Although it is rare that a child is abused without anyone noticing, for Sharllene, the failure by her doctor to report the abuse he observed should result in a reprimand if not a more severe penalty.

A pediatrician who examined a 2-year-old Bronx girl who police say died last Friday at the hands of the mother’s companion said he told a hospital that he suspected the girl was being abused, but that his warning went unheeded. But the doctor did not contact child welfare officials — as required by law — saying he believed it was enough to notify the hospital.

The doctor, Jorge Cornielle, said the girl was so bruised and unresponsive during an examination in his office on July 12 that it was evident she had been beaten. He said he sent the girl, Sharllene Morillo, to Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and later called the hospital to report his suspicions.

The following day, however, Sharllene was discharged into the care of her mother and her mother’s companion after tests found nothing wrong. “If they kept this child in the hospital, maybe she would still be alive,” said Dr. Cornielle, who had been seeing the girl since she was 11 days old.

Source

Cornielle, as a doctor, should know that he and other medical personnel are among the front-line in the reporting of child abuse, also called “mandated reporters,” and that he can not, nor should not, abrogate that responsibility to another person or facility.  Along with school personnel and day care providers, the reporting of even suspected child abuse is a duty, not an option.

In Sharllene’s case, Cornielle failure to report resulted in her death within days of her discharge.

The girl was taken back to the hospital unconscious eight days ago, and died late Friday. On Sunday, investigators ruled that Sharllene died from a brain hemorrhage and the police arrested the mother’s companion, Paul Jimenez(-Tejada), 29, who the authorities said admitted shaking the girl and dropping her on her head. Law enforcement officials said Mr. Jimenez, who is already facing child endangerment charges, would be charged with homicide.

It has been reported that Sharllene was afraid of Jimenez-Tejada, and there had been reports of abuse filed with Children’s Services a month before the fatal incident.  The report was  from her day care provider who reported seeing scratch marks and bruises on the toddler. The report from the caseworker assigned to investigate the abuse was not received into the Children’s Service office until after her death.  Others, however knew that all was not right with Sharllene’s life.

Rachel Pena, who lives next door to the couple, said she frequently heard Sharllene’s screams through the wall and that she once saw what she thought was a cigarette burn on the child’s arm. When she asked Ms. Mejia what was wrong, she was told, “Don’t worry, she cries for everything,” Ms. Pena said.

Autopsy results would report that Sharllene died from blunt force trauma.  Jimenez-Tejada confessed to shaking the toddler and dropping her on her head. He later recanted his story and said that Sharllene’s injuries were due to her slipping on a wet floor as he mopped and hitting her head against the wall.  He then claimed that he had fallen while holding her and during the fall pushed the child’s head into concrete.   Eventually he  would later plead guilty to first degree manslaughter and sentenced to fifteen years in jail.

Tags: Sharllene Morillo

Even though the electronic age has resulted in child abuse cases get more publicity than they have in the past, no era has been exempt from this tragedy.

Case Shined First Light on Abuse of Children

“I have now on my head two black-and-blue marks which were made by Mamma with the whip, and a cut on the left side of my forehead which was made by a pair of scissors in Mamma’s hand; she struck me with the scissors and cut me. … I never dared speak to anybody, because if I did I would get whipped.”

“I have now on my head two black-and-blue marks which were made by Mamma with the whip, and a cut on the left side of my forehead which was made by a pair of scissors in Mamma’s hand; she struck me with the scissors and cut me. … I never dared speak to anybody, because if I did I would get whipped.”

If the words sound depressingly familiar, it is because they could have come from any number of recent news accounts — or, for that matter, popular entertainment, like the recently opened movie “Precious,” which depicts the emotional and sexual abuse of a Harlem girl.

In fact, though, the quotation is from the 1874 case of Mary Ellen McCormack, below, a self-possessed 10-year-old who lived on West 41st Street, in the Hell’s Kitchen section of Manhattan. It was Mary Ellen who finally put a human face on child abuse — and prompted a reformers’ crusade to prevent it and to protect its victims, an effort that continues to this day.

Tellingly, the case was brought by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1874, there were no laws protecting children from physical abuse from their parents. It was an era of “spare the rod and spoil the child,” and parents routinely meted out painful and damaging punishment without comment or penalty.

Mary Ellen had been orphaned as a baby. Her father, Thomas Wilson, was a Union soldier who died in the Second Battle of Cold Harbor, in Virginia. Her mother, Frances, boarded the baby with a woman living on Mulberry Bend, on the Lower East Side, while working double shifts as a laundress at the St. Nicholas Hotel.

This arrangement cost $2 a week, consuming her entire widow’s pension. When she lost her job, she could no longer afford to care for her daughter and was forced to send her to the city orphanage on Blackwells Island.

A few years later, Mary Ellen was adopted by a Manhattan couple, Thomas and Mary McCormack. But Thomas died soon after the adoption, and his widow married Francis Connolly. Unhappy and overburdened, the adoptive mother took to physically abusing Mary Ellen.

