Connecticut

Kevin Rennie: DCF owes Connecticut children a standard better than ‘not that abysmal’

Published

11 months ago

August 12, 2023

“Not that abysmal.”

That is a phrase that a Department of Children and Families worker used to describe the conditions in the Hartford apartment where toddler Corneliuz A. S. Williams fell from a third floor window on July 22 and died two days later, according to a police report on the incident.

If “not that abysmal” is the new standard of living conditions that the state’s child protection agency sees as adequate of defensible, then it is discarding its obligations and Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration is creating a chilling legacy.

Corneliuz was in his family’s Capitol Avenue apartment on Saturday, July 22 with his four sisters, the oldest of whom is 12, according to a Hartford police report obtained by the Courant. A neighbor saw him fall from the window. Police and medical assistance arrived shortly after and took Corneliuz to a hospital, where he died two days later.

The little boy’s death is not the only tragedy in this sorrowful event. The police report describes the allegedly squalid conditions Hartford officers found in the family’s apartment when they arrived on the scene. The air inside was “heavy with an overwhelming odor,” according to the police report. One office reported his boots stuck to the floor as he walked around the apartment.

The report details stains, spoiled food, garbage and the smell of urine and feces emanating from bedrooms. The one adult and five children residing in the apartment, according to the report, lived in an “abysmal” state. The conditions announced themselves as the officers climbed the stairs to the third floor. They were living in alleged squalor in one of the nation’s wealthiest states.

Only a month before, according to one DCF official who spoke to police, “the condition of the apartment was not that abysmal.” At least one DCF worker had been at the apartment in June, about a month before Corneliuz fell to his death. DCF was in the process of closing its case when Corneliuz died.

In mid-June, we are asked to believe, five children between the ages of 12 and 2 were living in conditions that caused no urgent concerns at DCF. About a month later, that same apartment was in such an allegedly putrid mess that a police officer could smell it in the stairwell to the third floor.

As attention and dismay grew in the aftermath of Corneliuz’s death, DCF commissioner Vanessa Dorantes intervened with a request. “Please pause any judgment on individuals who are subject to maltreatment allegations,” Dorantes wrote in an unusual public statement.

Taylor Hartz/Hartford Courant

Tabitha Frank (center) speaks outside of Hartford Superior Court on Thursday. Frank remains free on bond and her case is being transferred to Part A court, where major crimes are heard. Taylor Hartz/Hartford Courant

Corneliuz’s mother, Tabitha Frank, was not home when her son fell from a window. She has been charged with 10 counts of risk of injury to a minor and first-degree manslaughter. Frank, like every American, enjoys the presumption of innocence. In her grief, Frank may be imprudent to reduce what happened to the mistake of leaving her children alone before Corneliuz’s father arrived at the apartment to watch their son. Frank is free to try her case on the steps of the courthouse, but that’s not often a winning strategy inside the courthouse.

Dorantes carries a different burden. She is accountable to the public now. DCF is limited in the details it can reveal but it will damage itself if it tries to divert and obfuscate. The Office of the Child Advocate will conduct an investigation. It enjoys sweeping powers to gather information that can pierce the thick layer of secrecy that allows DCF to keep the public and public officials from gaining a clear view of the agency’s action — or inaction.

As the public reeled from the revelations of the conditions in the Frank family apartment, Dorantes delivered a homily on how the world works. “It takes the collective efforts of all members of our community — family members, neighbors, professionals, and concerned citizens — to ensure that children can safely remain at home,” Dorantes declared. “A simple gesture of offering help may change the life of a child and their caregiver.”

It takes parents to create a safe home. It is not an undefined community’s fault that five children were alone and living in alleged unrelenting filth on a Saturday afternoon last month. But it might be Dorantes’ agency’s fault. A “simple gesture” might have been someone reporting concerns to DCF in June. The agency might then have engaged with more than a simple gesture. It might have acted in a meaningful way to help five children and their struggling mother.

We provide DCF with resources, including 3,300 employees, to assist families with services that will help them stay together under conditions that allow children to live free from danger, neglect and abuse. The agency’s first duty remains ensuring that children are living in conditions far better than “not that abysmal.” That is not a standard, it’s an admission of fatal failure.

Kevin F. Rennie of South Windsor is a lawyer and a former Republican state senator and representative.

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Connecticut

The impact that gun violence has on hospitals and health care workers in Connecticut

Published

3 hours ago

June 26, 2024

Press Room

The impact that gun violence has on hospitals and health care workers in Connecticut

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — The United States Surgeon General declared gun violence a health emergency, and News 8 is taking a look at how these acts of violence impact healthcare workers in the state.

