The head of Baltimore's Division of Social Services said yesterday that her agency received two calls from people concerned about the welfare of a 15-month-old boy who police said died while in the care of a religious group, some of whose members have now been charged with murder.
But Molly McGrath, the chief operating officer of DSS, said the complaints about how Javon Thompson was treated while with 1 Mind Ministries were not specific enough to thoroughly investigate. Police said the toddler was denied food and water because he would not say amen after meals.
"We cannot find any record to show that we could have intervened before Javon died," McGrath said. She said records show that DSS received one call in May 2006 - eight months before Javon died - but the caller gave a bad address. The second call came in April of this year, the same month Javon's body was found stuffed in a suitcase in Philadelphia.
But Javon's grandmother, Seeta Khadan-Newton, said she called DSS at least four times between April and December of 2006.
"I spoke to people who would not give me the time of day," she said yesterday. "They bluntly said to me during one call that they needed proof. They said they could not go out. They said I am probably just making it up, and it is just hearsay."
She got far different responses from officials in Philadelphia and New York - two cities where members of the group lived after leaving Baltimore in January 2007 and after police said Javon had been killed. She made those inquiries after police in Philadelphia and Baltimore had opened an investigation into Javon's disappearance.
Khadan-Newton recalled how Philadelphia caseworkers stayed on the phone with her as they ran many versions of the boy's name, hoping he would turn up in a database. In New York City, she said, caseworkers immediately investigated a Brooklyn house.
"In Philadelphia, they were so good," the grandmother said. "I was telling them about all of these aliases [the members of the religious group] were using. Everyone was very cooperative." Later, she learned the group was living in a house in Brooklyn, N.Y. "I made one phone call, and New York was in the house the next day," she said.
Baltimore homicide detectives charged five people this week with first-degree murder in connection with Javon's death, including the boy's mother, Ria Ramkissoon, 21. Also charged are the group's alleged leader, Queen Antoinette, 40; Trevia Williams, 21; Marcus Cobbs, 21; and Steven Bynum, 42. Bynum turned himself in at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center about 8 p.m. Wednesday, said Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department.
