RYLEE JEAN CAMPBELL - 3 Months (2010) - Richmond KY

Richmond KY ---- The father of a man charged with murder in the death
of his 3-month-old daughter says it was an accident."If I thought
he had done something intentionally to hurt that child, it would break
my heart," said Paul Farthing Sr., 52, of Richmond. "I've lost a
grandchild, and now I'm looking at losing my son in prison."Paul
Farthing Jr., 30, was arrested Wednesday, the same day that his
daughter, Rylee Jean Campbell, died at University of Kentucky Hospital,
Kentucky State Police said.


The infant was taken to the hospital Sunday night after state police,
responding to a report that Rylee had been assaulted by her father,
were called to Meadowlark Drive in Richmond. The younger Farthing had
been staying there with his brother and girlfriend, his father said.The
senior Farthing, a former Madison County deputy sheriff, said his son
told him the death was an accident."Paul told me he decided the
child needed a bath," Farthing said. "He put her up in the kitchen sink
... and was giving her a bath. He picked the child up and the child was
wet and she slipped out of his hands and went back down in the water. I
guess her face went forward and she kinda bumped her head a little bit
on the faucet, put a little mark on her head."But in the meantime
she sucked water in her mouth, and he thought she was choked. I guess
he shook her a little bit, to make sure she was breathing or make sure
she was OK. I guess in his panicked state, he shook her too hard.""The
thing that makes it look so bad on Paul is he didn't tell that right up
front because he was scared," Paul Farthing Sr. said. "He said, 'Daddy,
I was scared. I didn't mean to hurt my baby.' Paul is a loving father."Paul
Farthing Jr. has done house painting and odd jobs but did not have a
full-time job at the time of the Rylee's death.Rylee's mother,
Ashley Campbell, works in a restaurant and had gone to work Sunday, Paul
Farthing Sr. said. The couple had lived together about four years, and
this was their first child together, he said.Paul Farthing Jr.
also has a 4-year-old daughter who is in the custody of his mother, who
is divorced from his father.Farthing remains in the Madison
County jail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning by video
from the jail. He declined a request for an interview Thursday.Madison
County court records show that Paul Farthing Jr. pleaded guilty to
alcohol intoxication in 2002, driving under the influence in 2003, and
theft and alcohol intoxication in 2004.A district court judge
issued a domestic violence order against Farthing Jr. in 2006, and told
him, to have no contact with Anna Farthing. Their divorce was final in
December 2007, two years after they married, according to court records.The
younger Farthing was also found to be in arrears on child support for
the daughter he had with the Anna Farthing three times, court records
indicate. The last time came in 2009, when he was found to be in arrears
of $1,510 in child support.The senior Farthing conceded that his
son was not without blemish."Paul had his problems, I'll be the
first to say that," Farthing Sr. said. But his hope is that his son
didn't kill his daughter."This is a nightmare," said Paul
Farthing Sr., who has seven surviving grandchildren. "I go to sleep and
wake up and think this stuff will be over. It's sad. I don't uphold
somebody mistreating a child. ... I'm just hoping people understand Paul
is not a vicious baby killer."

Madison County Father Makes Plea Deal In Infant Daughter's Death
Posted: Apr 8, 2011 11:12 AM
Updated: Apr 8, 2011 12:42 PM

Madison County Father Makes Plea Deal In Infant Daughter's Death

PreviousNext
A Madison County father accused of murder in the death of his infant daughter has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Prosecutors had obtained a first-degree murder indictment against Paul Farthing, Jr. , 31, in the death of his three-month-old daughter, Rylee Jean Campbell, In April 2010.

On Thursday, Farthing pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter. Police say Farthing shook the girl, causing her to die from head injuries, but he originally claimed he dropped her while giving her a bath.

Farthing will be sentenced next month.

