Bond Set For Mom Charged With Neglect In Son's Death
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A North Miami Beach woman charged with child neglect in the death of her toddler son made her first appearance before a judge Wednesday morning.
During the proceeding Cierrah Raphael, 22, told the judge she did not have a job and had been treated for depression in the past. The judge set her bail at $7,500.
Raphael and her boyfriend, 32-year old Claude Alexis, were arrested Tuesday. Alexis is being held in jail without bond.
According to the arrest report Alexis, who was home alone with 2-year old Ezra, woke up last Friday and found "water running into the bathroom and water all over." He reportedly became angry and hit the boy in the back until the toddler lost consciousness.
Alexis called 9-1-1. Paramedics took the boy to Jackson Memorial Hospital North where he was pronounced dead. At the hospital, doctors noted that the boy had a cut in the upper left eye and numerous bruises on his face, back and legs.
When questioned by police, Alexis said the boy had been eating grits and drinking water when he began to vomit and collapsed on the floor. When asked where Ezra's mother was when this happened, Alexis said she was out and he didn't know where she was.
When Raphael showed up at the hospital she told police she had left the boy with Alexis so she could go "make some money," according to a police report.
The Medical Examiner's Office ruled that the boy had died from blunt force trauma.
On Tuesday, Alexis went to the Miami Beach Police Department and told investigators he'd been unable to sleep since the boy's death. During questioning he admitted he had hit the boy in the back and buttocks with a belt, according to the arrest report. He told investigators he didn't mean for the boy to die.
Alexis was arrested and charged with first degree murder and aggravated child abuse.
Police said Raphael gave custody of her son to a family member shortly after his birth. In May, 2013 she regained custody of him.
According to her arrest report, Raphael made money through prostitution and would often leave the boy alone with Alexis when she went to solicit sex. She reportedly told investigators that she had noticed bruises on the boy's body in the past, but didn't ask Alexis what had happened or where they had come from.
Documents from the Department of Children and Families show the agency determined six months ago that the child was in danger but failed to follow up.
A report obtained by CBS4's news partner The Miami Herald quotes a DCF investigator in Gainesville as saying "the mother is unable to care for Ezra."
The agency was called after Cierrah Raphael left the child with a stranger.
The investigator wrote that "intervention services are needed" and that the safety "risk is high".
Nothing more was done.
Raphael left Gainesville and brought Ezra to the Miami area, leaving him with a non-relative caregiver. She took custody of the boy again less than two months ago.
Attorney Howard Talenfeld, President of Florida Chidren First, told CBS4's Brian Andrews too many kids are dying on DCF's watch.
"There have been three in the last 6 weeks. These are cases where there are huge red flags where investigators see high risk cases and are not providing services to these families. As a result, the kids die," he said.
Talenfeld said the biggest red flag in this latest case is that the mother abandoned her child in North Florida and couldn't get medical care.
"Those are circumstance is Mom wasn't offered services, or there was no certainty with this child's life, then DCF needed to intervene," said Talenfeld.
Talenfeld says the DCF system is failing.
"Are they doing the quality assurance to see whether the investigators are doing the right thing? Three years ago, the DCF Secretary deleted 70 positions from the budget to see whether DCF was doing its job appropriately. You won't know if investigators are doing the right thing unless they are appropriately supervised and DCF is checking on them," he said.
CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed to this report.
