Cesar Rodriguez, the man who beat his stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown, sparking a citywide investigation into children welfare services and lobbying for children's murder cases to require the death penalty, jailhouse interviews saying Brown was trouble and essentially deserved to be beaten. He said:
"I would hold her up to the mirror and make her look at herself and I would say, 'Do you really want to live like this? Look at yourself. Talk to yourself. How do you feel about yourself?'"
Rodriguez also admitted to using all of his force when hitting the 7 year old, who weighed 36 pounds when she was found. He says that life's frustrations - loss of a job, Christmas coming with no presents for the kids, his wife's miscarriage - made him feel like "everything was closing in." But he says beating Brown on the day she died (he was angry that she ate a yogurt without permission and jammed his printer) was "an accident," relating it to being shot on the street randomly. Gothamist supposes the interviews are to make him seem more sympathetic, but if anything, he seems more cruel.
Rodriguez also claims that a city social worker said his idea to send Brown to live with her grandmother in Puerto Rico was a bad idea. And it looks like the Administration for Children's Services knew its Brooklyn offices in Bed-Stuy had problems.
