DEZIRAE SHELDON - 2 yo - / Charged: Stepfather, Dennis Duby - Poultney, VT

UPDATE : Police investigating Vt. toddler's death


Posted: Feb 21, 2014 7:58 PM EDT Updated: Feb 24, 2014 5:00 PM EDT
By Jennifer Reading -

 

POULTNEY, Vt. -

Poultney man has been charged with the murder of his 2-year-old stepdaughter.

Police say 31-year-old Dennis Duby has been charged with the second degree murder of 2-year-old Dezirae Sheldon. The toddler died Friday at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. According to the New Hampshire Medical Examiner's Office, the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and manner of death was homicide. Police have not released what evidence they have on Duby. He is being held for lack on $250,000 bail.

Duby will be arraigned on the murder charge Monday in Rutland Superior Criminal Court



Previous Story:
Vermont State Police are investigating the death of a toddler rushed to the ER earlier this week. Hospital staff at Rutland Regional required to report child abuse told investigators the little girl showed signs of head trauma. She was transported to intensive care at Dartmouth Hitchcock where she died Friday. Police have identified the toddler as 2 year old Dezirae Sheldon of Poultney.

The Vermont State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations has been trying to determine how the toddler got hurt since Wednesday. They're now working with the Vermont Department of Children and Families and the Rutland County State's Attorney's Office on the case.

www.wcax.com/story/.../police-investigating-vt-toddlers-inju...‎

RUTLAND, Vt.

Vermont man pleads not guilty in death of 2-year-old

Associated Press   February 25, 2014

A 31-year-old Vermont man is denying a second-degree murder charge in the death of his 2-year-old stepdaughter. Dennis Duby, of Poultney, pleaded not guilty Monday and was held on $250,000 bail in the death of Dezirae Sheldon. Dezirae died Friday at a New Hampshire hospital two days after she was taken to a Rutland emergency room. Near the end of Monday’s hearing in Vermont Superior Court in Rutland, Dezirae’s mother charged the defense table screaming at Duby. Sheriff’s deputies stopped her. An autopsy determined that Dezirae died of head injuries. Duby told investigators Dezirae fell off a table, but a doctor told police it appeared “that someone held her head so tight her skull cracked.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/02/25/vermont-man-pleads-not-guilty-death-year-old/hRpM0qyIH4VrQOupK1IdkJ/story.html

Another POS mother.  Another POS man.  Another dead baby.

                   

Protest targets DCF in case of slain child


Posted: Feb 24, 2014 6:29 PM EDT Updated: Feb 26, 2014 6:59 PM EDT By Jennifer Reading


 

 

 

 

 

RUTLAND, Vt. -
Dozens of parents and concerned citizens gathered outside the office of the Vermont Department for Children and Families in Rutland Monday. They want answers from the child protection agency after two-year-old Dezirae Sheldon was allegedly murdered by her stepfather, 31-year-old Dennis Duby.

"The signs were there. Pay attention to them. This little one could have been alive," said Lindsay Miller, who took part in the protest.

Those signs include a child abuse investigation last year into Dezirae's mother -- Sandra Eastman. In July she was convicted of breaking the baby's leg and then waiting at least a week to seek medical care. A full body scan revealed older injuries too. Eastman never went to prison for the crime. Instead she was placed on probation. Family members tell WCAX News that 2.5 months later, she got her daughter back. A decision they say that cost the toddler her life.

"I just opened the door and I look at Dezirae and her whole face was bruised. And I looked at Sandy and said what happened? And she said Dennis dropped her into the pack and play. And I said that's not from a pack and play fall. Her whole face is bruised," said Michelle Brown, a family friend.

Brown claims they begged the court and DCF to terminate Eastman's parental rights, but say their allegations of abuse were ignored. "I said she's going to kill her... She is going to die. I said I'm never going to see her again. I know it. I knew it in my heart this was going to happen. But nobody listened," said Lisa Eastman, Dezirae's aunt.
 