While Connecticut leads the rest of the United States in terms of gun laws, communities are still experiencing high rates of gun violence.

Firearms are the number one cause of death for youth in Hartford, according to Jennifer Martin, M.D., an emergency medicine doctor at Saint Francis Hospital.

“It is taxing on the entire medical staff,” Martin said. “From everyone who works in the emergency departments, the operating rooms, the surgical floors. Every single person it touches touches violence in that way and it wears on everybody.”

At Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, they have staff who will meet with families and victims of gun violence while they are still receiving medical care to discuss what happened and help them through the recovery process, Dr. Kevin Borrup, executive director of the hospital’s Injury Prevention Center, said.

Borrup said that the most effective time to intervene with a gun shot victim is at the bedside shortly after the incident, calling it the “golden hour” where people are more likely to receive help.

Saint Francis also has efforts to educate the community on gun violence prevention.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) said that while the surgeon general’s declaration was a step in the right direction, he hopes that it is followed by action.

“We need real action to ban assault weapons, provide for better liability on the part of the gun manufacturers, red flag statutes,” Blumenthal said.

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Connecticut

Wildlife Watch: Efforts to protect sea lamprey in Connecticut River

Published

11 hours ago

June 25, 2024

Press Room

Wildlife Watch: Efforts to protect sea lamprey in Connecticut River

WESTMINSTER, Vt. (WCAX) – They may be considered a pest in Lake Champlain, but state wildlife officials say sea lamprey call the Connecticut River home.

While the population in Lake Champlain is controlled as a nuisance species, lampreys make up an important part of the Connecticut River ecosystem. Every year, sea lampreys spawn in the river as far upstream as Wilder Dam in the Upper Valley, and in many of the tributaries including the West, Williams, Black, and White Rivers.

In this week’s Wildlife Watch, Ike Bendavid traveled to Westminster, where Vermont Fish and Wildlife biologists are working to protect spawning habitat on the Saxtons River.

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Connecticut

Man spends $20K to transform his Connecticut home into fun, color-filled ‘dollhouse’

Published

18 hours ago

June 25, 2024

Press Room

Man spends $20K to transform his Connecticut home into fun, color-filled ‘dollhouse’

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A New Yorker has turned his new home in Connecticut into a pop-of-color “dollhouse” after dreaming of such a space ever since he was a child.

Jonny Carmack, 31, bought his Danbury, Connecticut, home in 2020 after needing to escape Manhattan during the pandemic.

He said that this particular three-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom home was the first space he toured — and that it was the perfect size but didn’t have the perfect look, SWNS reported.

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However, he’d been dreaming of turning a property into his personal “dollhouse” ever since he was a kid, he said.

“When I bought this house, I knew I wanted to use it as a landing pad for my creativity,” he said.

Jonny Carmack, pictured here, told Fox News Digital he’s grateful for the supportive online community that’s been weighing in on his colorful home. (Jonny Carmack / Fox News)

Today, after spending roughly $20,000 on renovations, Carmack has a color-filled space that is hard to miss.

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Thanks to some help from Facebook Marketplace and HomeGoods, Carmack bought unique secondhand items to turn his new space into something special.

Carmack has multiple rooms in his home that are full of colorful items. (SWNS / SWNS)

“I knew what I wanted the themes of my home to be, and now I have been finetuning them to push my personality out there more,” he told SWNS.

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Carmack has a fruit room, a bakery dining room, a blue lounge, a pink parlor, a pop art bathroom, an ice cream bathroom and more themed spaces within his Connecticut home.

The homeowner said he added over $100,000 in value to his home thanks to the colorful renovations and decorative items.

The dining room of the home features shades of green, pink and blue throughout. (SWNS / SWNS)

Carmack noted that his favorite space in the home is his kitchen.

He said it has the best lighting, and that he loves to use it for cooking and hosting.

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Carmack told Fox News Digital that his rooms were inspired by special people and places he idolized.

“Each room is designed around the vintage 1980s furniture I curated over the last 3 to 4 years,” he said. “And my biggest inspirations have been Dolly Parton, Barbie and colorful Floridian tack.”

Carmack, who moved to Connecticut a few years ago, said he’s dreamed of creating a real-life dollhouse for as long as he can remember. (SWNS / SWNS)

He also told Fox News Digital that he’d always been drawn to “dollhouse aesthetics” as a child and would often imagine himself living in such a place.

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He said, “I tried to force myself into the more tame and modern stylings as an adult and decorated many spaces in various shades of beige and white before being brave enough to go bold!”