Found Deceased IL - Semaj Crosby, 16 mos, Joliet Township, 25 April 2017

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A lot of people have been raised prejudiced - fearing, mistrusting, hating, and hiding from law enforcement. Deflection is a first reaction for many.
 
https://www.facebook.com/AnitaPadil...tory_fbid=1090715071071885&id=266988400111227

Anita Padilla (Fox 32) interview today with an anonymous woman who sheds light on Semaj's home situation. I haven't watched it yet.
(It says 4 hours ago)

So it was a sofa-couch, with no legs. Just sat flush to the floor.
The squatters moved in one by one and SG didn't want to feel like the "bad guy" by telling them to leave.
Once they moved in, the conditions of the house started going down the drain.
She does believe that the DCFS worker dropped the ball.
The holes in the walls were from people fighting in the house.
Friend tried to get her to get the people out of there.

Pretty much along the same lines with what many of us here have been thinking.
 
"During a hearing Tuesday to determine where to place the deceased girl's three older brothers, Judge Paula Gomora said in previous visits to the home caseworkers missed obvious signs of trouble.

"What did they do to help the family and to help these children?" Gomora asked, incredulously. "Quite honestly, from what I saw, I don't know how any caseworker could've walked into that house and let those children stay."

She did not receive any immediate answers."



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ld-protection-hearing-met-20170502-story.html
 
Thank you, Ontario Mom, for summarizing the Anita podcast. I couldn't get it to play. Looks like the judge agreed with what many of us here saw in that rat-trap of a house, and called DCFS out on it.
 
While violence isn't the answer, sometimes you just want to punch someone in the throat. You know? I'd pay $1 mil to line up those case workers and get some shots in......
 
I think we all get that.... Yes the mom does have rights.. If one of my kids were missing that would be the last thing on my mind! Period. They would be free to go anywhere and look anywhere...IF IF it got to the point farther down the road and they seemed to be looking and pointing their finger at me THEN I would look into my rights... But kid missing just a few hours... Wouldn't even be a thought. But YES you are right.. She has the right to block them for searching her home.

I am well aware that the majority of people in such a situation wouldn't think of a lawyer. This is not a case of me not understanding why people are bringing up her request for a lawyer. However I also fully understand that there are a myriad of reasons people do not trust the police and that those reasons have nothing to do with being guilty of a crime. I know that law enforcement screws up. You only need to turn on the TV to see yet another episode of Dateline featuring a proven false confession such as in the case of Riley Fox. Riley's father did everything the majority of Websleuths would do if their child was missing and before he knew it he was wrongfully confessing to sexually assaulting and murdering his daughter. Watch a few more hours and then you will see that it isn't just the police you have to worry about but DA's with tunnel vision who will refuse to admit they are wrong and knowingly ignore evidence that doesn't fit their incorrect theory of the crime as we saw in the case of Ray Krone,the 100th man exonerated from death row. Just let that set in for a second. A hundred times where a person was innocent yet police found enough evidence to persuade a DA to prosecute, a DA persuaded a jury to convict, and that innocent person was deemed deserving of death.

So my "point blank period" is that there are reasons people need lawyers that have nothing to do with guilt and even in cases where I am almost certain that there was foul play (such as this one) I will never bring up requesting a lawyer as a sure sign of guilt. The assumption that lawyer equals guilt is a dangerous one because even if 98% of law enforcement and district attorneys have their hearts and minds in the right place (and I believe they do) you never know when you will come across the other 2%. People should not have to fear that "lawyering up" will result in LE and the public automatically assuming they are guilty.
 
"During a hearing Tuesday to determine where to place the deceased girl's three older brothers, Judge Paula Gomora said in previous visits to the home caseworkers missed obvious signs of trouble.

"What did they do to help the family and to help these children?" Gomora asked, incredulously. "Quite honestly, from what I saw, I don't know how any caseworker could've walked into that house and let those children stay."

She did not receive any immediate answers."



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ld-protection-hearing-met-20170502-story.html

Case workers had been in the home prior to the decline hadn't they? If so you would think that such a rapid decline would be beyond alarming to them.
 
Jumping off LeeLee's post above

Do we know if it was one case worker who was involved or if it was multiple ones over the course of several cases? Makes me wonder if it was more than one and that is why the disconnect on what should have been a red flag that there was a change in the kids' environment/living situation.
 
"DCFS had contracted with the private child welfare agency Children's Home + Aid to provide services to the family after the state agency determined in the earlier investigations that protective custody was not necessary. Children's Home + Aid declined to comment, citing the pending investigaton.

"If there were reasonable efforts (by caseworkers), those children would've been removed a long time ago," Gomora said."

