Cousin tried to save toddler
http://www.projo.com/news/content/BUNNELL_TRIAL_13_05-13-08_84A491A_v47.3577925.html
01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
By John Castellucci
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE –– The night 3-year-old Thomas J. “T.J.” Wright was
beaten to
death, a relative tried desperately to save him, only to have T.J.’s
foster mother snatch the child from his arms and curse him for dialing
911.
Jose A. Santiago said that, when he handed Katherine Bunnell the
cordless telephone, she hung up rather than stay on the line with the
911 operator and walk him through the procedure for CPR.
Instead of being grateful about the call, “it was more like she was
angry,” Santiago said.
“Why, why did I do that?” he said, describing her reaction.
“To me, it felt like disbelief.”
Santiago offered the testimony yesterday, at Bunnell’s trial on murder
charges in Superior Court.
An inmate at the Adult Correctional Institutions, where he is fini****ng
a one-year sentence for felony assault, he testified in handcuffs,
flanked by deputy sheriffs, and challenged on every major point by
Gerard H. Donley, Bunnell’s defense lawyer, who accused him of trying to
make Bunnell look bad to help her co-defendant, Gilbert Delestre, beat
the rap.
Santiago, 31, and Delestre, 27, are cousins. Like Bunnell, Delestre has
been charged with murder and conspiracy to murder. He is at the ACI
awaiting trial.
After Bunnell hung up, Santiago said he grabbed T.J. from her and took
the child downstairs into the living room of her Woonsocket apartment,
where he tried to perform CPR.
“I sat there, blew into his mouth. I exhaled him. Nothing,” Santiago
testified.
“I resumed to breathe into his mouth again,” he continued. “That’s
when
Katie came and snatched him from my arms.”
“I grabbed him back. It was just a reaction,” he testified.
“I punched her in the face.”
The ambulance arrived, and Santiago carried T.J. out to the paramedics.
The toddler was taken to Landmark Medical Center, then to Hasbro
Children’s Hospital, where he was determined to be brain dead and taken
off life sup****t.
Prosecutors contend Bunnell, 24, and Delestre beat T.J. to death because
they were angry about a mess he had made in their living room.
The chain of events that led to the child’s death began the evening of
Oct. 29, 2004, when Bunnell and Delestre went out drinking with
Santiago, who had just completed an earlier sentence at the ACI.
T.J. and his brothers, David, 10, and Mickey, 6, were left with a baby
sitter, along with Bunnell’s daughters by Delestre — Destiny, 7, and
Daziya, 5.
When Santiago and the couple returned home for the night, Santiago
testified, Bunnell discovered the mess and demanded that Delestre come
inside to clean it.
Santiago remained outside in the parking lot, where he became sick,
throwing up and stumbling around the apartment complex. He said he was
unaware that, inside the apartment, Bunnell and Delestre were beating T.J.
While he was outside in the parking lot, Bunnell drove past him in her
car, taking the baby sitter home, he testified.
He was still outside in the parking lot when she returned to the
apartment and started to yell. Santiago said he thought she was yelling
because she and Delestre were having a fight.
He went inside, he said, went upstairs to the second-floor bedroom, and
pulled Delestre away from Bunnell, Santiago testified.
“She turned around and was like, ‘Jose, the baby’s not
breathing,’ ” he
said.
It was then, Santiago said, that he called 911. Prosecutors played a
tape of the 911 call for the jury yesterday. They also read a letter
written to T.J.’s mother –– Bunnell’s sister, Karen Wright.
“If it wasn’t for me trying to do what I did, no one would have tried
to
help the baby and dial 911,” Santiago said in the letter, written 16
days after the fatal beating.
“I gave Katie the phone and she winds up hanging up the phone and
screaming at me for dialing 911.”
“Mr. Santiago, is it fair to say you were drunk out of your mind?”
Bunnell’s lawyer demanded on cross-examination.
“I was drunk, sir,” Santiago acknowledged.
“You sobered up pretty quickly when you saw that baby,” Assistant
Attorney General Stacey P. Veroni said after Donley asked the question.
Donley objected. Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia overruled the objection.
Santiago answered yes.
jcastell@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"
Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS.
every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Wa****ngton. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
Perpetrators of Maltreatment
Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
***ual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and ***ual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST
Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…
THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia
http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/articles.php?filter=6
This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.
http://www.jbs.org/node/4632
Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-callahan16oct16,0,5019944.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILURE:. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler
http://www.nccpr.org/re****ts/cfpanalysis.doc
HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN
http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html
Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News
http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2000/5_May/mayds4.htm
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relation****ps. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Sup****t
80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.
The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991
Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent
housing.
This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.
Front-page story in USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm?csp=34#Close
Read the studies online.
Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"
www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/NorthwestAlumniStudy.htm
MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"
www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf
Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" re****ts:
www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren
The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLI****NG CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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