By Rebecca Everett | For NJ.com
Nearly five months after the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Deanna Joseph, 39, stood in a Salem County courtroom Jan. 22 and admitted she recklessly caused her toddler's death.
Kayley Freeman died on Aug. 26, confined to a car seat while her mother was high on drugs in the front seat of the parked car, according to authorities.
The state's courts and the Department of Children and Families investigated allegations of neglect and recklessness against Deanna Joseph for more than 20 years, yet it could not prevent Kayley's death.
Over the past three years, at least 14 other children were on the child welfare agency's radar when they died in situations that involved abuse, neglect or reckless behavior, according to NJ Advance Media reporting and the Department of Children and Families' 2015 and 2016 reports on child fatalities.
These deaths are rare among the tens of thousands of children served by DCF over the course of a year.
The casket of 4-year-old Christopher Lassiter III, who was accidentally shot by his 5-year-old brother, leaves the funeral service in Newark July 1, 2016. (Robert Sciarrino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
Some of the children who died were being actively monitored by the department's Division of Child Protection and Permanency, or DCPP. Others had had their court cases closed by judges years before, and one child died months after a warning came in to the department’s child abuse hotline. In four cases, DCF did not release details of its previous involvement with the victims or families, saying the information was "not pertinent."
Their deaths sparked internal reviews, but the department does not release the results of those reviews. It only releases information relating to the death itself and the department’s previous dealings with the child and parent, as required by the the Comprehensive Child Abuse Protection and Treatment Act.
A department spokeswoman did not return a request for comment for this story.
It was after such a death in 2002 that the state settled a lawsuit, agreeing to federal court supervision for its child welfare agency. Faheem Williams, 7, was found dead after the agency lost track of his family and closed a suspected abuse case without seeing him and his two brothers.
The national nonprofit Children's Rights had sued the former Division of Youth and Family Services years before, claiming it was failing children and demanding better funding and numerous changes. Regular reports by the federal court monitor show DCPP is making progress towards some goals, but continues to come up short in many ways.
Deanna Joseph, 39, appears in Salem County Court Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017. (Lori Nichols | For NJ.com)
Kayley Freeman, 2, died Aug. 26, 2017
Authorities have said that Deanna Joseph was returning from a drug run when she passed out in the front seat of her parked car at her home, leaving Kayley in the car seat for an unknown amount of time. Authorities have said she died from "positional asphyxia," possibly from struggling to get out of her seat.
A DCF statement regarding the death revealed that the child welfare agency started investigating complaints of neglect against Joseph in 1997, when she was 20, but did not substantiate one until 2008.
She permanently lost parental rights to her first four children by 2011, DCF said.
On two occasions in 2008 and 2014, according to DCF and law enforcement, Joseph was found under the influence of drugs while her children were left unsupervised.
Joseph tested positive for drugs after Kayley's birth and was only allowed to have supervised contact with the child.
After Joseph did a stint in jail, caseworkers visited the home in February of 2017 to determine if Joseph could have overnight visits from her youngest son, and saw signs Joseph was employed and doing well, according to DCF.
Kayley died six months later. Joseph pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree manslaughter. She faces between 9 1/2 and 15 years in prison when she is sentenced March 16.
Najuquan Ross, 20, left, and Lucy Gunter, 20, right, both of Camden, are charged in connection with the death of Natalise "Kayla" Gunter, 4, center. (Lori Nichols/Rebecca Everett/Tim Hawk | For NJ.com)
Natalise "Kayla" Gunter, 4, of Camden died July 18, 2017
Najuquan Ross, 20, of Camden, is accused of killing Natalise "Kayla" Gunter by beating her in the head three days before her death.
The girl’s mother, Lucy Gunter, 20, told police that Ross, the father of one of her children, told her he beat the child July 15 for not eating while Gunter was at work, according to court documents.
Gunter in October pleaded guilty to endangering her child and agreed to testify against Ross in exchange for no jail time. She admitted that she never sought medical treatment for Natalise, though the girl had facial injuries and had become lethargic and stopped eating, until she found her not breathing three days later.
In a statement Jan. 14, DCF officials acknowledged that it received five calls in less than a year from police and citizens who were concerned that the girl and her two half siblings were being abused. The agency offered services, and a judge ordered Ross, who was convicted of beating Gunter with a broom, to have no contact with the family.
In April 2017, a judge granted DCPP’s request to open Care and Supervision Case for Natalise and her siblings and ordered the agency to start the family on an intensive, in-home crisis intervention and parenting education program, according to DCF.
There were no other reports of abuse until Natalise’s death July 18.
Gunter is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 16. Ross does not have a trial date yet.
