Posted on 04/25/2003 6:51:14 AM PDT by Cagey
Victor Demetrius Robinson wanted his 8-month-old son to be a man. His infant, Kelton Wright, was being fussy: New teeth were coming in and he wouldn't stop crying. So, according to child welfare reports released on Thursday, Robinson stuffed a sock in the baby's mouth and told him: ``Be quiet. You're a boy. Don't cry.'' Three weeks later, Kelton was crying once more -- still teething, now sick with diarrhea, vomiting and feverish. That's when Robinson punched the baby in the back, and ``shook him violently.'' Kelton stopped crying. The force of his father's blow knocked him forward and forced all the air from his lungs. The infant managed to crawl toward his mother, Ciji Wright, 19, before his eyes rolled back and he stopped breathing. Robinson, who is charged with murder, offered this explanation to police: ``I don't want my shorty to grow up to be a punk.'' Kelton died a day later -- March 4 -- at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He is one of three boys under the watch of the Department of Children & Families to die since February, a statistic that has spurred a public outcry. The DCF documents released this week reveal more detail about Kelton's short life and the welfare agency's work in the days leading to his death -- casework labeled as ''indefensible'' by Chelly Schembera, then acting head of the DCF's Miami district, in a March 10 e-mail to DCF Secretary Jerry Regier. Among the details: • The child abuse investigator assessed the risk to Kelton as ''low'' after responding to the February incident despite Robinson's history of mental illness and molesting a disabled family member. The investigator dated her assessment Feb. 17, but the records show her supervisor did not review the assessment until after Kelton had died. • Kelton's case was on the table to be reviewed by a DCF attorney Feb. 25 when the attorney postponed his and one other case because ``she had to leave as it was 5 p.m.'' On Thursday, 364 days after DCF reported to police the disappearance of 5-year-old foster child Rilya Wilson, several state lawmakers gathered in Tallahassee to mourn the death of Kelton and the three other children who have died under DCF care since February -- and call on Gov. Jeb Bush to delay the confirmation of Regier as secretary. ''We should not be wringing our hands over more beaten children, more neglected infants, more tiny graves,'' said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami.
You call your son "Mr."?
;-)
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