The judge didn't specify, at least not as mentioned in thIs recent article. At a minimum, there is the case worker who does the home visits, and then the supervisor that they present their reports to, so that would be a minimum of 2 people to be held accountable here. Typically, reports, or 'cases', are assigned to a case manager/DCFS worker, who then stays with the family through the duration of the process. There's a case worker on this thread who may have more insight into the tier of responsibility with the contract agencies.
Edited to add: If an emergency visit is required, it may be whoever is on duty at that time, similar to probation and parole. For instance, if I am meeting with an offender who is an hour and a half away in the next county over, I may have a colleague ask me to pop in on one of their clients that is in the same area, to save them a trip. With federal agencies, this is allowed and often encouraged. Not sure about state agencies, or those contracted out by state agencies.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ld-protection-hearing-met-20170502-story.html

Jumping off LeeLee's post above

Do we know if it was one case worker who was involved or if it was multiple ones over the course of several cases? Makes me wonder if it was more than one and that is why the disconnect on what should have been a red flag that there was a change in the kids' environment/living situation.
 
This article is the first mention of a third brother of Semaj's, to my knowledge? He has been hospitalized since before her death? Anybody know why? The article states that he is still hospitalized and also that he is in DCFS custody, so not sure which is which, but I am curious as to why he has been in the hospital this whole time. Poor kids!!

"During a hearing Tuesday to determine where to place the deceased girl's three older brothers, Judge Paula Gomora said in previous visits to the home caseworkers missed obvious signs of trouble.

"What did they do to help the family and to help these children?" Gomora asked, incredulously. "Quite honestly, from what I saw, I don't know how any caseworker could've walked into that house and let those children stay."

She did not receive any immediate answers."



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ld-protection-hearing-met-20170502-story.html
 
Patiently awaiting those matching cuff links...... :jail:
 
I am well aware that the majority of people in such a situation wouldn't think of a lawyer. This is not a case of me not understanding why people are bringing up her request for a lawyer. However I also fully understand that there are a myriad of reasons people do not trust the police and that those reasons have nothing to do with being guilty of a crime. I know that law enforcement screws up. You only need to turn on the TV to see yet another episode of Dateline featuring a proven false confession such as in the case of Riley Fox. Riley's father did everything the majority of Websleuths would do if their child was missing and before he knew it he was wrongfully confessing to sexually assaulting and murdering his daughter. Watch a few more hours and then you will see that it isn't just the police you have to worry about but DA's with tunnel vision who will refuse to admit they are wrong and knowingly ignore evidence that doesn't fit their incorrect theory of the crime as we saw in the case of Ray Krone,the 100th man exonerated from death row. Just let that set in for a second. A hundred times where a person was innocent yet police found enough evidence to persuade a DA to prosecute, a DA persuaded a jury to convict, and that innocent person was deemed deserving of death.

So my "point blank period" is that there are reasons people need lawyers that have nothing to do with guilt and even in cases where I am almost certain that there was foul play (such as this one) I will never bring up requesting a lawyer as a sure sign of guilt. The assumption that lawyer equals guilt is a dangerous one because even if 98% of law enforcement and district attorneys have their hearts and minds in the right place (and I believe they do) you never know when you will come across the other 2%. People should not have to fear that "lawyering up" will result in LE and the public automatically assuming they are guilty.

You're missing my whole point.... I'm talking about the first hours of your child missing. How could you think of anything besides your baby???
 
You're missing my whole point.... I'm talking about the first hours of your child missing. How could you think of anything besides your baby???

Well... if your current residential status includes a whack of squatters that intimidate you, and your house looks like the city dump, complete with roaches climbing the walls and bed bugs... and you're currently in the middle of a DCFS investigation, and your baby is missing...

I suppose "get a lawyer" might pop into your head. Or have it suggested by someone who cares about you?
 
[video=twitter;859786120065896448]https://twitter.com/moniquegarcia/status/859786120065896448[/video]

[video=twitter;859784288753115136]https://twitter.com/ILSenDems/status/859784288753115136[/video]

[video=twitter;859801110260928512]https://twitter.com/samjcharles/status/859801110260928512[/video]
 
http://www.wjol.com/judge-demands-answers-death-joliet-township-girl/

Judge Demands Answers In Death Of Joliet Township Girl

Gordon’s 2-year-old son, whose father lives in Springfield, was taken into DCFS custody and placed in shelter care.

The third child, an 8-year-old boy who has the same father as Semaj, remains in the hospital. The child was hospitalized for unknown reasons prior to his sister’s death and also was placed in shelter care. The child’s father, James Crosby, was in jail at the time of Semaj’s death and was released last week.

More at link...
 

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