Posted on 01/23/2006 3:37:19 AM PST by FerdieMurphy
NEW YORK (AP) -- In the eyes of her stepfather, 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown was an out-of-control troublemaker. She stole money from her parents and broke her siblings' toys, she stole milk from a younger sibling and broke their computer printer, he said.
And when he found that she had gone into the refrigerator and taken a cup of yogurt she wasn't supposed to have, he flew into a rage.
Police say Cesar Rodriguez beat the little girl to death, then tossed her on the floor of what was known in the family's apartment as the "dirty room," a rodent-infested room where she had been tied up and left with only a litter box as a toilet.
During a jail interview with newspaper reporters, Rodriguez did not admit fatally beating his stepdaughter but said: "I have a lot of guilt."
"I'm sorry about all that happened. I have a problem with my emotions. It builds up and I hold it all in. I emotionally just burst," he said.
Nixzmary's killing reverberated throughout the city. Hundreds of strangers showed up at her funeral, and the case has been a daily fixture in the tabloids newspapers. It also has forced a major shake-up at the city's child protection agency.
"It touched everyone," said Caridad Ramos, 44, Nixzmary's great aunt.
Rodriguez, 27, and Nixzmary's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, 27, are charged with multiple felony counts, including second-degree murder. Rodriguez also is accused of molesting Nixzmary and abusing her five siblings.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
The case has shocked the most seasoned investigators and child advocates.
"The circumstances of the abuse this girl suffered were horrifying and among the most tragic that I've ever come across," said Erik Pitchal, director of the Center for Family and Child Advocacy at the Fordham School of Law. "The manner in which she spent her last days is heart wrenching."
There had been warning signs.
Last May, a guidance counselor at Nixzmary's school reported the child had missed 47 days of school. The city's Administration for Children's Services responded immediately but closed the case weeks later.
The agency failed to find "educational neglect when it was clear the girl had not been attending school," said ACS Commissioner John Mattingly.
In early December, ACS received another complaint about Nixzmary. She, her siblings and her stepfather were interviewed but Mattingly said caseworkers were unable to gain access to Nixzmary's home. The case stalled.
Santiago's relatives said they didn't know what was taking place. They lost contact after Nixzmary moved from Puerto Rico to New York several years ago.
Ramos, Santiago's aunt, said she hadn't seen Nixzmary in four years.
"If the family had been aware this never would have happened," Ramos said. "Never. Never. Never."
An indictment alleges that, beginning on New Year's Day, Rodriguez used anything he could to subdue the little girl he described as "a handful," including a belt, a piece of wood, a bungee cord.
Authorities said he bought yogurt for his children but refused to give Nixzmary any.
On the night of Jan. 10, Nixzmary's mother discovered one of the yogurt cups was missing, and she went to Rodriguez. The frightened girl denied taking it, but one of the other children tattled, authorities say.
Later, Rodriguez discovered his computer printer was broken.
He stripped Nixzmary of her clothes and beat her in front of Santiago, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said.
He dragged her into the bathroom and repeatedly dunked her head under the cold water, and loud banging noises and screams of "Mommy" were heard throughout the apartment, authorities say. Rodriguez carried Nixzmary's limp body into the dirty room and tossed her to the floor, Hynes said.
Along with Nixzmary's slaying, the ACS's record has been highlighted by the bumbling of two recent cases in which another 7-year-old girl was murdered and a baby drowned.
Since her death, six ACS employees have been suspended or reassigned. In just the first week, the agency received 2,170 reports of child abuse and neglect, a 71 percent increase from the same period a year ago.
Before Nixzmary's little white coffin was laid to rest, the Rev. Robert O'Neil said her nightmare was finally over.
"Nixzmary is now surrounded by love, beyond the touch of evil," he said.
If ever a murderer deserved a death sentence it's this poor bundle of emotions.
Death. Now.
and they are eligibile for parole in twenty-five years, enough said.
And let's not forget to sterilize the "mom" and get the other kids adopted to non-relatives. Yes, I'm serious. Until we stop accepting adult "rage" or intimidation as an excuse for causing or watching a child die, these things will continue to happen if they can continue to have children.
Think it is time to have 'Social Services'. . .be at least under the clock and the directives of private 'overseership' or 'whatever'.
How many lives lost every year, due to the incompetence of their employees. . .
Yes. this touches everyone. . .until the next child, takes their place in the headlines. . .
Lets not forget about other inmates these people will encounter. General prison populace will inevitably deliver a form of justice they so richly deserve.
The children would be better off than being shoved into foster care where many predators anxiously await their new charges.
In cases where the parents are abusive and continue to procreate in order that other little lives be wasted, the women should be sterilized and the men involved castrated...unless they have murdered their little charges and then they should be tried and executed quickly!
