The worker, on contract with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, reported back that 2-year-old Ja’hir Gibbons and his 5-year-old brother were both safe, according to the agency.
Two days later, Ja’hir was brutally beaten to death. The following day, the worker filed another report saying only the older brother was at the Chicago home at the time of the visit and that the worker never saw the 2-year-old at all, the agency disclosed late Thursday.
The caseworker has been barred from having any contact with children or families the agency serves as the conflicting reports are investigated.
“Falsifying records will not be tolerated,” DCFS Interim Director Debra Dyer-Webster said in a statement. “DCFS will pursue all available discipline, including termination, if records were falsified.”
The incident raises more questions about how the agency dealt with allegations of abuse against the boys’ mother and her boyfriend and how it monitored the well-being of the children. Ja’hir was beaten so violently that his liver was lacerated, but he also showed signs of older injuries such as rib fractures. His older brother had bruises over his body, apparently from past beatings, according to police.
“It’s very disturbing,’’ said Acting Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert, whose office represents abused and neglected children. “By definition, there are allegations that children are abused in their home and that warrants the highest level of care.’’
He was particularly troubled by the apparent filing of conflicting reports. “It’s absolutely another huge red flag. This is beyond a red flag. ... I mean it’s about the quality of work that this agency is doing.’’
The mother and boyfriend are both facing felony charges. The boyfriend, Dejon Waters, 21, was charged with first-degree murder after he admitted getting angry at the boy and beating him with his hands and a rolled-up shirt until Ja’hir “began foaming at the mouth,’ prosecutors said.
Hyc, 28, was charged with child endangerment because she left Ja’hir with Waters — even though she had noticed bruises and burns on Ja’hir for a week or two — “because she had to go to work,” prosecutors said.
There had been suspicions about the couple’s treatment of the children for more than a year, according to prosecutors.
A year ago, a neighbor saw Ja’hir limping after a loud fight in his home. Last August, a doctor reported a bite on his stomach and other bruising that the mother blamed on day care. In October a DCFS worker was assigned to the family after the agency got a hotline complaint about possible abuse in the home. Earlier this month, Ja’hir’s grandparents visited the boys and noticed bruises on the boy’s face and arms, prosecutors said.
On Saturday the caseworker went to the family’s home in the 6000 block of South Prairie Avenue. The next day, the worker submitted a report saying both children were at home and were doing fine. Following Jahir’s death, a second report was submitted March 19 saying only the older child was home.
The agency did not say which report it believes to be true. But prosecutors made it clear that the abuse of Ja’hir had been going on for some time while DCFS was monitoring the family.
“The medical examiner discovered fractures in various stages of healing to the ribs and a relatively new wrist fracture. There were numerous lacerations to the liver and a contusion to the lung. There were numerous bruises about the body in various stages of healing,” prosecutors said in court. “The ME noted that the injuries require significant blunt-force trauma.”
When Hyc was arrested, police found an iPad showing recent searches for ways to hide bruises, authorities said.
On Thursday, prosecutors laid out Ja’hir’s last moments in heart-wrenching detail. After picking up her 5-year-old son from school, she came home Monday evening to find Ja’hir on the floor, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said in court.
Hyc asked Waters what happened to the boy but could not get an explanation, Murphy said. At first she thought Ja’hir was taking a nap, but then she realized something was wrong and tried reviving the boy. Panicking, she started banging on doors up and down the hall outside her apartment.
Chanel Perkins was visiting her twin sister down the hall when she heard the urgent pounding and a woman screaming, “Call the police, my baby isn’t breathing!”
The sisters opened the door and saw Hyc holding a seemingly lifeless boy in her arms. They followed her into Hyc’s apartment, where the mother laid Ja’hir on the floor and grabbed a blanket for a pillow. The boy was pale and cold to the touch, Perkins said. His eyes were rolled back into his head. There were bruises on his face, on his chest, on his stomach, on his arms, on his legs. There were two cuts on his face.
Perkins’ sister called 911 and the dispatcher asked if anyone could perform CPR until help came. “At first I didn’t want to do anything. ... There were so many bruises,” said Perkins, a nursing assistant. “But then 911 told me to do the chest compressions. … I just wanted to help. I didn’t want to see anybody lose a child. It was devastating.”
Paramedics arrived and, picking up a pulse, took Ja’hir to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead within the hour Monday evening.
DCFS said its contact with Hyc stretches back to 2010, when there were allegations of abuse and neglect involving her older children, a spokesman said. Last October, prosecutors said, a DCFS worker followed up at Hyc’s home and overheard what was believed to be Waters hitting Ja’hir.
Recent DCFS involvement included home visits and therapy for the mother, according to agency spokesman Jimmie Whitelow. Ja’hir also started participating in speech and developmental therapy, which he was continuing to receive, according to the agency.
Golbert, the public guardian, said the agency was providing “intact family services’’ and was “supposed to keep a comprehensive set of eyes’’ on the family. He said the agency should have brought the case to court to ensure that the children were protected.
He said the case illustrates the weakness of leadership in the department.
