The Unquiet Death of Eli Creekmore

Case Seattle program title The Unquiet death of you like Creake war producer David Davis this is a stereo mix. This is the left channel channel funding that this program is provided in part by the Seattle chapter of the U.S. Jaycees. And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting all I could say was they were putting that child in a situation where he was going to be killed. She heard a noise gasping noise as if something had struck him and that she heard him. And then once the credible

distended right he was dead on arrival. How can anyone let this happen how could CPS have let this happen. As far as I'm concerned they're the done. They wouldn't listen to the doctors and they wouldn't listen to me as evidence is simulated in the case that should have been caused to more serious question a case plan which allowed the child to stay in the home the right to family the right to be a parent that is a fundamental right that cannot be impaired or limited or interfered with by the state. Was there some compelling reason to do so. It's very difficult to remove children from the custody of the parents even when that's that's needed. But we keep the ones we can remain outside of the family and prevent children. Boy this boy was

we me. Everett Washington located 30 miles north of Seattle on the edge of Puget Sound population 60000. Everett began as a mill town built to process timber from the mountains of western Washington. But lately tymber has been on the decline. Several mills have closed altogether. No job is guaranteed and layoffs have been a fact of life. The future seemed to be in aerospace and electronics for the young. Everett is a city in transition and the outlook often seems anything but certain.

Two blocks from downtown there was a small house facing a busy street. Pete is peeling from the doorway and a window is boarded over. The house was ready to marry and Darryn Creekmore and it was here that their son Eli would die. It began on the night of September 26 just after midnight. Providence Hospital received the emergency call. A paramedic ambulance was on its way. They were bringing me a. 3 year old white male. Who is in full cardiac arrest. They be in the emergency room. And. Cried. He had. No spontaneous respiration. He had noticed my babies he didn't respond to any stimulation of any kind. His abdomen was incredibly distended and rock hard and at one point trying to resuscitate a needle was placed

into the abdominal cavity and there was another meeting a rash of foul smelling air actually caused everybody to gag and it was at that point that I knew he had a ruptured bow. Then sometime during the recess a patient there a rumors that he had been taken away by his parents two prior occasions for documented child abuse and it was at that point that you could just kind of feel the tension in the way that went with it. Overall overwhelming experience. There was never any point in resuscitation where he got his cardiac activity. Going. He would get. The next day Everett police went to the home with Mary and Darren Creekmore. Darrin was arrested and accused of kicking his son in the abdomen rupturing his intestine and causing his death. The city would first learn of what happened in the Monday morning edition of the Everett

Herald a brief article described what little was known about the case. Soon after the paper received two disturbing phone calls The first was from Dr. Peter Millican. He had treated Eli in the emergency room on two occasions prior to his death for suspected child abuse. He had reported this to Child Protective Services assuming the state agency would protect the boy. It's really really sad to. Find out that in spite of all our efforts to come to such bad sitting down in the old easy chair open the paper and there right in front of me he lies dead. Well it was a short little paragraph. And I figured wait a minute there's more to this than what they're reporting. So I called the Everett Herald that night. The second call came from Ken and Joe and Lechner. They operate a home daycare center and had taken care of Eli in the eight months prior to his death. They had

many times reported to Child Protective Services that Eli was being abused. Just about all the times that I called in. The calls won't return or that she and the parents had already called and she agreed with what they had told the Herald decided to further investigate the story. Yes my goodness. I left a message for Friday but I wanted to get an update on how she's doing this is to keep her very young. Reporter sooky Darian was assigned to interview Mary Creekmore Ely's mother Mary agreed to meet at the Creekmore house. This would turn out to be the only time Ely's mother would speak publicly about the death of her son. She gave Darrion a firsthand account of the night Eli died. She sat down to dinner and Deryn then sat down at the table too. Eli began to cry because he was afraid of Darren. Darren didn't like the fact that I was crying she said and started telling him not to cry. Will continue to cry and so we sent him to his room where he continued to

cry and then Darren went into the house and she heard a noise a gasping noise as if. Something had struck your eye and then she heard him pop and then Darren came out of the room and she asked him what he'd done. She said that he respondent's a little bit after that she said. I came out of the room and told his dad who pooped his pants when his dad asked him why he said cause you get to my stomach. She intervened at that point and said Don't kick him or something. Then he turned and threatened to kick her as well. Then he sent Eli into the bathroom to cool his pants and while he was in there Eli urinated on he told his father what he'd done. He said that the Deryn went into the bathroom with a belt and beat him bringing grätz to his backside.

