Lawsuit filed on behalf of Arabella McCormack’s sisters alleges systemic failures years before the girl died in a “setting of severe malnutritioneglect”

BY TERI FIGUEROA

SAN DIEGO — 

A lawsuit accuses several agencies, organizations and workers of failing to report possible abuse of an 11-year-old East County girl who later died in a state of malnutrition, and her body had cuts, bruises and 13 bone fractures.

The suit, filed last week in San Diego Superior Court, alleges several instances where protections failed Arabella McCormack — including social workers alleged to have closed complaints as unfounded and teachers who allegedly did not report the emaciated child to police.

By Shylee Graf Journal staff writer

A jury convicted Garland Malcolm on one count of child abuse July 14 in Cortez after only three hours of deliberation. The charge is a Class 3 felony.

According to the arrest affidavit, which The Journal obtained from the Montezuma County District Attorney’s Office, Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Bryan Hill was called to Southwest Memorial Hospital on Jan. 6, 2022, for an unconscious juvenile.

Nurses at the hospital reported that the child’s mother, Malcolm, told hospital staff members that she found her child on the floor in the kitchen, but later changed her story, telling them that the child was “running around screaming throughout the house,” said the affidavit, written by Detective Yvonne Huff.

Upon arrival at the hospital, the 6-year-old boy was unresponsive and was intubated. A CT scan revealed a “large subdural hematoma,” known as a brain bleed. The child was flown to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Colorado Springs.

3:10-cr-03256-WQH-1

Prosecutors say 11-year-old Arabella McCormack was tortured and starved to death by her adoptive family in August 2022

By Alexis Rivas, Mike Dorfman, Meredith Royster and Jay Yoo

Social workers investigated reports of suspected child abuse years before prosecutors say 11-year-old Arabella McCormack was tortured and starved to death by her adoptive family. That’s according to hundreds of internal documents from San Diego County’s Child Welfare Services Department. 

Those internal documents show Child Welfare Services investigated those suspected child abuse reports but determined the accusations were unfounded. Arabella’s adoption was approved about a year later.

According to the internal documents, Arabella’s adoptive parents, Brian and Leticia McCormack, called 911 last August, saying the child choked on chicken broth. Paramedics say they found Arabella on the floor without a pulse. A deputy on the scene reported the girl looked like “a corpse with skin stretched over it.” She died less than 10 hours later at the hospital. 

SAN ANTONIO - A man is facing charges for sexually abusing his adopted teenage daughters.

The Bexar County Sheriff's deputies arrested Bryce Chatland, 55, was charged with continuous sex abuse. He's accused of sexually assaulting the two girls ( ages 13 and 15) for the last seven years.

The 15-year-old told investigators on June 7 that Chatland began abusing her when she was seven, making her engage in sexual acts, including one that she described as "gross." The 13-year-old said Chatland continued to try and convince her do to "stuff with him"

Both claim that he tried to record them in the restroom. The mother of both juveniles, who reported the offense to both the Department of Family and Protective Services and the sheriff's office, gave investigators data storage devices that she believe may contain inappropriate images of her daughters.

After consent was obtained, deputies searched and found numerous videos "depicting the juveniles using the restroom and taking baths" on the data storage units.

Bryce Chatland charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child

SAN ANTONIO – A 55-year-old man has been arrested after two children made an outcry that he had sexually assaulted them over the course of seven years, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Bryce Conrad Chatland was arrested Wednesday and charged with two first-degree felony counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child. His bonds total $160,000 for the charges.

On June 7, the victims told investigators with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office that Chatland had been sexually abusing them for years starting in 2016.

The victims told deputies that they also believed they had been recorded.

COLIN ATAGI

Kidnapping charges should be dismissed against a Rohnert Park couple because they legally adopted and never concealed three children believed to have been tortured for years, the couple’s defense attorneys say.

The defense motions for dismissal were filed June 13 by the attorneys of Jose and Gina Centeno, who are expected to stand trial on charges of kidnapping, torture, and the sexual abuse of their former foster children.

The motions are expected to be addressed during a hearing on Tuesday.

Each defendant is charged with three counts of kidnapping for ransom and three counts of torture. Jose Centeno also is charged with nine additional counts related to rape and sex abuse.

Filing contends mandated reporters witnessed suspected child abuse and neglect but didn’t report it

By Alexis Rivas, Mike Dorfman, Meredith Royster and Jay Yoo

A civil lawsuit filed on behalf of the surviving younger sisters of Arabella McCormack, an 11-year-old adopted girl, describe numerous failures to report and investigate child abuse.

The 27-page lawsuit filed late last week levels accusations at:

• The San Diego Police Department & one of its officers
• The San Diego Fire Rescue Department & one of its employees
• The Rock Church & one of its employees
• San Diego County Child Welfare Services and two of its employees
• Pacific Coast Academy & two of its employees
• The adoptive family: Leticia McCormack, the Estate of Brian McCormack, Adella Tom, & Stanley Tom

ROBERT MITTENDORF The Bellingham Herald

A former schoolteacher and current Blaine school board candidate pleaded not guilty Friday in Whatcom County Superior Court to nearly a dozen felony charges that accuse her of torturing and sexually assaulting four children who were known to her. 

Tana Perkins Reneau, 51, stood mostly silent before Court Commissioner Ann Vetter-Hansen. Her lawyer entered a plea of not guilty and Reneau said “uh-uh” when Vetter-Hansen asked whether Reneau had any questions. 

A tentative trial date was set for 9 a.m. Aug. 28 in Superior Court.

After the hearing, a member of Reneau’s legal staff told The Bellingham Herald that Reneau had no comment. Her legal entourage left quickly through the rear courthouse stairwell. 

Abstract: This article exposes human rights violations committed at Brothers Home in Busan, South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, identifying their structural causes and discussing Korean society’s efforts to address them. From 1975 to 1987, Brothers Home was the largest group residential facility for the homeless, the ill, the disabled, and the poor—a program that was even commended by the Korean government. However, over the years, various human rights abuses led to the death of 657 residents. While these violations remained hidden from public view for almost 25 years, survivors and supporters waged a long battle to bring them to light. Recently, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated and confirmed the human rights violations as state violence . In this essay, the authors assess the significance this case holds for Korean society.

Keywords: Brothers Home; Human Rights Violations; Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the Republic of Korea; State Violence; Homelessness

Introduction

On 23 August 2022, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of the Republic of Korea— a government agency created in 2005 to probe human rights violations by the state before Korea’s democratization—concluded that human rights violations had been committed between 1975 to 1987 at Brothers Home, a group residential center for homeless people in Busan. These abuses included confinement, isolation, forced unpaid labor, and various forms of violence. This conclusion by the TRC meant that the state’s culpability was officially acknowledged. The following day, Jung Keun-sik, chairman of the TRC, formally announced this decision, and the news was widely covered by major domestic and international media outlets, which also published follow-up articles on the story.1

Details of the horrific incidents that had taken place years earlier at Brothers Home shocked South Korean society. This outcry represented the culmination of a long campaign led by survivors’ organisations and supported by civic groups that called for a public inquiry. Of equally critical importance was the launch of the second Truth and Reconciliation Commission on 10 December 2020, a development that was made possible by a consensus across society and among politicians that human rights violations at facilities such as Brothers Home should be properly addressed.2 Immediately after taking office, Chairman Jung Keun-sik also specified that establishing the truth about state violence committed at these facilities was a priority for the Commission.3