Christopher Spearman, left, and Khadejrah Rawls were both charged in connection with the death of Rawls son, Michael Moore, 7. (Ocean County Jail)
Michael Moore Jr., 7, died Oct. 2, 2016
According to statements from DCF and law enforcement, Michael died after his mother’s boyfriend, Christopher Spearman, punched him in the chest and stomach and held his face underwater. He is facing charges including aggravated assault.
The mother, Khadejrah Rawls, is charged with endangering her child. According to a DCF report, she was at the Newark home and did not intervene, the agency said.
DCF revealed that Moore's death came two months after an Essex County judge ordered his child welfare case closed.
"On August 11, 2016, the department reported to the court that Ms. Rawls had been increasingly cooperative and was attending therapy but nonetheless recommended that court oversight should continue," a DCF memo stated. "The court denied our recommendation and terminated litigation, lifting the court-imposed obligation on Ms. Rawls that she comply with the department's services and supervision."
Between 2012 and 2016, DCPP investigated nine reports of abuse or neglect involving Michael and his siblings, including allegations of a beating and concerns from a hospital about Rawls care of Michael’s 4-month-old sibling. Seven were found to be unsupported, but welfare cases were opened in two incidents in 2014.
Four other children living in the home, ranging in age from 2 months to 6 years, were all sent to live in foster homes, DCF reported.
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A.B., 11 months, died Sept. 7, 2016
Not many details are available about this 11-month-old boy who died after being left in a bathtub in Cumberland County. DCF listed his death in its report of child fatalities from neglect or abuse in 2016, but identified him and his parents by their initials.
The report does not specify who left him in the bathtub, but said he was found floating and unresponsive by his father. They gave him CPR and he was hospitalized but couldn’t be revived, DCF said.
DCPP investigated and found that there was evidence to substantiate a neglect claim in the death because the parents provided inadequate supervision, the report said.
The department had a previous case regarding the family because the ex-girlfriend of the child’s father, R.B., had reported that he physically assaulted her in front of their children, DCF said in the report. An investigation by DCPP found the claim was “not substantiated” and the case was closed Aug. 24, 2016, two weeks before A.B.’s death.
A program from the funeral of Christopher Lassiter III, 4, who was shot by his brother, is at left. His mother, Itiyanah Spruill, cries during a hearing in Essex County Superior Court at right. (Robert Sciarrino/Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
Christopher Lassiter III, 4, died June 25, 2016
A 5-year-old boy shot and killed his younger brother, Christopher Lassiter III, while playing with his mother’s gun at their East Orange home, according to authorities.
Itiyanah Spruill, then 23, pleaded guilty to child endangerment and was sentenced to a year in jail. She did not have a permit to possess the gun used in the shooting, court records show.
At his services, family members remembered Christopher as an active child who loved the film "The Avengers" and aspired to be a doctor.
According to the DCF report on child deaths, the agency had investigated four prior allegations of neglect against Spruill but none were substantiated. They were between 2012 and 2014 and involved concerns that the children did not have adequate supervision or living arrangements.
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F.R., 3, died Jan. 9, 2016
DCF wrote in its child fatality report that F.R. of Ocean County died from ethanol poisoning and the investigation found that his parents did not get him treatment until he was unresponsive.
A bottle of rubbing alcohol was found wedged between the boy’s bed and the wall, DCF said in the report. However, medical personnel said the lack of acetone in his blood likely meant that he had died from drinking beer, wine or hard alcohol, which investigators said were “easily accessible to the children.”
DCF wrote that F.R.’s mother, reported that he was “screaming and vomiting“ the day before his death but she did not get medical help.
The agency had looked into the family six times between 2011 and 2014, mostly after getting reports that the parents were using marijuana or opiates, but only one investigation was substantiated. In that case, the boy's mother tested positive for both drugs after giving birth to him, according to DCF. That case was closed in 2014.
Brigitte McCarthy, left, and Robert Trella were charged after their daughter drowned. (Ocean County Jail)
Maddigan McCarthy, 2, died Aug. 17, 2015
According to DCF and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, Maddigan drowned in a neighbor’s pool in Berkeley Township while her parents neglected to supervise her. DCF said they waited 40 minutes to notify police the girl was missing.
Robert Trella and Brigitte McCarthy later pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, and McCarthy also admitted to heroin possession, authorities said.
Neighbors told investigators that they had seen the toddler wandering around the neighborhood alone before, and detectives learned her 9-year-old sister provided much of Maddigan’s care, authorities said. The sister and another 1-year-old boy were later removed from the home, DCF said.
DCF received seven reports about the family between 2011 and 2014, mostly about the parents abusing drugs, but all were reported to be “not established,” the report said. The last unsubstantiated report about a year before Maddigan’s death said that McCarthy was pregnant and had tested positive for opiates.
Jallon Lemons, 3 months, died Aug. 12, 2015
Jallon “Jojo” Lemons of Newark died while sharing a full-sized bed with his parents, Micaél Jordan and Hakeem Lemons, and his two siblings.