When she went into the bathroom and found him in the toilet with his arms up thrown up on himself and she pulled him up and called him up she said put him to bed. In severe pain. Eli would like crying in his bedroom but Mary Creekmore did nothing. Afraid of her husband. She too went to bed. She was awakened a few hours later by a family friend yelling that Eli had stopped breathing. I think that bothered me more than. The fact he was dying with it even when he had his fatal injury. There was a period of a number of hours where he could have been brought over here and we could have saved him and we didn't get that last chance. Doug arean reported what Mary Creekmore had told her and she called her doctor Millican and the Lechner. Report case became a front page story. New

information appeared daily in the papers across the state. A child had died at the hands of his parents. It happens more than a thousand times each year across the country but this did more than any other in the state's history would provoke public outrage and debate it raised fundamental questions about the family the protection of children and the responsibility of the state. It had all started more than three years before Mary Creekmore was a high school junior when she decided to drop out of school to study computer programming. But she was also pregnant and decided to marry her boyfriend Darren Creekmore. Always unemployed. He was rumored to be a heavy drinker and prone to violence. A month after the marriage Darren was arrested and accused of assaulting two men outside of Wichita for three weeks after Eli was born Darren was sent to prison.

Mary continued to live with her mother and brothers. Eli was the center of attention. Several months later the family decided to leave Kansas and head west. Mary's father lived near Everett Washington so the family headed there. Mary's parents were divorced but still friends with the family reunited in Washington. Eli became the favorite grandchild surrounded by a large and loving family. Mary and I are. Well they were all family. And we were very close family. I have never seen a more perfect mother all the time there. He was a very happy little boy very smart. Just everything. Dad and I was proud of. That. I know he had lots of children around me too. Besides my own children enjoy them all the time but never so much as I enjoyed the. Grandchild.

But just after Eli's second birthday Darren was released on parole. Within a month. He was drinking again and had begun abusing his son. One of the times when I would talk to Mary on the phone I can't hear you crying in the background there and hollering. I said What's wrong with Eli and Mary had told me that Darryn was thanking them and I asked her why she said he'd throwing up all over the floor in the living room. And I said you stop him from that right now. I say that's an involuntary muscle he can't help throwing up no matter where he is. And he's a role model. You've got to be corrected. Mary's mother was angry but uncertain about what to do. Then on December 16th four months after Deryn had returned the situation became worse. They had come over to the house because they wanted to borrow from tools. They come here.

To borrow from. I can find anything so I can see that baby. But they don't have anything they wanted. To. Live if I get to see him about when they got here. Eli couldn't walk. And he appeared to have lost about 10 pounds. His eyes were sunken is just. He was bruised all over his face up into his head and looked like cigarette burns. You seen my kind of story with you. A real weak voice. So I just begun. Within a day or so I can take him to the doctor. They would and he wouldn't do it. They went home with a child as soon as they had left. Eli's grandmother. Child Protective Services the state agency responsible for protecting children from

abuse. A police officer and a caseworker went to the Greek Morehouse. Eli was taken into protective custody and driven to Providence Hospital. He was treated by Dr. Peter Millican. He had a variety of bruises that had different ages. He suggested that he had had a lot of injuries over a period of time. I thought that injuries I saw were very suspicious. Child abuse. Did what I supposed to do which is called a child protective services. Everything would work out based on Dr. Millikan's report. Eli was taken to a foster home. But Darren Creekmore denied abusing his son and there were no witnesses in what was to become a recurring pattern. CPS felt obligated to return the boy to his parents. The right to family the right to be a parent that is a fundamental right that cannot be impaired or limited or interfered with by the state. Well is there some compelling reason to do

