PARENTS ACCUSED OF TORTURE.Byline: Michael Gougis Staff Writer Prosecutors on Thursday added an allegation of torture to the murder charges filed against a Lancaster couple accused of killing their 22- month-old son, raising the possibility that the pair could be sentenced to death. The additional allegations were filed against the couple - Anthony Lopez, 35, and Sylvia Torres Rolon, 41 - at a hearing in downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or . The pair are charged in the killing of Isaac Lopez, who was found dead in a duffel bag in his father's van in April. Officials said the boy died of multiple injuries and asphyxiation asphyxiation /as·phyx·i·a·tion/ (as-fix?e-a´shun) suffocation; the stoppage of respiration. Asphyxiation Oxygen starvation of tissues. , and after his death was badly burned on his head and face. Lopez and Rolon each have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, assault on a child causing death and child abuse. They are being held on $1 million bail. A confidential county auditor-control report obtained by the Daily News also blamed social workers for poor oversight, incompetence and numerous policy violations in returning the boy to his parents' care. On Thursday, the head of the county's child welfare organization said that an investigation remains under way into the actions of - and potential discipline against - the child social workers who had removed Lopez from his parents but then returned him. DCFS DCFS Department of Children and Family Services DCFS Division of Children and Family Services DCFS Descriptional Complexity of Formal Systems (conference) DCFS Data Communication & Functional System Director David Sanders David Sanders is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue University[1]. His expertise concerns gene therapy, cancer research, biodefense, and pandemic influenza. said the failure of case workers to give the Juvenile Court juvenile court Special court handling problems of delinquent, neglected, or abused children. Two types of cases are processed by a juvenile court: civil matters, often concerning care of an abandoned or impoverished child, and criminal matters, arising from antisocial the family's entire background violated basic principles of social work. ``We need to be much sharper, more accurate in our decisions. We can't have children involved in dangerous family situations for eight to 10 years - that's just begging for trouble,'' said Sanders, who took over the oft- criticized agency in March. ``We have some broad, system issues. It's no secret. Willful Intentional; not accidental; voluntary; designed. There is no precise definition of the term willful because its meaning largely depends on the context in which it appears. violations of policy are a major problem. You have to look at the case's whole history, you have to incorporate that into your decisions.'' Lopez and Rolon had at least a 10-year history with the agency, with Lopez being convicted of spousal spou·sal adj. 1. Of or relating to marriage; nuptial. 2. Of or relating to a spouse. n. Marriage; nuptials. Often used in the plural. abuse and physically abusing one of Rolon's sons. However, a series of policy violations and mistakes - including a case worker simply failing to read the family's entire history of child abuse and neglect - led to Rolon's seven children being returned to her, an internal county audit concluded. Michael Gougis, (818) 713-3762 michael.gougis(at)dailynews.com |
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