AUNT RAGES AT CITY OVER TOT'S DEATH

DEBRA McGRATH-KERR

The aunt of Queenie Baker, the 21-month-old girl allegedly murdered by her foster mother, is furious at the Child Welfare Administration.

Diane Baker is angry because she claims the agency initially gave her two nieces and nephew back to her brother, who eventually beat two of the children so severely they wound up in body casts.

And she's angry because CWA then overlooked her in the search for a suitable home for the kids.

"They (CWA) knew the kids had family willing to take them," Baker said yesterday. "I'm furious. The system messed up."

Baker tried to get custody of all three children Shawanna, 6, Paul, 3, and Queenie in February when the two youngest children were in the hospital.

Instead, Child Welfare gave them to first-time foster parents Rose and Edward Hall.

Rose Hall has been accused of beating Queenie to death on Tuesday night.

Hall's lawyer, John Stella, said yesterday she was a "model parent and a model foster parent, and no agency could question that."

But, Baker said her niece would be alive if CWA had placed them with her.

Baker claims the first mistake was when the children were returned to her brother their natural father, Paul Baker after nearly a year in a foster home.

"He didn't have an apartment. He didn't have a job," she said. "I don't know why they gave them back to him."

Baker said the kids had been taken from Paul because their mother had a drug problem. But Paul fought to get his kids back, and in November of 1994 he got them.

But just three months later, Queenie and young Paul wound up in the hospital in body casts after severe beatings from their father.

Baker said it was then that she pressed for custody. But she said the kids were placed in a foster home without her even being told.

On Thursday, she heard the news her youngest niece had allegedly been beaten to death.

"It didn't have to happen this way," Baker said. "She had family that would have taken care of her."

Police say the Halls seemed like perfect foster parents. Their apartment is impeccably clean, and there is no evidence their two natural children were ever abused.

Detectives say they can't explain why they believe Rose Hall allegedly beat Queenie Baker with a shoe. And Hall's friends say she is incapable of beating a child.

Baker said what matters now is getting her nephew and surviving niece back.

"They need their family now," she said. "They don't need to be around any str angers."