so and that even if you are involved that the interference has to be as minimal as possible consistent with protecting the child and the law recognizes that parents are not required to be perfect children are not entitled to be free from every harm only only serious harm. And parents if they can meet the basic needs of their child they're entitled to have their child back even though they may be far less imperfect perfect parents after Eli was returned to his parents. CPS referred the family to an intensive counseling program called Home Builders. A counselor visits the family daily for four weeks. The goal was to help the family resolve their problems in a way that allows them to remain together. The approach has been highly successful but it also raises complex questions about how best to protect children from abuse. Anything I want you to do this when you find matches bring them to me and you tell

me that that I'm not supposed to play with matches here. OK. I want you to say OK dad. OK. All right. Jim how is a single father who was also reported to Child Protective Services following an incident with his 6 year old son Sean. When I started working a lot I didn't have anybody to watch the boys so I had to depend on them pretty much to watch themselves. And I was trying to keep the woodstove going so I got to where I was letting James keep the fire going for me. Unfortunately Sean decided that it was time for him to get involved in the fire too. So he put a couple of good burns in the carpet and whatnot. And the last thing was I was getting ready to go to work one night and I opened his door and he was tempting to burn a paper bag in the corner of his room and I just totally overreacted. I took my belt off and I used it on my left marks. So

anyway it was turned into child protective services. They sent the home builders So Shawn would be learning the appropriate responses for a variety of specific behaviors. And the most typical of those would be accepting no for an answer. And following an instruction in this case and giving matches to you falling instruction could also be Karen bream is a homebuilders counselor. She's teaching Sean to follow directions and she's teaching his father alternative methods of discipline instead of spanking. Shawn for what he does wrong Jim has learned to reward the boy for what he does right. Shawn's behavior is recorded on a chart on the living room wall. Good behavior earns a night out at McDonald's. 45 points. Make a happy meal ahead. With him it was just about a spanking every day

and I haven't had a spanking in three weeks and that's great. It's great. Actually it's become kind of a joy to come home now. We believe it's important to work with a family together even if if a child has been hurt or has been neglected. If you think that there's a good chance that things are going to be resolved because those are going to be the people who are going to be living together anyhow after the treatment is done. But the home builders approach also has its critics putting people under the same roof and saying that therefore we have a family that's together is not necessarily true. I'm afraid that oftentimes when abuses in the family that the family isn't functioning that people are being hurt that it's not good for for anyone. Norm Niccol is a counselor who specializes in treating abusive men. These men have severely abused their children.

I can remember lots of times spanking. I'm thinking I'm not going be able to hit her hard enough. To get through when I'm trying to do or are shaking grabbing my collarbones just close enough. That that it can feel like a chopper you know shaking really hard and you know I'd leave bruises. You have to picture a 4 year old kid. You know slobber in the mouth. Pulling her hair. Shaking her you know not just yelling at her but screaming air. Santa. Now you think about it you know and you get a butterfly feeling in your stomach. You know how really bothered I was following criminal conviction. These men entered treatment as an alternative to going to jail. But as a condition for treatment Nicole requires that each man separate himself from his family. Abusers are extremely good at being able to slip through cracks and being able to manipulate systems and been able to lie their expert liars. So you need highly confront a long term really tough group therapy

kind of program to make these people take responsibility and pick responsibly back in their lives. For years I needed treatment I needed help and I never would go look for it. Being out on my own I was saying that's the way you're going to go get them. And that's when I finally started to deal with it. I seriously doubt if going into somebody's office for counseling individual would have given me the skills that they had. In fact I know it would have never happened. So the big plus with with this is. They brought us together as a family. Family is by far the most dangerous institution that exists the most likely place to be married in United States supplying a bedroom. Second most likely place is in your kitchen most likely person to murder. United States if your spouse. Is the most likely place for a child to be murdered in their home and by their by their parents. So these extremely dangerous situations and I think under the guise of trying to keep the

family together and trying to grieve and family. The sanctity of the family oftentimes we ignore the potential for danger and destruction of the family. And I think we need to take that extreme very very seriously. This whole issue is extremely serious. Chris. Homebuilders saw the Creekmore family every day for four weeks they refused to comment on the case except to say that during that time Eli was not abused. They recommended to CPS that the family remain together. The law states that parents have a right to receive help to remedy their problems and to be given every reasonable chance to get their child back. The state is required to help the parents do that. And so if there's any change in circumstances you have to look at that and make a determination as to whether there's been enough change that the child could now be protected in the home. It seemed to CPS that the Greek mores had made progress and that Eli could remain with his

