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The two children of a Florida man who stabbed his entire family in a Deerfield Beach RV park earlier this month were allowed to return to him and his wife despite a troubled history, according to the Department of Children and Families.
There wasn't enough evidence to meet the "very high burden of proof" required to permanently remove the children from their parents, Joe Follick, the DCF's communications director, told NBC 6 in Miami on Wednesday.
In February 2008, William DeJesus’ wife, Deanna Beauchamp, told authorities that they both had been molesting their two sons, newly released DCF documents show.
"When the mother made allegations of sexual abuse, we immediately asked for permanent removal of the children from the family. She recanted," Follick said.
He said the agency had no physical evidence, and it was difficult to get clear statements from the two children, including the older son, who barely spoke.
Read 'Monster Jackson' story, see video on NBCMiami.com
"The mother had already recanted and said she had made up the allegations, and this made it very difficult to go to a judge and get the children permanently removed," Follick said. "It’s hard. It’s tragic. There’s nobody at this department who is not committed to protecting the children."
The DeJesus case hurts not only the people working on it, "but it hurts everybody at this department," he said.
On the night of Feb. 9, DeJesus, of Port Orange, drove his family into the Highland Woods RV park in Deerfield Beach, where he shot a Canadian man twice, killing him, before he went into the man’s home and ultimately stabbed his wife, his sons and himself, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. His standoff with a SWAT team lasted six hours.
Beauchamp, 37, and their 7-year-old son survived and are recovering, and DeJesus, 41, and their 9-year-old son died.
Hundreds of pages of documents the DCF released on the case Wednesday reveal that DeJesus was previously accused of stabbing and assaulting his wife, and that his youngest son called him “Monster Jackson.”
'Monster Jackson is going to kill me'
In an Aug. 6, 2009 report, a foster mother told a DCF representative that the younger son kept saying, "Monster Jackson is going to kill me and he’s coming back to get you." But when the representative asked "who is Monster Jackson?" the child demurred, smiling and saying, "I don’t know," according to the report.
In 2008, Beauchamp "reported a history of domestic violence with the children's father for the last eight years," investigators wrote, and said that she was forced to sexually abuse them, fearing that DeJesus "would kill her if she did not fondle the children" with him.
DeJesus was barred from contact with his ex-wife and children in New York, according to the file.
A July 2009 case note said that the DCF required "clear and convincing evidence" that DeJesus and Beauchamp were unfit parents. Asked about that, Follick said, "This was a damaged family doing damaged things. The father by all evidence was damaging his family."
But, he noted, "You have to be very, very sure when you’re going to, as a state agency, remove children from a family permanently. And you have to convince a judge. And these children had been out of the house for a year and a half."
During that time, the parents had been evaluated, done anger management and domestic violence classes, and received therapy.
"After a year and a half of the parents making these efforts, no judge was going to say these children can’t go back," Follick said.
He said the sons moved back in with their parents in mid-2010. A community partner of the DCF followed up, and after that six-month follow-up period ended in December 2010, DeJesus and Beauchamp had no more involvement with the DCF, Follick said.
In another horrific child abuse case a year ago, two other siblings were found after being tortured by their adoptive parents after falling through the cracks of the foster care system, authorities said. Nubia Barahona, 10, was found in a trash bag in the back of her adoptive father’s pickup truck after being beaten to death, and her twin brother Victor was found barely alive with chemical burns all over his body.
Since then the DCF has made changes that have included hiring 100 more child protective investigators, including many in Miami-Dade County, said Follick, who added that the agency intends to hire more to further reduce caseloads. If the Legislature approves a bill under consideration, investigators would be paid more, he added.
The agency is also striving to ensure that if a school has expressed concern about a family, or there has been police involvement, that information is shared right away with an investigator, Follick said.
On a broader level, the DCF is also reworking how it treats domestic violence cases. Besides more training, it is emphasizing that case workers and law enforcement and people involved in a given case communicate better with each other and not work in a silo, said Follick. He described it as “having a group of people helping a family rather than having 10 well-intended people helping a family separately.”
"We are trying to show a lot more patience and thought when we approach a family where domestic violence is occurring," he said.
Follick said that any time a child dies, the DCF reviews it, but it is too early to tell "what shape that is going to take" with the DeJesus case. A panel is one possibility.
The case has been a nonstop topic of discussion for hundreds of people at the agency the past two weeks, he said.
"Our focus is on this child’s near-term and long-term needs," he said of the surviving brother.
Read the full DeJesus case files released by the Department of Children and Families here.
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Leave a Comment:
The mother recanted. I say any mother who would tell authorities she molested her own kids is unfit. So to me it doesn't really matter that she recanted.
This is a very confusing article. However, it sounds like the child services folks sent them home because they did not have the proof to convince a judge that the children should be permanently removed.
