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The short, sad life of Hailey Gonzalez ended yesterday when hospital staff at Richmond University Medical Center on Staten Island removed the 21-month-old from life support. Gonzalez had been in the hospital since last Thursday, when the police discovered that her mother and her mother's boyfriend had thrown her against a playpen and beaten her near the point of death. The couple had waited hours before calling 911, as Hailey foamed from the mouth and twitched from her injuries.
Her mother, Marlene Medina, was re-charged with second-degree manslaughter while her boyfriend, Edwin Garcia, was charged with second-degree murder. Apparently Medina and Garcia had claimed the other was behind the crime, but prosecutors said that Garcia implicated himself. The child's biological father, Manuel Gonzalez, has been serving a 2-year prison sentence for beating Hailey when she was 2 months old. The NY Times reports, "Court documents show that when Hailey was 2 months old, Mr. Gonzalez slapped her so hard that she developed a blood clot in her eye and swelling and bruises on her face."
Medina had been investigated by the Administration for Children's Services, but was allowed to keep custody of the child because she was not believed have been involved with that incident. However, ACS had been checking up on Medina as recently as June and discovered she was living with a man. According to today's Daily News, "The caseworker told Medina she was not permitted to have a man living with her without the agency's permission," but Medina claimed she was engaged and that she was pregnant.
Manuel Gonzalez's mother, Sonia Cintron, told the Daily News yesterday, "If ACS had the best interest of my grandchild they should have made every attempt to notify me." Cintron added that Hailey's heart would go to another child who needed a transplant.
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Let's all be sensitive with this one.
Maybe violence directed against a 21 month old is just part of the Gonzalez/Medina family cultural heritage. If so, I'd hate to see their civil right tread upon by incarcerating them...
I hope these animals get what they deserve in prison!
kid didn't stand a chance. sometimes ending things quickly can be the most humane. 18 years of abuse at the hands of these people would probably be worse.
Lock em up and throw away the key.
yet bloggers are still more outraged by people throwing rocks at pale male.
I love that the grandmother is blaming ACS. How about blaming the mom, the dad, and the boyfriend? Please. If she cared so much, why didn't she have her daughter (in-law?) move in with her?
Horrible! How could someone even do something like that? And Manslaughter??? How stupid do you have to be to not know that throwing a toddler and leaving it foaming at the mouth won't most likely cause death? I wish ACS had been more aggressive and taken the child.
My roommate is a foster care case worker and I hear horrible stories from her all the time and then the parents don't understand why they can't keep their child. I just don't get it.
Wow, she really knows how to pick 'em, doesn't she?
What kind of sick f*ck beats a 2-month-old?
Dear Sonia Citron,
If your dumb shit of a son had cared about the child he wouldn't be in prison right now for slapping around a two-month-old baby. If you had cared about your granddaughter you might have done something to help her as well.
And BTW, just where did your son learn that it was OK to beat an infant? You did that to him as a child too, didn't you?
Drop dead.
the grandmother blames acs?! she was the woman who raised a baby-beater. she should be blaming herself.
i would like to know why acs can't contact the police when these animals violate an acs order. maybe that should be a new law in the city. then the cops might actually prevent some crimes instead of arresting people on bicycles.
Puerto Rico:
You ugly island...
Island of tropic diseases.
Always the hurricanes blowing,
Always the population growing...
And the money owing,
And the babies crying,
And the bullets flying.
I like the island Manhattan -
Where I can beat my baby until he's dead!
Ummm... I think they beat her on Staten Island.
What's up with 2 years for beating a two-month old? I hope his incarcerated brethren get the most out of that sentence by beating the living daylights out of him on a daily basis.
This kind of story could make a society rethink the notion of forced sterilization as cruel and unusual punishment. In this instance, it would seem to be in everybody's best interest, not the least these people's potential progeny.
More evidence that not everyone should be allowed to procreate.
#12- What does your xenophobic, anti-PR poem/rant/diatribe have to do with this story? Did you read the same post I did or were you reacting to something else? Also, this didn't even happen in Manhattan.
Sick Bastards.... her own blood and not a care about it. Life is cheap to some people. It was worthless to this so called mother. Her whole family and friends are to blame for this one. Someone knew something and said not a word. Silence is deadly... "RIP Little One" This just breaks my heart.
#12 was paraphrasing America from West Side Story. Nothing really rhymes with Staten Island.
Point taken # 17, but still irrelevant to this very sad story.
Stagnant Island?
JRod5417, you better get mad at teh writers of West Sise Story, not me, those lyricas are straight from the musical, except for the last line, of course. So write to Steven Sondheim or shut up.
Reality- The musical in itself is inoffensive, but cited in the context of this posting is offensive. Where's your humanity anyway?
Whatever. Humanity? We're talking NYC and America hwere, please.
It's either offensive both ways or neither. You can't pick and choose.
i think they did society a favor. all they are doing is killing their own kin. If black people had abortions all the time do you think the right wing would care?
"It's either offensive both ways or neither. You can't pick and choose."
Reality- You just gave me a choice. You are as irrelevant as your comments.
That is your opinion and opinions are like assholes and you are one!
Ew, I know you are but what am I! Grow up already.
suck it.
Kathy Griffin wants her line back, lame-o.
Sorry JRod, I didn't realize you loved to defend poor ghetto scum.
I didn't defend anyone. The people who killed this child ARE scum. Maybe you should exercise some reading comprehension skills.
Don't deny it, JRod, you love to kill babies.
You know what, you are sooo right. Wish I could have put some arsenic in YOUR baby bottle, but that would be too humane for an animal like yourself.
You see, the real JRod speaks! Go join Generation Me now and begone with you!
Can't stand the heat can you, Reality? Telling me to shut up and be gone and all the lame comebacks. Keep it up, buddy, keep it up.
I can stand it as long as you GayRod.
Ooh, Reality's calling me names. He so smart!
Yawn.
Snore.
Yeah, having "guest comments" really makes a difference.
Agreed, #39. A tiny child is killed by worthless people who shouldn't be allowed to care for so much as a houseplant, the grandmother of the child - who apparently did not care about the child when the child was alive - blames an overworked city agency, and all JRod and RealityCzech can do is snip at each other. Nice job, idiots.
That said, can we stress again how important parenting skills are? Society seems to expect government (from agencies like ACS to the school system) to raise kids, protect them, force them to learn. This is the family's responsibility. ACS is there to do what they can, and schools are there to provide the basics for children learning. Neither should be thought of as an excuse for parents to be uninvolved in their children's upbringing.