Moon-shaped bruises ruined a 5-year-old’s butt from “owies,” he told a social worker, according to a case written by a deputy from the Kern County Sheriff’s Office from an interview between the child. and a social worker.
The boy marked three Xs on a body diagram using a dark red crayon to show where he said his father, Mr. Bailey, hit him. With a green and black crayon, the boy pulled a belt into the page’s corner, according to the deputy report, which was filed with the Kern County Superior Court.
Bailey flipped him over and used that belt to “bump him,” the boy said, according to court-filed reports. He closed his fist to demonstrate how Bailey punched him in the face about 10 times, according to the documents. Sabrina Martinez, the boy’s mother, also beat his face about 19 times, the girl told the social worker.
(The boy) “doesn’t know why his mother … hits him in the face and doesn’t like being hit in the face,” wrote the congressman in his report.
Then the social worker told the 5-year-old about the blood at his home in Tehachapi, where he lived with his 3-month-old brother and sister, according to reports. She asked where she came from, reports say.
“My, my brother is dead,” the boy replied, according to reports.
Bailey and Martinez were charged with the death of the 3-month-old baby in 2020 and on several charges of child cruelty. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for January to determine whether the case can proceed to a preliminary hearing.
Infant Death Review Team
Dozens of children die each year in Kern County and if the coroner reports a case to what is known as the Child Death Review Team, the incident is being investigated by local first responders and researchers to determine what went wrong. .
Over the past few years, this team has published an annual public report on its results. According to advocates for minors, collecting and discussing data on child victims is critical for agencies to fully understand the causes of deaths, local trends and prevent future maltreatment.
But the Kern County Department of Public Health Services, which is tasked with creating and compiling the report, hasn’t put one together since its 2019 version that looked at the 2018 deaths. The number of children who died in Kern is higher than the California average, according to data compiled by kidsdata.org, an online database for children’s health.
The death of the 3-month-old baby would be investigated in this report.
“Without some of this information, it’s really hard to dig to know” how to make changes to reduce fatalities, said Jessica Haspel, associate director of child welfare with Children Now, a non-partisan nonprofit focused on elevating childbirth issues. children through defense.
Haspel spoke generally about infant death review teams across California and not specifically about Kern County policies. He added that it is difficult to know the effect of the pandemic on child abuse across the state without data.
“These infant death review teams are the glue that holds it all together because they are interdisciplinary,” said Dr. Jeoffry Gordon, a retired family doctor who advocates for the welfare of children.
The county public health response
Public health spokesperson Michelle Corson wrote in an email on Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic has “significantly affected” the operations of all agencies participating in the Child Death Review Team.
Corson wrote in an email in March that all staff were diverted to “COVID-19 duties” shortly after the pandemic began.
“Although no report has been published in the last (two) years, during the pandemic the (Child Death Review Team) meetings continued and the cases were investigated,” Corson continued in his email Thursday.
Corson added in that email that staff are developing reports on “affected times” and should submit them to the County Board of Supervisors “within the next two months.” The latest report was published in December 2019.
Investigations of similar reports by infant death review groups in other California counties show that Kern Public Health is not alone in forgoing public publications.
Tulare County does not have an infant death review team and Marin County “does not publish public reports” but does track all infant deaths, according to respective county spokesmen. Kings County hasn’t released a report from the children’s death review team in “a while” from COVID-19, said Everrado Legaspi, program manager with the Kings County Public Health Department.
Legaspi added that the department is considering reconvening an infant death review team, but it is “a rather small department.” Furthermore, he was unable to find a report from the review team of the deaths of children on his “servers”.
Santa Clara County released its latest review report on child deaths in 2020 on data from 2018. Los Angeles County released its latest report in 2021.
Corson wrote that Kern’s public health is concerned with preventing the death of children by launching initiatives such as the water watchers campaign to teach parents to watch children play in and around swimming pools, free and accessible CPR training at sunny hands and a “baby safe, baby safe” lecture, which happened in October.
That conference focused on health education regarding sudden infant death syndrome, teenage suicide, and fentanyl use, he added.
Tom Corson, head of the Kern County Network for Children, did not respond to a request for comment. The Kern County Network for Children supports children and is a member of the Child Death Review Team. Other team members include the Bakersfield Police Department, the Kern County Coroner’s Office, the Kern County District Attorney’s Office, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, the of Kern County Human Services and others.
‘Exchange ideas, thoughts’
The infant death review team was created in the early 1980s, and participants are not required to meet under state law outlining team creation.
Under California law, a wide range of experts, such as forensic pathologists, pediatricians who have experience with child abuse cases, and criminologists, should collaborate and publish reports. State agencies should keep track of local data on infant deaths, according to the law.
“Everyone brings a piece to solve the puzzle,” said Colleen Friend, director of the Child Abuse and Family Violence Institute at Cal State Los Angeles, of an inter-agency effort. “… And often these things are very complicated. Often, a medical examiner or district attorney could bring something that a protective services officer would not do. “
Previous reports from Kern County analyzed the deaths as preventable or accidental and whether the death was a homicide. They presented solutions for separate agencies and social workers to prevent the death of children.
The intent was to create a “body of information” to prevent the death of children, the law states.
Ruby Guillen, who sits on a citizen review committee with the goal of preventing child abuse and critical incidents and is part of the Los Angeles version of the infant death review team, said that a typical meeting in Los Angeles it might include inviting people investigating a child’s death and trying to figure out what happened. Guillen is a member of the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, an independent body that develops and coordinates services for the prevention, identification and treatment of child abuse in Los Angeles County.
The purpose is not to punish or make a person feel stupid, he said. She has learned that a red flag for child abuse could be broken bones and the suspicions should not be ignored as those injuries could lead to death.
“If you want to reduce the casualties, we have to work together and we have to commit ourselves,” Guillen said. “We have to exchange ideas, thoughts. Again, it’s about learning. You just have to learn from knowledge.
Reforms needed
Friend wasn’t surprised when told that Kern Public Health and others skipped the infant death review team’s reports. He said the lack of money could contribute to the counties’ failure to fill in.
Infant death review teams have relied on the legislature to provide dollars to establish these processes. However, the National Center for Fatality Review & Prevention notes that the state child death review team was disbanded in 2008 when funds were embezzled.
Corson, a spokesperson for Kern’s public health, said the county is not getting funding to publish the reports from the infant death review team.
Gordon, the retired doctor, added that data is scarce across the state: The Department of Social Services has been required to publish a report detailing the victims of the children, but hasn’t been able to do so since 2016. That data could shaping the policies of lawmakers, experts agree.
Creating a data network will help reduce infant deaths, Gordon said. A surveillance network was created to monitor births to develop new security protocols. As a result, California’s maternal mortality rate is the lowest in the nation, Gordon said.
“No one in the state of California can tell you how many children under the age of 18 died at the hands of their parents or guardians in the past year,” Gordon said. “Period. Nobody. Nobody has access to real data.”
Assembly Bill 2660, which was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2022, sought to make it mandatory statewide infant death review teams to keep track of this information. Newsom wrote in its veto message that the program was too expensive. Gordon disagreed.
“More than a hundred children … die every year … (and) it’s a low priority for the state,” Gordon said. “For me, it is an atrocious and horrible circumstance.”
A spokesperson for Newsom’s office linked to AB 2660’s veto message in response to questions from the Californian about its veto and steps to reduce infant deaths.
“There may be some useful remedial efforts to get the system up and running,” Gordon said. “It is not very expensive. It has only been neglected since 2008 (when the statewide program was finalized). “