They had a lot of past history. I would run it by the judge anyway. Present the evidence and let the chips fall where they may. In addition, I would go after the mother for filing a false report. Tell her she is either telling the truth or deliberately lied to investigators.
I am sure if child services permanently pulled the kids, the news article would say "Kids permanently removed from home with no physical evidence!" Then everyone would be wanting the case workers scalped as government goons tearing families apart. Mistakes are made but it is very hard to get into peoples heads and private family lives and get to the truth. Not defending this specific example, just saying if you have not done the job, you have no idea what is truly needed in court.
I live in Florida and the DCF has an abysmal reputation for this type of thing. They have unmanageably large caseloads and as in most cases too many queen bees and drones and not enough worker bees.
Yeah, they still haven't found Rilya Wilson..
Mike the Vet it is the liberals that think they can help everyone. If the Right wing was in charge this wouldn't happen. Now the real story is what the poor kids had to live through with these insane people. God Bless Them.
did you have to study at being that dumb or was it natural?
King, Florida for all intents and purposes IS a Republican state...just in case you didn't know.
Another case of the government's ineptatude costing lives. Fire the case worker, ASAP.
DCF dropped the ball on this one.. Now those poor kids r dead.. Do they accept responsibility for anything?
There SHOULD be a very high burden of proof before the state takes a child from a parent. Very, very high. Can you imagine some bureaucrat making a decision to take your child based on scanty or incomplete evidence? I am not commenting on this particular case, I don't know all the facts, guy sounds very dangerous... but I want it to be very tough for the government to take a child. That is the ultimate government intrusion.
The state can hire 100 extra emp's, yet they can't be burdened with the two boys????. Should anything happen to the two boys some people need to do time in jail and the state brought to its knee's by a wopping law suit.
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What is wrong with authors these days...? seriously. I am still half wondering if this guy stabbed the canadian guy's family or his own family.
this is a tragic situation. but unfortunately this IS the SAME state that allowed Ms. Anthony to essentially walk free.
DVF sucks.. DCF should be charged with child neglect. the leading casewokers should be fired.. and the managers should be fired.. total incompetence..
Of course it's Florida!!!!! Their slogan must be give us your evil, deviant and stupid. I hope CPS takes note of the red flags and will learn from their mistakes. Kids are not some experiment to see if all goes well when sent back. It's like oh well they couldn't talk, why couldn't they talk? Perhaps they should have made sure they were going to school and services it sounded like they were sorely needing. Dropped the ball on this one.
ARE THEY OUT OF THEIR @#$%&*# MINDS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
How long before the childern are dead by his hands?
Good God almighty, what is wrong with this state?!?!?!?!?!?
I'm confused, the mother says she is molesting the children with their father - they let her walk. The article states that the father, DeJesus stabs a man and his family including himself and has a standoff with police, he and his 9 year old die but the article is about he children being returned to him. This isn't the best writing I've read. So is the dad dead after stabbing himself and others? Are the children with the mom and someone else who is molesting them? WTF - this is a messed up group here.
Once again, children are being treated as property.
Their safety coming wrongly behind the "rights" of a questionable parent.
It's a shame, as a society, we don't trust out instincts more. Nature gave them to us for a reason.
auntdawn & fossafun, once again we're talking about Florida, that says it all.
Are you freakin kidding me???????????????????????? I guess the kids have to be killed bu the sick bastards to prove anything. There needs to be a way to get these kids away from these people.
Children don't vote and like most state and federal departments, they're top heavy everyone wants to be a boss. Plus we're back to strange happenings in Florida, they can't get through 2 weeks without something happening, so am I surprised that these poor children were returned to their sick parents, no. Will we be reading about these children in a few years, yes.
I have read some of the most ignorant comments on here I have ever read and that is saying a lot considering I read a lot of political stories. First of all, no one wants to adequately fund CPS/DCF in any state because that would be admitting there are a lot of bad parents out there which there are. Secondly, where the heck do you think these kids go when they are removed, they go to foster homes if they are lucky but usually they go to "group" homes the modern day word for an orfenage more or less. The bar to permanently take away a child better be high, that is a big deal. Although if radical left wing morons didn't cry abuse everytime they saw a laptop being shot on youtube, that would help caseloads. The lefties need a class on the difference between discipline and abuse. The right wing has its own issue here, stop complaining and lobby your states for increased funding of your CPS and be willing to pay for it "oh band of small government folk." You can't have it both ways. Both sides have it wrong, some people can't be fixed, but no social worker is a mind reader, otherwise, you won't need group homes, you will need tent cities for all the families you want to meedlessly rip apart in hopes of saving every last child. Blame the Monster who is dead now, he was the problem, blame the wife, but this is not on DCF.
