GUILTY NM - Anthony Apodaca & Jennifer Stephenson for child endangerment, Santa Fe, 2010

Posted at: 02/09/2010 7:10 PM | Updated at: 02/09/2010 7:15 PM
By: Taryn Bianchin, KOB.com

Santa Fe police are investigating the parents of a two-year-old boy who is in intensive care at UNM hospital.

Doctors think the boy's legs may have been tied together, and now he could be in danger of losing them.

As CYFD served a court summons on Tuesday to the two-year-old’s mother, she addressed Eyewitness News 4:

“This is no one's *advertiser censored*** business but mine and this is a family matter, look my son was not tied up, my son was not abused--and that's all I’m going to say.”

“So you deny all the allegations?”

“Yes I do,” said the mother.

While the parents have not been charged, CYFD has taken custody of the boy and his sister. :aktion033:

The toddler showed up in an emergency room at Christus St. Vincent Medical Center in Santa Fe almost two weeks ago with welts around his leg that were 4 centimeters wide. He was transferred to UNM hospital where he was evaluated by the child abuse response team.

Guardians of the boy had stated that a dresser had fallen on the child pinning him against a toddler bed.

The case was transferred to police because the injuries were deemed suspicious.

“The parents’ story does not coincide with the injuries,” said Detective Sergeant Louis Carlos

more here

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s1409092.shtml

i think its more likely they used belts repeatedly on his legs

OMG!

This is so unreal. GB this little tyke. Prayers for him.

Abused 2-year-old referred three times to CYFD

Posted at: 02/10/2010 8:29 PM | Updated at: 02/10/2010 8:34 PM
By: Cristina Rodda, Eyewitness News 4; Taryn Bianchin, KOB.com

Two Santa Fe parents are arrested and charged with abusing their two-year-old boy.

Wednesday evening Santa Fe Police arrested Jennifer Stephenson and Anthony Apodaca and charged them with abusing their toddler. Police say the boy is at risk of losing his legs.

Police say the boy's family had been reported to CYFD more than once.

Romaine Serna spokesperson for the Children, Youth, and Families Department says she can't comment on specific cases but says it's common for families to be referred repeatedly.

She admits it's heart-wrenching when a child whose family has been referred to the agency becomes seriously hurt.

"We feel just as bad and just as heart broken … as the public that's watching the story unfold on the news,” Serna said.

The two-year-old Sante Fe boy was so severely injured he was in intensive care at UNM hospital for about two weeks, and has undergone surgery to remove dead tissue. He's now in the pediatric unit of the hospital.

Police say the boy's family was referred three times to CYFD for child abuse and neglect. Investigators believe the child was abused by having his legs tied.

more here

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1411494.shtml?cat=504

You know I've spent the better part of my life caring for children and I've not once, ever, had a dresser fall over and pin a child up against a bed. There seems to be about 5 possible scenarios that people try to pull. Do they not realize that we've heard them before?

A Child Abuse Response Team can most definitely determine exactly what happened to a little guys' legs. If a forensics team can look at a drop of blood and know what the victim ate for dinner last Tuesday, I'm going to trust this team will get at the truth.

And I get it that DHS is heartbroken. I do. But really? Was there honestly nothing that concerned them enough before to remove this boy? Really?

I'll be praying for healthy tissue on those legs.

Texas Mist said:

Abused 2-year-old referred three times to CYFD

Posted at: 02/10/2010 8:29 PM | Updated at: 02/10/2010 8:34 PM
By: Cristina Rodda, Eyewitness News 4; Taryn Bianchin, KOB.com

Two Santa Fe parents are arrested and charged with abusing their two-year-old boy.

Wednesday evening Santa Fe Police arrested Jennifer Stephenson and Anthony Apodaca and charged them with abusing their toddler. Police say the boy is at risk of losing his legs.

Police say the boy's family had been reported to CYFD more than once.

Romaine Serna spokesperson for the Children, Youth, and Families Department says she can't comment on specific cases but says it's common for families to be referred repeatedly.

She admits it's heart-wrenching when a child whose family has been referred to the agency becomes seriously hurt.

