - with 19.5 deaths per 1,000.
That rate is worse than Colombia, Bulgaria and the Gaza Strip.
Health does not depend on health care alone.
Nor is it fully explained by genes or good habits.
Health care matters. So do the attributes we are born with. So do the decisions we make. Smoke or don't smoke. Eat this, not that.
But our health is also a product of the families that raise us, the communities that shape us, the times that we live in.
It is telling that two of the area's top hospitals for infant care are in the two ZIP codes with the highest infant mortality rates: St. Joseph's on the northern boundary of 53210 and Aurora Sinai Medical Center on the northern boundary of 53233.
"Infant mortality is a problem that is more than access to care," said Tina Mason, program director of Aurora Sinai's obstetrics and gynecology department and a former associate commissioner for New York City's Department of Public Health.
"It's a societal problem."
Jackie Tillett, director of the Midwifery & Wellness Center, which is located at Sinai, said many of the women she sees are young, poor and uneducated.
"We follow people who are socially high-risk," she said. "You can't just take a pill for it."
The Center for Urban Population Health published a 2010 study focusing on health disparities among Milwaukee's socioeconomic groups.
The study ranked the socioeconomic status - measured by income and educational attainment - of people in Milwaukee's 29 ZIP codes, then sorted those ZIP codes into three groups: low, medium and high.

Problem areas

The bottom third - the group of ZIP codes with the most poverty and lowest college graduation rates - had the highest infant mortality rate.
It also had the highest premature death rate, chlamydia rate, HIV rate and teen birthrate.
It had the greatest percentage of low birth weights; preterm births; uninsured adults; people who hadn't seen a dentist in a year; births to mothers who received no prenatal care during their first trimester; smokers; pregnant smokers; obesity; violent assaults within the past year; single-parent households; and children who tested positive for lead poisoning.
The report emphasized that the sheer number of people living in the city's lowest tier and the depth of the health issues affecting them compromised the well-being of all Wisconsinites.
"Milwaukee's large population, poor health outcomes and large health disparities," the report says, "have a significant impact on the overall health of the state as well as on the economic vibrancy of the city and state."
Income and education fail to account for the racial disparity in Milwaukee's infant mortality rates.
Blacks across the socioeconomic spectrum have higher infant mortality rates than whites.
The infant mortality rate for a child born to a black woman in the highest tier is about the same as the rate for a child born to a white woman in the lowest tier.
The infant mortality rate for babies born to a black woman in the middle tier is three times the rate for babies born to white women in the same tier.
It is not clear why.
"I've been working on this for 20 years," Mason said, "and just when you think you've figured it out - whoosh! - it's gone."
A growing field of research suggests that the chronic stress of living in poverty or with barriers associated with low educational attainment increases the risk of the leading cause of infant mortality: preterm birth and low birth weight.
Research also shows that the experience of racial or ethnic discrimination deepens stress and further increases the risk of preterm or low birth weight.
A novel study published in 2006 vividly illustrates this theory.
Diane S. Lauderdale, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Chicago, wanted to know whether poor birth outcomes increased for women of Arab-origin after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Lauderdale looked at all California birth certificates for 2001, 2002 and 2003. She identified more than 15,000 mothers with Arabic last names.
Prior to 9-11, she discovered, women with Arabic last names had the same low birth weight rate as non-Hispanic white women.
But in the six months after 9-11, the chances of having a low birth weight child increased 34%.
The risk of bearing low birth weight babies, she found, did not increase for any other ethnic group.

