How Could You? Hall of Shame-Patrick Alford case -Missing Child-UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From New York, New York, foster child Patrick Alford has been missing since January 22, 2010.
“Attorneys representing the interests of a 7-year-old boy who disappeared from a New York foster home last year want the NYPD to hand over its case files so they can continue the search for the missing child.
But the city’s lawyers argue that the NYPD’s files contain sensitive information – including the identify of witnesses – and could reveal closely-held investigative techniques.
The issue grows out of a civil suit filed by the boy’s mother, Jennifer Rodriguez, claiming that the city and its child welfare agency – the Administration for Children’s Services – failed to properly care for Patrick Alford and ignored complaints about his substandard foster care.”
Patrick was last seen “after he slipped away while taking out the trash with his foster mom at her East New York home around 9 p.m.
The 4-foot-8, 65-pound boy was last seen on that winter night wearing a red T-shirt, blue jeans, black sneakers — and no jacket.”
“The court-appointed attorneys representing Alford’s interests want a Brooklyn federal judge to force the city to hand over the files.
“This is a failed investigation. It’s been more than 20 months. It’s time for a fresh look,” said Robert Fumerton, an attorney at the white shoe firm of Skadden, Arps that has volunteered to act on the boy’s behalf.
“We think the city’s sole aim here is to prevent anyone seeing the work that was done and second-guessing this failed investigation,” Fumerton said.
He stressed that the NYPD probe “did not involve undercover operations” and was “not a national security” case — both scenarios that might call for greater secrecy.
“This is a routine missing child investigation,” Fumerton said.
The attorneys want to enlist the help of private investigators to undertake a new search for the child, and say the NYPD’s files are essential for such an undertaking.
City attorneys countered that such files belonged only in law enforcement hands and should not be handed over. The judge has not yet ruled on the issue.
The boy’s mother filed suit last fall, claiming that Alford was placed, along with his young sister, with a foster parent who did not speak English — and the boy did not speak Spanish.
The suit says Alford — who allegedly suffered from emotional problems — was unhappy in foster care and tried once to run away and later threatened “to commit suicide.”
Given the boy’s unhappiness, the city and ACS should have taken additional measures to safeguard his well being, the suit charged. The child welfare agency also should have investigated claims that the foster home was poorly run and the boy neglected, the suit said.”
Lawyers for missing 7-year-old want NYPD files on case
[New York Post 9/28/11 by Mitchel Maddux]
Update: “Top-notch lawyers appointed by a judge to represent the interests of missing Patrick Alford claim that the child, who vanished from his Brooklyn foster home, could have been safe today if not for glaring missteps by city child-welfare workers.
The lawyers argue that the employees with the city’s Administration for Children’s Service outrageously misled the Family Court in their bid to prove the child was in danger and even required placement in foster care in the first place.
It’s not clear why the workers did what they did to justify taking the boy. But they failed to disclose to a Family Court judge that, at the time, the child had actually been living at an aunt’s house and not with his mother, who was battling drug-addiction problems, lawyer Jonathan Lerner argued in papers filed in Brooklyn federal court.
Child-welfare workers lied in a sworn affidavit by “falsely representing to the court” there was “an imminent danger to the child’s life” if he was not immediately removed, “when in truth” young Patrick “was in no danger, imminent or otherwise, from continuing in his aunt’s care,” the documents state.
Lerner, a senior attorney at the white-shoe firm of Skadden Arps now serving as pro-bono counsel for the child, said ACS “made no assessment” that the aunt’s temporary custody of the boy “posed any danger” when its workers decided to seize Patrick on Dec. 29, 2009.
When ACS workers met again with the aunt two weeks later, they even deemed her suitable to serve as a temporary guardian for the boy. But for reasons that are unclear, the child nevertheless continued to remain in the foster home until his disappearance, Lerner wrote in the scathing court papers.
Patrick, who would now be 9 years old, was last seen on the night of Jan. 22, 2010, after he apparently slipped off while taking out the trash with his foster mom at her East New York home.
Adding to the debacle, ACS put him with a foster mother who spoke only Spanish, even though Patrick spoke only English.
The child, who had documented emotional and educational issues, was so unhappy that he began to experience psychiatric problems and tried to run away on several occasions.
Despite a psychologist’s assessment that the boy urgently needed medication and psychiatric care, ACS failed to take immediate action to help the boy, Lerner charged.
This chain of events prompted a federal judge overseeing the lawsuit about the child’s disappearance to suggest that — if proven — the city could be liable for damages.
Lawyers for the city strongly dispute the claim that ACS workers deliberately misled a Family Court judge and contend that facts arose that led them to believe that leaving Patrick with relatives was not a good option.”
