Agency Investigates Shaking Death of a Baby

The city's child welfare agency is investigating the circumstances that led last month to the shaking death of a 4-month-old girl who had been placed temporarily in a Queens foster home while her assigned foster mother was out of town, city officials said yesterday.

Police officers and emergency medical workers responding to a 911 call on July 23 from the foster home on 222d Street in Laurelton, Queens, found the infant, Monny Bolling, cold and not breathing as she lay in her crib. A 14-year-old former foster child, who had been adopted by the family that was temporarily caring for Monny and another child,pleaded guilty on Friday to criminally negligent homicide in the case.

The teen-ager, whose name has been withheld by officials because of his age, faces up to 18 months in prison. His guilty plea was first reported yesterday in The Daily News.

According to the police, the boy had been playing on a bed with Monny when Monny fell onto the floor and began to cry. The police said that her death was a result of the boy's attempts to quiet her.

"My understanding is he wanted to stop her crying and shook the child," said Peter Reinharz, chief of the Family Court Division of the city's Law Department, adding: "This is an amazing tragedy, one of the real tragedies that come out of the juvenile justice system. There is no adequate way to respond to it."

Leonora Wiener, a spokeswoman for the city's Administration for Children's Services, said Monny, who was born addicted to drugs, and a 21-month-old boy had earlier been placed with a foster mother named Joyce Reid, who also lives in Queens; they were taken to the foster home in Laurelton while Ms. Reid took a one-week vacation.

Ms. Wiener added that the children were placed in the second home by St. Joseph's Services for Children and Families, which subcontracts with the city to manage some foster care services. No one at St. Joseph's Services could be reached for comment yesterday. Ms. Wiener said that foster home was already caring for a 4-month-old foster baby, as well as the 14-year-old boy.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, law enforcement officials said the teen-ager had been in foster care before being adopted by the family in Laurelton, and had a troubled history that included at least some contact with the police before his arrest in connection with Monny's death.

Ms. Wiener said that her office was investigating, among other things, the appropriateness of Monny's placement in the Laurelton home. She added that the 21-month-old boy placed there had been returned to Ms. Reid, while the other 4-month-old foster child living at the Laurelton home was placed in another home immediately.

Dr. Chris Monaco, a director of the national child advocacy group Child Help U.S.A., said the case raised several questions.

"Exactly how was it that this 14-year-old was allowed contact with this baby?" she asked. "I would wonder how this boy was able to pick up this baby and shake it. Was it a case of not enough monitoring, not enough staff per child ratio, or was it just chance? It just raises issues in my mind."