"We feel just as bad and just as heart broken … as the public that's watching the story unfold on the news,” Serna said.

The two-year-old Sante Fe boy was so severely injured he was in intensive care at UNM hospital for about two weeks, and has undergone surgery to remove dead tissue. He's now in the pediatric unit of the hospital.

Police say the boy's family was referred three times to CYFD for child abuse and neglect. Investigators believe the child was abused by having his legs tied.

more here

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1411494.shtml?cat=504

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This just makes me sick.Another child who has been abused who the system has failed again.When are we going to take a stand and say enough we have had it.Everyday children are lost or forever scared mentally as well as bodily while the very people who are employed to protect them and do not do a DAMN thing to save these children.What ever happened to protesting in the streets?Caseworkers should be held accountable by law when they FAIL a child.Then maybe they would do a better job of saving these kids.When you ask these agency's to protect a child who you know is being abused instead of leaving them with the parents they should take them out of the home then do their job.Instead they leave them in the home to be brow beaten into not telling of the abuse with threats of more harm.If there is family who can take the children until investigation is complete more children would be saved.And please spare me about what wonderful caseworkers there are,unfortunately that is just a very few.Most just want the paycheck,free car and the government pension.Sorry about the rant but my grandson is being abused ,he told the truth stood up for himself, and they are leaving him with his mom to endure more abuse from her new BF and mental abuse from his mom.The system in place is a big fat failure.

id comment but im afraid the cps poster will rip my head off again

kbl8201 said:

id comment but im afraid the cps poster will rip my head off again

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If the cps poster rips your head off again report her,you have a right to your opinion .If CPS did their job we would not see these kinds of stories everyday.I for one and soooooooooooo sick and tired of them wanting to be portrayed as saints when most just care about their paychecks and perks.In New Jersey CPS is a joke!

Missizzy said:

You know I've spent the better part of my life caring for children and I've not once, ever, had a dresser fall over and pin a child up against a bed. There seems to be about 5 possible scenarios that people try to pull. Do they not realize that we've heard them before?

A Child Abuse Response Team can most definitely determine exactly what happened to a little guys' legs. If a forensics team can look at a drop of blood and know what the victim ate for dinner last Tuesday, I'm going to trust this team will get at the truth.

And I get it that DHS is heartbroken. I do. But really? Was there honestly nothing that concerned them enough before to remove this boy? Really?

I'll be praying for healthy tissue on those legs.

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When I was 3 years old I climbed my dresser drawers and it fell on me. It was tall and heavy, however I was not hurt for what ever reason.

Parents charged with abusing toddler; doctors may have to amputate boy's legs
Jason Auslander | The New Mexican
Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 2/11/10

Santa Fe police on Wednesday arrested the parents of a 2-year-old boy doctors think was so severely abused last month that his legs might have to be amputated.

Anthony Apodaca, 26, and Jennifer Stephenson, 20, were each charged with one count of child abuse, a first-degree felony, according to a news release. The couple was arrested Wednesday, about two weeks after they brought their son to the emergency room at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center with wounds that appeared to have been caused by a ligature of some kind, according to Sgt. Louis Carlos and court documents.

The boy had raised red welts "with distinctive straight edges" that wrapped around the back of both his legs, as well as similar welts on his shins, kneecaps and ankle, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in state District Court.
.....................
"The entire (police) department is rooting for him," Carlos said.

Detectives attempted to interview both Stephenson and Apodaca on Wednesday, but both declined to speak further to police, Carlos said.

Apodaca was charged with child abuse, criminal damage to property and assault on a household member Nov. 15 after he attempted to visit Stephenson's apartment in the 6300 block of Entrada de Milagro about midnight, he said. At that time, Stephenson declined to let him in, and Apodaca threw a rock through a window at the apartment, Carlos said.

The rock nearly hit Stephenson and Apodaca's other child — a then-10-month-old girl — and glass from the window landed in her crib, he said. The charges were later dropped, according to online court records.


more here

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local News/Parents-charged-with-abusing-toddler

So, they had this baby's legs tied with belts? For what reason??? I mean who looks at a 2 year old and says, "huh-let's belt his legs so tightly that he has to have them amputated."

