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Parents Left 8-Year-Old In Charge Of 11-Month-Old, Who Died

2009_09_handcuffs.jpg Disturbing details surrounding the death of an 11-month-old Brooklyn baby: According to the Daily News, the parents put "their 8-year-old son in charge of four younger siblings"—ages 6, 3, 2 and the baby, Major Gonzalez—while they went shopping 11 miles away at the Target in Queens.

When Denise Gonzalez, 29, and Rafael Colon, 43, arrived home, the baby had a bruise on his head and had difficulty breathing; he later died at Brookdale Hospital. Now that they are charged with endangering the welfare of a child—and may have the charges raised, pending an investigation—their lawyers are claiming their clients are innocent: "Defense lawyer Arleen Ralph said Gonzalez had 'a lapse of judgment.' She said Gonzalez, who doesn't drive, didn't think Colon could buy diapers and toys on his own. Colon's lawyer, Bob Orlando, claimed that Colon left before his wife and did not know that she had failed to get someone more responsible to watch the kids."

The other children were removed by ACS. Gonzalez, who has 10 children (some in foster care), has reportedly been "previously investigated" by the ACS and NJ's Division of Youth and Family Services. And Maimonides' chairman of pediatric medicine told the News, "You need someone to take care of an 8-year-old, not have an 8-year-old take care of someone."

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Comments [rss]

  • msexy20

    The only ones that i feel sorry for are the kids, it's sad, and hurtful....these kids dont deserve this, we are talking about an 8 year old watching 4 kids, and an 11 month old that died. when i first saw the news ppl in my building i thought that maybe some1 was robbed but i never thought that it was a baby that was dead, and neither did i think that they would do something like that, i mean everytime i see them i see them with the kids, all of them.... they seem like really good parents. all they had to do was ask some1 in the building to watch them if it was that important for both of them to go.

  • NannyState

    Hers isn't a birth canal, it's the Panama Canal.

  • tsol

    Idiocracy is here.

  • Mr. Shankly
  • nicemarmot

    Can we please make the punishment for child abuse mandatory sterilization? Please? Pretty please?

  • Dead Himmler

    Do you realize that marmots are the rats of the mountains?

  • Atomische

    Stupid people shouldn't breed.

  • kleinpeter

    I fucking hate people.

    It's too bad you can't outlaw people who are unfit to be parents from having any child depend on them - be it by birth, foster, adoption or even relation. Since we can't take away their ability to birth, can't we at least create a restraining order law banning people like this from ever being near another child? They do it to pedifiles.

  • Mrs Parker

    I never understand how someone who has had SOME of their kids taken away is allowed to keep the subsequent kids they continue to churn out. Does anyone know the law or policy behind that?

  • efg72

    Usually if one child is at risk of harm, then all are removed.

    If these parents had completed all the services that were required of them to make their homes safe again and/or addressed the issues that brought the kids into care in the first place then they were probably in the process of reunifying with the children.

    The courts and foster care agencies will typically return the children in large sibling groups a few at a time instead of all at once. Hence, you could have 4 children on trial discharge (with social workers making visits to the home) and 6 still in foster care.

  • Clarice City

    I think welfare will pay for a household with up to six children. Basicly, her vagina is like an ATM.

  • ChampionOfTheSun

    Yep. If you're a lazy, fuck up, you can expect money from the government. But, if you're a responsible citizen, you're pretty much shit out of luck, if you need any assistance whatsoever.

  • NannyState

    Cytotec. Put it in their pet food.

  • hotstepper

    thank god for breeders like these. the world is dangerously underpopulated.

  • HypocraticOath

    Yeah so this 29 year old woman needs to have her tubes tied and then beaten with a sock full of pool balls. Really? 10 kids and she cant even handle raising 1 properly? And a 43 year old loser as a father to them? What a worthless, stupid waste this entire family seems to be...

  • Guest

    the dark fucking ages...

  • Janet

    It is a real shame that this couple could leave an eight year old child to babysit four younger siblings. I would venture to say that this wasn't the first time they did this. I hope the charges will be upgraded to felonies once the results of the autopsy comes in.

    I wrote about this incident on my own blog, The Hinterland Gazette. I am equally amazed at the fact that she has been investigated by child services in two states and still she is able to get away with this reckless act. I am curious as to whether child services has visited her home since the other children were removed from her home.

  • Dead Himmler

    Janet I'm here to tell you that it is OK to be black in America now. We have a black president and many other minorities in position of power. And when you were young your mother was right when she told you that it was not your fault your dad left. Oh Snap!!!!

  • felixthecat8

    Meow!

  • Bernie Madoff-Goetz

    29 with ten kids? THIS is what is wrong in poor neighborhoods (be they white, black or brown.) It would be a miracle if even one of these kids received the nurturing and esteem-building to do anything with their lives. Hopefully the day will come when we stop blaming "a lack of privilege" for how so many of these kids turn out.

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