June 9, 2008
More Questions About 3-Year-Old's Brutal Death
The terrible death of a 3-year-old child while under the case of his godmother and her boyfriend has Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbors reeling. Kyle Smith was declared dead on Friday, after an attempt by EMS to save him. The ME's office found he had a broken leg, a broken pelvis, bruises, signs of being sodomized with a wooden stick, and cigarette burns all over his body.
Godmother Nymeem Cheatham, who had been caring for Kyle for 18 months, and her boyfriend Lemar Martin were arrested over the weekend. While Administration of Children's Services said it was never involved with the boy's case, the Daily News has another story:
[O]n Jan. 2, Kyle's grandmother Norma Acosta, 45, called cops to complain that her son was being prevented from seeing Kyle. Police sources said she also told the ACSthat she thought her grandson was being mistreated.Kyle was removed from his crack-addicted mother's custody, and though his father petitioned for custody, the court decided to grant Cheatham custody. (A lawyer for Martin says both parents gave up rights to the boy.) Prosecutors say that Cheatham hit him "with her hands and a brush and put him in cold water" while Martin would strike him and make him repeatedly "do pushups and march in place." The pair were charged with a number of counts, including felony assault, and are being held without bail.Cops called the ACS, which interviewed Acosta, the sources said, noting that she then shared her concerns about abuse with the agency.
Sharman Stein, a spokeswoman for the city agency, said she was unable to confirm whether her agency interviewed Acosta.
Neighbors are now regretful they didn't do something when they saw the boy in troubling tableaus. One neighbor recalled hearing Cheatham yelling at the child, "Why are you still f---ing crying? Shut the f--k up. ... Do you want me to take you back inside?" and another saw him dressed in only a tank top and pajama shorts in 15-degree weather, while Cheatham was wearing a parka.
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WWHCD?
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This may not be the place for grammar errors but "Kyle Smith was died on Friday" really? He was died on Friday? Please fix that hot mess!
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Maybe one day we can have a news story that does not unnecessarily bring Hillary Clinton into the picture...
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Agree with kane. This story underscores how deficient ACS is in following up on abuse calls. You would think that after the Nixmary Brown debacle they would be more diligent. And why did the godmother get custody of the boy when there are obviously other relatives?
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ACS most likely did something wrong here, but what about the courts who granted custody to Cheatham, when she didn't have custody of her own four children?
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It's not entirely clear whether the court officially granted Cheatham custody. One of the stories over the weekend reported that Cheatham showed up at court for a scheduled custody hearing, but then left before her case had been called. I think that's why the cops were being called over visitation rights, because the godmother's custodial possession of Kyle Smith was more de facto than by law.
The boy's death may have been prevented if one the neighbors manned up and called the cops when they eye-witnessed child abuse instead of pretending it wasn't any of their business. That would have gotten cops and the ACS involved on a criminal level investigation. But it takes a village to kill a child. Mission accomplished.
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This kid was sexually molested from the report I saw
and that alone should make us watchful if we
even think a kid is being mistreated to call 911
first let the cops call Children's services to start
at the very least a paper trail if not an arrest.
Very sad.
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Truly terrible. He wasn't beaten to death, he was tortured to death. What kind of people are these to treat a 3-year old like that?
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Looks like there'll be some high-level job openings at ACS soon.
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Does anyone else notice that in cases like this it's almost always one whackjob along with a partner who is either complicit or just doesn't care? Do sickos attract each other? If they like each other so much, I suggest part of the penalty is being permanently chained to each other (like the escaped convicts in the old movies) till death do them part. Which, knowing people like them, shouldn't be too long.
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Sadists always are looking for someone who enables them. Cheatham's beau was attracted by her scent of rut. As part of the deal, he had to participate in her sick sadistic activities. In the process, he was transformed into a glowing sadist himself. The pair will accept each other's betrayals in the trial process and eventually maintain a burning passion from their separate prisons.
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He would have had better luck living with me and my roommates...at least we wouldn't have abused the little guy. Ugh. So sad.
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Maybe he'll eat his vegetables next time. Oh wait...
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From the Daily News article linked above about the regretful neighbors:
"Denise Gordon, 35, a domestic violence case manager who lives in the building, said she saw Lemar Martin, 25, at a domestic violence seminar once, "so he should have known better.""
Newflash: if you saw this dude at a domestic violence seminar he was there because he has a problem with domestic violence. Duh. I would think that would prompt you to see if the girlfriend and kid looked ok, every single time you see them.
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"Maybe one day we can have a news story that does not unnecessarily bring Hillary Clinton into the picture"
Because Hillary (and Obama) believe more not less ACS and courts will help us all. Don't we want MORE "high-quality" govt control like we are getting from ACS and the courts? They do such a phenomnemal job, as does the "dont' snitch" culture.
/ sarcasm off