parents. In addition daycare would be provided at Ken and Joe and lectures while Mary was at work. Eli would not be left alone with his father but a month after the home builders counseling had ended. Elector's began noticing bruises. Sometimes are bad sometimes they sometimes are just a lot of them. Toward the end of this is that for progressively worse just about all the times I call them. You know the calls won't return or. That she had already the and she agreed with what they had said. And. You kept calling. Always. How many times do you think you called her. At least 15 or more. And. We just didn't know. We talked to our folks who talked to friends we talked to a lot of different things. What what what else can you do when nobody's don't seem to know either you know something is wrong but nobody seems to be doing anything about it.

Then in early May five months before Ely's death Eli's grandmother took these snapshots. Eli was bruised around the testicles and on the back of the legs for the first time. Admitted hitting his son with a ruler. When the boy had wet his pants Creekmore was charged with assault and CPS requested he voluntarily move out of the house. Initially he agreed but within a few weeks he had moved back in. Mary Creekmore failed to report this to CPS. Since Mary seemed unwilling to take sides against her husband. CPS really. They decided not to seek a court order enforcing the separation when use the alternative of excluding the offender. That also puts upon the remaining parent very heavy policing function. It requires them to be responsible for keeping that person out for taking steps to actively and vigorously protect the child and for taking steps to report to the authorities and to the court. If the abuser returns in violation of a

court order that's a heavy responsibility to bear especially if you as the non-offending parent. If you have emotional ties to that abuser described as weak willed and easily manipulated. Mary Creekmore seemed incapable of protecting her son. She consistently accepted her husband's apologies and denials hurt by her parents divorce. She desperately wanted her own marriage to survive but in siding with her husband she became increasingly isolated and eventually the abuse would be directed at her as well. She described one incident to SUGI daring and daring came home irate apparently because she had visited a friend after work. He hit her on her back and on her head women got Eli. They were both been in the living room and he threw you down and started to get more heated and more heated and more heated and he said at one point you want to call the police and he picked up the phone and threw it and then began to throw other objects

in the living room. She said she bolted from the house and ran across the street and where there's a transmission shop. And. Ask for help and the people over there said that they wouldn't get involved and just then grabbed her and managed to overpower her and get back into the house. When I asked her why did she leave. Her response was he would say it would be nice. I had asked her about some bruises one time. And she says I don't know why I ask her what happened. How did she get those bruises. I don't know. Increasingly worried he lies grandmother made a visit to CPS when she arrived. The caseworker seemed openly hostile and she says What do you want. And I. Said But all I wanted to talk to you about a lie. And she says I don't wanna hear anything.

And a friend of mine says what we're going to come you know hockey. Well all right. I have. A scarf to go on and on and I told her about some more proof that Eli had had. And all three of them tried to tell her and she didn't want to hear any of it. I said he's going to kill that baby. And there was. Nothing. You know just. You know. As things got worse. Eli's grandmother sought help from artist moral Ely's great aunt Myrna told me how many times she had called and gotten no help from the CPS office and Everett as a matter of fact they had accused her of harassing them. I told her leave her alone that you know they didn't need her interference or that they were

watching offeree I'd just to. Let go if they were doing their job. And of course she would call me because she'd say I'm going to give up my say oh you can't give up you're the only one that's speaking for that youngster with the grandmother's efforts would prove futile. Several months later on Eli's third birthday his great grandmother and a third relative arrived at the creek Morehouse to find Eli severely beat. One side of his face was all black and blue and there were big dark circles under his eyes and his face was so bad it hurts. Skin. Is. Fine. We did take a lot of pictures. That was a good excuse. It was his birthday. They didn't object to that. We were.

