Post by mary on Jun 20, 2007 21:08:06 GMT -5
Couple may lose their children after foster child's death
June 19, 2007
By JACK KRESNAK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
State child abuse investigators are seeking to terminate the parental rights of two Van Buren Township foster parents to their two biological children on grounds that they are suspects in the murder of a 3-year-old foster boy in their home.
Christine Woodward, 34, and Lasana Kanva, Jr., 37, are expected to attend a preliminary hearing in Wayne County juvenile court this afternoon on a petition by the state Department of Human Services to terminate their rights to their children, a 15-year-old girl and 11-year-old son.
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Woodward and Kanva have denied causing any harm to their foster child, James Bradley Jr. of Detroit, who died of blunt force trauma and brain swelling on April 13 at the University of Michigan Mott’s Children’s Hospital.
The parents and their children give similar stories about finding James unconscious in an upstairs bedroom on May 8. But doctors at Mott have called James’ severe injuries the result of child abuse.
The only people who had access to James within two days before Kanva’s call to 911 that day were the family and Woodward’s mother, Janice Johnson, 50, of Detroit, according to reports filed in the juvenile court.
An autopsy by Washtenaw County Medical Examiner Dr. Bader Cassin said James died of head injuries, including a skull fracture that led to brain swelling. Cassin ruled the manner of death as homicide.
Through an attorney, the couple has denied any wrongdoing.
June 19, 2007
By JACK KRESNAK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
State child abuse investigators are seeking to terminate the parental rights of two Van Buren Township foster parents to their two biological children on grounds that they are suspects in the murder of a 3-year-old foster boy in their home.
Christine Woodward, 34, and Lasana Kanva, Jr., 37, are expected to attend a preliminary hearing in Wayne County juvenile court this afternoon on a petition by the state Department of Human Services to terminate their rights to their children, a 15-year-old girl and 11-year-old son.
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Woodward and Kanva have denied causing any harm to their foster child, James Bradley Jr. of Detroit, who died of blunt force trauma and brain swelling on April 13 at the University of Michigan Mott’s Children’s Hospital.
The parents and their children give similar stories about finding James unconscious in an upstairs bedroom on May 8. But doctors at Mott have called James’ severe injuries the result of child abuse.
The only people who had access to James within two days before Kanva’s call to 911 that day were the family and Woodward’s mother, Janice Johnson, 50, of Detroit, according to reports filed in the juvenile court.
An autopsy by Washtenaw County Medical Examiner Dr. Bader Cassin said James died of head injuries, including a skull fracture that led to brain swelling. Cassin ruled the manner of death as homicide.
Through an attorney, the couple has denied any wrongdoing.