Kentucky begins releasing child-death records; newspaper questions redactions

By Beth Musgrave and Bill Estep
Posted: 12:00am on Dec 13, 2011; Modified: 9:35am on Dec 13, 2011

Three-month-old Rylee Jean Campbell died in
2010 at University of Kentucky Hospital. Her father, Paul S. Farthing
Jr., 30, was charged with murder in her death. This is a picture of a
photo provided by Paul Farthing Sr. of Richmond. GREG KOCHER | STAFF

• 
  

The state began releasing documents Monday about dozens of
children who were killed or nearly killed from neglect and abuse in
2009 and 2010.
The Cabinet for Health and Family Services
released redacted versions of 85 internal reviews that it conducted of
deaths and near-deaths in cases in which it had previous contact with
the family. Of those cases, 35 involved deaths and 43 involved
near-deaths. In seven instances, it was unclear from the documents
whether the child died.
The 353 pages are the first batch of many
documents that Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd has
ordered the cabinet to turn over to the Lexington Herald-Leader and The
Courier-Journal of Louisville.
However, much of the information
contained in the reports — including the names of at least eight
children who died as a result of abuse and neglect and the names of
people charged with their deaths — had been redacted.
Robert Houlihan Jr., a lawyer for the Herald-Leader, said the newspaper will challenge the state's many redactions in court.
"That
is totally contrary to the letter and the spirit of the judge's
ruling," Houlihan said of withholding the names of children who died.
"Where there has been a fatality, there can be no justification that I
see to redact that name of the dead victim."
A Herald-Leader
review of the documents shows a lack of consistency in how the cabinet
conducts internal reviews, which are required by law after a death or a
near-death of a child who has had previous contact with the cabinet.
Some
reviews are lengthy and thorough, including an analysis of what social
workers could do differently to prevent similar deaths. But some
internal reviews consist of one page that doesn't even say whether the
child died.
Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth
Advocates, said it's difficult to say whether the internal reviews are
generating long-term solutions that protect children, which is what they
were intended to do.
"If children dying does not demand a
formalized process, you have to ask yourself, what does?" Brooks said.
"If you don't have the protocols that produce data on which you can make
decisions, then you're missing the boat."
The reports show that
substance abuse and domestic violence were chronic problems for families
in which children were killed or badly hurt. The documents also show
that most child fatalities were preceded by multiple reports of
suspected child abuse or neglect.
The documents were released
after a two-year legal battle between the newspapers and the cabinet,
which oversees child protection.
Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip
Shepherd has ruled twice in the past two years, most recently on Nov. 3,
that child-protection records in the case of a death or near-death
should be public. But the cabinet resisted releasing the records until
Gov. Steve Beshear announced Nov. 29 that they would be made public.
Christina
Heavrin, general counsel for the cabinet, told Shepherd during a Nov.
30 court hearing that it will release about 180 case files at a later
date after the state has redacted certain information from the files.
The cabinet has said it will have to hire temporary staff to help with
those redactions. The case files will contain more detailed information
than the internal fatality reviews.
In the documents released
Monday, the cabinet redacted the names of some children who died from
neglect and abuse and withheld the names of all children who were
seriously injured. In the written protocol that it provided workers who
redacted the information, the cabinet said it would be improper to
include the names of children who nearly died because "the trauma the
child already suffered should not result in a constant reminder by
releasing his/her identity."
In many cases, the cabinet also
withheld the names of people who allegedly abused or killed children;
the counties where fatalities and near-fatalities occurred; and the
names of people against whom allegations of abuse were substantiated.
In
one instance, the cabinet redacted the name of a hospital where a
one-year-old child — who had ingested some of his mother's prescription
drugs — was initially treated in August 2009.
Some information
that the cabinet took out would be public in other places. The name of a
man who faced criminal charges for allegedly throwing an infant to the
floor in April 2009 was deleted. However, criminal charges are public
record.
Houlihan said the newspaper would have to look closely at
the issue of redacting the names of injured children and address that
with Shepherd.
Houlihan said there was nothing in Shepherd's order
that would allow the cabinet to withhold the names of people that it
decided had abused or neglected children. He also said there was no
discussion of allowing the cabinet to redact the names of people charged
with crimes.
"That seems to be turning this whole thing on its head," he said.
During
a recent court hearing, Shepherd said only a limited amount of
information, such as Social Security numbers and names of other minor
children in the family, should be redacted from the files.
The
cabinet is required by statute to conduct internal fatality reviews for
"any case where child abuse or neglect has resulted in a child fatality
or near-fatality and the cabinet had prior involvement with the child or
family."
According to the statute, those reviews must provide a
summary that includes an account of the cabinet's actions in the child's
life and "any policy or personnel changes" that resulted in the child's
death, and they should note what type of assistance the agency received
from outside agencies.
During the Nov. 30 court hearing, Heavrin
said the internal reviews are informal and that there are no standard
forms or uniform summaries of the internal reviews.
Some of the
documents review by the Herald-Leader on Monday contained limited
information about the cabinet's previous involvement in the family's
life and little or no information about potential changes to cabinet
policy.
For example, little follow-up is noted in a March 2,
2009, near-fatality review of a child who went into cardiac arrest and
was taken to the Kosair Hospital emergency room with bleeding on the
brain, a lacerated liver, and bruising in his eyes, back and abdomen.
There is nothing in the report that shows that the cabinet looked at
previous reports of abuse or tried to determine whether there were
things the cabinet could do better.
In contrast, social workers
who did an internal review of the death of Jaislyn Green, a 20-day-old
infant who suffocated in January 2009 while sleeping with her mother on
the couch, looked at the cabinet's previous involvement and listed
several areas of improvement.
The day after Jaislyn Green's death,
the mother tested positive for opiates and other drugs. The cabinet had
received previous reports that the parents were on drugs and apparently
had opened a case file. In its review, the cabinet found that it should
not have accepted that the parents were unable to pay for drug testing.
"Staff
should have considered filing a petition in court due to their lack of
compliance," the internal review found. The review also found that
hospital personnel need to understand the importance of drug testing
infants and mothers at the time of birth.
Jill Midkiff, a spokeswoman for the cabinet, said the reviews have generated long-term changes at the cabinet.
"Specifically,
in early 2011, the agency used information from the internal reviews,
in conjunction with information from other sources, to develop a new
protocol for consultations related to investigations of abuse of
children age 4 and under — the age group most likely to experience
lethal abuse," Midkiff said.
State law also requires the cabinet
to submit an annual report by Sept. 1 to the legislature and the
governor that contains "analysis of all summaries of internal reviews"
from the previous year.
Child advocates and some lawmakers have
criticized the cabinet for failing to meet the Sept. 1 deadline the past
two years. This year and in 2010, the cabinet did not provide the
report until December.
There have been at least two cases since
2009 involving a child death from abuse and neglect when the cabinet has
admitted that the required internal review was not conducted.
In
2009, the Herald-Leader and Courier-Journal sued the cabinet for records
about 20-month-old Kayden Daniels, also known as Kayden Branham, who
died after drinking drain cleaner allegedly used in the production of
methamphetamine.
Kayden and his mother, who was then 14, were
under the supervision of the cabinet at the time of his death. The
cabinet admitted in court proceedings that no one had conducted an
internal review after Kayden's death.
Cabinet officials also
admitted this year that no one conducted an internal review after the
death of Amy Dye, 9, of Todd County, who was beaten to death in February
by her adoptive brother. Cabinet officials have said they did not think
the cabinet had to do an internal review of Amy's death because Amy was
killed by her brother and not a custodial parent.
The cabinet had
told the Todd County Standard, a weekly newspaper, that it had no
records regarding Amy or her family when the newspaper asked for the
cabinet's records involving Amy shortly after her death in February.
The
newspaper sued the cabinet, and Shepherd subsequently released
documents showing that the cabinet had received multiple reports about
possible abuse and neglect of Amy in the years before her death.
The
cabinet has said Amy's death was not included in the 18 child
fatalities listed in the 2011 report that it sent lawmakers earlier this
month. The omission has many child advocates and legislators concerned
about the validity of the cabinet's reports to the legislature.
Rep.
Tom Burch, a co-chairman of the Interim Joint Committee on Health and
Welfare, said early Monday that most of the panel's Dec. 19 meeting will
be about the cabinet's handling of child-fatality cases.



http://www.kentucky.com/2011/12/13/1992409/kentucky-begins-releasing-child.html#ixzz1gR8oWuGT

10 Years In Prison In Infant's Death

Thu May 12, 2011 7:04 pm

A Madison County who pleaded guilty last month in the April 2010 death
of his girlfriend's infant daughter was sentenced to ten years in prison
Thursday in the case.

Prosecutors had obtained a first-degree
murder indictment against Paul Farthing, Jr. , 31, in the death of
three-month-old Rylee Jean Campbell in April 2010. But last month,
Farthing pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter.

Police say
Farthing shook the girl, causing her to die from head injuries, but he
originally claimed he dropped her while giving her a bath.