Samarian Darin to let them take you live with them. Feeling helpless and uncertain what to do. They stopped at a coffee shop a few blocks away. They were waited on by Glenda Jensen. His face was so swollen that his cheekbones looked like they were going to pop. He had the granite told me to feel his head. He had millions of seemed like a on his head. Just one right after another and he was trying to eat some ice cream and he stuck his spoon in his mouth and he said our he pulled it out and it was totally bloody all inside it is now had been scraped and was just wrong. There was horrible. I kept thinking it CPS would do something about it before we got this far but they were. He didn't want to go home. He said No grandma I love you and I want to stay with you. Because I'm sure he knew what would happen.

Linda Jensen would later describe Eli's condition to police officers who stopped in for coffee. They went to the courthouse and confirmed what she had told them. Eli was taken to the hospital. The doctor on duty was Peter Millican the same doctor who had treated Eli seven months before. This time of the injuries I. Saw. Concern because they felt like there was more dangerous kind of trauma being inflicted on him. There's a site that's called raccoon eyes which is to use around both eyes and that is a sign that there is a fracture on the base of a skull and the nature of the bones there is an adult in there such that you can confirm that with a X-Ray. But when you see those two bruises the inference is that the blood is seeping forward from the base of the skull to around the eyes. When you see that you think if anybody was getting hit that hard it is

real close to having a life threatening or disabling head injury. The disposition was that used to go to foster care and then the police officer was involved in that case also asked to fill out a police report on that form I stated that if I returned home there was a significant chance that he would suffer serious disabling injury or be killed. But Dr. Millikan's warning went unheeded. Eli spent a few days in a foster home but in a decision that would later seem hard to believe the caseworker decided that if the Greek boys would submit to a psychological evaluation Eli would once again be returned to his parents. The decision was approved by the CPS supervisor but the psychological evaluation was never completed. Two months later Eli Creekmore was dead. Mary's dad finally found out what had happened. And he called me.

And. Told me that. He had told me that they're in care over the line. And I just were there for just the other day. She told that he died and she me get over there right. Yeah I just I couldn't grieve and I made that statement and it was more out of sarcasm than anything to the girls here at work. What do we have to do just stand around until we read about it in the paper. We will do something that. Almost exactly two months later. I picked up the Herald on page. This one pierced everybody's tough guy it got to our hearts. Image that I kept playing through my mind again and again was

this little boy on his birthday going out to the restaurant and not being able to eat the ice cream because of the blood supply. Caroline Young is a reporter at The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She too had been investigating the case. I would have horrible draining that was at first about child abuse and then sort of about the technicalities of the story and then they just sort of dissolved into general horrible violent dreams that we would wake up into three or four times a night. Young was confronted by a number of disturbing questions. Why had Eli been allowed to suffer for so long. Why were his grandmother and daycare teacher ignored and why had CPS left the boy in the custody of his parents young requested an interview with the CPS case worker. The request was denied. There would never be a public statement from the person who had direct responsibility for the case. State officials further insisted that by law the details of the case were confidential.

The parents in the case still do have a right to privacy unless they waive it and have a right not to have their files disclosed to the public. But for all the other families in the community who may be receiving CPS services now or who may receive those services in the future I think that we certainly impair their confidence in the system and their confidence and a feeling that if they do disclose personal information that it won't be talked about in the press we impair that very severely if we talk about any particular case. Our This is Caroline young but young persisted. She learned that CPS had conducted its own internal investigation of the case and that the investigating team had included Randall Spark's headquarters administrator for the state's office of children and family services. Sparks would become the spokesman for CPS. Nearly every one of the indications of. Physical harm that Eli experienced

were explained away as being accidental in nature. Mr. Creekmore knows how to give the kind of answers that people want to hear. They were all pretty well convinced that he was truly repentant. He would make serious efforts to work on controlling his anger and not lashing out at his child. He was abused as a child himself. He went into foster care. He went into group care. He went into Indiana receiving homes. He was a product of the prison system. When you've been in and out of that many institutions it's easy to see how you can become soured on authority or how to work around authority. And I think that he had many opportunities to do that and he was very good at doing it. He was a con artist. I told CPS that case worker that he was a con artist.

