WERE DANGER SIGNS MISSED IN SLAYING?Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer ROSAMOND -- Two months before he was beaten to death, 5-year-old Darion Wheat visited his grandmother and told her he was afraid of his mother's boyfriend. The grandmother found bruises Bruises Definition Bruises, or ecchymoses, are a discoloration and tenderness of the skin or mucous membranes due to the leakage of blood from an injured blood vessel into the tissues. Pupura refers to bruising as the result of a disease condition. on Darion's 4-year-old brother and called authorities. But social workers allowed the boys and a toddler brother and infant sister to return to their mother, in whose home investigators believe Darion was fatally fa·tal·ly adv. 1. So as to cause death; mortally: fatally injured. 2. So as to result in disaster or ruin. 3. According to the decree of fate; inevitably. Adv. 1. beaten on Aug. 9. ``I said, what do you mean? How are you going to give back the kids when they've got bruises and Darion said he was scared?'' said grandmother Annie Ray, who had custody of the older children until last December and now has the three surviving children living with her. ``Two months later this happened.'' The 26-year-old boyfriend, George ``Bleu'' Tyler, is now jailed in Kern Kern, river, 155 mi (249 km) long, rising in the S Sierra Nevada Mts., E Calif., and flowing south, then southwest to a reservoir in the extreme southern part of the San Joaquin valley. The river has Isabella Dam as its chief facility. County on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of Darion. Darion's 22-year-old mother, Dionna Wheat, was charged this week with felony felony (fĕl`ənē), any grave crime, in contrast to a misdemeanor, that is so declared in statute or was so considered in common law. child endangerment and being an accessory after a felony. Tyler's mother, Mavis Watson, 45, also has been charged with being an accessory to a crime and destruction of evidence. court. Wheat, who was on probation for forgery forgery, in art forgery, in art, the false claim to authenticity for a work of art. The Nature of Forgery Because the provenance of works of art is seldom clear and because their origin is often judged by means of subtle factors, art in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County, originally told officials that Darion had been fatally injured in·jure tr.v. in·jured, in·jur·ing, in·jures 1. To cause physical harm to; hurt. 2. To cause damage to; impair. 3. when she accidentally ran over him with her car in their Rosamond driveway. But an autopsy indicated Darion died from blunt-force trauma, inconsistent with being run over by a car, Kern County officials said. Tyler had been under a court order to stay away from Darion and the two younger boys, though not the 8-month-old girl, his daughter, a Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services report shows. Department officials would not comment on the case, but Ray said she was told the court order was issued in December -- when the children were returned to their mother -- because Tyler refused to be fingerprinted for a background check. A social worker told her the order had never been enforced because Tyler had not been served with it, Ray said. Social workers also told her visits to the Buckwheat buckwheat, common name for certain members of the Polygonaceae, a family of herbs and shrubs found chiefly in north temperate areas and having a characteristic pungent juice containing oxalic acid. Species native to the United States are most common in the West. Avenue home in Rosamond showed no signs a man was living there. A department status report that Ray obtained after she made her complaint in June said that Wheat seemed to have a loving relationship with the children, that the house was neat and clean when social workers arrived for unannounced visits, and that there weren't any safety issues involving her. A sheriff's deputy who accompanied social workers to Ray's home to investigate her abuse report dismissed the bruises on the younger boy's buttocks buttocks /but·tocks/ (but´oks) the two fleshy prominences formed by the gluteal muscles on the lower part of the back. as minor, Ray said. ``The sheriff said that was normal for a parent to spank a child. I said, it wasn't a parent that spanked the child. It was the boyfriend who wasn't to be in contact with the children,'' Ray said. Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services spokesman Stuart Riskin said confidentiality laws forbid for·bid tr.v. for·bade or for·bad , for·bid·den or for·bid, for·bid·ding, for·bids 1. To command (someone) not to do something: I forbid you to go. 2. him from commenting on Darion's case, but that the department investigates every death of a child in the system. The Office of Independent Review, which investigates shooting by sheriff's deputies, also investigates deaths under an agreement with the department. ``We always look into it to see what policies work and what don't work,'' Riskin said. Ray said she got custody of the older children in January 2004 after they were found in a car after a police chase that ended in Van Nuys. A year before, they had wound up in temporary protective custody An arrangement whereby a person is safeguarded by law enforcement authorities in a location other than the person's home because his or her safety is seriously threatened. after they were found at a Mojave motel where Dionna's boyfriend was arrested, she said. Ray said she believes the children were given back to their mother in June because their safety wasn't social workers' top priority. ``My personal opinion is that it's all about trying to do their paperwork, and making their paperwork as easy as possible. It wasn't about caring for the welfare of the children,'' she said. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color ran in AV edition only) Darion Wheat, 5, was fatally beaten on Aug. 9, officials say. |
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