Sometime in late 1873, the severely battered and neglected child attracted the attention of her neighbors. They complained to the Department of Public Charities and Correction, which administered the city’s almshouse, workhouse, insane asylums, orphanages, jails and public hospitals. Even the hard-boiled investigator assigned to Mary Ellen’s case, Etta Angell Wheeler, was shocked and became inspired to do something.

Frustrated by the lack of child-protection laws, Wheeler approached the A.S.P.C.A. It proved to be a shrewd move. Mary Ellen’s plight captured the imagination of the society’s founder, Henry Bergh, who saw the girl — like the horses he routinely saved from violent stable owners — as a vulnerable member of the animal kingdom needing the protection of the state.

Bergh recruited a prominent lawyer, Elbridge Gerry (grandson of the politician who gave his name to gerrymandering), who took the case to the New York State Supreme Court. Applying a novel use of habeas corpus, Gerry argued there was good reason to believe that Mary Ellen would be subjected to irreparable harm unless she was removed from her home.

Judge Abraham R. Lawrence ordered the child brought into the courtroom. Her heart-wrenching testimony was featured in The New York Times the next day, April 10, 1874, under the subheading “Inhuman Treatment of a Little Waif.”

“She is a bright little girl,” the article said, “with features indicating unusual mental capacity, but with a careworn, stunted and prematurely old look. Her apparent condition of health, as well as her scanty wardrobe, indicated that no change of custody or condition could be much for the worse.”

Ms. Connolly was charged and found guilty of several counts of assault and battery. Mary Ellen never returned to her adoptive home, but her temporary placement in a home for delinquent teenagers was not much of an improvement. In a lifesaving act of kindness, Etta Wheeler, her mother and her sister volunteered to raise Mary Ellen in bucolic North Chili, N.Y., outside Rochester.

At 24, Mary Ellen married Louis Schutt. The couple had two children of their own, along with three children of Schutt’s from a previous marriage, and Mary Ellen passed on her good fortune by adopting an orphan girl. By all accounts, she was a superb and caring mother. She died in 1956, at 92.

Mary Ellen’s case led Bergh, Gerry and the philanthropist John D. Wright to found the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in December 1874. It was believed to be the first child protective agency in the world.

In the years since, the society has helped rescue thousands of battered children, created shelters to care for them and, working with similar groups and agencies in cities across the nation, instituted laws that punish abusive parents.

Gone are the days when beasts of burden enjoyed more legal protection than children. In recent years, a broad spectrum of programs, diagnostic and reporting protocols, safe houses and legal protections have been developed to protect physically or sexually abused children.

But every day, at least three children die in the United States as a result of parental mistreatment. Many more remain out of sight and in harm’s way. Mary Ellen’s story reminds us of a simple equation: How much our society values its children can be measured by how well they are treated and protected.

Tags: Mary Ellen McCormack

FOX 26 Investigates Exclusive: CPS Worker Blows Whistle

Updated: Tuesday, 24 Nov 2009, 9:37 PM CST
Published : Tuesday, 24 Nov 2009, 9:37 PM CST

• RANDY WALLACE
  Investigative Reporter

Every day case workers with Children’s Protective Services visit homes to decide what’s best for area children living in dangerous and deplorable conditions.

“We try to protect these children as best we can but we don’t always get to em in time,” said a current C.P.S. case worker who we’ll call Sara.

Since “Sara” could be fired for talking with FOX 26 Investigates, we are not identifying her by name, face or even the sound of her voice. Sara is considered a tenured case worker since she’s been at the job for three years.

“That’s the equivalent of 10 years somewhere else you’re that tenured, that’s what you’re considered very tenured,” Sara said. “I think it’s ridiculous. I think the turnover speaks volumes to how it’s managed and the management I don’t see how they sleep at night to be honest.”

The CPS worker said having 15 open cases at one time is more than enough to keep a case worker busy.

“There needs to be a cap on the number of cases for each worker,” Sara said.

But the CPS case worker showed us documentation for region 6, which includes the greater Houston area. It shows that 28 case workers were juggling at least 30 open cases at a time, 6 case workers had at least 40 open cases.

“But I’ve seen case loads of 60, 50, 40 even 110, 120 at one time that are open CPS cases,” Sara said.

The most troubling thing about all the open cases?

According to CPS’s own figures, nearly half of all Texas children killed by abuse belonged to families previously investigated by Texas Child Protective Services, and that tragic statistic has shown no improvement in the last 5 years.

Sara blames some of that on not only huge case loads but pressure from supervisors to close cases within 30 to 60 days.

When we asked Sara if she ever felt pressured to close a case she replied, “Everyday all day everyday.”

A spokesperson for CPS told FOX 26 Investigates workers can have what appear to be open cases on paper when in reality some of those cases might need no additional work, just a supervisors signature.

As for supervisors pressuring workers to close cases, the spokesperson said case workers are required to close cases within 60 days.

Sara said she feels pressure to close cases even if it means taking short cuts.

“They don’t care how you get it done, but the cases are expected to be closed,”Sara said.

And that leads some to wonder just how many children end up dead after CPS closes the case.

Tags: Child Protective Services