And he would con anyone. The grandmothers concerned about Eli was perceived as a I don't want to use the term interloper but that that was a description that was used in that she did not like her son in law and did not approve of his influence in this family. And so therefore because she allegedly didn't like him she was trying to do these things despite him if you will. All I could say. Was they were putting. That child in a situation where he was going to be killed. And I told him. That very same thing. And they would not listen to the reports from Eli's grandmother and daycare teacher had been minimized or ignored at least in part because CPS

was legally obligated to give the creek more as every opportunity to resolve their problems before permanently removing Eli from their custody. We will do everything we can to reunify or keep families together. And at the other end of the pool we have a situation where we also must do things to protect the child. And in our life I think follows closely what the Constitution requires that before you can permanently remove a child from the parent that is never send them home again terminate the parent child relationship that you must make a showing that you've made every reasonable attempt to help the parents resolve their problem that it's been unsuccessful that it's not likely to be successful in the foreseeable future and that it's in the child's best interest to have the rights terminated. How is this supposed to protect children from injury and they collect.

And on the other hand they're supposed to mobilize the resources of society keep troubled families together. I'm sure almost every case they see those two two jobs they were on a collision course as the evidence accumulated in the case. It should have been caused to more serious question a case plan which allowed the child to stay in the home. Caroline Young's first article would run on a Tuesday morning 10 days after Eli Creekmore death. Within hours after publication The paper had received hundreds of phone calls. People would say well hold on hold for 20 minutes until my phone cleared and then they would you know get on the phone and they would just be regular readers and really get out the first sentence. You know I just read your story about you I'll start to cry. I'm sorry. The details of the case provoked anger and outrage at the Everett office of CPS.

A crowd gathered to denounce the agency for failing to do its job. I now realize that I have not been vacant the children will never have to go do it again. We don't care. We know what's going on and I hope you don't forget this is our state. We believe we can make the laws we can change them. The state legislature was quick to respond. Hearings were called to investigate the case. And can you categorically tell us that there was no report made to anybody in the Department of Social Services that suggested that there was any continuing problem in the family home for this child upon his return to the family home. There was a judgment that the father was showing improvement in terms of his understanding of his behavior and for all of his behavior and based on that the staff felt

that they could not substantiate a continued removal of the child from the home duty of the department is to look out for the interests of the child is the paramount obligation of the department. What intrigues me and what I ask you is was there ever any question really in the mind of the department that was in fact your mission. When I met with the staffs involved in this they continually pointed to what they regarded as a conflict in legislation. I've had personally received representations from members of the legislature. The department was in error in its interpretation of the law and that we were harassing parents and removing people without reason. If there is a great deal of pressure coming on the department from outside sources that we feel we're going to have to go to extremes to protect the parent's rights. Let's let's hear about it because we're out to protect the defenseless. Now happens to be the children. CPS was under attack for maintaining the family at the expense of the child.

But there were conflicting political pressures. Some felt that the concern for protecting children was a threat to the rights of parents and undermine the integrity of the family. Dr. William Backlund is head of a statewide organization called soft save our family ties. Soft is an active force in state politics. We're working primarily on legislation to try to narrow the scope of CPS as opposed to the opposition which is trying to broaden their scope and give them more work to do. People forget the fact that one of the most important institutions in our country is the family and your own ICBW 13:30 to says you not to disrupt the family unless there's compelling evidence to do so. I have some real doubts about the influence of some parental groups whether it be the one that you're involved with Dr. Backlund or not. I don't know. But the simple fact the matter is the department has been running so cautious about

making sure they return a child to a home because of the parental pressures that have come from some organizations that forced the Creekmore child Eli to be put back in the home. And in fact they may actually share the burden and responsibility for that child's death. Or her manner of death. I don't know. That I. Clearly that I come across as far as I'm just I was kind of flabbergasted with my Kreidler which is the accusation that parents rights pressured a CPS worker I don't it's just forgivable and I apologize to you for them. I. Mean. It's very I don't I don't condone child abuse but other hand I see too many cases where kids and families get abused unnecessarily at least from what I can see on the surface of the evidence that there really is no substantial evidence no physical evidence in my case there was no physical evidence it was just purely the word of

