Friday, September 4, 2009
By BYRON HARRIS /
By BYRON HARRIS /
There has been a surprise twist in the case of three children found locked, beaten and starving in the bathroom of a Dallas motel in July.
The mother of the children, Abneris Santiago, and her boyfriend, Albert Santiago, were charged with abuse in the case. Not only were the children malnourished, but the oldest child, an 11-year-old girl, says she was repeatedly raped. A 10-year-old boy was beaten.
At a custody hearing on Friday, the fathers of two of the children appeared, asking that their children be allowed to live with them.
Henry Arceiciago travelled to the hearing from Tampa. He said he’d been prevented from seeing his daughter for years and now wants punishment for the Santiagos. “Those monsters, they’d better be in jail because monsters like this, we don’t need them on the street," he said.
Fernando Delgado, also from Tampa, is the father of the 10-year-old boy, who was beaten in the couple’s care. He said his “heart is broken” by what Abneris Santiago did to his son. He says every time he has tried to get custody, his son has been given to his maternal grandmother, who relinquishes care to her abusive daughter.
The grandmother seemed to be the leading contender for custody of the children. Judge Cheryl Lee Shannon asked CPS to evaluate the grandmother’s house in Florida for suitability for the children. That will be done by the next hearing in November...
Sunday, September 6, 2009
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
...Juvenile district court Judge Cheryl Lee Shannon ordered Child Protective Services to look into the suitability of the Tampa, Fla., home of Ruth Leon, the children's grandmother. The three children and a fourth child, a 1-year-old girl who was found healthy and unharmed, will remain together in foster care in the meantime.
Their mother, 30-year-old Abneris Santiago, and her boyfriend, 37-year-old Alfred Santiago, were indicted last month on abuse charges and remain in the Dallas County Jail. A pretrial hearing set for November could begin the process of severing their parental rights
In July, police found the three oldest children hungry and filthy in a bathroom at a Stemmons Corridor motel, where they are believed to have been held for at least nine months.
A doctor's report said the children suffered from life-threatening malnourishment. The 11-year-old girl weighed 59 pounds; the 10-year-old boy, 58 pounds; and the 6-year-old boy, 29 pounds.
The 11-year-old said she had been sexually assaulted, and the eldest son was covered in bruises from a beating authorities said was delivered by his mother's boyfriend.
Mary Macias, the court-appointed attorney for the children, said the biological fathers of two of them were ruled out for custody because they have criminal histories.
...They have also enrolled in school. The oldest girl told authorities in July that they had not attended in several years.
Also at the hearing was Abner Santiago and his wife, Sonia, the brother and sister-in-law of the children's mother, whose visit to check on the children led to the police rescue...
Posts
1 comment:
Why in the world are they going back to the grandmother's house to see if it is a suitable place to put those abused, tortured children into? That grandmother just turned them over to her abusive daughter when the courts put them with the grandmother before. Social Services just does not use common sense. No wonder so many children are left to suffer in deplorable conditions. No sense at all!
Post a Comment