DCF Commissioner Dave Yacovone invited Dezirae's family inside to speak with him privately. "I want to meet face-to-face with the family members. I want to listen to them. I want to share with them that my very full intent is to make sure that a very thorough review is done of this," he said.

Yacovone cannot publicly discuss the details of the case but says he's deeply sorry for the family's pain."I don't think there's any way that I can properly convey the sorrow I feel," he said.

The commissioner says DCF gets about 16,000 calls alleging child abuse every year. Ultimately, custody is decided by a judge, after input from DCF caseworkers and the state's attorney's office. "It's important for Vermonters to know there is a checks and balance. This is not individual state employees making a decision about what's right or what's wrong.There's an extensive review process to make sure," Yacovone said.

A review process Dezirae's family says failed. In their minds, Eastman is just as guilty as the man accused of squeezing the toddler's head until it cracked. "She covered for him this whole time. She's just as guilty as he is. She had every right to protect her baby and she didn't do it," Michelle Brown said.

Dezirae is not the first child Eastman has lost custody of. In 2008 -- she spent 5 months behind bars -- for molesting a 15 year-old boy -- and getting pregnant with his child. She's not allowed to have contact with the child. And her family tells us -- she has a one months old daughter -- who is also in state custody.

It's still unclear why Dezirae Sheldon was returned to her mother when she doesn't have custody of her other kids.  DCF officials say they can't talk about the case and Police say their investigation is still ongoing. It's even difficult to verify how many children Eastman and Duby have and their custody arraignments.

Family court tells WCAX News it does not release records involving juveniles, even if they have died.

http://www.wcax.com/story/24809987/protest-target-dcf-handling-of

Her rant in court was an act.  She was abusing the baby also.  They both should rot in prison.

The only reason DCF doesn't release the records of murdered babies and children is to protect themselves and hide their incompetence and lack of caring.

Former social worker calls on changes to the child care system


Posted: Jun 03, 2014 6:24 PM EST
Updated: Jun 03, 2014 8:23 PM EST

BURLINGTON, Vt. - The stories of these murdered children are now well known. 2-year-old Dezirae Sheldon was killed in February. Her step-father is accused of crushing her head. Sheldon was returned to his home after her mother was convicted of abusing Sheldon.

And 15-month old Peighton Geraw died in April, just one hour after a child welfare worker visited his home. Geraw's mother is charged with second degree murder for slamming her son's head against the floor and killing him.  We've heard from the Commissioner of Vermont's Department for Children and Families, but we haven't heard from a social worker.

Cyrus Patten is a licensed social worker with experience in Vermont and Colorado.  He is not practicing now but in 2008 when he was in Colorado a case he investigated ended tragically.  21-day old Chad Munoz was killed by his father after Patten visited the family and examined the child.

http://www.wcax.com/story/25685033/former-social-worker-calls-on-changes-to-the-child-care-system

Child Abuse and Secrecy


Added by Margaret Lutze on June 4, 2014.

Child abuse and the secrecy surrounding the children who become “cases” in the hands of child welfare agencies are in the spotlight in the State of Vermont due to an investigation into the state’s laws and policies on child abuse. The investigation is charged with learning about the activities of the Department for Children and Families (DCF) in Vermont.

The investigation was prompted by the death of two young children who were in the custody of the DCF and then were returned home to their families. One child is suspected to have been murdered by her mother and the other child is suspected to have been murdered by a stepfather. The question about these cases revolves around the choices mady by DCF to return the children to their homes, even though they were not safe places for the children.

The two cases that instigated the investigation have raised the issue of child abuse and secrecy. It has been suggested that the DCF activities that result in children becoming harmed rather than protected are hidden by the cloak of confidentiality. Because of concern for protecting the privacy of children, no information about the child’s welfare is provided to anyone other than the parents of the child. Even though the parents might be the perpetrators of child abuse, they are the only people allowed to have information from the DCF about the child. Grandparents, uncles and aunts, or brothers and sisters are barred from obtaining information about the child, even though they may be the best advocates for the child’s welfare.