Foster fiasco
[New York Post 12/5/11 by Mitchel Maddux]
Update 2: Two conflicting stories about what Patrick’s dad was doing while being shot have emerged. Apparently both of his parents had drug problems.
“Patrick Alford Sr., 29, was shot Monday afternoon [January 16, 2012] inside a Brooklyn apartment. The victim’s attorney said Alford had been putting up missing posters for his son around a housing development where he was not welcome.
Alford’s son, Patrick Jr., disappeared at age 7 from a Brooklyn foster home on Jan. 22, 2010. He was last seen in the lobby of the Spring Creek Development in East New York. He had been placed with foster mother Librada Moran after his biological mother, Jennifer Rodriguez, was arrested for theft.
Alford Sr. was taken to Brookdale University Hospital. He remains in critical condition.”
Father of missing boy shot in the head – possibly during search for son
[Staten Island Sun News 1/19/12 by Barry Lank]
“A dad suspected of drug dealing and whose son has been missing for nearly two years was shot Monday in a home invasion gone awry, police sources said.
Patrick Alford Sr., 29, was shot once in the right side of his head and in the right leg after a pack of five men tried to storm his Blake Ave. apartment, police sources said.
Alford’s son, Patrick Alford Jr., went missing at the age of 7 on Jan. 22, 2010, after he disappeared from a Starrett City foster home in Brooklyn. He has still not been found.
Two of Alford’s other children, a 6-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, ran and ducked for cover when shots started flying around 4:15 p.m. Monday, the source said.
One of the robbers squeezed off five shots while Alford grabbed for his .380-caliber weapon and fired three times, sources said.
Nearly 30 baggies of weed were found inside Alford’s apartment, a source said, leading police to believe the thieves were there for the pot.
Alford — who has 20 prior arrests, many involving drugs — was taken to Brookdale University Hospital and was listed in critical condition Tuesday night, according to police.”
Patrick Alford Sr., dad of missing boy Patrick Alford Jr., is shot in home invasion
[NY Daily News 1/18/12 by Sarah Armaghan]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
A requirement for foster care placement SHOULD be that the foster parent speaks the same language as the child. In this case, the foster parent ONLY spoke Spanish and the child spoke English. This child already had emotional and educational issues. This was a TOTAL FAIL placement!
Update 3: “Jennifer Rodriguez, 25, recently amended her federal lawsuit against the city and other parties, to include a wrongful-death claim.
Her son, Patrick Alford Jr., then 7, was last seen on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010, at 9 p.m. in the vicinity of 130 Vandalia Ave., in East New York’s Spring Creek Development. About three weeks before, the boy had been placed in the foster care of Librada Moran, who lived at that location.
Under state law, a person missing for three years “whose absence is not satisfactorily explained … after diligent search” is presumed dead.
The boy was put in the foster home after Ms. Rodriguez, his biological mother, lost custody of him and her two daughters after she was arrested on theft charges. Patrick was placed with Ms. Moran.
Ms. Moran told police Patrick was with her when she took out the trash, then disappeared when she turned to answer her cell phone.
Ms. Rodriguez was jailed a week later by a Family Court judge who believed she was involved in Patrick’s disappearance. She was released after several days when the city Administration for Children’s Services determined that was not the case.
Ms. Rodriguez later sued the city, Ms. Moran, the foster care agency and others in Brooklyn federal court, accusing them of negligence.
The boy’s father, Patrick Alford Sr., has filed a similar federal lawsuit. Both actions are pending.
According to Ms. Rodriguez’s lawsuit, Patrick was “extremely distraught” in foster care and tried to run away several times. He allegedly attacked other children in the foster home and “engaged in destructive acts toward property” there.
On the day before he disappeared, Patrick screamed that he wanted to go home and tried to cut open his arm with a large pair of scissors, allege Ms. Rodriguez’s court filings. Ms. Moran restrained him, according to those documents.
Ms. Rodriguez further alleges there was a communication problem between Patrick and his foster mother. Ms. Moran didn’t speak English; Patrick didn’t speak Spanish, she alleged.
Robert Osuna, a lawyer for Ms. Rodriguez, did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the amended complaint, which seeks unspecified monetary damages. Attempts to reach Ms. Rodriguez by phone were unsuccessful.
James R. Lambert, the lawyer for Patrick Alford Sr., said his client doesn’t plan at this point to amend his complaint to allege wrongful death.
“We hold out hope he’s still alive and the police will find him,” said Lambert, who is based in Dongan Hills. “My client hopes the boy will walk through the front door.”
In a court filing, a lawyer for the city said the Police Department “continues to vigorously pursue” the probe into Patrick’s whereabouts and will do so until there’s a resolution.