On Nancy Grace, a reporter mentioned that some shocking things were found in the parents' bedroom. Before he could finish his sentence, Nancy cut him off for a commercial break and afterward never got back to it. Does anyone know what those things were?
Amen. I think society's response to child abuse went to pot about the same time the law decided people could dispose of their preborn children without consequences. To do that, to allow such selfishness to be accepted, we (meaning society at large, not we individually, that is) decided that evil didn't exist and if someone did something once labeled evil, it was because they were ill or misunderstood or something. Time to draw back and acknowledge evil. Not that I'm optimistic it will happen.
How many lives are lost to sick parents? People don't want government interferance, but let something go wrong and they're blaming the government for not being there. People want government to save everyone but tie the hands of those officials. You don't know the whole story of why these cases are closed. Too many times the worker isn't allowed to do much because of laws. Quit blaming the worker and start punishing the parents.
We are a large home schooling family that has adopted more children. In that process, we had to interact with social workers from our State's social services.
Their investigation of our past, their interviews with us and the children we had at home, their visits to our home, and the requirement of a psychological profile for my wife and myself were rigorous and comprehensive. We had to prove ourselves capable, and we had to demonstrate that we could support the additional children financially, physically, emotionally, and academically. We had to obtain letters of recommendation from family, friends, neighbors, and local town officials, including the local police chief.
While we were enduring these investigative processes, we did feel somewhat exposed. The stories we had read and heard made us a bit fearful of the State's social workers and made us wonder if we had done the right thing to expose ourselves in this way. However, we do believe we were called of God to adopt these children, so we proceeded.
The process was lengthy and intrusive, but once the social agencies granted their approval, they worked with us to assure that the adoption went as smoothly as possible and that the children's overall welfare was addressed at every step.
As in any field of discipline, there are some social workers who don't belong in the State's child protection services, having "slipped through the cracks", and are only collecting a paycheck. When things go terribly awry, as they did in this case, they make the headlines.
When this happens, the majority of dedicated and capable people in the State's social agencies are tarred with the same brush as the incompetent who dropped the ball.
As Christian home schoolers, our worldview is vastly different from that of the average state social worker, but we were still able to work with them and see their dedication and concern first hand.
Going after their heads as a whole will only worsen things.
She was justifying the fact that despite all the evidence of abuse the policy is not to remove the child from the family.
Newt Gingrich was right....way back when.....he said we need group homes so that abused children can be protected.
Hitlery took to the streets at a rally screeching that if you're poor they're going to take your children away from you.
Her hands are bloody too.
What with the sentences we have ben reading about from Massachussetts and Vermont, don't be surprised if he gets 90 days house arrest and some community service.
This is exactly why our founders knew when we lost our morals we would lose our freedoms. It is our self governance that keeps our freedoms as that restraint goes the government will be asked by more and more of the population to step in to control peoples lives. Our freedoms are tied to the Ten Commandments.
We already have group homes- messed-up children living and influencing one another and being supervised by low paid, low skilled employees.
We need to prevent animals like Nixzmary's parents from breeding in the first place if the only alternative is to institutionize children.
County orphanages would work. They did once upon a time. Once placed in an orphanage the "natural" parents shouldn't be able to get their filthy hands on the kids.
Fine, lethal injection will remedy that. (Although many of us wish he had to endure the same inhumanity this poor little girl did.)
Moral absolutes ping. FReepmail me or MillerCreek if you want on or off this list.
I am really getting sick of seeing all these stories about these depraved monsters. This man doesn't deserve oxygen, much less the "understanding" he seems to think he is entitled to. There was a time in this country not that long ago where this piece of garbage never would have made it to the police station, let alone to a trial -- and I am concerned that if the government doesn't do more to ensure society's safety, that we will return to vigilante justice.
Down here in FL I have run across social services "protecting children" several times. Each time it just amounted to the persecution of a loving family.
In most of the instances what the family desperately wanted and needed was help (a mother dealing with depression, one of the children with serious aggressive issues, etc). In each case, what they got was legal fees, intrusion, destruction.
Once the state comes in they can destroy the family. I have a friend I don't think their family will ever recover from what the state has done. The father lives in fear of his daughter's every whim, because if she doesn't like her bedtime, her gifts for Christmas, etc, she calls her worker to complain.
What people don't realize is that the agencies get PAID for every open file they have. So if they put you through the wringer, and you have a bunch of kids, how many files can that generate? Each file is money for the dept. The longer it stays open the better. So keep finding problems with the family, no matter what they do...
I guess I don't run in the circles where I see the genuine abuse, only the results of the abuse inflicted by power zealous government employees. But with all the headlines I see in FL, you would think they wouldn't have time to persecute good people. But I have personally (through good friends)run across this agency run amouk too many times now.
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