Child S Death

I am writing a column I don't want to write about stories I `` could not bring myself to read about a battered little girl whose picture I could not bear to look at.I am writing about Rita Fisher, the 9-year-old Pikesville child who was beaten and starved to death last June by her mother, her sister and her sister's boyfriend. All three were found guilty of second-degree murder and child abuse and will be sentenced in July.Beyond saying that these cruel people should have to pray for the release of death the way Rita must have, I can not get my mind to linger on this child and her brief and wretched life long enough to form any ideas worth repeating.

Baltimore police are trying to determine why a 21-month-old baby, who appeared to have only a slight bruise on his forehead, died during the weekend after taking an afternoon nap at his home.The state medical examiner's office said yesterday it is performing laboratory tests to determine why Najah Francis died. The boy lived with his parents in the 5000 block of Ready Ave. in Govans.Agent Angelique Cook-Hayes, a police spokeswoman, said Najah's mother called police Saturday afternoon and reported that the child was unresponsive.

Preliminary autopsy results indicate that the death of a 2-year-old boy on a Columbia playground Tuesday was not caused by a fall, but by a medical condition, Howard County police said.The death of Dai'mon Akeil Anderson-Fowlkes is being investigated by the state medical examiner, which might take several weeks, said Sgt. Morris Carroll of the Howard County police."They still have to do more tests," Carroll said. "But at this point, we feel that the child's death was not caused by the fall."

SEVERAL WEEKS NOW have passed since 9-year-old Rita Fisher died after allegedly being starved and abused by members of her family -- a family whose troubles had been under scrutiny by Baltimore County child protection workers.Disturbing questions raised by her death still demand answers and should be provoking discussion about changes in child abuse prevention laws and policies. Yet those questions have been met with virtual silence from government officials.Was everything done that could have been to save this child?

Accountability needed for charity dollarsThe United Way has taken responsible leadership in emphasizing accountability for charitable dollars. Demonstrating responsiveness to people served and outcomes for services rendered is a challenging undertaking.However, taxpayers and public services, as well as employers and employees through private charities, are now demanding more than documented organizational process and numbers of units of service provided.Both the public and private sectors are demanding evidence that the organizational process and units of service are making a difference in people's lives.

WE TAKE INSULT and incivility for granted, particularly if it is perpetrated by that protected class made up of our professional athletes. But now and again something happens so degrading that, for a moment at least, it seizes our attention. Such as the case last Friday in Toronto when the Orioles' Roberto Alomar, ejected after arguing a called third strike, spat in the face of the home plate umpire, John Hirschbeck.After the game, Alomar, obviously incapable of shame, was quoted as saying that Hirschbeck had been ''real bitter'' since the death three years ago of his 7-year-old son from ADL, a rare genetic disorder that progressively destroys nerve and muscle function.

A 23-year-old Baltimore woman was found guilty of second-degree murder and child abuse yesterday in the starvation death of her 5-month-old daughter last year.Porthingia Johnson of the 1700 block of Aliceanna St. told police she woke up on March 20, 1994 to find her daughter Alicia lifeless. She said she held the dead girl for two days before the father, Michael Johnson, returned to the apartment after being away for two weeks.Johnson said she didn't know the girl was undernourished, according to her police statement.

A North Baltimore man was charged yesterday with beating his 3-year-old nephew to death in a cocaine-induced rage and, with help from the child's godmother, setting his house on fire to conceal the crime, city police said.Gerald Bernard Harris, 30, and the godmother, Rhonda Alisa Nichols, 28, were charged with first-degree murder and arson early yesterday after several hours of questioning from homicide detectives.Police said they believe the young victim, James Simon, was beaten and shaken to death last week and his body placed overnight in a second-floor bedroom before being carried to a basement storage area, where the fire started last Friday afternoon.

County police are investigating the death of a 1-year-old Jessup boywho was found with severe burns in the hotel room he shared with hisparents and older brother.Joseph Irving Titus was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived, county police spokesman Officer V. RichardMolloy said. He lived with his parents, Mark Charles Titus, 30, and Rosemary Renee Titus, 24, and 2-year-old brother in a room at the Parkway Motel off Route 175.Police are calling the death suspicious and were questioning the child's parents, Molloy said, adding that it appears the baby had been put in extremely hot water.

The state medical examiner's office was to perform an autopsy today to determine the cause of death of a 2-month-old girl whose body bore bruises and contusions and whose death has been called questionable by police.Police said Whitney Hall, of the 2500 block of Emerson St. in southwest Baltimore, was pronounced dead yesterday at 9:45 a.m., less than 15 minutes after her mother, whose name was not available, took her to Bon Secours Hospital.Police said Whitney was born Jan. 14.At the hospital, physicians found bruises and contusions on the infant's buttocks and notified police.

