Thursday, August 30, 2007

Associated Press

TYLER — State caseworkers received an anonymous warning that a mother threatened to kill her son more than a year before the toddler was recently found strangled to death, according to court records. The case is one of two July deaths involving Tyler children in which Child Protective Services investigated the families before the children were killed. Court records obtained by the Tyler Morning Telegraph show CPS case workers for the Texas Department of Family Health were aware of threats made by Catherine Stevens toward her 2-year-old son William, who was found strangled to death July 8. Stevens remains in Smith County Jail on a $1 million bond on a charge of capital murder.

A court document filed in May 2006 by a Tyler CPS investigator shows the agency went to Stevens’ home to investigate allegations of abuse. But when the investigator arrived, she found that the woman was in a hospital being treated for “depression with psychosis.” The document also outlines an anonymous report that Stevens threatened to drown or suffocate her son if allowed to return home. CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam said the report was unsubstantiated and mental health professionals later told the agency that Stevens wasn’t a danger to herself or her child.

“We had no further contact with the family and the case was closed 14 months ago because there was family support both inside and outside of the home,” she said in Friday’s online edition of the newspaper. CPS and court records also show the agency had been investigating a couple for alleged child abuse and neglect for several years before the stepfather was involved in a July 20 vehicle accident that killed his 4-year-old stepson, Jose Luis Aguilar.

Jaime Oscar Patrescio has been charged with intoxicated manslaughter and remains jailed on a $750,000 bond.

Patrescio and Bobbie Aguilar, Jose’s mother, had agreed to a safety plan with CPS to keep the child from being placed in foster care. But Pulliam said the couple broke the agreement with the agency, which resulted in Jose’s death.

State District Judge Carole Clark, who called a meeting Thursday to discuss the shortfalls of the system, stressed better communication among agencies and said new procedures were enacted to safeguard children who are 3 years old and younger and whose parents are drug addicts.

http://www.heralddemocrat.com/articles/2007/07/29/texas_news/state02.txt

Emphasis added by H4K Editor