I live in florida, this article skims the surface of the problems this agency has...one of their biggest problems is saying "thats not my job, I will connect you with a person that does that" ... and then ... "I don't know why you were transfered to this dept, please hold for the next available agent" ... then ... click-dialtone. Communication with the Public is and always has been the problem ... involvement with families takes time they say, well, if you see someone beating a child and your gut feeling and the hairs on the back of your neck say its happened before, you cant get them to believe you ... but having said that, all they need to do is Look at the child, the bruises are there ... takes time to get appointments unless Police are involved imediately. So pass the buck, next time I see an adult beating a child to the ground Im going to call the police, grab the child, then wait with the adult so I can ... a. take a photo of them...b. get name rank and serial number ... c. employment ... d. addictions ... e, personal life ... then I will have all the info I need to make a case For the agency... except for the fact that I will need money for bail and a lawyer when the deviate charges me with harrasment, I think this might work...sarcastic? yes, deep within my soul...This agency has no idea what its doing and no idea how to involve themselves with the public that could help them.
grimmsusie, during those "moments" have you thought about calling 911 instead of CPS? Or yelling?
If you are witnessing abuse call 911 not DCF. DCF should only be called in if there is a suspicion but not an actual incident being witnessed, the police handle the criminal side of an abuse case and are the ones that you call if you are seeing something happen, and you call them right away, not later.
Did i get that wrong? Who is this new daddy? The original daddy died at the crime sceen. The story says that the mommie and one son survived. Then it says that they have been thru this and that and the couple want their kids back. WHAT??? I must have lost something in the translation? But, never give those kids back to someone that clearly had cruel intentions from the beginning!!! Let them stay with the adopted parents,, they seem to be ok there?
Exactly what kind of trainiing do the case workers receive before they are turned loose on those defenseless children? I don't think they have one whole brain between all of them!
The mother should be jailed for failure to protect her children and Mr. Follick should be arrested and jailed for pretending to have a brain. Did he ever try to decide why the older boy never spoke? Why did he think "therapy" would help cure a sexual predator- a child molester no less. It seems that the children of this world are under attack by predatory monsters and no one is willing to err on the side of the children. He didn't think there was anything fishy about that sick excuse of a mother recanting AFTER they decided to remove the children from the home? What did he think she would do? This is bad on so many levels it would take me all day to point out how much is wrong with this story. I hope this mother suffers for the rest of her life. I hope Mr. Follick thinks about both those little boys every time he collects his pay check and goes home to his nice, safe house. COWARD!
I notice that people are very fast to blame social workers under the heading of "social services" but how many here know how poor the government standards for training a social worker are? These are people that go into the field with good intentions and a few classes. From there it is all on the job training, and this is not a profession that should rely on that type of training. It has only been the last 10 years or so that law enforcement and child protective services have really started to work together to end abuse, but the truth is our government does not consider child abuse a high enough priority.
In the comments section of every child abuse article I read I post the following link:
http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/unto_third_generation.pdf
It is a paper that deals with a plan to end child abuse and it is very well informed; in fact it is written by an expert in the field. Here is a quote from the paper that is rather disturbing:
"Although child abuse and neglect has been appropriately termed a "public health epidemic," our nation has not invested money in addressing this ill to the extent we have other epidemics. For example, a study of federal research commitment found we invest one nickel for every 100 dollars of societal cost associated with child abuse whereas we invest two dollars for every 100 dollars of societal cost associated with cancer.48 This is so even though the rate of child abuse is ten times greater than the rate of cancer.49 In the words of Dr. Chadwick and colleagues, "(w)ithout the appropriate investment, it will be difficult to successfully achieve a systematic, coordinated national effort to ameliorate child abuse and neglect."
Did you notice that this quote states that the rate of child abuse is 10 times greater than the rate of cancer? How many people do you know that have or have had cancer? Off the top of my head I can think of 7, so for the 7 people I know with cancer there are around 70 kids being abused, so why are we spending $2 on the 7 and $0.05 on the 70? People, write to your congressman, write to your senator, ask your school what their policy on reporting suspected abuse is, stop getting on these comment boards and bitching about the problem and start advocating for these kids and being a part of the solution!
This is another sad incompetant DCF, like most. Why do we always let our kids down? Why are these people not locked up. Just because they had children, does not mean they are capable or should be parents. Our state and local Governments need to smarten up and learn from past mistakes. Look at the Powell case in Utah, look at most of the cases, child death should have and could have been prevented; too bad our judges and some law enforcement and CPS/DCF don't learn or revamp the entire system because of this.
Another two children will either be dead at the hands of their parents or critically injured next time (hope I am wrong) but the odds are not against it. The very best, these two children if kept with these two animals/monsters, will grow up to abusive themselves.
When will our society learn!!!