ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 20, 1996 TAG: 9609200054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: BILL HOY AND JOANNE POINDEXTER STAFF WRITERS
Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz says his office intended to send a message when it prosecuted three adults and a teen-ager for the neglect of a 5-year-old girl who is HIV-positive.
Krantz said he wants adults to know they cannot abandon their responsibility to children in their care. Parents or guardians, he said, "can't stand idly by" when a child is hurt or not getting medical treatment.
Krantz said the mother, who lives in Roanoke, "basically abandoned" the child when she left her in the long-term care of a friend. The friend then left the girl for several days with a juvenile and an 18-year-old.
To protect the girl's anonymity, those charged are not being identified, but they include her mother, the girl's 15-year-old half-sister, the half-sister's 18-year-old boyfriend, and a friend of the mother's. The child is in foster care.
Police began investigating the case in February after the mother carried the child, who was covered with bruises, to Bedford County Memorial Hospital.
Authorities originally considered felony child-abuse charges in the case, but settled on misdemeanors after a March juvenile court hearing for the half-sister. The half-sister admitted hitting the child with a shoe, but she said that was how her mother had instructed her to discipline the younger child.
The charges were amended, Krantz said, because "the physicians couldn't determine whether the bruises were a result of the trauma or because of complications from her disease."
The child, who was HIV-positive before her mother left her with the friend, is beginning to show signs of full-blown AIDS, Krantz said.
The commonwealth's position is that no matter who caused the bruises, the child was neglected, and "that's what caused the danger to the child," during the investigation that the child was not getting proper medical treatment.
Prosecutors, Krantz said, "wanted to get proper care for the child, get her out of a neglectful environment and hold the parties responsible for their inaction."
"The most responsible party was the mother, but each of them shared responsibility not to neglect this child," he said.
The adults were convicted in August of misdemeanor child neglect, and the half-sister was convicted in March of assault and battery.
The mother was given a 12-month jail sentence with all but 45 days suspended. She also lost her parental rights to the child.
Her 15-year-old daughter was placed in a juvenile detention center and ordered to undergo psychological evaluation, drug and alcohol abuse evaluation, and family counseling.
The mother's friend was sentenced to 12 months in jail, with all but 10 days suspended.
Even though the boyfriend admitting spanking the child, Krantz said, he was the least culpable adult in the case.
"Anybody should know better than to hit a child with a shoe, but this kid was overwhelmed," Krantz said. "In fact, he may have been the only moderating influence in the household. His main fault was not reporting it."
The boyfriend was sentenced to six months in jail, with all but five days suspended. He cannot be left alone in a supervisory capacity of children younger than12.
The two women are not allowed to have unsupervised contact with any children unless approved by the Department of Social Services.
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