Who comes up with this stuff??? Why do I get the feeling there are drugs involved here....I wonder how the 10 month old is.

And why are they out? Just curious.

ok cps sucks.........no thats too nice.
cps blew it........again. is that a broken record?

yeah i know........overworked, underpaid, understaffed, lack of intelligence, common sense. ect all.

kbl--I'm caught in the middle as I know both sides of the general (not this particular) story too too well. Society, most often, does not want CPS to be over-reactive. We expect them to respect cultural differences and lifestyles and parenting techniques. Their hands are tied in so many respects. Everything is boiled down to dry regulations that don't really allow for the humanity and "messiness" of child-rearing.

You can find a beloved child who's had everything done right for him his entire life yanked due to the fact that his dad slapped his face once and left a red mark (and no Dad shouldn't slap that hard but there can be mitigating factors--what did he just say to his Grandma??). The teacher reports the red mark and the child gets pulled. Six months of agony go by before the family is totally reunited and CPS out of the home.

Then you get cases like this little guy or Jeanette or Alexis or.........you get the idea. A child being horribly abused or tortured with numerous reports coming in--and nothing. Red flags waving in the breeze and CPS seemingly not reacting.

You have to look at the whole system--the screener, the front line worker, the supervisor, the parenting trainers, the foster homes, the judge. There's so many places where things can go perfectly smoothly or horribly wrong.

I honestly believe that the vast majority of front line workers are working their ever-loving butts off to help kids. They are the ones who go into the filthy meth houses, peek under diapers to check for marks, inwardly cringe when they see Mountain Dew in the baby bottle. They write their reports and go to staffings.

Ultimately, everything is up to a staff meeting where a supervisor makes a decision about what can and can't be taken to a judge. It's extremely expensive to go to court and these are taxpayer dollars. Stop and think who has to appear at each of these hearings and add up the costs. Supervisors are not going to spend this amount of money or time on issues they don't think a judge will act on.

The judges rely totally on the veracity of the worker's court reports and what they see in the courtroom. How compelling of a writer is this worker? How well can he/she convey to the judge just how dangerous a particular situation is? Add to the this that every parent is assigned a lawyer who cleans them up and advises them what to say. Remember, that it is rare for a judge to actually see a child as it is understood that a court appearance is traumatic. So, all this frenzy of activity and legal action occurs in the abstract.

See why my brain fried a few years ago? I'm kidding, of course, but I really want to try to explain this from a close observer's standpoint. The workers, the supervisors, and the foster parents have to know how to "work" the system to save a child. They also have to be able to recognize when a family unit is salvageable and when it's not. I think it's a lot like working in a medical trauma center. You win some, you lose some.

And your heart breaks. And another child is waiting for your attention.

kbl--Have you considered getting a degree in social work? I admire your passion. The workers I know who hang in there for the long haul are a lot like you. They're a bit on the "rogue" side--willing to go to the matt for a kid. And don't tell me that you'd punch some parent's lights out. You'd want to, I know.

I happen to think you'd be a heck of an advocate for kids.

If they are having to remove dead tissue from this poor childs legs that tells me that he has had something wrapped around them for quite sometime. Tissue does not just die from an accident such as this momster has stated, it just doesnt happen. I hope to hell they give both of them the max sentence available..this is just horrible, poor baby I hope his little legs make it.

Its amazes me that someone could even think of doing something like this...

So really what we have here is not just felony child abuse-we have assault and battery, mutilation and torture.

Why do they get to be walking around? And, I really really want to know where 10 month old is.

If they had done this to another adult and a stranger, would they be walking around? I know I beat this drum all of the time, but I think that there is an inherent sense of entitlement when someone is charged with "child abuse." VS the above. Why the special charecterization if it means that the person was somehow justified because of "PPD", or "we all know how two year olds can be", or "mom/stepmom/stepdad/babysitter was overwhelmed"...

GGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRR-I cannot stand these cases. Imagine how LE feels.

Believe--I also want to try to understand what the motivation was here. Are they "hobbling" him to slow down a normal 2 year old? Is this some weird sadistic/sexual thing? Religious zealotry? Or just plain evil and stupid? Why do I ask? I know.