Za'NAYA FLORES (HIGGINS) - 1 yo/ Accused: Kiyana Higgins - Tucson AZ

akashiceye wrote:I have read several comments on this forum about the mother and family of this little girl and their guilt for abuse and neglect, but what about this caseworker, a cps investigator, who is just a guilty of neglect, this Donald Hauser, he should be brought up on charges as well. He could have prevented this little girls death, and had complete disregard for her living conditions, neglect, and the physical abuse inflicted upon her tiny, helpless infant body... The whole thing makes me sick. The taxpayers pay this mans salary, and he IS still employed by the State of Arizona. What is wrong with this picture..... disgusting!!!!

If you read back you will see that several of us commented on CPS.

I agree full that the caseworker should be charged. However, the only thing that seems to result in any type of punishment or sanctions against caseworkers is an outcry from the public. They don't clean their own house.

My advice is to write the governor and complain. Write a letter to the newspaper and complain. Call the media and see if you can get them to run a story about this case and the criminal negligence of CPS. Call your State Attorney and ask why charges were not filed.

The only way to get action is to call attention to this.

How much other child abuse has this case worker been responsible for? This is probably not an isolated event. I'm sure many others under his care were damaged due to his criminal negligence. This one resulted in a murder. If something isn't done about him others under his care might be murdered.

I share your outrage.

New grand jury hearing ordered in tot abuse case

Kim Smith Arizona Daily Star
Wednesday, June 6, 2012 12:00 am

Prosecutors who obtained a first-degree murder indictment against the grandmother of a 21-month-old girl who starved to death made mistakes during their grand jury presentation and must take the case back to a grand jury.

Kiyana Higgins, 23; Keshawna Higgins, 25; and Clara Huyghue, 53, are facing first-degree murder and child abuse charges in the Jan. 12 death of Kiyana Higgins' 22-month-old daughter, Za'Naya Flores. Za'Naya weighed 14.6 pounds when she was rushed to the hospital after going into seizures and cardiac arrest.

In court and written pleadings, Huyghue's attorney, Greg Kuykendall, complained prosecutors unfairly portrayed his client as one of the child's primary caregivers despite the fact she was working 84 hours a week as a nurse in the weeks before Za'Naya died.

In a written decision released Tuesday, Pima County Superior Court Judge Deborah Bernini said prosecutors need to better define the word "care" during their new grand jury presentation. She also prohibited them from using the word "caretaker," which she said implies someone has voluntarily accepted responsibility for taking care of someone.

"The court cannot find that the grand jury would have necessarily found that this defendant had assumed voluntary responsibility for the victim by changing her diaper a few days before her death," Bernini said.

Keshawna Higgins' attorney, Jacob Amaru, sought to have the case against his client dismissed or remanded to the grand jury for similar reasons, but his motions were denied.

The defendants will be back in court June 25 when their attorneys will argue they each deserve a separate trial.

On StarNet: Follow the news and events at Pima County's courthouses in Kim Smith's blog at azstarnet.com/courthouse

Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet.com

http://azstarnet.com/mobi/latest/article_41e640ac-c6ee-5f86-a7f5-7b83e013e612.html

Josh Brodesky: CPS covered up tragic fact: Za' Naya could have been saved

September 23, 2012 12:00 am
This might be the saddest CPS story I have ever told. Considering how
many tragedies we've seen over the years with Child Protective
Services, that's really saying something.
Za' Naya Flores was a toddler who starved to death on Jan. 12.
Yes, I've written about her before, but stick with me. It's the least you could do for her.
She
was 21 months old when medics and police officers discovered her
emaciated body. Her skin sagged off her bones. She was covered in
bruises.
And yet, for months her CPS caseworker copied and pasted
his notes, reporting again and again that Za' Naya was happy and
healthy.
This failure is outrageous and tragic enough - and it's
been reported - but it's only part of her story. It's the part CPS has
released.
What the agency has literally covered up with black ink
is this: Just one month before Za' Naya was found dead, CPS could have
saved her.
One month to the day.
As I recently outlined, a
little more than a year ago Child Protective Services created special
SWAT units to address a backlog of nearly 10,000 unfinished cases across
the state. The SWAT units would review cases that had sat open for
months or had never been investigated. This team of veteran workers
would review cases, closing them or sending them back for renewed
investigation.
Department of Economic Security Director Clarence
Carter even once held a press conference celebrating SWAT's success in
cutting the case backlog by 73 percent.
In Pima County, though,
the SWAT unit didn't follow protocols. Instead, records have shown it
rushed to close cases, including one involving Za' Naya's siblings.
CPS refuses to talk about this.
"As
the Department previously addressed in our telephonic interview with
you a month or so ago regarding the Flores case, etc., was that the
Department conducted a review of the process, found irregularities and
immediately sent a team of experts to Pima County where they completed a
review of all cases and took appropriate action," Tasya Peterson, a
spokeswoman for the state's Department of Economic Security, wrote me in
an email.
Irregularities.
That is one way to describe closing a case a month before a kid starves to death.
It took months, but I was finally able to track down a clean copy of the case note that spells out the SWAT closure.
In November, a report was made to CPS accusing a male relative of abusing two of Za' Naya's siblings.
It's
unclear what CPS did to investigate these claims, but the case must
have gone stale because it was kicked over to the SWAT unit. The SWAT
unit - Social Worker Assessment Team - reviewed the case file in
December. It was noted that Za' Naya's mom, Kiyana Higgins, had five
prior CPS reports dating to 2006 due to neglect and abuse. It also said
Higgins was arrested for DUI in 2009, and that she had been acquitted of
child abuse charges in 2010.
It's unclear from the notes if any
interviews were done specifically by CPS. The notes reference a Tucson
Police Department investigation. They also state the mother was
interviewed by the Southern Arizona Children's Advocacy Center, a
nonprofit that handles the early investigative stages of abuse cases.
Child
Protective Services did not interview the relative suspected of abuse.
Instead, CPS workers decided the home was safe because Higgins said she
was not allowing him to contact the children.
An abusive mother's promise. The SWAT unit decided this was enough.
"Administrative Decision: SWAT Closure."
Higgins is now charged with murdering her daughter.
The
whole point of the SWAT unit was to assess danger in these stale cases
and, if needed, have them reinvestigated. Instead, the SWAT unit here
closed the case and let Za' Naya starve over the next month.
If
SWAT had reassigned the case or sent a worker to the home, if someone
had interviewed the mother or the relative under suspicion, maybe this
story would be different.
Here's what Veronica Bossack, an administrator with CPS, told me in July when I asked about the SWAT failure.
"This
is a work in progress and, as anything you put in place, you are going
to always find some kind of little gaps and holes. And so along the way
we did uncover some inconsistencies."
Like a kid starving to death.
There
are many layers here. Big picture, how many cases did SWAT
inappropriately close in Pima County? Just this one? Dozens? Hundreds?
The answer matters. We are talking about our at-risk kids.
The agency has also insisted that it has held people accountable for this failure. How?
"Staff
members were retrained. Personnel actions were taken as a result of the
Flores case. Therefore, all the issues were addressed by the
Department," CPS spokeswoman Peterson wrote.
And yet, the agency
has refused to release personnel records, saying (laughably) that
administrative leave is not disciplinary action. It let June Willson,
who oversaw the SWAT program in Pima County, resign. It continues to
employ Lillian Downing, who oversaw the agency in Pima County, in some
kind of nebulous role.
And perhaps most egregiously, it covered up
the case notes about the SWAT failure in the Flores case. The agency
blacked them out and covered it up. By doing so, CPS once again took
child privacy, and used it to protect itself.
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crime/josh-brodesky-cps-covered-up-tragic-fact-za-naya-could/article_b20cee80-9eaa-5ca8-a0df-dd62ac094c11.html

