Free Republic

The grandmother of child abuse victim Nixzmary Brown is seeking $150 million from the city, claiming officials should have prevented the 7-year-old Brooklyn girl's brutal slaying, the Daily News has learned. Maria Gonzalez is the third person to file a notice of claim - the child's biological father and the father of a sibling also plan to sue - but is the only one to specify monetary damages. In papers filed with Controller William Thompson's office yesterday, Gonzalez accused the city of "carelessness, recklessness, gross negligence, wanton disregard and willful misconduct" leading to Nixzmary's death. Nixzmary was allegedly starved, tortured...

It seems some people go into politics just before they go totally brain dead. This is the only explanation for the announced effort in New York State to increase the penalty for killers of children to life without parole from the current 25 years to life. "I hope that will play a deterrent," said a Brooklyn assistant district attorney, urging on the politicians. Where do we get these people? Let us see: Envision an enraged parent or some other custodian of a child (the sort of person the law has in mind) who is abusing his or her ward and,...

(CBS) NEW YORK A pool of three reporters from a group that included the Post, Newsday, the Times, the Daily News, and myself, for Channel 2, sat with Cesar Rodriguez in a small office at Rikers Island late this afternoon for what turned out to be a wide-ranging interview, centered around him trying to make people understand why he did what he did to Nixzmary. Since I spent a large chunk of the day at another part of Rikers trying to speak with Nixzmary's mother, I was not one of the three reporters in the room. But we all met...

Memo to Mayor Mike: When a city agency fails so badly in its mission that a helpless 7-year-old winds up dead, it's hardly a time to be cutting slack for those responsible. Four days after the brutal killing of little Nixzmary Brown, Hizzoner should be serving up heads on a platter. And a perfect neck to start with might be that of John Mattingly, who runs the Administration for Children's Services, the agency that failed the girl. But not Mayor Mike. He's spent the past few days making excuses. Filibustering. Passing the buck. Yesterday, he actually praised Mattingly as a...

NOW AT REST, 'NIXZMARY IS SURROUNDED BY LOVE AND BEYOND THE TOUCH OF EVIL' By LORENA MONGELLI, JOHN DOYLE and LEONARD GREENEJanuary 19, 2006 -- Tears flowed like the driving rain yesterday as Nixzmary Brown was laid to rest after a short and brutal life that ended when she was tortured, and finally beaten to death — allegedly by her parents. A priest assured mourners that "Nixzmary is now surrounded by love, beyond the touch of evil" that took her young life in a frenzy of violence last week. "We have a reminder by the death of this child that...

After watching a story about this poor child on the evening news last night, my wife asked me an interesting question that I had no good answer for. Why did this young girl have a U.S. Marine honor guard to carry her casket out of the church? I thought it was a beautiful gesture on the part of the Corps, but for the life of me, I can't figue out why. Does anyone have any info ? Semper Fi, -B

NEW YORK — Friends, family and strangers said a tearful goodbye to a 7-year-old girl allegedly beaten to death by an abusive stepfather, with a priest assuring that the young victim was now "beyond the touch of evil." The sounds of weeping filled St. Mary Church as the body of Nixzmary Brown lay inside a coffin before an altar still decorated with Christmas poinsettias. "We have a reminder by the death of this child that the violence continues," said the Rev. Robert O'Neil, the church pastor. "She is a witness for us." Nixzmary's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, allegedly beat the 7-year-old...

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg vowed yesterday to punish any city workers who are found to have mishandled the case of a 7-year-old Brooklyn girl who the police say was killed by her stepfather. It was the strongest sign yet that the mayor is dissatisfied with the city's actions in the events leading to the death of the girl, Nixzmary Brown, and officials say it also reflects his concern that there was a communication breakdown between child welfare caseworkers and police detectives involved in the case.

MY daughter is 19 months old. She weighs 26 pounds. Nixzmary Brown was 7 years old. She weighed 36 pounds. If she had not been murdered by a blunt trauma to her skull in the Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment that was at once her home and her torture chamber (complete with child's chair with ropes), Nixzmary might have died of starvation sooner or later. It appears her torturer, rapist and murderer was her stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez. Of course, Rodriguez could have done none of these things to Nixzmary had her mother, Nixzaliz, done something to stop it. Twenty years ago, the murder...

The happiest days in Nixzmary Brown's all-too-short life were spent in Puerto Rico, surrounded by sunshine, family and fun, her mother said yesterday. "She was always playing with her little toys in the courtyard of my family's house there," Nixzaliz Santiago recalled during an interview at Rikers Island. Nixzmary reveled in the island's sunshine and yearned to go back. Last week, Nixzmary's maternal grandmother, Maria Gonzalez, revealed her granddaughter had begged her to take her back to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, after a Christmastime visit. But Gonzalez, 53, said she couldn't afford to buy the extra plane ticket that may have...

Nixzmary Brown's mother yesterday admitted she stood idle as her sadistic husband viciously beat her daughter because she feared for herself — and, besides, the child was insolent and sneaky. "Nixzmary had an attitude," Nixzaliz Santiago, 27, told The Post in a jailhouse interview at Rikers Island. "She is isolated because she creates mischief in the middle of the night," she said, still speaking of her dead daughter in the present tense. A whimpering Santiago said she cried to her evil hubby, "Leave her alone!" at about 11 p.m. Tuesday, as cops say the maniacal fiend was launching his merciless...

A week before she died a violent death at the hands of her sadistic stepfather, a battered and forlorn Nixzmary Brown confided, "I wish my mommy and daddy were dead." Perry Robinson will never forget those words — or any of the other unsettling encounters he had with the solitary, sad-faced 7-year-old in the park across from her family's apartment in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. The retired paralegal used to see Nixzmary in Tompkins Park while he played with his nieces and nephews — and he "was not surprised" when her lifeless, battered body was found naked on the...

He was a crazed monster and she was his pint-sized prey. Whatever 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown did, it was inevitably wrong in the eyes of her brutish, 27-year-old stepfather. There were six kids in their cramped Bed-Stuy apartment, and she was the one Cesar Rodriguez always targeted. He told cops Nixzmary was wild and disobedient and he responded with violence, sources said. It happened all the time. She was "the devil" and it was his job to discipline her — that's how he put it. "There were arguments, lots of arguments. One was over her taking $100; one was over her...