There's a cost

Complications of prematurity, including low birth weight, accounted for more than half of all infant deaths in Milwaukee, according to the 2010 infant mortality report.
A preterm baby is a child born before 37 weeks' gestation. A low birth weight baby is a child who is born weighing less than 5.5 pounds.
Preterm and low birth weight babies, even when they survive, are subject to a host of medical complications, such as breathing problems, infections, neurological problems and unstable heart rhythms.
The report attempts to calculate the cost of preterm births.
Citing March of Dimes data, it estimates cost of a normal full-term delivery to be about $3,325, including prenatal care, hospitalization and drug costs.
Citing an Institute of Medicine report, it estimates the cost of a preterm birth to be $51,600.
It multiplies that figure by 4,851, the number of preterm babies born in Milwaukee from 2005 to 2008.
The cost: More than $250 million - about what the Milwaukee Public Schools system pays to run all its elementary and all its kindergarten through eighth-grade schools.
Lakisha Stinson would count the cost differently.
She would measure the bottomless anguish that followed the death of her first born, Kelviana. She would measure the years that followed that were lost to drinking, drugs, violence and jail.
There is a photo of Kelviana above the window in the bedroom where, on this cold January day, Stinson feeds Rashyia.
Stinson was 14 when she gave birth to Kelviana on July 28, 2003.
Kelviana was 14 weeks premature. She weighed less than 2 pounds.
She spent most of her life at St. Joseph's. The complications stemming from her preterm birth were legion: She suffered damage to her eyes and central nervous system, she bled into her brain, she was jaundiced, she had to be intubated and required a chest tube.
But she survived. By her 6-month checkup, her condition had stabilized and she seemed fine.

A young life lost

On April 15, 2004, while visiting her father's home, Kelviana spent the night in her grandparents' bed.
According to a medical examiner's report, the grandfather created a pile of pillows, blankets and dolls so she would not roll off the bed. The infant's grandmother, after taking a sleeping pill, joined her. Later, so did her grandfather, who had been drinking, according to the report.
The grandfather found Kelviana in the morning with her head over the side of the mattress, resting on the pile of blankets. He picked her up and put her to his shoulder. She vomited blood and sputum.
Kelviana was pronounced dead two minutes after arriving at St. Joseph's. The medical examiner ruled sudden infant death syndrome as her cause of death, with co-sleeping and prematurity as contributing causes.
Stinson, a child, buried her child in a toy-sized casket.
Less than 11 hours into this new year, Milwaukee recorded its first infant death. Malachi, 1 month and 9 days old, died sleeping beside his mother in an adult bed.
More babies will die in the year to come.
They will die of prematurity, sudden infant death syndrome, infection, homicide.
Too many of these deaths will have been preventable.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/114430774.html

SBS: Wisconsin: Triplett

By Andrew Dowd
November 27 2010
An Eau Claire couple waited almost six hours before calling 911 after their 5-month-old daughter allegedly had been thrown against a wall and shaken violently by her father.

Even though both parents knew the child had been injured Tuesday night in the 11 o’clock hour and could tell something was wrong with her, they didn’t call 911 until 4:50 a.m. Wednesday.
The father, Tyreece J. Triplett, 19, is in Eau Claire County Jail on felony charges of first-degree reckless homicide, child abuse and three misdemeanor charges. His bond was set at $500,000 cash during a Friday appearance in front of a county judge. The homicide charge alone has a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison and the child abuse charge carries up to 40 years of prison time, if Triplett is found guilty.
The girl’s mother, Molly A. Campbell, 18, 941 Richard Drive, is scheduled to appear in court Monday to be formally charged with child neglect and a couple of other misdemeanors. If found guilty, Campbell could be sentenced to nine months in jail for the charges against her.
Emergency medical technicians resuscitated the baby girl early Wednesday morning, transported her by ambulance to Sacred Heart Hospital and then airlifted the infant to Children’s Hospital in St. Paul. The baby died Thursday.
According to the criminal complaint, after the ambulance left Campbell’s apartment, an Eau Claire police officer noticed a man standing on the fire escape attached to the building. When the officer asked his name, Triplett gave a pseudonym several times until police records confirmed that it was a lie. Triplett then confessed to who he was and said he gave the wrong name because he has outstanding warrants.
During a police interrogation, Triplett said he went over to Campbell’s apartment and watched the baby as her mother went out at about 11 p.m. to pick up some friends. Within 10 minutes, the baby “freaked out,” Triplett said, and he shook her, threw her against the wall and then violently shook her crib with her in it.
When Campbell returned to the apartment, Triplett told her that the baby fell off the couch. Campbell tried opening the baby’s eyes, but only one would open at a time. Triplett described the baby as “out of it.”
Nurses at both the Eau Claire and St. Paul hospitals noted that the multiple skull fractures and internal bleeding were not consistent with a fall from a couch but indicated that the baby had been slammed against a hard surface.
During her interview with police, Campbell claimed she was alone Tuesday night and said the baby fell off the couch while she was caring for her.
Campbell faces a charge of party to the crime of bail jumping because she allowed Triplett into her apartment, even though his bail bond from a pending domestic abuse case did not permit him to see her or visit her home.
Triplett was charged Sept. 30 with misdemeanor domestic abuse charges of battery and disorderly conduct for punching Campbell in the face on Sept. 29 and scratching her face. In the criminal complaint for that case, Campbell told police that she feared what Triplett would do when police were called to her apartment on that night.
http://www.superiortelegram.com/event/article/id/48042/group/News/

SIDS: Wisconsin

New research out on the causes of child deaths in Wisconsin. Between 2007 and 2008, 1,556 children died in the state.

