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Van Buren Township foster child's death a homicide

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Medical examiner says boy died from head injury.

Kim Kozlowski

The Detroit News

The death of a 3-year-old boy who was living in a Van Buren Township foster home was ruled a homicide Tuesday, while family members blamed the state's child welfare system for failing to protect him.

"The system failed little James," said Rita King Bradley, mother of James Earl Bradley Jr. "It's just a tragedy that kids get put in the system and something terrible happens to them."

A head injury is listed as the cause of James' death, said Donna Tokarczyk, administrative coordinator of the Washtenaw County Office of the Medical Examiner. It is unclear how the injury happened but it was ruled a homicide.

James -- who loved to play with cars and was described by his mother as sweet and polite -- is the third child to have died in a licensed Michigan foster home in the past eight months. Isaac Lethbridge, 2, was beaten to death in a Detroit foster home in August. Allison Newman, 2, died in a Canton Township foster home in September, and her foster mother is awaiting trial on felony murder charges.

"Our state foster care system is under-resourced and very heavily taxed," said Sharon Claytor Peters, chief executive officer of Michigan's Children, an advocacy group. "We need to have more priority on our children."

James' foster parents called 911 on Easter after he was unresponsive in the upstairs master bedroom, said Van Buren Township Detective Bob Greene. He first was taken to Oakwood Annapolis Hospital in Wayne before he was flown to C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, where he died Friday.

State officials last week suspended the foster care license of Christine Woodward and Lasana Karva, who had received their license in November 2006, the same month that Bradley was placed in their home. The state also suspended the married couple's license to operate a family day care in their home. They could not be reached for comment.

James, along with his four sisters and three brothers, were removed from their home in January 2006 because of allegations that one of the children may have been sexually molested, said Greene.

The children were split up when they were placed in foster homes, Greene said.

You can reach Kim Kozlowski at (313) 222-2024 or kkozlowski@detnews.com.

2007 Apr 18