NUBIA DOCTER - 10 yo twin/ Accused:Jorge Barahona - Palm Beach FL

TomTerrific0420 wrote:Gripped by "a persistent, insidious bias of trust," caseworkers and
investigators gave Jorge and Carmen Barahona a pass every time concerns
were raised that the couple was abusing and neglecting their adoptive
children, a Miami-Dade grand jury said in a report released Monday.

So trusting ...
... conducted following the various
reports called into the Hotline."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/miami-dade/mh-nubia-barahona-grand-jury-20110725,0,7688353.story

All the while, blood relatives who would have loved and cared for these children were fighting a losing battle for custody.

I still can't figure out why DCF fought against their relative having them. Piss poor judgment is all that comes to mind.

Investigators have released more details about the lives of the Barahona family.
Jorge
and Carmen Barahona are facing first degree murder and child abuse
charges after their adoptive daughter, Nubia Barahona, was found dead in
the back of a pickup truck in West Palm Beach in February.
A
search warrant released Thursday shows disturbing evidence of abuse in
the home, including photos taken after the children were found.
Some
of the pictures show an adult size bloody t-shirt, as well as hazardous
chemicals and prescription medicines. Experts say these pictures may be
the first sign of what it was like to live in the Barahona home.
"This is a very challenging case, the facts, they're awful," said legal analyst Michelle Suskauer.
Suskauer poured over the pictures.
"I think that these pictures are very powerful when you present them in a trial to a jury," she said.
Armed with a search warrant for the Barahona residence, investigators say they found blood and bodily fluids on several walls.
Police
think Jorge and Carmen Barahona used rolls of clear tape to tie up
their adoptive 10-year-old daughter, Nubia, and her twin brother,
Victor, then they allegedly left the children in a bathtub for days
behind a locked bathroom door.
Investigators combed through the
home and say they also found sex toys and a business card from a
detective with the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Unit. It was dated 2005,
and Jorge Barahona's name was on it.
"This is not something that was just going on in February," said Suskauer. "This is something going on for years."
Documents
alleged that between January 1, 2010, and February 14, 2011, the
children were intentionally beaten, willfully tortured, and maliciously
punished and caged.
The state wants the death penalty for the
Barahonas. Suskauer says the defense faces a monumental challenge if the
case goes before a jury.
"It's very hard to present a case like that to a jury and defend it," she said.
Jorge and Carmen Barahona have plead not guilty to first degree murder charges.

Read more: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_c_palm_beach_county/west_palm_beach/new-details-in-horrific-barahona-case#ixzz1cl3KqzjR

A Miami-Dade judge will decide whether Carmen and Jorge Barahona,
charged in the torture-murder slaying of their adopted 10-year-old
daughter Nubia, should be tried separately.
It is not unusual for
co-defendants to be tried by jury separately if they give statements to
police that could incriminate the other. In this case, prosecutors have
not decided whether they will use the Barahonas’ statements, although
Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Gail Levine told the judge Tuesday
she “is leaning toward not using” them as evidence.
Carmen and
Jorge Barahona are accused of torturing and murdering Nubia, their
adopted 10-year-old daughter, inside their West Miami-Dade house. Her
twin brother, Victor, was starved, tortured and beaten, prosecutors say.




Defense attorneys for the Barahonas had asked Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel to try the two separately.
Nubia's
chemical-soaked body was found in the back of Jorge Barahona's pickup
truck on Feb. 14 along Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach. Victor was
severely injured, and Jorge Barahona was found passed out nearby.
Nubia's
death cast a harsh spotlight on the Florida Department of Children
& Families, which had received numerous abuse complaints against the
Barahonas.
Prosecutors and a lawyer acting as a guardian for
Victor said they don’t want separate trials because of the toll it could
take on Victor, who is living with relatives in Texas. Victor could
also testify in the attempted murder case against Jorge Barahona in Palm
Beach County.
The children in this case, especially Victor, “have
been through such horrible circumstances that everything possible to
minimize any additional trauma should be considered,” Frances Feinberg,
of Florida’s Guardian Ad Litem program, wrote in a court motion.
Although Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel told lawyers she may rule by late Tuesday, a trial is likely years away.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/08/2492498/miami-dade-judge-considers-trying.html#ixzz1dDyDnfSm

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/barahona-records-neighbor-says-jorge-barahona-was-super-2022168.html

MIAMI — Jorge Barahona was given to paranoia and fears of conspiracies around him that he expressed to a neighbor, according to investigative materials released this week by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office, fears that may have led him to murder his adopted daughter and almost kill her brother, Victor.

James Sheppard, 49, who lived next to Barahona and his wife, Carmen, for years before they were arrested and charged with murder in February, said the couple mainly kept to themselves, but that he did have occasional conversations with Jorge from yard to yard.

“He was always talking about conspiracy, about people breaking in, or keeping your gates locked,” Sheppard said according transcripts of his interview with investigators. “He was really paranoid, super paranoid.”