an anonymous phone call. Most members of soft have personal complaints against CPS. In 1982 Bill Backlund and his wife Pat wanted to adopt a 10 year old girl as a companion for their daughter. The girl Pam had been living with the family on a trial basis for almost two years before the adoption was finalized. The back lines were reported to CPS for allegedly bruising Pam and a spanking. And so then they made a visit here and unannounced and came to my door and came in and began asking me a lot of questions about Pam's discipline. The fact that there had been a report made that Pam was being abused. And of course you can imagine my horror. I was completely shocked and frightened. Another point was made with my husband and I a week

later and at that. Appointment we submitted to them a short little booklet called Children Fund of frenzy which is gives a scriptural understanding of corporal punishment and to try to explain to them you know our philosophy and. And that and it was clear to us that the case workers would not accept this and in fact while we were talking and they were shaking their heads and so they came and they. Basically took her took her away and didn't tell us where she was going to tell us how long she be gone. Didn't tell us her rights were basically the lady stood there at the door and told me that I had to find out for myself that she wouldn't tell me what the back ones went to court and got the decision overturned. The adoption was allowed to proceed but the balance came away feeling CPS was a threat to the family.

The child really doesn't have any sense of security anymore even if they put him back in his home. He knows that they could come again in the future. And so there is a real undermining of authority of families of parents or the importance of the family you see because you're taking kids away from their family as if a family is not important. And when you go into a foster home or whatever else there's not that that sense of commitment and concern of love like that underlying almost indescribable sense of caring and concern that you have for that natural family. The best foster family in the world is not as good as a marginal natural family. I've had kids that were taken away from home say you know as happy as I've been at my house still say I wish I'd never never said anything because I'd be at home. They've lost all of not just their parents grandparents and aunts and uncles and neighbors and

the kids the neighborhood that they grew up. So they lost a lot of things by moving around. They have to change schools. On the other hand we see with other children that staying at home kills them or has permanently injured. It's not infrequent to see a child taken away from home a couple of times because the parents you know they got the help that didn't work. Eventually the child put up for adoption but by that time there care more damage harder to place. And adoption is a traumatic thing too because especially you know the older you are. So I think it really is an individual. Thing and unfortunately only God knows which are the ones that are going to work well in one way or the other. There is a need to protect children but that and the vast majority of cases kids want and need to be with their parents and that by removing them from an even an abusive or dangerous situation you inflict some trauma on them. And that's what the law requires that you

do is balance those things out when you're going to protect the child. Recognize that you're inflicting some harm by the mere act of removal and balance that against the risk to the child. But the assumption is if the child is in a family or biological family therefore it will be good for them. And that's not always the case. I think a better question is what is in the best interests of this child. What's the best environment for this particular child to grow up in. And we all have a stake in children growing up in good solid physically and emotionally healthy environments so that they become productive healthy well-functioning citizens. We all have a stake in that but that we don't always achieve that goal by by working so hard to preserve the family. Some families are worth preserving door and is a CPS caseworker in Seattle like the caseworker in the

Creekmore case he often has to decide when to intervene in the family and how best to protect the child. It's just not that clear cut. Usually And we just do the best we can and it's hard to know whether you're doing the right thing for the town and the family. Has she started to sign by herself to sign and she's drinking now. Yeah. She's one of the Dorrans cases is a young mother who recently separated from an abusive husband. Her daughter Melissa had surgery to open a blocked nasal passage. Melissa must temporarily breathe through a plastic tube connected to a breathing machine. This requires round the clock supervision. We were heard to her by the hospital and they felt that she was overwhelmed and probably depressed felt that she may be a risk of further complications if she wasn't able to adequately care for a little girl. So what are the services that we've provided is a nurse that we pay for to give her a break

so that the family can stay together and the child can be safe and adequately cared for. So many aspects of what we do are controversial. I leave the child in the home. I run to the possibility of being wrong and having the child hurt again. You know assessing the risk is often difficult. But in addition Dora is expected to investigate an average of nearly 40 cases at a time. It's impossible to do all of it. Well we feel like where you know there's a there's a real potential here for some child to turn out that are seriously injured because we can't do it all. It's inevitable unfortunately that even with the best child protective services with the best lives. Kids are are going to continue to be at risk in their homes and are probably going to die. That doesn't mean that we live death with an not have been but we can guarantee that kids will die in the