More startling: experts say 25% of those deaths could have been prevented.

Now county leaders state-wide are making an effort to spread the word about the risks and most importantly, prevention.

"When you're raising kids there's so many things to think of and it's easy to overlook little things," Eau Claire mom Norah Airth-Kindree said.

Parents say these days there are an endless amount of things to worry about when it comes to their kids' safety.

"You gotta keep them safe and keep them smart," another Eau Claire mom added.

"I think it's scary to read all about when accidents happen and when it turns out that it's stupidity basically that could have been prevented," dad of two Oystein Vollstad said.

A new report from Children's Health Alliance of Wisconsin, the Injury Research Center and the state Department of Health Services shows the five leading causes of preventable death were motor vehicle and other crashes, asphyxia and sudden infant death syndrome, homicide, drowning and poisoning.

In 2008, Clark County put together a team that looks at the causes of child deaths throughout the county. It works to educate the public on how to prevent more of those deaths from happening.

"Of the deaths we've reviewed a lot of times it's supervisory neglect that can result in a child death, typically neglect is a big issue," Clark County Detective Kerry Kirn said.

The report shows more than half of children who died were boys, two-thirds of the children were less than one year old, and the victims were primarily white.
Scary statistics for any parent to hear.

"It's one thing to be a laid back parent, which there's a lot to be said for and that's really good, but I think you also need to be really vigilant constantly," mom of two Peggy Vollstad explained.

"Just to take the time to pay attention to the small little things," Airth-Kindree said.

County leaders say they'll continue to work to teach parents and the public ways they can keep more children safe.

"The ultimate goal is to keep kids alive,” Kirn said.

http://www.weau.com/news/headlines/Research_shows_25_of_child_deaths_in_Wisconsin_could_have_been_prevented_110888094.html

SBS: Calise trial in Ohio analyzes shaken baby syndrome

Edward Markovich
November 15th, 2010
On November 15, 2010 the State of Ohio will begin to try the case of  young Tiffani Calise in Akron, Ohio for the crime of allegedly shaking a baby to death. The charge is involuntary manslaughter, and child endangering. The case is somewhat incoherent, either she hurt the baby bad enough to cause its death or she didn't. If she did, it seems a case of simple homicide, until you examine the shaky basis of so-called shaken baby syndrome.

For the past quarter of a century, medical professionals have routinely been taught that shaking a baby can cause injuries so severe that irreversible brain damage or death will likely result from the act of shaking alone. In Akron, Childrens' Hospital's Dr. Steiner has specialized in diagnosing and testifying regarding alleged cases of shaken infants, resulting in past convictions of young parents and caregivers. But international courts, most recently in Canada and Great Britain, have called for a review of all shaken baby convictions on the basis of new scientific data undermining its reliability as a forensic medical diagnosis.

In American courts, the rule of admissibility of expert scientific opinions follows the case of Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1993) . The United States Supreme Court held in that case that the enactment of the Federal Rules of Evidence impliedly overturned the earlier Frye rule. In a 1923 case, Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923), the court held that evidence could be admitted in court only if "the thing from which the deduction is made" is "sufficiently established to have gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it belongs." After Daubert changes in medical science can be admitted even before all opinions have agreed in one scientific area.