Attorney argues for doctor testimony at hearing for client accused in baby's death

September 10, 2013 12:41 pm 



The attorney for a woman accused in the death of a toddler pleaded to allow additional testimony on the psychological state of his client at an upcoming hearing.

Jacob Amaru asked that a doctor who treated his client, Keshawna Higgins, be allowed to talk about the woman at an upcoming hearing. Higgins was accused of first-degree murder and child abuse in 2012.

Keshawna was the aunt of one-year-old Za'Naya Flores and helped out as a caretaker for the child. The baby’s mother, Kiyana Higgins, and grandmother, Clara Huyghue, were accused of starving to death the child.

At the hearing on Tuesday, Judge Deborah Bernini said she would not allow testimony from the doctor at the hearing, but would instead schedule a hearing to discuss Amaru’s motion to include the testimony.

Amaru argued successfully in previous hearings to have Keshawna Higgis tried separately from the other defendants.

He also has argued at previous hearings that the child’s mother, Kiyana Higgins, and not his client who bore the responsibility for the death.

Keshawna Higgins is scheduled for trial in March.

http://azstarnet.com/attorney-argues-for-doctor-testimony-at-hearing-for-client-accused/article_3aefa944-6981-562a-8d20-cbe43e6e888d.html

Too bad this murdered baby didn't have all this legal and medical help.  Nope, she had a death sentence and that was that.

Woman gets 2.5 years for role in niece's abuse death




19 hours ago  •  By Patrick McNamara

The aunt of a toddler who was starved to death was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Deborah Bernini sentenced Keshawna Higgins on Monday in connection with a guilty plea to child abuse.

Higgins was the aunt of 22-month old Za’naya Flores who died in January 2012 after suffering seizures and falling into cardiac arrest after being beaten and starved.

Court records show the child weighed barely 14 pounds when she died.

In addition, Za’naya displayed numerous bruises and other injuries on her body at the time of her death.

Higgins, 28, originally was charged with first-degree murder in the case, along with her sister, Kiyana Higgins, and mother, Clara Huyghue.

She was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charges after authorities learned she was not the primary caregiver for the dead toddler. Another child, Za’naya’s older brother, now five years old, also suffered abuse in the house where they lived.

The children’s mother, Kiyana Higgins, and grandmother, Clara Huyghue, still face first-degree murder charges.

Defense attorney Jacob Amaru asked that Bernini only consider the negligence Keshawna Higgins displayed in not contacting police about the obvious abuse the children had suffered. Amaru said his client denies ever striking or otherwise hurting either child.

“We’re talking about someone punching and hitting a defenseless little kid and I don’t believe that that’s what she did,” Amaru said.
In a sentencing memorandum, Amaru said his client lacks the cognitive ability to recognize the children were in poor health because she has a low IQ, which makes her arguably mentally retarded.

He also argued Keshawna Higgins brought her initial concerns about the children’s welfare to their mother who assured her the children were fine and under a doctor’s care.

Bernini said the children clearly lived in fear from the neglect and abuse they endured on a daily basis.

“No child should ever live in fear,” Bernini said.

In addition to prison, Keshawna Higgins was sentenced to 10 years probation.


http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crime/woman-gets-years-for-role-in-niece-s-abuse-death/article_c5189f8a-9d94-5e08-9631-3cf1bd7a7d48.html