ANGEL HILL - 2 yo - (2010) / Chrged: Mother Angel Hill and boyfriend Anthony Prater - Chicago IL

Mother, boyfriend charged with murder of 2-year-old girl
October 14, 2010Sun-Times

The mother of a 2-year-old girl and her boyfriend have been charged with murder after the toddler was found beaten to death during a court-approved visit Monday.Anthony Prater, 37, and Angel Hill, 33, both of the 8300 block of South Burley, are charged with one count each of first-degree murder, Cook County State's Attorney's office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said.Angel Hill, 2, of the 8300 block of South Burley Avenue was pronounced dead at home at 7:45 a.m. Monday, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said.A Tuesday autopsy revealed Angel died from multiple injuries and blunt trauma due to child abuse, and ruled the death a homicide, according to a spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. DCFS was investigating allegations of neglect against the mother, agency spokesman Kendall Marlowe said Tuesday morning. "We've had prior substantiated allegations against this mother of abuse in 2006 and neglect in 2008," he said."All three children of hers (including Angel) were already in DCFS custody in the care of a relative" when Angel died, Marlowe said. The girl's death "occurred during a court-approved visitation with the mother."Prater and Hill are scheduled for a bond hearing Friday.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2803202,girl-murder-charge-mother-boyfriend-101410.article

I've got to ask what was this judge thinking? How did they get unsupervised visits?????????? DCFS and the court have failed to do what's right for this child.

How DCFS failed these kids


A Tribune review of child death cases with prior agency involvement found state and contractual workers who made serious errors, broke rules and falsified notes

September 22, 2012



More than 200 children with prior DCFS involvement were slain from 2000 through 2011, records show, but the facts rarely were made public, largely because of confidentiality laws.

The DCFS Office of Inspector General investigates such deaths, but its annual report does not include names or hometowns. Trying to put faces on some of these children — and tell their stories — the Tribune compared the death
summaries contained in the most recent report against police, court, prison and medical examiner records. Confidential DCFS and hospital documents also were obtained.

The newspaper identified eight examples detailed in the inspector general's 2012 reportin which DCFS or its contractual workers made serious errors, broke rules or falsified case notes.

"DCFS tries to explain these (failures) by isolating the problem to an individual worker instead of looking at the bigger picture," Cook County Public Guardian Robert Harris said. "But, if your caseloads are too high, and you have poorly trained workers dealing with extremely complex cases and issues, that's a systemic failing."

DCFS officials have moved to try to reduce caseloads, close overdue investigations and unclog the state's child abuse hotline — shortcomings reported by the Tribune in recent months. Every death, they say, is troubling, and if worker error is to blame, appropriate discipline is pursued.

The most recent published data on abuse-related fatalities of DCFS-involved children show Illinois has a slightly higher rate than other states. DCFS Director Richard Calica said the best the agency can do is ensure its staff is well-trained and following uniform standards.

"In my field, we have no crystal balls," Calica said. "Being able to predict the future probability that a particular individual is going to harm a child is almost nonexistent. Taking a kid away from a family can be as harmful as leaving them there. It's a judgment that's almost impossible to make, and they have to make it really quickly with limited information.

"The deaths disturb me, but there's nothing I've been able to put my hands on and say, 'I'm going to fix it.'"

Advocates argue that only increased public scrutiny of such cases will bring meaningful reforms to an agency struggling with severe budget cuts and hundreds of employees facing layoffs. The confidentiality, they say, prevents accountability.
Detailing the circumstances behind such deaths is crucial, said Theresa Covington, director of the National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Deaths, a Michigan-based nonprofit group.


A contractual foster care agency that DCFS is supposed to monitor knew the mother was dating a recently paroled convicted murderer but insisted Angel and her two siblings were safe, records show. The judge overseeing the custody case barred the boyfriend from having contact with the children, but she allowed the mother's overnight visits to continue.

Topps said that by the time she found out about the boyfriend, it was too late.

"I just felt like something was being hidden from me," she said. "If I had known, I would have asked them to revoke my daughter's visitation, but (the foster care agency) told me I had nothing to worry about, that everything was OK."

The mother, Angel Green Hill, 34, and boyfriend Anthony Prater, 39, face murder charges.

Prater was paroled in May 2009 after serving part of a 35-year sentence for stabbing a rival gang member at Harper High School in West Englewood in 1989.

Robert Harris sued Lakeside Community Committee, alleging negligence. The inspector general agreed. Both allege the caseworker at Lakeside failed to act after learning that Angel had suffered an earlier injury in the mother's South Chicago
neighborhood home.

The worker ignored the judge's order to ensure the boyfriend didn't live there and trusted the mother despite her troubled past, the lawsuit states.

Officials at Lakeside declined to comment.

Harris alleges the caseworker didn't mention the new boyfriend to court officials, who stumbled upon his existence while reading the mother's latest therapy report during a hearing to determine if she should get her children back. Asked if she did the required background check, the caseworker said there was "something about murder" from long ago, records say.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-09-22/news/ct-met-dcfs-child-deaths-20120922_1_dcfs-officials-child-death-cases-dcfs-director-richard-calica/3