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CAS Accused of Framing Parents

January 8, 2007 permalink

Here is a new view on an old child protection case. Maliek Willie died in September 1997. According to investigator Daniel Deilgat, the boy died from a previous injury incurred falling down a fire escape. Children's Aid had been involved with the family and protected itself by blaming the family. Below is a recent blog entry from Mr Deilgat, followed by a Hamilton Spectator article from three years ago. The Spectator relies on statements by Dr Dirk Huyer, former head of the SCAN clinic at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Dr Huyer's attitude toward parents resembles that of Dr Charles Smith, also formerly of Sick Kids. Dr Huyer never looks for exculpatory evidence. We have a statement under oath from him asserting that when he gets a case, child abuse has already been established.

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Maliek Willie; where was the Children’s Aid when he needed them

Sometime ago I was asked by a friend, to talk with the mother of a child who had just died from what seemed to be previous injuries he incurred when he fell down a fire escape. The Hamilton police were then initiating an investigation and, the mother and her boyfriend were automatic suspects.

Daniel Deilgat became an investigator by necessity. Throughout his life he was confronted with circumstances that most of us will never encounter. From rapists to Drug cartels to financial crimes, Daniel always played people to their disadvantages. Daniel is not the nice neighbor next door, and he isn't anybody's best friend but, he is undeniably the best investigator there is this side of the sun. He will give you the truth in such a way that you'll never believe him. He will also catch you with what you didn't believe was true. He will never give you a chance, he will fight for what is right, whether you like it or not. He is the only man I can trust. Thanks Hank. - I think...

Any police officer that I know would tell you the same thing. When a young child dies, most of the time the parents had an implied role in the welfare of the child to begin with and therefore, the parents will be under extraordinary scrutiny.

In the case of Maliek Willie, scrutiny persisted until the hat seemed to fit the crime.

One overwhelming factor was that the CAS was in fact also on the hot seat in this case because they had become involved with the family well before the death of the child and that didn’t look good for the organization. At that time, the Children’s Aid Society was immersed in several cases whereas children had died and the Maliek Willie case could have easily been the drop in the proverbial bucket that would have seriously shadowed the agencies across the province.

One journalist in the case at the onset was Gloria Galloway. When she first talked to me, she confided that she too had issues with the CAS, that she didn’t trust them either. She wanted an interview.

I did give her a statement on behalf of the family and I shared portions of a report I had commissioned on the health predicament of the child.

I met with the two Hamilton Police investigators involved in the case and, it quickly became obvious that their case was circumstantial at best. They refused to consider the legitimacy of the testimony offered by CAS agents, two women that clearly had a vested interest in transferring the doubt over to the parents.

Concurrently, the Hamilton police force were so infatuated by other unrelated circumstances that involved Carlos Clark that, they weren’t about to help him in anyway, the investigation was drowned in impartiality. The investigation of Carlos Clark quickly became prejudicial and, to a great extent, a witch-hunt. The CAS seized on the opportunity to stack the allegations against the parents, unable to state facts without embellishments.

Myself, I walked away from the issues because of other commitments and the belief that the parents would somehow make it through the ordeal once their lawyers would grasp the evidence. Now I am not sure that justice was served nor that the Children’s Aid officers conducted themselves legally. Nor have I received any calls from the attorneys for the defense.

Oddly enough, the police seemed to have forgotten about the interview conducted at my house in Brantford between Mr. McNiven, if I remember his name correctly, and myself.

That Maliek Willie died is a tragedy. That the truth was swept under the carpet is a threat to all children under the responsibility of the agency.

This wasn’t about punishment or solving the death of a child; it was about manipulating and re-directing the burden of responsibility, about misleading the courts and leading the administration of justice into disrepute.

Daniel Deilgat

posted by Dan Deilgat @ Saturday, December 09, 2006

Source: Daniel M. Deilgat's blog


BABY MALIEK SUFFERED PAIN WELL BEFORE HIS MURDER

Hamilton Spectator, April 30, 2004

A doctor who specializes in child abuse cases says a 14-month-old Hamilton boy who was murdered in September 1997 suffered immensely before he was finally beaten into unconsciousness.

Dr. Dirk Huyer, an Ontario coroner and former director of the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect (Scan) unit at Toronto's Hospital For Sick Children, said his review of medical and autopsy records relating to Maliek Willie indicated the child sustained numerous inflicted blows to his face, head and body in the last eight days of his life.

Huyer said the extreme force of some blows and random distribution of the injuries ruled out the possibility of a series of mishaps.

The toddler, who was in a partial body cast with a healing leg fracture at the time, would have been virtually immobile and therefore unlikely to have accidentally caused any of the injuries himself.

"Overall, it's my belief the child was in distress with pain over a significant portion of the last days of his life."

There was no sign of trouble in his first year of his life, but at 13 1/2 months Maliek suffered his first unusual injury. His mother, Carmelita Willie, asked their family doctor in Brantford to examine a large area of swelling on the back of her son's head.

The doctor ordered X-rays and was satisfied he did not have a skull fracture.

Willie, 30, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. She is accused of being a party to the homicide for which her former boyfriend, Carlos Clarke, was convicted last year.

On Sept. 8, Willie returned to the Brantford doctor with Maliek, who was screaming in pain with a displaced fracture of the femur, meaning his thigh bone was snapped in two pieces.

The mom said the boy had fallen on some stairs three days earlier.

Maliek spent 12 days in Brantford General Hospital where he was put in traction and in what's called a hip spica cast, from his chest to his foot.

Dr. Chitra Rao, who conducted an autopsy on the baby 10 days later, said Maliek suffered severe head trauma and would have been comatose for at least 12 to 18 hours before death. Her microscopic examination revealed areas of fresh hemorrhaging that had occurred within hours of death, while other injuries had been inflicted three to 10 days earlier.

The baby's skull was fractured in three places. Huyer said one of them was a Y-shaped, complex fracture that is more often seen in children who have fallen from great heights or have been in an automobile accident.

Assistant Crown attorney Tony Leitch drew the coroner's attention to the child's left cheek, which had a large scab-covered gash superimposed over an area of deep bruising and pebble-like cuts and gouges.

Leitch asked if the injury could have been caused by a sibling, then two years and nine months old, hitting his little brother with a toy truck.

Huyer said it was "very unlikely" that a child that young could generate the force required to inflict this injury.

The doctor said it was more likely the injury to the face, and others to the baby's hands, were caused by his body striking a hard, rough surface.

"Could the injury have been caused by a brick wall?" asked Leitch.

"Very definitely," replied Huyer.

bbrown@thespec.com

905-526-3494

Source: recovered from Darla McKinstry, who faithfully copies articles from the press

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