The cloak of confidentiality may put the child in a worse situation because someone who is not the biological mother or father could be a safer place for a particular child or could be the conduit for the child to ask for help, but they are kept in the dark and the child is separated from them. The isolation of the child, which is touted to be for its benefit, is actually what is perpetuating the harm.

Protests against the Vermont DCF were held shortly after the death of one of the toddlers. Reports from the protests have indicated that family members of the little girl knew of instances of abuse and feared for the child’s well-being. Friends and family members were reported to have begged the courts to remove the girl from her mother’s home but their allegations of abuse were ignored.

There is a need for confidentiality about child abuse in order to protect a child from undue publicity as well as prying and meddling people. It must be recognized, however, that isolating a child from those who know their situation and could advocate for them will only serve to increase the chances that the child will be harmed. Keeping relatives and friends in the dark and using blanket rules to separate the child from all others besides the mother and father has been shown to be harmful to children that have abusive parents. Certainly the DCF of Vermont and similar child welfare agencies have the ability to determine who is a good advocate for the child, or at least make the effort. The investigation in Vermont is a step in the direction of removing the cloak of secrecy that surrounds child abuse.

Opinion by Margaret Lutze

Sources:
Rutland Herald
WCAX.com
Los Angeles Times


http://guardianlv.com/2014/06/child-abuse-and-secrecy/

Conditions clarified for man accused of slaying tot



September 24,2014

 
RUTLAND — Prosecutors and police say they have closed a legal loophole that allowed alleged murderer Dennis Duby Jr. to camp outside and live in a trailer in Florence despite a 24-hour curfew imposed after his release from jail on $250,000 bail.

Duby, who is charged with killing his 2-year-old stepdaughter, Dezirae Sheldon, in February, posted bail in February and initially lived at a Route 7 home with family in Pittsford, according to Pittsford police and the attorney general’s office.

As part of his conditions of release imposed by the Rutland criminal court, Duby was required to remain inside his residence 24 hours a day with exceptions for court dates, meetings with his attorney, medical appointments and verifiable employment.

But the conditions didn’t specify where the 32-year-old Duby’s residence was located, Assistant Attorney General Evan Meenan said Tuesday.

So when Pittsford Police Chief Michael Warfle discovered this summer that Duby was spending some of his time sleeping in a tent on family-owned property off Sangamon Road in Pittsford and in a trailer on Whipple Hollow Road in Florence, there was little he or Meenan could do to point to a violation of Duby’s court-ordered conditions.

“When we pulled the original conditions of release and looked at them we realized the language was a little loose and didn’t specify a residency,” Meenan said. “There wasn’t technically a violation.”

Asked why the conditions of release weren’t more specific, Meenan, who took over the case after it was filed by the Rutland County state’s attorney’s office, said he didn’t know.

“I’m not saying the state’s attorney’s office did anything wrong, though,” he said.

“Once in awhile in my own cases you’ll get standard language that needs to be tweaked for particular circumstances in a case.”

To close the loophole, Meenan and defense attorney Daniel Maguire reached an agreement this month that specifies Duby’s residence as 6038 Whipple Hollow Road in Florence. Maguire declined to comment Tuesday.

The amended conditions of release also require Duby to notify the attorney general’s office of the name, address and phone number of his employer.

For months Duby has been working for a local landscaping company. But Meenan and Warfle said they were unaware of the employment because Duby’s conditions didn’t require him to report his job status.

Warfle said verifying Duby’s employment was difficult because the accused man was “working off the books.”

“I thought for his employment to be verifiable it has to be above board,” the police chief said.

But Meenan said that as long as his employer could account for him, Duby’s under-the-table job wasn’t a violation of his conditions.

“It makes it tougher for sure to verify his employer, but we’re not going to violate him with the assurances we have about his employment,” Meenan said.

Duby pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of Dezirae, who police say died days after her second birthday Feb. 18 from multiple blunt force trauma injuries to her skull.

He faces a minimum 20-year sentence and potential lifetime sentence if convicted of the killing.


http://www.timesargus.com/article/20140924/THISJUSTIN/709249945