In 2008, a Wisconsin jury convicted Audrey Edmunds of murdering her baby by shaking, and she was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. On January 31, 2008, Audrey Edmunds was granted a new trial on the basis of new scientific thinking. For the first time, a court examining the foundation of shaken baby syndrome held that it had become sufficiently shaky itself that a new jury probably would have a reasonable doubt as to the defendant‘s guilt. As the United States Supreme Court emphasized in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., ―[v]igorous cross-examination, presentation of contrary evidence, and careful instruction on the burden of proof are the traditional and appropriate means of attacking shaky but admissible evidence.‖”
Could it be that shaken-baby syndrome has become itself such a shaky, negative forensic diagnosis, (meaning it attaches to the last person who happened to be caring for the child when it loses consciousness), that Ohio doesn't have the heart to charge her with murder? In Tiffani Calise's case, she happened to be babysitting for the baby who died later from alleged shaking. Although involuntary manslaughter is much less serious than intentional or negligent homicide, it seems that her case may depend not just on facts and law, but on a growing awareness that past cases of infant death may have been decided on a very shaky scientific foundation, which is now under reconstruction.
http://www.examiner.com/courts-in-akron/a-shaky-case

SIDS: Wisconsin: Child care regulations

By John Lee  October 31, 2010

In the spring of 2007, Craig and Georgia Ogden of Grand Chute were searching for a child care center for their two young children. They settled on Little Wonders Day Care.
A friend had recommended the in-home program that was licensed by the state. It was near the couple's home and seemed to be a good fit for their kids — daughter Lilyann, then 4, and son Grant, 5 months.

The Ogdens' good feelings didn't last, however.
In less than two months, they became unhappy with Patricia Frasier's operation and decided to enroll their children in a different program. But before they made the move, tragedy struck.

On the afternoon of May 9, 2007, Frasier found Grant unresponsive, not breathing and without a pulse in a crib. He was pronounced dead within an hour of being taken to a hospital.

Eventually, the Ogdens learned that Frasier violated several caregiver guidelines the day Grant died and was under orders from the state for previous violations.

"Our son Grant died because Patricia Frasier of Little Wonders Day Care was allowed to operate even after notification and citations were ignored," Craig Ogden told The Post-Crescent this fall.

Frasier closed Little Wonders the day Grant Ogden died and the state later revoked her license. No criminal charges were filed. Grant's parents, devastated by their loss and furious and frustrated about Frasier's conduct and the state's oversight, settled a wrongful death civil lawsuit against her last month that did not include money.

Frasier and her attorney, Jeffrey Oswald of Neenah, did not return messages from The P-C seeking comment.

Grant Ogden's death, while extreme and rare, demonstrates the potential dangers of child care facilities, the complex state rules laid out for care providers, and the challenges and high-stakes responsibilities of caregivers, state regulators and parents in keeping children safe.

State regulators have plenty to look after. During a 30-month period from Jan. 1, 2008 through June 2010, the Department of Children and Families, which tries to inspect all state-licensed day care operations in the state, took 104 enforcement actions among providers at the 201 day care sites in the Fox Cities, according to a P-C review of state records.

The state actions, which ranged from warnings to license revocations, arose from violations such as leaving a child unattended in a classroom, exceeding staff-to-child ratios, failing to pay a water bill or taxes on time, and improper discipline.

Operators themselves reported some of the violations.

Jill Chase, director of the Department of Children and Families' Bureau of Early Care Regulation, said the orders and forfeitures are "tools we use to gain compliance." Sanctions and penalties get progressively tougher if a day care provider fails to correct problems found during inspections. License denials and revocations are relatively rare, she said.

Tougher rules, more staff
After media attention about state public assistance fraud among day care operators and parents, mainly in Milwaukee, the state Legislature cracked down.

A new law that took effect Feb. 1 increased the list of offenses that can prevent someone from getting a license and provide grounds for revocation. It also requires more frequent background checks on care providers and increases some of those checks from every four years to as often as four times a year.

To conduct its background checks, the Department of Children and Families uses state Justice Department records, the state's Sex Offender Registry and child maltreatment records, which are kept by counties and may include offenses that were not criminal.

"Parents should feel real good about the fact that … we have been able to make advances," Chase said. "We have been able to do that and we should be proud of that.

"The steps we are taking are really recognizing now the importance of high-quality care for young children and the significant differences that can make."

In 2008, the state created the Department of Children and Families by combining some 30 services from the departments of Health and Family Services and Workforce Development. The agency, with a budget of $1.1 billion and 643 positions, licenses and monitors 5,300 child care facilities — including family providers, group providers and camps — that care for more than 217,000 children.

In addition to state-licensed operators, about 2,560 county-certified providers care for more than 15,000 children statewide. County-certified centers are inspected and regulated by counties and are limited to caring for no more than three children who are unrelated to the caregiver.

