Nevada CPS News Archive

Foster mom loses appeal of child-murder conviction

by Cy Ryan

A Las Vegas woman convicted of first-degree murder in the death of a 7-month-old-foster child in her care, lost an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Melanie Ochs -- sentenced to 20-50 years in the August 2006 death of "Baby Boy Charles" -- argued there were six errors during the District Court trial that warranted reversal of her conviction. Ochs maintained that she had set the child on the washing machine to change his diaper but she was distracted by the two other children who were arguing.

lasvegassun.com

October 31, 2011

State inspectors find foster children living in unhealthy conditions

by Cy Ryan

A foster care home in Clark County, under the supervision of the non-profit Eagle Quest of Nevada, failed to meet the minimum safety and health standards for the six children living in the home, according to a legislative review.

The unannounced visit in March found unsecured flammable liquid, sharp knives, a dirty kitchen, overflowing garbage cans, filthy bathroom sinks with standing dirty water used by the foster children, non-nutritious foods and neither of the foster parents at home. The children were removed almost immediately to another home.

lasvegassun.com

October 18, 2011

Online school provides

by Maddie Reynolds

The Chapman children attend public school, but not the kind where they take a bus every morning to school and sit among dozens of students throughout the day fighting for the individual attention each needs.

Unlike homeschool, NCA is a K-12 public school that provides all classroom materials, certified teachers and classrooms, although the classrooms are virtual. Osmond, one of 60 NCA teachers, uses an online interactive classroom to give lessons to her students in addition to talking on the phone with her students and their families on a weekly basis.

lahontanvalleynews.com

July 27, 2011

I-Team: Foster Children Could Wait Longer for Forever Home

by Colleen McCarty

The state child welfare budget is not among the hardest hit this legislative session but spending cuts to the agencies that service children and families could have long term consequences.

By the time a child is ready for adoption, he or she will have touched virtually every part of the child welfare system from the abuse or neglect investigation that removed him or her, to the foster placement or placements that temporarily housed him or her, to the court proceedings that terminated the mom and dad's parental rights. If any part of that system slows, an abused child spends more time within it instead of with an adopted family.

8newsnow.com

April 15, 2011

Finding the right balance

After receiving a tip that a 9-year-old girl had been sexually abused, a child protection investigator and a deputy sheriff in Bend, Ore., went to the girl's school to interview her. The first of its kind in 20 years, the case has drawn wide attention.

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the decision would have an adverse effect on child abuse investigations. The Supreme Court heard the case Tuesday, which pits the rights of families and children against the responsibility of states to investigate child abuse.

lasvegassun.com

March 5, 2011

Clark County reviewing 82 cases of potential child harm

by Joe Schoenmann

The Clark County manager is reviewing 82 cases in which the district attorney's office claims the county's own child protection agency would have returned children to dangerous homes or would not have removed them quickly had the DA not intervened.

Summaries of the cases were offered to the Legislative Committee on Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice in late June. County Manager Virginia Valentine last week disclosed that her office is reviewing them and urged the public to withhold judgment. Involving children, birth parents, foster parents and often stepmothers or stepfathers, many of the cases outline family histories riddled with alcohol, drugs, mental illness, sexual abuse and other behavior. Some end in a child's death. The summaries lay out a dark landscape where children, many of whom have just started life, are beaten down in the one place most people turn to for support: home.

Las Vegas Sun

July 25, 2010

Officials encourage protection against whooping cough

Reported cases of whooping cough in neighboring California have tripled since last year, according to state health officials, including five infants who died.

In California, 584 cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, were confirmed between Jan. 1 and May 31 - three times the 190 confirmed cases reported last year in the same time frame. Hit especially hard were the Bay Area, Los Angeles County, Orange County and Fresno County.

Nevada Appeal

June 13, 2010

Sentencing delayed for couple accused of incest

by Cara McCoy

A sentencing hearing was delayed Thursday for a husband and wife who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from allegations of sexually abusing their children when they were minors.

The now-adult children reported to police they had been sexually abused by Frederick Vonseydewitz, 45, and his wife, Mary, when they were minors. In January, both Frederick and Mary Vonseydewitz pleaded guilty to reduced charges.

Las Vegas Sun

April 23, 2010

Three more lawsuits doomed to fail, three more bad child welfare systems likely to get worse

by Richard Wexlar

The group that so arrogantly calls itself "Children's Rights" has filed another one of its Mclawsuits against a state child welfare agency - this time in Massachusetts. And NCCPR's sources say that another such Mclawsuit, in Texas, is imminent.

Meanwhile a group which is unaffiliated with CR but has the same myopic outlook about how to fix child welfare systems, the National Center for Youth Law, has filed the same kind of suit in Nevada. All of these child welfare systems almost certainly are every bit as bad as CR and NCYL say they are.

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

April 15, 2010

Smoke in Your Eyes: ACS Sues to Stop Smoking at NV Tobacco Shows

by Tanya Roth, Esq.

At this point most of us would agree that smoking is bad for you. It's bad for the guy standing next to the guy who is smoking. It's bad for the kids of the guy who is smoking.

But here is an question, if tobacco is still a legal product in this country, and it is, maybe the one place you should be able to smoke is at a tobacco trade show? On Monday, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority asked a Nevada judge to dismiss a lawsuit by the American Cancer Society seeking to stop smoking at tobacco trade shows.

blogs.findlaw.com

January 29, 2010

Three children fall from vehicle; mothers arrested

by Maggie Lillis

Two mothers were charged with multiple counts of child endangerment after three toddlers fell out of a moving vehicle Sunday evening on Bruce Street near Owens Avenue, Las Vegas police said.

One-year-old twins were taken to University Medical Center. One of them was in critical condition this morning, and the other was being held for observation. Other children in the vehicle were taken to Child Haven, and Child Protective Services was notified, Cassell said.

Las Vegas Review Journal

November 3, 2009

More kids are dying across the nation, in Las Vegas

by Richard A. Serrano

Twice as many children have died in Clark County this year from abuse and neglect as in all of last year, and officials worry the number could be triple that for 2008 by year's end.

In Reno and surrounding Washoe County, the number of children who have died from abuse and neglect has also risen sharply over last year. In the rest of Nevada and nationwide, the numbers are climbing too, authorities say. Yet no one agrees on a common explanation for the trend - not child-welfare officials, nor experts at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington.

Las Vegas Sun

October 12, 2009