Attorney Suzanne M. Halbardier said the city would not oppose the family’s petitioning the Surrogate’s Court to have Patrick declared dead and an administrator appointed for his estate.
However, she also said it would be “premature” for the federal court to approve Ms. Rodriguez’s amended wrongful death complaint.
The attorney at the law firm representing Patrick’s interests could not immediately be reached for comment on the amended complaint. ”
Staten Island mom has given up hope of seeing her son, Patrick Alford, alive
[Staten Island Advance 3/10/13 by Frank Donnelly]
Update 4: “Patrick Alford, Sr. lived for years in Harlem but moved to the East New York section of Brooklyn, after his son vanished from foster care there on January 22, 2010. That decision to re-locate, Alford told PIX 11, led to a near-fatal shooting that left him partially paralyzed.
“I remember (hearing) knocking on my door,” Alford recently told PIX 11, from the nursing home where he now spends his days. ”When I opened my door, I remember ‘Where’s that reward money?’ I remember that being said.” A squad of five men proceeded to shoot him several times in the head.
Alford claims a rapper friend of his was promising $500,000 as a reward for the return of Patrick Alford, Jr. The 7-year-old boy was put in foster care in late December 2009. Within three weeks, he had disappeared from the 11th floor of the building at 130 Vandalia Avenue, where he was living with a foster family selected by the Administration for Children’s Services. The foster mom, Librada Moran, told police she had briefly turned her head, while bringing out the trash, and when she turned back, young Patrick was gone.
Patrick’s mother, Jennifer Rodriguez, told PIX 11 she was 22 and feeling overwhelmed with three, small children when ACS came to her door on Staten Island. The child care agency placed Patrick and his younger sister, Jayleen, in the same foster home. But Patrick’s mom–and aunt–noticed something was wrong, when they attended a supervised visit with Patrick in mid-January 2010. Patrick’s aunt, Blanca Toledo, spoke to the foster mother.
“She said, ‘I don’t understand too much English.’ And when she said that, I said ‘What?!’ Because Patrick and Jayleen, they only know English.”
“My son was just acting crazy,” Jennifer Rodriguez recalled. “He was crying, acting out, throwing a chair. He was like “No!!”–I want to come home, Mommy! I want to be with you, I want to be with you.”
It was the last time Jennifer Rodriguez ever saw her only son, her firstborn child.
Patrick’s aunt said the foster mother had reported incidents with Patrick to ACS. The aunt told a counselor the boy needed help.
“His spirit was broken,” Toledo recalled of the boy who was always polite and respectful to his elders in the past. “He always protected his two sisters. He was very unhappy there. Patrick wasn’t Patrick. He was very destroyed.”
“Somebody in Brooklyn has to know what happened to my son,” Rodriguez said tearfully, in the kitchen of her Staten Island apartment. She recalled that police dogs traced Patrick’s scent to a bus stop, about two blocks from the foster family’s apartment building.
Back in 2010, the NYPD told PIX 11 it had interviewed 14,000 people and entered 9,000 apartments, in the quest to find Patrick. Among those interviewed: registered sex offenders in the community where Patrick was living, before he vanished.
Patrick’s mother, who has struggled with depression since her teen years, is working to get back full custody of her three daughters. Now 27, she is researching and writing a book about her experience with the Administration for Children’s Services. Rodriguez told us she was molested by a famly [sic]friend when she was four years old, and that led to some of her mental health issues. She keeps all of Patrick’s belongings in her apartment, including the sheets he last slept on, his slippers, sneakers, game chair, and his yellow bike helmet.
Patrick’s father, Patrick, Sr., remains in a nursing facility, hoping that rehabilitation will help maximize his body’s ability to move. The left side of his body is paralyzed, but he can get up from his wheelchair and walk very slowly, with great effort. His message for Patrick, Jr.–”Come home, your siblings need you.”
Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for anyone with information that leads to Patrick. The phone number is 1-800-577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential. We will attach an “age progression” photo of what Patrick Alford might look like now, at age 11. His birthday is November 28th
Paralyzed dad searches for son, 7, who vanished while in foster care
[Pix 11 3/18/14 by Mary Murphy]
Update 5:”Dozens of police officers will fan-out Thursday across south Brooklyn and Staten Island seeking clues to a mystery that has bedeviled investigators for five years — the disappearance of a troubled young boy named Patrick Alford.
Patrick was 7 when he vanished. And cops will distribute flyers in English and Spanish bearing photos of what he looked like then — and an “age-progression photo” depicting what he might look like now at age 12.
“Honestly, I think about him every day,” Patrick’s mother, Jennifer Rodriguez, told the Daily News. “When I eat breakfast, I ask God that he’s eating breakfast too. When it’s cold outside, I hope he’s warm.”