As part of the ramped-up effort, the state created a fraud detection and investigation unit and hired additional child care licensors, said Stephanie Hayden, a Department of Children and Families spokeswoman.

"These frontline workers are the eyes and ears on the ground. They visit when no one is expecting them. They look for the outlet covers and the latch on the gate."

Each of the agency's 59 licensors manages an average of 98 cases, Hayden said.

In the northeast region, which stretches from Marinette to Washington counties, and from Marquette County to Lake Michigan, 10.5 full-time equivalent licensors monitor 981 programs.

The region has offices in Fond du Lac and Green Bay.

Licensors are meeting the goal for twice-yearly visits to each facility except for a handful, most of which are in the Milwaukee area, Hayden said. A year ago, hundreds of facilities across the state were overdue for twice-yearly inspections. Today, that number is down to a handful, she said.

Last year, the agency conducted 10,068 child care site visits and investigated 1,541 complaints, Hayden said.

National evaluation

In a 2009 report, the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, which works with child care resource and referral agencies to improve child care, gave Wisconsin a score of 73 out of 100, sixth best in the country, for its child care regulations, with particularly high marks for posting of inspection information online, requirements for directors' credentials and staff orientation rules.

However, the state ranked just 41st in child care oversight. Chief weaknesses, the group said, were regulations that allow small centers to operate without a license, not requiring an associate degree for licensing staff, low requirements for lead teachers and not requiring fingerprint or sex offender registry checks as part of background checks.

The association recommended that the state increase inspections to more than twice a year, conduct federal background checks using fingerprints, and further increase requirements for center directors, head teachers and new staff orientation.

For oversight, the association said each licensor should be responsible for no more than 50 programs, and that all licensing staff members should have a bachelor's degree in a related field.

The state also received low rankings for not requiring four inspections a year.

The Wisconsin agency would have to nearly double its licensing staff to meet the 50-program threshold, said Chase, the Bureau of Early Care Regulation director.

She said the agency, and not the Legislature, set the twice-yearly goal.

"Even though we might have higher caseloads than we like, statewide we did conduct more than 10,000 inspections. We are meeting our own internal standards."

Lilly Irvin-Vitela, executive director of Supporting Families Together Association, a statewide agency that works with 11 child care resource and referral centers and 20 family resource centers, said the state does not have enough inspectors to check every "red flag."

"I actually have a lot of respect for the (state) licensing staff," she said. "I think they do an incredible job and have a huge caseload. There is not enough of them, in my ideal world. It is hard for them to get out there enough."

New rating system

This year, state lawmakers approved YoungStar, a rating system meant to help and encourage day care providers and to give parents more information in choosing a provider. It will begin Jan. 1.

Irvin-Vitela likes the idea.

"I think parents will have a way of knowing what a decent quality program is and what a high-quality program is," she said.

Still, she warned, parents should turn to resource and referral agencies for help, and consider more than location and cost.

"Just because a center is licensed doesn't mean that is a place you want your children. Even with that, there are questions about what is right for your family and what is right for your children," Irvin-Vitela said.

Chase, too, encourages parents to be proactive before and after they pick a provider.

"We need to encourage parents to really be the eyes and ears and research child care centers before making a selection, and visit the child care centers often," she said. "The tough reality of needing to find child care is a harsh reality for young parents. Sometimes young parents need child care immediately."

Ogden case

State licensing specialists found several violations at Little Wonders Day Care the day Grant Ogden died. Frasier had been notified of other violations previously.

The state investigation, reviewed by The P-C through a public records request, said Frasier violated guidelines the day of the baby's death by:

Putting a quilted blanket in the crib with the child, not tucking the blanket under the mattress, and not keeping it away from the child's mouth and nose.

Having a fluffy blanket, a stuffed animal and bumper pads in the crib.

Not having safety gates at an open stairway leading from the kitchen to the living room.

At the time of the boy's death, Frasier already was under a state violation order issued Feb. 12, 2007, because the results of an Aug. 30, 2006, licensing visit were not posted and visible to parents, as required.

During the Aug. 30 visit, licensors found that one child was missing an emergency medical phone number and another child did not have a follow-up health exam, as is required every two years after admission to a day care facility.

