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That fucker is only 17. I'm telling you that people should need a liscence to have kids.

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"I know every one of you, I know the sea of torment, doubt, despair and unbelief." -Walt Whitman
USA

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Gotta put them in jail - NOT segregated lockup - GENERAL POPULATION. The prisoners will find out in NO TIME, and will dispense their own brand of punishment.

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sodomizing his daughter since she was three months old

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and offering to swap her so he could have sex with other men's young daughters,

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"These dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation
shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government
of the people, by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
-- Abraham Lincoln

She-Mail Me Here

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Uncle Angry Over Girl's Abuse, Death
Says child welfare agency should have prevented it

By Sean Gardiner and Joshua Robin
STAFF WRITERS

November 8, 2001

A relative of a malnourished Staten Island girl allegedly killed by her abusive parents blamed authorities yesterday for not protecting the 3-year-old whose life had been entangled in the child welfare system since the day she was born.

Joseph Herrnkind, an uncle of Sylena Herrnkind, said yesterday that the family had a long history with the Administration for Children's Services, which often investigated then dismissed allegations of abuse lodged against the girl's parents.

"It's been an ongoing thing, and the system really screwed up," Herrnkind, 38, the brother of Julie Herrnkind, said outside Staten Island Criminal Court, where Julie, 24, and her husband, Matthew Herrnkind, 27, were ordered held without bail yesterday.

The two are charged with murder, assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

According to papers released in court yesterday, the two tortured Sylena on Monday, beating the child before forcing soap into her mouth, holding her head under ice-cold water and scraping her little legs with a scouring pad before rubbing a mixture of peroxide and alcohol into her wounds.

The brutal assault, officials said Julie Herrnkind told them, was prompted because Sylena had soiled her pants.

"We told her to go upstairs to clean her pants, and we smacked her in the face, and when I hit her, her head went backwards and she hit the back of her head," Julie Herrnkind told police. "She fell, and Matthew smacked her in the back of the head, and her head hit the tub again. She was screaming and crying."

Matthew Herrnkind then scrubbed the girl's legs, Julie Herrnkind told police. They finished the assault by beating her until she fell unconscious, Julie Herrnkind said.

"I thought we went too far this time," she told police, according to court papers."She was lying on the floor, and after no answer, I picked her up. I then called 911 and said, 'Oh my God, we killed this kid.'"

The city medical examiner ruled that Sylena died of "battered child syndrome."

Her siblings, Diane, 4; Jose, 14 months; Missy, 5; and Alexya, 2; were removed from the home. Diane, who is autistic, had burn and bruise marks on her lower body, and Jose had broken ribs, police said. Missy and Alexya weren't injured.

According to Jennifer Falk, a spokeswoman for the Administration for Children's Services, Julie and Matthew Herrnkind (who had taken his wife's surname) were indeed well known to child welfare officials, their history dating to 1997.

On about six occasions, child welfare officials were called to the family's home, with the allegations being deemed unfounded on four occasions, Falk said. The other two cases were substantiated, and the Herrnkinds were ordered to undergo treatment. The family also had regular visits from ACS workers, including one who was in the house five times a week.

Three days before Sylena's battered body was removed from the family's home at 176 Boyd St. in the Clifton section, the agency ruled that an Aug. 23 complaint that Sylena was beaten by her parents was unfounded.

It was one of the latest in a long line of such complaints and findings.

Falk said the agency is now investigating "whether or not all appropriate case work was followed."

"I don't think this is a case where the child fell through the cracks," she said. "There were multiple incidents where people [case workers] came into that home."

The agency's first dealings with the family was in 1997 when it received a report that Missy and Diane were filthy, Falk said. That case was closed as unfounded, Falk said.

In July 1998, the agency received a report that Diane had several bruises. The Herrnkinds told authorities they were simply disciplining a difficult child. Authorities arrested the parents on assault charges. The Staten Island district attorney did not pursue criminal charges because of a lack of evidence, Falk said.

The case went to Family Court, and a judge placed Missy and Diane in foster care. When Sylena was born on Oct. 19, 1998, the judge also ordered her placed in foster care.

In April 1999, while the Herrnkinds were visiting their daughters, a foster parent alleged that the two were verbally abusive to Diane. Unfounded, child welfare officials ruled.

In December 1999, a foster parent filed a report that Missy, Diane and Sylena were filthy after a visit at their parents' home. That report was substantiated, Falk said.

From the time the Herrnkinds' children were taken into state custody, Julie and Matthew Herrnkind had been receiving counseling, taking anger management classes, parenting skills lessons and couples therapy, Falk said. During that time, the Herrnkinds had their fourth child, Alexya, who was allowed to live with her parents.

In March of last year, Missy, Diane and Sylena were returned to their parents and the case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal. The conditional dismissal, as it's known in court parlance, was contingent upon the parents continuing to receive counseling and the children passing evaluations.

"In the court's point of view, it was on consent of all parties, including those representing the children and ACS," said a court official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "It wasn't as though the judge sent them off into the sunset. This was a situation where the family was supposed to be supervised and evaluated by ACS."

A month after the Herrnkind family was whole again, ACS received a report that the parents were leaving the kids home alone. A social worker investigated that claim and closed the case as unfounded, Falk said.

The Herrnkinds then went a year and a half before ACS received another report about them. During this time, they had Jose, and Julie Herrnkind became pregnant again.

On Aug. 23, the agency was called to the Herrnkinds' home to investigate a report that Sylena had been abused. A social worker found Sylena wearing a cast on her leg and sporting bruises on her face and head.

The parents said Diane had attacked Sylena. They also said Sylena broke her leg when she jumped off a bunk bed a few months earlier. It was an account that doctors apparently believed because Sylena's broken leg had never been reported to child welfare officials, officials said.

Falk said several health care providers, including an ACS homemaker who is in the house five days a week, a visiting nurse, and speech, physical and occupational therapists who work with the Herrnkind children, were interviewed.

"Everyone indicated that the parents were not abusive," Falk said. "All these people interviewed determined that the account that the autistic child had inflicted the injuries was plausible, and the case was deemed unfounded."

Falk said social workers continued regular visits with the Herrnkinds and no one reported noticing any signs of abuse or neglect.

That has Joseph Herrnkind very upset.

"If they didn't see this," he said, "then it's a slip through the cracks."

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I know it's wrong and it makes you nauseous.
But I'm not suspicious, I'm cautious.
And you know I want to love and trust you.
But it's really a lot to try and adjust to.