heartbreaking

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The news this week of the tragedy of the death of seven year old Jorelys Rivera was horrifying. Little Jorelys Rivera had been playing on the playground at her apartment complex, River Ridge, in Canton, Georgia, told friends she was going back to her apartment to get a drink, and never returned. Her little body was found in a nearby garbage dumpster yesterday. There was evidence that Jorelys’ abducter had sexually abused her and stabbed her.

Investigators with Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) now report they found blood in a vacant apartment in the River Ridge Complex. This is crucial evidence, as it perhaps not only indicates the exact place of the death, but also implicates liability on the apartment complex for having a vacant apartment that was accessible to anyone, including Jorelys’ abducter. Further, it indicates her abducter may have known in advance of the vacancy of the apartment and his easy ability to enter it without a key and without any apparent force. Additionally, the playgound from which she was abducted was owned by River Ridge.

Under Georgia law, O.C.G.A. Section 51-3-1, a landowner has a nondelegable duty to keep its premises and approaches safe. This means they can’t pawn this duty off on someone else. Property owners are under a duty to take reasonable precautions to protect invitees from dangers which are foreseeable from arrangement and use of premises. In this context, any renter and any family member of the named renter living in the rented apartment would be considered an “invitee” for these purposes, to whom the landlord owes the highest duty of care, that of “reasonable care.” Thus, from the mere fact that this child’s abducter ostensibly knew of this vacant apartment and knew that he had unfettered access to it away from witnesses indicates to me that the landlord must not have exercised “reasonable care” to keep the premises safe so as not to allow a vacant apartment be used for criminal purposes. Landlords must be trained to be diligent in blocking access to vacant apartments or vacant buildings, as statistics show that criminal abducters are more likely to abduct someone if they know in advance they have access to a place to take their victim.

This story is so heartbreaking, and my prayers go out to the Rivera Family for comfort and healing. It should be kept in mind, however, that but for the negligence of the landlord, this crime might never have happened.

As an experienced Atlanta, Georgia trial lawyer, Iave successfully argued numerous day care personal injury and wrongful death cases over my years of practice. Nothing is more heartbreaking and frustrating than a preventable death, especially if the victim happens to be a child. So when I first learned of the recent news that a 2 year-old girl died under the noses of local day care employees, my heart sank.

The victim was left unattended for nearly two hours in a van, where temperatures quickly soared to a sweltering 140 degrees. Confined by the straps of her car seat with no means of escape, the child was left to suffer a lengthy, horrific end to such an abbreviated life. Police arrested Marlo Maria Fallings, the administrator of Marloas Magnificent Early Learning Center near Jonesboro, Georgia and her staff member, Quantabia Shantell Hopkins, on Tuesday, June 21. They are both being charged with involuntary manslaughter, cruelty to children and reckless conduct. They have already been released on $35,000 bond. These charges certainly fit the crime, however, more action needs to be taken in order to send a message to day care centers throughout the state that negligent conduct is a serious offense and will not be tolerated.

There may have been warning signs about the Clayton County Day Care Center. In March, Bright from the Start, the State agency that regulates day care centers, cited the center for not documenting a field trip and the children who were transported, according to the report. The report itself says the regulation was only “partially met” but, really, it was totally unmet. The report states:

“Finding 591-1-1-.36 (6)(d) requires that at the completion of every trip, a check must be made to assure that no child remains on the vehicle. The center staff did not initial or document the field trip form for children transported on October 26, 2010. POI (Plan of Improvement) The center will instruct staff regarding this safety measure. Correction Deadline – 03/01/2011″

So, this day care center didn’t document any child getting on OR off the day care van and it obviously didn’t remedy the situation by the March 1, 2011 deadline. Where was the follow up by the Georgia Department of Human Resources? This is egregious. In Tennessee, the Tenneesee Department of Human Resources this summer issued new reminders and warnings to day care centers about not leaving children behind in day care vans. aWe know child-care providers share our concern about the need for increased vigilance during the hot summer months to ensure children are not left in vehicles,a DHS Commissioner Raquel Hatter said. As part of this increased vigilance, the Tennessee DHS licensing staff will be making extra visits to monitor child-care agencies. Where were the reminders from the Georgia DHS?

The next step toward justice, of course, should be civil action. Georgia law requires day cares such as the one in this case to check all vehicles after trips ato assure that no child remains in the vehicle.a Obviously, Ms. Fallings and her staff failed to abide by this simple statute and, therefore, should be held accountable.

Iam tired of hearing about preventable deaths such as this one that result from pure negligence. Last year alone, 49 children in the United States reportedly died from heat exhaustion while locked inside a vehicle. On a local note, Mondayas wrongful death was the second in metro Atlanta in less than a month involving a child trapped inside a vehicle. On May 25th, a five month-old girl died in a similar manner after being locked in an automobile for five hours outside a Kennesaw, Georgia day care center. These incidents are both preventable and unacceptable, and the responsible entities should be punished to the fullest extent of the law both civilly and criminally. My heart goes out to the parents of this little child.

Sources:
2 Accused of Day Care Death out of Jail

Susan Warren, author of the book Backyard Giants, talks about “the passionate, heartbreaking and glorious quest to grow the biggest pumpkin ever.” Plus, we’ll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news

A heartbreaking, out-of-the-gate failure of Russia’s sample return mission early this year created a wide circle of disappointment. For Russia, it was supposed to be a “cavalry charge” toward a hyperambitious goal that would have redeemed a quarter-century of interplanetary impotence but instead became a cosmic humiliation when the craft died shortly after liftoff. For planetary science, it meant that the composition of the Martian moon Phobos remains speculative and its origins still undetermined. For future human space strategies, the possibility of obtaining valuable supplies of oxygen en route to Mars , as the Phobos-Grunt mission was intended to determine, remains uncertain.[More]

(Note: Lisa de Moraes is covering the upfronts in New York, and will return to recap the season finale next week.)

Is it just me or were you getting flashbacks too? Suddenly itas like we were back in the heartbreaking semifinals of 2006, when we also had a loveable soul misfit battling against a too-perfect pop princess a all for the right to lose in the finals to a raspy, loose-limbed good ola boy with a charismatic grin. . . Read full article >>

(Note: Lisa de Moraes is covering the upfronts in New York, and will return to recap the season finale next week.)

Is it just me or were you getting flashbacks too? Suddenly itas like we were back in the heartbreaking semifinals of 2006, when we also had a loveable soul misfit battling against a too-perfect pop princess a all for the right to lose in the finals to a raspy, loose-limbed good ola boy with a charismatic grin. . . Read full article >>

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