Howard County police are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding a child left forgotten in a car seat who died of hyperthermia in a stifling vehicle. A neighbor found the 23-month old Ellicott City girl strapped in a car seat in a vehicle parked outside her home one week ago, police said Wednesday, apparently after her mother forgot she had left the toddler there about nine hours earlier. The identity of the child and her parents have not been released, but police said the girl was found in front of a home in the 3100 block of Edgewood Drive.

A 27-year-old Baltimore man was convicted yesterday of involuntary manslaughter and child abuse in the death of a 3-year-old girl. Erik Stoddard of the 2500 block of Moore Ave. had been convicted twice before in the death Calen Faith Dirubbo, but those verdicts were overturned by a Baltimore Circuit Court judge and an appeals court. Calen, who was the daughter of Stoddard's girlfriend, died in June 2002 as a result of multiple beatings over a period of at least a month, prosecutors said.

Spurred by the death of a toddler named Bryanna Harris, legislators are introducing bills intended to identify parents and others who might harm children before abuse occurs, closing gaps in a system that has too often failed families in Baltimore. Among other things, the bills would require city and county social services officials to keep track of parents with a history of abuse so that any new children they have can be protected. Some legislators want to broaden that approach through reporting systems that would identify children who come into contact with known abusers, such as pedophiles.

Child Protective Services had already taken two of her daughters, but Vernice Harris was raising her third girl amid squalor and boarded-up rowhouses on East 25th Street. Apparently frustrated that the crying 2-year-old was disturbing her and her drug-addicted friends, Harris began giving the girl methadone to keep her quiet, according to police charging documents. Harris told authorities that she found the girl unresponsive in an upstairs bedroom about 3 a.m. June 5. She carried the toddler downstairs, where friends and paramedics were unable to revive her. Two months later, medical examiners ruled that Bryanna Ashley Harris' death was the result of a methadone overdose and a beating to her stomach.

Woman, 20, pleads guilty in child's death A 20-year-old Baltimore woman who had been baby-sitting the child of a woman receiving drug treatment pleaded guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court yesterday to second-degree murder in the death of the 16-month-old. Shardae Denise Coles admitted that she threw Zion Clemmons into the edge of a sofa while she watched him May 7 at her apartment in the 1300 block of Harlem Ave. in West Baltimore. Zion died of blunt-force trauma, the medical examiner ruled.

The father of a 18-month-old boy ran over the child in the family's Harford County driveway yesterday, and the child later died, police said. The traffic unit of the Harford County Sheriff's Office is investigating the child's death. But based on early reports, officials described the incident as an accident. Shortly after 4 p.m., Arlo Weiskopf, his wife, and their 8-year-old son were outside with 18-month-old Amoss, according to the sheriff's office. The family lives on the 2100 block of Mount Horeb Road, authorities said.

Seated in the back of the courtroom, 77-year-old Veronica Morrison leaned back in her chair during a break in the trial of a friend and fellow member of her Edgewood church. She looked toward the ceiling, a woven hat resting atop her head. "She needs you, Jesus, she needs you," Morrison whispered. Morrison's friend, Elaine Marie Butler, is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment after giving 16-month-old Ashton Timothy Preston a lethal dose of methadone that she said she thought was strawberry juice.

A Pasadena teenager fatally beat his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter because instead of baby-sitting her, he wanted to play video games, an Anne Arundel County prosecutor told a judge yesterday. In her opening statement, Assistant State's Attorney Laura Kiessling said that DeAndre Anthony Jones, 18, inflicted multiple wounds to the head of Jaysia Lana Larue, who fell unconscious in her mother's Glen Burnie apartment May 13, 2003, and died three days later. Jones, who was 17 at the time of the Jaysia's death and was living with her mother, Jennifer Veney, was charged as an adult with child abuse death, manslaughter and second-degree murder.

A Pasadena teenager fatally beat his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter because instead of baby-sitting her, he wanted to play video games, an Anne Arundel County prosecutor told a judge yesterday. In her opening statement, Assistant State's Attorney Laura Kiessling said DeAndre Anthony Jones, 18, inflicted multiple wounds to the head of Jaysia Lana Larue, who lost consciousness in her mother's Glen Burnie's apartment May 13, 2003, and died three days later. Jones, 17 at the time of the child's death, was charged as an adult with child abuse death, manslaughter and second-degree murder.

A Pasadena teenager fatally beat his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter because instead of baby-sitting her, he wanted to play video games, an Anne Arundel County prosecutor told a judge yesterday. In her opening statement, Assistant State's Attorney Laura Kiessling said that DeAndre Anthony Jones, 18, inflicted multiple wounds to the head of Jaysia Lana Larue, who fell unconscious in her mother's Glen Burnie apartment May 13, 2003, and died three days later. Jones, who was 17 at the time of the Jaysia's death and was living with her mother, Jennifer Veney, was charged as an adult with child abuse death, manslaughter and second-degree murder.