It was the third time that Jordan had lost a child who was sleeping in bed with other people, a practice called bed-sharing.
She told NJ Advance Media as part of a two-year investigation that her 9-day-old daughter died in bed in 2004 her 8-week-old son Hakeem Lemons Jr. died five years later while sharing a makeshift bed with three others.
The child welfare agency took Jordan’s children after the second death, but returned them after finding the death was an accident.
After Jallon was born in 2015, a hospital staff member called the state’s child abuse hotline warning that Jallon’s home might not be safe because Jordan had mentioned that one of her children had died while sharing a bed, according to sources who are familiar with the case.
DCPP recommended no follow-up on the call, sources told NJ Advance Media.
DCPP did not find that Jallon was abused or neglected, but the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office charged them with reckless manslaughter in the death. Jordan got four years probation and Lemons has yet to be sentenced.
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M.B., 1 month, died June 8, 2015
When M.B. of Gloucester County was six weeks old, his mother decided to take a bath with the baby after she had been drinking alcohol, according to DCF. She placed the boy on her body in the tub and fell asleep, waking up to find her son unresponsive, the report said.
The report does not list the cause of death but said only that the child died from his injuries.
DCF revealed that caseworkers had looked into the family since M.B. was born in April. Both he and his mother tested positive for marijuana, the report said, prompting DCPP to institute a “safety plan” at the home that said the mother could only be with son if she was supervised by her partner.
The agency had last checked in with the family May 21, 2015, about two weeks before the baby’s death.
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B.D., 4 months, died April 15, 2015
According to DCF’s fatality report, B.D. of Cape May County died while sleeping on the couch with his father and his parents were determined to have neglected him.
“The evening prior to his death, B.D.'s parents were drinking. The next morning... due to his crying, B.D.'s father brought B.D. to the couch, laid him on his chest, and went to sleep,” the report said. His mother later found him unresponsive, face down on the couch, DCF said.
The department had numerous interactions with the family between 2007 and 2012, but the last case had been closed in 2013, according to the report. Concerns that one of the children had been physically abused were reported three times, but only one incident in 2007 in which a girl had “old and new fractures” was substantiated. The child was removed from the home and later adopted.
When the mother gave birth again in 2010 and 2012, DCF investigated whether the children were at risk, the report said. A finding of neglect was also substantiated in 2011, when police found B.D.’s parents intoxicated while caring for a child, DCF said.
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T.J., 3 months, died Feb. 18, 2015
According to DCF, T.J. died after his mother appeared to have fallen asleep while breastfeeding him at their home in Burlington County.
“Information obtained during the investigation indicated that T.J.'s mother was intoxicated during the time that she was caring for her two young children,” the report said. “It was also learned that T.J.'s father knew his wife abused alcohol, and he frequently purchased it for her.”
DCF found that neglect contributed to the death and removed another 2-year-old child from the home, the report said.
The agency had investigated allegations in 2013 that T.J.’s parents were intoxicated while caring for their children, among other issues, but the complaint was unfounded, DCF said.
Leslie D. Hill, left, got 25 years in prison in the death of his girlfriend's daughter, A'Keena Cooke. Manuel Mikes, right, was sentenced to 15 years in the death of his wife's child 9-week-old baby, C.M. (Bill Gallo | For NJ.com/Dept. of Corrections)
DCF: Previous dealings 'not pertinent' in 4 deaths
In four child fatality cases in 2015 and 2016, DCF had had previous dealings with the victim or the victim's family, but said that details about those dealings were not being released.
"The victim or family was known to [DCPP] but the details of such involvement are not pertinent to the fatality or near fatality and not subject to disclosure," the report said in each case.
Two cases involved violent abuse and two involved neglect, DCF reported.
- A'Keena Cooke, 2, of Salem, died Feb. 8, 2016 after her mother's boyfriend, Leslie D. Hill, 27, slammed her into a couch so hard her spine was partially severed, according to authorities. Hill was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2017.
- Frankie Lynn Burns, 1, of Salem, died Oct. 30, 2015 and blood tests found trace levels of suboxone, a drug used to treat opiate addiction, according to DCF. The report said investigators found evidence her parents put her at "risk of harm due to substance abuse."
- B.B., 1, of Union County, died Oct. 5, 2015 when his mother left him and his 2-year-old sister unsupervised in the bathtub, DCF said.
- C.M., 9 weeks, of Millville died March 27, 2015 from a head injury that left her with a fractured skull, DCF said. Her stepfather, Manuel Mikes, 36, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Read more about N.J.'s child welfare agency
The Last Goodnight: NJ Advance Media investigation into bed-sharing and child deaths
As Christie administration leaves, progress on child welfare reform stalls
Are N.J. kids safer? Here's how child welfare system did on its latest report card
Rebecca Everett may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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