Affixed to her refrigerator was a News article about her boy from September 2010 with the headline, “Without a Trace.”
“It’s really hard, just wondering what happened,” she said. “It’s stressful and depressing, not just because it’s the fifth anniversary. Every day, it’s stressful.”
Patrick’s aunt, Blanca Toledo, refused to speak of her nephew in the past tense.
“This morning I was thinking about him, as a matter of fact,” Toledo said. “Thinking that I miss him. And what would he look like right now. He’s such a handsome and polite boy.”
Lt. Christopher Zimmerman, commanding officer of the Missing Persons Squad, said they aim to “stimulate people’s memories” with the fliers.
“Obviously, we’d love to find him, that would be perfect,” he told The News.
Police will focus on the Livingston section of Staten Island neighborhood, where Patrick lived with his mom until she was forced to give him up — and in Starrett City, where he was living with a foster mom on Jan. 22, 2010 when he vanished without a trace.
Zimmerman is hoping somebody who has stayed silent all these years will finally come forward. He is banking on the hope that “maybe a little guilt is settling in.”
Patrick’s foster mom, Librada Moran, has also been notified that a fresh search will be underway, the lieutenant said.
Zimmerman said he hopes this case does not play out like that of 6-year-old Etan Patz, who was kidnapped in 1979. While a mentally ill man is now on trial for killing Patz, the boy’s body has not been found.
“This case is on everybody’s mind,” Zimmerman said.
Rodriguez has sued the Administration for Children’s Services and Moran in Brooklyn Federal Court for failing to protect her son. She is now appealing a recent ruling from the court that her rights were not violated.
“No other court in the history of the United States has ever allowed a government agency to lose a person’s child and say a parent has no remedy,” her lawyer, Robert Osuna, said. “Every kid in foster care can disappear tomorrow and nobody can complain? That can’t be the law.”
Moran could not be reached for comment. But a neighbor said they are all aware of Patrick’s tragic disappearance.
“Everybody knows about it,” she said, declining to give her name. “It happened before my time, but everyone knows about that.”
Patrick had already lived a lifetime of turmoil when he went missing.
The son of a single mom, Patrick and his sister Jailene had been sent to live with Moran in December 2009.
The ACS acted after Rodriguez was arrested for shoplifting and admitted she was hooked on drugs.
On a cold night just three weeks after Patrick moved in with Moran, she asked the boy to help her heft some trash downstairs.
Distracted by a cellphone call, Moran left the boy in the lobby. When she turned around, he was gone.
Because stranger abductions are so rare, police first focused their investigation on Rodriguez and her family. Their suspicions grew when a K-9 unit followed Patrick’s scent from Moran’s apartment to the Belt Parkway.
Rodriguez insisted she played no role in her son’s disappearance. But cops were so convinced she was hiding her son that a Staten Island judge briefly jailed her for contempt. She was released after passing a polygraph test.
Meanwhile, police conducted more than 14,000 interviews and searched more than 9,000 apartments in and around Starrett City.
They visited his school and talked to his teachers. The rode the buses he rode and questioned all the drivers. They sent scuba divers to scour nearby Spring Creek and an army of cops to search parkland on the Queens-Brooklyn border.
Their strongest lead came early on when they got a tip that a boy with Patrick’s prominent ears and scar over one eyebrow was spotted in Brooklyn.
Hopes that it was Patrick were dashed when that boy’s mother produced a birth certificate showing it wasn’t.
The search for Patrick took investigators to Maryland, Illinois, Pennsylvania and even Puerto Rico, where Patrick has cousins.
In Minnesota, investigators downloaded video from a store where someone thought they saw Patrick. It wasn’t him.
The case was highlighted three times on “America’s Most Wanted” and three Patrick look-alikes were tracked down.
But still there was no sign of the boy.
That October, Rodriguez sued claiming Patrick had threatened to kill himself and should have been under close supervision. She claimed the ACS placed Patrick with Moran even though the foster mom spoke little English and the boy spoke no Spanish.
On the first anniversary of Patrick’s disappearance, Rodriguez was wracked by remorse.
“This year has been a nightmare,” she told The News at the time. “If I had one wish, it would be to be 15 again and have my son in my belly again.”
There is a $12,000 reward for info that could lead to finding Patrick. Anybody with a tip should call Crimestoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.”
Police to comb south Brooklyn, Staten Island in search of Patrick Alford, a troubled young boy who vanished 5 years ago[NY Daily News 1/22/15 by ROCCO PARASCANDOLA , CAITLIN NOLAN , EDGAR SANDOVAL , CORKY SIEMASZKO ]
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