In her investigation into the death, Erin Mancoske-Anderson, a regional state licensing chief, also said there were "inconsistencies on what happened (on the) day of death."

She said Frasier fed the baby between noon and 1 p.m. and did not notice problems, then laid him on his stomach in the crib, which was in an upstairs bedroom. Babies are required to be placed on their backs in cribs unless specified in writing by a doctor, state rules say.

Frasier checked him at 3 p.m. and "found him on his stomach, but with a large amount of vomit around his face, not breathing. She attempted to turn him over and cleared the vomit."

Frasier told investigators she tried to call 911 five or six times but her phone didn't work, and said she eventually ran to a neighbor's home to get a cell phone.

The phone provider reported no problems with phone lines that day, but records show Frasier was on the phone nearly constantly in the hour before the lifeless baby was found, according to state and Grand Chute police reports.

State inspectors delivered a temporary closure notice, pending the investigation, and checked the home at other times to make sure Frasier was not operating as a care provider.

She was unable to provide the certificate that showed she had taken required Sudden Infant Death Syndrome training, and stopped talking to police and licensing officials during a May 10, 2007, interview, saying she wanted her attorney present.

Craig Ogden said the civil lawsuit against Frasier was not financially motivated. In the settlement, she admitted "some responsibility" for Grant's death, he said.

"There was an agreement made and there is no money at the end of the trail, and there were things I wanted and (Frasier) agreed to them, and that was it," Ogden said.

The end of the civil suit, however, may result in re-opening the police investigation into Grant Ogden's death.

Grand Chute Police Chief Greg Peterson said he has talked to Craig Ogden, and is waiting to review information from the civil case to see if there is something that could cause police to take another look.

"We have talked about that," Peterson said of reopening the case. "It is very possible new information could surface in a civil action."

Save for having his son back, Ogden had two goals: "I have no intention to start pointing fingers at anyone," he told The P-C before the lawsuit was settled. "I want an admission (of responsibility) and I want to make sure this lady isn't baby-sitting anymore."

John Lee: 920-993-1000, ext. 362, or jlee@postcrescent.com

: http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20101031/APC0101/10310596/Death-shows-challenges-of-child-care-oversight#ixzz14hYWXhuO

SBS: Wisconsin trial

Cassandra Colson .

A Black River Falls day care provider accused of child abuse made her initial court appearance on Monday and was released on a $5,000 signature bond.

Judge Todd Ziegler, who appeared via telephone, released Tamara J. Millis, 51, on the bond under the condition she not provide any child care or supervision for children other than her own or her relatives. She also is to have no contact with the alleged victim or the victim’s family.

Chippewa County Assistant District Attorney Wade Newell and Millis’ defense attorney John Hyland agreed on the terms and will schedule a pre-trial conference within the next month.

Millis was charged in Jackson County Circuit Court last month with child abuse for the January incident in which she is accused of injuring a 10-month-old boy.

A hospital report indicates the boy’s injuries are consistent with shaken baby syndrome.

Kellie Murphy contacted authorities Jan. 13 after she found her child unresponsive when she picked him up at Millis’ home on 10th Street and took him to Black River Memorial Hospital. The boy reportedly suffered bleeding in the brain and was airlifted to Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, according to the Black River Falls Police Department.

Millis told investigators the boy had been sitting on a rug when another child ran into him and landed on top, causing the boy to hit his head on the floor, according to the criminal complaint. However, doctors stated the boy’s injuries were not consistent with him striking his head on the floor.

Murphy stated her child appeared unresponsive and his eyes were rolling when she arrived to pick the boy up at about 2:45 p.m., according to the complaint. She stated Millis told her another child fell on the boy, and he “just wasn’t himself” after waking from a nap and recommended he be taken to a hospital.

Millis was neither a licensed day care provider nor a certified child care provider at the time of the incident, according to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and the Jackson County Department of Health and Human Services.

Day care providers must be licensed if they care for four or more children younger than 7 and are compensated. Care providers have then option of being certified by the county if they care for three or fewer unrelated children younger than 7.

The county previously did not divulge whether it knew how many children were cared for at the Millis residence.

Millis faces a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a $25,000 fine if convicted of the felony charge.

 

.http://www.jacksoncountychronicle.com/articles/2010/09/22/news/01millis.txt