Keron Owens
--Colleton County, South CarolinaKeron Owens was born with cerebral palsy. A sickly child, Keron required a feeding tube through his stomach, as well as considerable care and attention.
He lived with his family in a poor neighborhood outside Walterboro, South Carolina, a small town of only 5,500 residents.
On November 16, 1991, the Marlboro County Sheriff's office received a phone call reporting a domestic dispute in progress. A sheriff's deputy was dispatched to the Owens home to investigate.
Sheriff Eddie Chasteen described the call as a more or less routine matter: "Basically, there was a dispute between the mother and father. The mother complained. It was reported to the officer that Mr. Owens was upset about something and threw a board through a window, and Mrs. Owens threw some hot water at him."
Although there were no allegations of child abuse or neglect, when the sheriff`s deputy arrived, she decided it would be best to have Keron removed from the Owens home. The police record indicates "insufficient home environment" as the given reason.
Social workers removed the 3-year-old, placing him in a foster home in the care of Roosevelt and Dorothy Hodges. On January 19, 1992, two months after he had been placed with the Hodges, the foster parents brought young Keron to the hospital, lifeless.
Coroner Bob Bryant alerted the Medical University of South Carolina where Dr. James Downs conducted the autopsy. Dr. Downs determined that Keron Owens died of subdural hematoma--hemorrhaging around the surface of the brain.
The findings indicated that Keron had suffered a violent shaking, one which resulted in a case of what is more commonly referred to as "shaken baby syndrome." Dr. Downs ruled the death a homicide.
Bryant explained to reporters: "He was, for all practical purposes, dead on arrival. They said that child had had its head bumped on the door facing in moving from one room to another. Then they said that it had fallen out of a seat belt or buckle and hit the floor in the car."
A year later, no one had been charged with the crime. The State Police were saying it was likely that no one would ever be.
The Colleton County coroner's inquest was held in July of 1993. The Hodges and their children, 17-year-old Naketa and 12-year-old Terril, refused to tell the jury what they knew about the death. They invoked the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, citing the advice of an attorney.
The coroner's jury ruled the death a homicide by child abuse, and recommended the case go to a grand jury for possible criminal charges.
Chrisalee Owens filed suit in federal court against the agency and 11 of its workers. Owens alleged in her lawsuit that Colleton County Department of Social Services workers threatened to have her arrested unless she relinquished her son into their custody. She also alleged that the agency failed to offer appropriate services after taking Keron, properly monitor the foster home, or give workers adequate training and supervision.
She also alleged that the Department altered or destroyed records about "the abuse, lack of services, the closing of the foster home, the original taking of the children," as well as the death of her son.
The Department of Social Services answered that as a state agency it was immune from suit. The department also denied any wrongdoing and asked that the federal case filed by Owens be dismissed.
Copyright © 1996 Rick Thoma