future. Six months after Eli Creekmore death his father went on trial for second degree murder. The trial lasted six days. The key witness was Mary Creekmore Ely's mother. She refused to be photographed in the courtroom. Dan. Went to his room. Can you hear anything inside. Yes. Did you hear. I heard a gasp. And fact. Tell me what you mean by that. You can't just come to me. And say. What's the next thing that you can recall after you came out of this room and told me that you could just pass. I started to take him to the bathroom to get anything down turned around and asked me

why did you put your pants for. What did he say. Because he kicked me in the stomach. Mary went on to testify that after Ely's beating she asked if she could take the boy to the hospital. Her husband refused threatening her and saying that Eli would be all right. The jury was unanimous. Darren Creekmore was guilty before passing sentence. Judge Gerald Knight made these remarks. We may not be able to prevent child abuse but we have to try a society that tolerate Stroud abuse. Is this society doomed to extinction. Mary Creekmore pled guilty to failing to get help for her son. She was sentenced to 10 months in jail. Darren Creekmore was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

How do you. Feel. I feel really. Blessed to even get to be put away. I. Really really. Thank you. Thanks for your time. It appears to me that there was much stronger support for entering it to protect the child rather than to protect the parent in the legislature. There was no department. I certainly do feel quite strongly that that needs to be clarified in the Greek more case would lead the state legislature to pass a sweeping package of reforms among them a new law directing CPS to consider the safety of the child its highest priority. There would also be additional funding for child abuse prevention. Public health nurses would be paid to visit the parents of newborn babies. The nurses would offer emotional support and teach parenting skills reducing the risk of abuse or neglect. Teaching them the game by packing real. Specially the saying to them helps is

language and it helps with coordination. Gary the state superintendent of schools announce that child abuse prevention would become a part of the high school curriculum a model program at one school included an on campus daycare center where students could learn how to better care for children. A lot of them believe in hitting and slapping. And as we talk and work with it I see you changing your values and so I see some real behavioral changes happening. She had given out and that's why her father stepped in and he physically abused the child. CPS had made other internal changes as well. Any case where there was medical evidence of abuse and where the child was still in the home would be reviewed by a team of professionals from outside the agency. The goal to be certain the child was safe. My feeling is that I don't want to do it and I want to give them a chance. But reducing the size of the caseload was a problem. CPS could not solve on its own case workers called a noontime rally to express their frustration.

We cannot do adequate investigation. We get our cooperation and I know what the turnover rate is going to need to be successfully. Resulting in more inexperienced staff. Working under more dangerous stressful conditions. CPS would lead 272 additional caseworkers statewide in the next two years. The cost. Fourteen million dollars. The legislature decided it was just too expensive. They voted to compromise Child Protective Services would get five million dollars. The agency estimated that 40 additional caseworkers could be hired. CPS will never be the same. As a result of Creekmore staff that we can look to these changes. That will protect children many children. I trust in the future as a result of the experience that he went through. I'm also hoping that people and out of

there justified concern about protecting children that they don't go too far on changing or amending our law. I think our law is generally pretty good and I think it generally strikes a good balance between protecting the need to protect children and the need to protect the right of families and parents to be left alone. Mary is that the happy like. Mary of going down the slide. If you were just so many things thinking about. You don't. Remember. That. No matter how good a child protective services system is that there will always always be you like recourse. It's the kind of situation where no matter how structured how and how much you try to objectify the system there are still subjective decisions that have to be made.

You've got to choose what kind of mistake you'd rather have to make Would you rather have them split up families where they could be held and kept together. Or would you rather have some children that are that are seriously injured or die. We want to protect children. On the other hand as a society we're very reluctant to intervene in the family to make any changes. But we can't have it both ways. We cannot remain outside of the family and prevent children from being hurt in the way that this boy and the way that this boy was we do. We can't have it both ways. In my opinion it is not a private matter. Between only the parent and the child. It is important to all of us how that child is raised. This is tomorrow. This is our future. Funding for this program was provided in part by the Seattle chapter of the U.S.

Jaycees. And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting