Karried
01-20-2007, 11:01 AM
This babies death was tragic, conditions deplorable .. but I have to wonder what caused the kids to be placed in the home in the first place.
Don't the parents have any responsibility for causing the children to be taken away ? It's horrible that the baby died.. awful and tragic but it wouldn't have happened had they taken care of their children initially.
They ended up with $175K from the state and now won 20 million (that they'll never see.. ) but how did this happen? They were negligent in some way to have their children having to be placed, baby dies and now they are 20 million 175K richer.. something's very wrong here.
That 175K should have been used to improve the foster care system, not reward negligent parents.
Where were the social workers? I'm just not seeing the justice here.
Thoughts?
Jury awards $20 million in baby's death
By The Associated Press
TULSA, Okla. - A Tulsa County jury awarded $20 million in damages to the estate of 7-month-old girl who died while in foster care.
The jury unanimously awarded $20 million in actual damages Friday in a lawsuit against Deanza Jones, who was a foster parent for Aurora Espinal-Cruz.
By the verdict, jurors "spoke so loudly for Aurora," said Michael Barkett, one of the attorneys who handled the case on behalf of a special administrator for the child's estate.
Barkett and his co-counsel, Daniel Graves and Chad McLain, asserted that Aurora asphyxiated while unattended in a filthy crib at Jones' roach-infested Tulsa home, while the baby's 4-year-old sister listened to her cry and die.
Lawyers for the child's estate maintained that Aurora suffered roach bites because of unclean conditions in Jones' home and a lack of care to change her diapers.
"If she can't keep the roaches off the baby, doesn't that speak volumes about the level of concern she had for that child?" Barkett asked during a closing argument to jurors.
Jones' attorney, James Beckert, maintained that photographic evidence did not support the allegations of a cockroach-infested foster home.
Jones denied having neglected Aurora and denied claims that the baby's Jan. 27, 2002, death resulted from her negligence.
A medical examiner attributed the 21-pound girl's death to a respiratory illness, and no criminal charges were filed in the case.
The state Department of Human Services, which placed the baby in Jones' care, previously paid $175,000 to settle claims against it in the wrongful death lawsuit. That is the maximum amount DHS could pay under the law, Graves said Friday.
Beckert asserted that DHS employees were "covering their flanks" and that Jones was being made the "scapegoat. Everybody is just trying to point the finger at her."
Beckert said Jones, who has a job that pays $12.63 an hour and $163 in her checking account, will never be able to pay the award.
Outside of court, Graves said attorneys for the administrator of Aurora's estate can pursue collecting some part of the award in this case from two insurance policies for which the state of Oklahoma paid premiums.
The trial outcome could be appealed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Don't the parents have any responsibility for causing the children to be taken away ? It's horrible that the baby died.. awful and tragic but it wouldn't have happened had they taken care of their children initially.
They ended up with $175K from the state and now won 20 million (that they'll never see.. ) but how did this happen? They were negligent in some way to have their children having to be placed, baby dies and now they are 20 million 175K richer.. something's very wrong here.
That 175K should have been used to improve the foster care system, not reward negligent parents.
Where were the social workers? I'm just not seeing the justice here.
Thoughts?
Jury awards $20 million in baby's death
By The Associated Press
TULSA, Okla. - A Tulsa County jury awarded $20 million in damages to the estate of 7-month-old girl who died while in foster care.
The jury unanimously awarded $20 million in actual damages Friday in a lawsuit against Deanza Jones, who was a foster parent for Aurora Espinal-Cruz.
By the verdict, jurors "spoke so loudly for Aurora," said Michael Barkett, one of the attorneys who handled the case on behalf of a special administrator for the child's estate.
Barkett and his co-counsel, Daniel Graves and Chad McLain, asserted that Aurora asphyxiated while unattended in a filthy crib at Jones' roach-infested Tulsa home, while the baby's 4-year-old sister listened to her cry and die.
Lawyers for the child's estate maintained that Aurora suffered roach bites because of unclean conditions in Jones' home and a lack of care to change her diapers.
"If she can't keep the roaches off the baby, doesn't that speak volumes about the level of concern she had for that child?" Barkett asked during a closing argument to jurors.
Jones' attorney, James Beckert, maintained that photographic evidence did not support the allegations of a cockroach-infested foster home.
Jones denied having neglected Aurora and denied claims that the baby's Jan. 27, 2002, death resulted from her negligence.
A medical examiner attributed the 21-pound girl's death to a respiratory illness, and no criminal charges were filed in the case.
The state Department of Human Services, which placed the baby in Jones' care, previously paid $175,000 to settle claims against it in the wrongful death lawsuit. That is the maximum amount DHS could pay under the law, Graves said Friday.
Beckert asserted that DHS employees were "covering their flanks" and that Jones was being made the "scapegoat. Everybody is just trying to point the finger at her."
Beckert said Jones, who has a job that pays $12.63 an hour and $163 in her checking account, will never be able to pay the award.
Outside of court, Graves said attorneys for the administrator of Aurora's estate can pursue collecting some part of the award in this case from two insurance policies for which the state of Oklahoma paid premiums.
The trial outcome could be appealed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.