"Baby" JOSEPHINE - 4 Months/ Accused: Angelica Jimenez-Steven Saldana - Chandler AZ

Why is CPS hiding in baby Josephine case?

The Department of Economic Security has once again thwarted my quest to find out what happened to baby Josephine, the 4-month-old who wound up with 14 broken bones and other injuries while in the care of a CPS-approved “safety monitor”.

The third time requesting the records wasn't the charm but it certainly was revealing.

The state has no intention of letting the public know what steps Child Protective Services took to keep this baby safe.

As the bureaucrats see it, we aren't entitled to know whether CPS checked the background of Angelica Jimenez or her live-in felon boyfriend, Steven Saldana, before handing over the infant.

Just as they believe we aren't entitled to know what CPS did when called to come to the aid of a 10-year-old Gilbert boy -- before his hands and feet were bound and he was forced to eat dog poop. Before he was repeatedly sodomized and his magic stick burned. The attacks came to light on Friday after his adoptive mother was arrested.

According to Gilbert police, CPS received multiple reports about the boy. Just don't dare ask what the agency did.

Like ASU football, CPS is embracing the blackout.

Never mind the 2008 law passed by the Arizona Legislature, the one aimed at prying open the windows over at CPS on the theory that with sunshine comes the ability to see what's wrong and to fix it.

Of course, it's the fashion these days to chalk up any CPS foul-up to budget cuts. In fact, woeful funding is a part of what ails the agency. But it is not the only thing that ails this agency as Liana Sandoval could attest, if she was still alive. As TaJuana Davidson and China Marie Davis and so many other babies, long gone now, could tell you.

I've been writing for years about children who slip through CPS's fingers, often greased by laws and policies more geared to protecting the right of a parent to a second or third chance than protecting the right of a child to a second or third birthday. Or a first one.

DES Director Clarence Carter has acknowledged that changes are needed and he's vowed to pull the agency out of its bunker, where it has for decades operated out of public view and impervious to reform. Not surprisingly, the knives are already out for him in what appears to be the beginnings of a campaign to lay the agency's troubles at his feet – a guy who didn't even arrive in Arizona until March.

Clearly, he's not making much headway because these people won't even obey the law requiring CPS to promptly release records in any case of abuse or neglect “that has resulted in a fatality or near fatality.”

Baby Josephine stopped breathing in the dead of night on Aug. 3. She was having seizures when she arrived at Cardon Children's Medical Center, sporting 14 broken bones, bruises all over her face and a cigarette burn on her arm. According to Chandler police, “Forensic doctors stated the child had suffered a near-death episode and the injuries were non-accidental trauma.”

Near death, that is, until I began asking for the records. CPS bureaucrats turned me down flat then went looking for a doctor who would back them up and certify that the baby was not all that badly hurt.

“As we previously informed you, information regarding the CPS investigation involving Angelica Jimenez does not meet the qualifications for release because the incident that is the subject to your client's public records request was not determined to be a near fatality caused by abuse or neglect,” Todd Stone, DES public records request coordinator, wrote on Monday to The Republic's lawyer David Bodney, rejecting this our third request for the records. “This determination was made by the same forensic doctor who evaluated the child after the child was brought to the hospital.”

Note that Stone doesn't say the decision was made by the “forensic doctors” who treated the child in the emergency room and talked to Chandler police.

By the way, both state and federal law define “near fatality” as “an act that, as certified by a physician, places a child in serious or critical condition.”

It defies understanding how the injuries to this baby -- broken, bruised, burned and at one point not breathing – could be considered anything but serious.

Turns out for an Arizona child, that's apparently considered fair condition.

(Column published Sept. 14, 2011, The Arizona Republic)

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/LaurieRoberts/141625

Woman in Chandler child-abuse case changing story

New details have been released in a Chandler child-abuse case involving
an infant who arrived at a hospital with 14 broken bones and a cigarette
burn.
The child had been in the care of 25-year-old Angelica Jimenez, who,
along with her 30-year-old boyfriend, Steven Saldana, was arrested Aug.
23 on suspicion of abusing the girl.
Chandler Police Department officers and detectives conducted several
interviews of Jimenez, her parents, two of her minor children and
others. Police reports obtained by The Arizona Republic on Friday afternoon
detailed changing stories by Jimenez, who was seemingly remorseful at times,
and other times evasive.The 4-month-old girl stopped breathing while in Jimenez's care on Aug.
3, and she was taken to a local hospital and resuscitated. At the
hospital, medical personnel discovered the girl had multiple bruises,
abrasions, a cigarette burn and 14 broken bones.Records show Jimenez initially
told police she was alone when the infant
stopped breathing, but detectives learned that Saldana had been staying
with Jimenez the night of the incident. According to police reports,
Jimenez lied multiple times about not knowing Saldana's whereabouts.
When pressed, Jimenez told police that Saldana had attempted CPR on the
infant, and it was possible the broken ribs may have come from chest
compressions. When asked about the baby's other injuries, Jimenez said
Saldana had told her he grabbed the infant's face and shook it in an
attempt to revive her after finding her not breathing, the report showed.
Chandler police said they believe Saldana began abusing the girl on July
31 - when a friend discovered a cigarette burn on the baby's forearm -
and continued the abuse the night of Aug. 2.
Jimenez initially told police she did not know about the cigarette burn.
She would later say that she in fact knew immediately that it was a
cigarette burn because it was a perfect circle, according to police
reports. She claimed that when she questioned Saldana about it, Jimenez
first suggested it might have been from ashes, but later said it could
have been accidental from when he held her while smoking.Both Saldana and
Jimenez were booked into a Maricopa County jail, and the child was placed in
protective custody.According to police reports, Jimenez broke down crying several times
when pressed about the investigation and why she had continued to allow
Saldana around the infant and her children."I know, I (expletive) up," she told police. "I should have kept him
away because I need to keep my kids safe. . . . I understand that I
(expletive) up on an epic proportion."Jimenez told police she first came into care of the infant after the
child's biological mother, who allegedly used drugs during her
pregnancy, was unable to take care of the baby. Child Protective
Services awarded temporary custody of the child to Jimenez on June 8.
Jimenez reportedly lied to CPS about Saldana's presence when they
initially placed the infant in her care.
"He's not supposed to be around the baby, that's why I didn't mention
it, 'cause like he has prior felonies," Jimenez told Chandler police,
according to reports.
The Department of Economic Security has denied repeated public-records
requests by The Arizona Republic for details on how the child came to be in
Jimenez's custody and what steps CPS took to check her and Saldana's backgrounds.

DES denied the requests on the grounds that the incident in which the
child was taken to the hospital "was not determined to be a near
fatality caused by abuse or neglect."

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/09/18/20110918chandler-child-abuse-case-changes.html?source=nletter-news#ixzz1YKej6LVT

they didnt do anything to protect that child! its like all government agencies they dont want to b bothered-they're going to get pd whether the baby gets saved or not. our government sux on most issues. i see ppl all of the time that need assistance but they're not eligible based on opinion of one bureaucratic asshat. nobody cares anymore.
sorry i got carried away again.