The Barahonas are facing first degree murder charges, accused of killing Nubia Barahona, 10. Jorge is also accused of trying to kill Nubia’s twin brother, Victor, and both he and Carmen face charges of aggravated child abuse and neglect. The two children were found by police Feb. 14 in pickup truck owned by Jorge, an exterminator, parked on the side of I-95 in West Palm Beach.

Nubia was dead, found in plastic bag also filled with pesticide chemicals in the back of the truck. Victor had been badly burned with chemicals, but survived.

In another interview released this week, Yovani Perez, formerly married to Carmen Barahona’s daughter, Jennifer, and the father of the Barahonas’ 6 –year-old granddaughter, said the girl, who often went to the Barahona house after school, came back with frightening stories in the days before the twins were found.

She said the twins were bound hand and foot, tied together and placed in the bathtub of the Barahona home where they spent hours. Perez asked his daughter why that was done to them and, according to Perez, the girl said Carmen had explained it to her:

“Because those are bad kids and they want to poison (Carmen) and Jorge,” the girl allegedly said. “And that those kids have already put alcohol and some poison in their food.”

In interviews with Carmen, released earlier, she told investigators that her husband was afraid because the children had threatened to kill him with rat poison and they had also put baby oil in his soda.

After hearing his daughter’s account, Perez arranged to have the girl taken for counseling and that meeting led the therapist, Lisa Reis, to call the hotline of the Department of Children and Families to report the possible abuse.

That was Feb. 10, but DCF was not able to find the twins in time to save Nubia, who police believe was beaten to death by Jorge, probably on Feb. 11.

Sheppard told investigators that on the morning of Feb. 12, his daughter, 14, whose bedroom faced the spot where Jorge parked his truck, told him she had been woken up at about 4 a.m. because Jorge “was making a bunch of noise."

“It sounded like he was loading something in his truck,” Sheppard’s daughter told him.

Nubia’s body was later found shoved into the farthest corner of the bed of that truck.

Sheppard told investigators of strong chemical smells that he experienced in his house at times that had no apparent cause.

At another point Sheppard described Jorge physically. He said his neighbor appeared to be possibly “high on something because he was always jerking around. His hair was always a mess, his eyes were always glazed.”

These POSs. These beautiful children had blood relatives fighting in court for custody. DCF fought it all the way. I've never heard an explanation for the STUPID decisions DCF made that led to the brutality of these children and the heinous murder of the precious little girl.

Caretaker details abuse child says he endured

[color:6fa6=#999]Posted: Yesterday at 10:30 pm EST
MIAMI (WSVN) -- The caretaker of a 10-year-old boy who was allegedly
abused by his adoptive parents has provided new details about the abuse
he said he and his murdered sister endured.

Katia Garcia was the temporary guardian who took care of Victor after
the 10-year-old boy was found doused with chemicals and severely burned
in a pickup truck on the side of Interstate 95, near West Palm Beach, on
Feb. 14, 2011.

The body of Victor's twin sister, Nubia, was found in the back of the
truck, which belonged to the siblings' adoptive father, Jorge Barahona.

The children's adoptive parents, Jorge and Carmen Barahona, were
arrested and charged with murder and torture. Meanwhile, Victor was sent
to live with Garcia.

Garcia made several audio statements to prosecutors in June, several
months after Nubia's death. Garcia informed prosecutors that Victor told
her what he remembered about living with the Barahonas. "His father
used to put a bag over his head and that he used to choke him, and he
says that there were a couple of times that he was very close to dying,"
said Garcia.

According to Garcia, Victor always referred to Jorge Barahona as "Dad,"
but that he nor his sister ever saw any signs of affection from their
adoptive parents or heard them say "I love you."

Victor told Garcia about his sister Nubia and how she looked when he
last saw her. "He stutters, because he's so angry. She had this big scab
on her forehead and on her face and different parts of her face as well
as smaller ones," Garcia said, "and he is very clear about that being
what she looked like and how she was found the very last time he saw
her."

Victor also talked about how he and his sister could barely walk after
they were tied up for so long, Garcia said: "He would walk like
hunchback because of the position that he had to remain in for so long."

Garcia continued, "He says that while they were in the bathtub, his dad
would pour cold ice water on top of him and his sister."

In addition, Garcia said, Victor mentioned that Jorge Barahona would
also pour other liquids on them while they were in the tub. "Like
Clorox, like Drano," she said.

The abuse did not end there. "His father used to pour hot sauce in his
ears, eyes, nose and mouth. His dad, his father, made him eat a
cockroach," Garcia said Victor told her.

On another occasion, Garcia said, "[Victor] saw some of my eyelashes and then, he said that his was shut with like Krazy Glue."

According to Garcia, on Victor's birthday, all he could think of was
Nubia. "That he missed her and that he thinks about her," she said. "He
cried a couple times on his birthday."

Victor is now living with relatives in Texas.

Miami-Dade prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Jorge and Carmen Barahona.

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21006626802259/caretaker-details-abuse-child-says-he-endured/#ixzz1lgSRpetv

They should have both been living in Texas all along.

I still want to find our what DCF's explanation is for not allowing this to happen and even fighting in court to keep these children with these monsters.

I'm sure it will be sugarcoated at best.