How Could You? Hall of Shame-Alysa Horney case-Child Death UPDATED and lawsuit

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 Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Foster Mother Delila Pacheco has been charged  with “first-degree murder in the death of Alysa Horney.”

The 2-year-old girl died in December 2013.

Foster mom bound over in child’s death[Tahlequah Daily Press 3/27/14 by Josh Newton]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

Update:”Jurors deliberated more than 4-1/2 hours Thursday before finding 47-year-old foster mother Delila Pacheco guilty of killing 2-year-old Alysa Horney last December.

The panel of seven women and five men recommended Pacheco serve a life sentence.

After the jury was excused, District Judge Darrell Shepherd ordered a pre-sentence investigation before formal sentencing.

Alysa’s mother, Holly Horney, wiped away tears outside the court room.

“It’s been really nerve-racking the past year,” Horney said. “I can’t even explain it.”

Horney said Alysa “suffered a night of hell” before she died. The toddler’s older sister has lost her best friend, Horney said.

Pacheco was led from the courthouse in handcuffs as her family and friends sobbed. As Pacheco passed by, Horney called her a “monster.”

Prosecutors Jack Thorp and Jacob Howell, in closing statements, encouraged jurors to use their common-sense when deciding the case.

“This case was about Alysa Horney, a 2-year-old little girl,” Howell said. “It’s about her life, her death.””

Foster mother found guilty of killing toddler[Tahlequah Daily Press 9/19/14]

Update 2: “An Oklahoma Department of Human Services child welfare supervisor has been demoted for mistakes found after a new foster mom murdered a 2-year-old girl placed in her care.

The supervisor had approved the woman as a foster parent despite warning signs that should have triggered a more exhaustive background check, DHS found.

Another DHS supervisor involved in the girl’s case resigned rather than face termination, records show. And the child’s primary case worker retired.

The girl, Alysa Horney, bled to death inside her foster home after her liver was pushed into her spine by a blow to her body on the morning of Dec. 8, 2013. The pathologist who did her autopsy reported finding 40 blunt force injuries to the outside of her little body.

The foster mother, Delila Ann Pacheco, 48, of Tahlequah, is serving a life sentence after being found guilty at trial of first-degree murder. Prosecutors alleged the foster mom killed Alysa in a bedroom of the trailer home because the girl wouldn’t go to sleep.

“Unfortunately, there is never going to be a time when DHS is entirely free from tragedies,” a DHS spokeswoman, Sheree Powell, said Friday. “We work with extremely fragile families and children at the worst point in their lives, in often unpredictable situations.

“However, we are working diligently to improve the things we can control like reducing workers’ caseloads so they can spend more time with families and increasing their training to think critically and make sound decisions.”

The Oklahoman learned of the DHS mistakes in Alysa’s case from a review of 200 discipline records from last year.

Those records show DHS child welfare workers at times fail to do simple background checks on applicants who want to be foster parents.

The DHS investigation into Alysa’s murder found supervisor William C. Busch approved Pacheco as a foster mom in August 2013 without fully checking into her suitability.

“Prior to AH living in DP’s home, you had information regarding possible violence, sex and drugs. You failed to direct staff to research and verify or to personally review the information thoroughly,” deputy DHS directors wrote in his demotion letter.

Busch was specifically criticized for never even getting a report on Pacheco’s 2011 arrest. He later told an investigator obtaining the report would have “wasted another day” and he pointed out no charges were filed, records show.

He also was specifically criticized for never reading court paperwork involving a dropped request for a protective order against Pacheco.

The arrest report shows a Cherokee County sheriff’s deputy jailed Pacheco on Nov. 28, 2011, on an aggravated assault and battery complaint. The deputy reported she admitted grabbing a large kitchen knife during a fight with her husband. The deputy reported she also admitted to using marijuana and methamphetamine in the past.

The request for a protective order shows Pacheco was accused of trying to force her sister to have sex with her husband, Longino Pacheco. “When I refused is when the threats began,” the sister wrote in her Aug. 29, 2012, request. “I called 911 — officers came and rescued me.”

The sister dismissed her request a couple of weeks later.

Busch was demoted on Sept. 8 for unsatisfactory performance, misconduct and neglect of duty, records show. His salary was cut from $4,226 to $3,563 a month. He was stripped of his supervisor duties and required to answer the DHS child abuse and neglect hotline.

Busch said — through the DHS spokeswoman — that he would have no comment on this story.

 

The DHS investigation of Alysa’s murder also found “policy violations related to child abuse reporting,” records show. Specifically, child welfare workers failed to contact the DHS child abuse and neglect hotline when Alysa was taken to a hospital on Nov. 6, 2013, for a broken leg, records show. Hospital workers had notified DHS they thought the child had been left unattended, the records show.

Child welfare workers again failed to notify the DHS hotline after learning Alysa had a bruise on her face on Nov. 14, 2013, the records show.

Referrals to the DHS hotline could have resulted in more scrutiny of conditions at the foster home.

The child’s primary case worker, Julia Foreman, agreed in August to retire Nov. 1, records show. Foreman’s supervisor, Henry D. “Hank” Wright, resigned Sept. 16 in lieu of termination. “My prayers are with you all,” Wright wrote in an email confirming his resignation.

Neither Foreman nor Wright could not be reached for comment.

Alysa and an older sister, Halia Horney, had been at the foster home less than four months when Alysa was killed. After the death, Halia, then 3, described the foster home as mean and said her foster mom had spanked her with a shoe, according to reports.

Delila Pacheco was considered a kinship DHS foster mother because she and the two girls were related.

Attorneys hired by Alysa’s biological mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against DHS in January. “It’s a really tragic set of events that have taken place. There have been some really serious policy violations and mishandling of the situation that has directly resulted in the death of a 2-year-old girl,” said one attorney, Zachary Barron, of Tulsa.

The attorneys would not allow the mother, Holly N. Horney, 28, of Welling, to discuss the lawsuit which is pending in Cherokee County District Court. On Facebook last year, the mother wrote, “There is no word to describe a parent that loses a child, because the loss is like no other.”

Alysa and Halia were taken into emergency custody by DHS on Jan. 3, 2013, against the wishes of their mother and father, according to the lawsuit.

DHS has faced intense scrutiny in the past because of high-profile child deaths. Longtime DHS Director Howard Hendrick retired in 2012 after public confidence in his leadership plummeted because of those deaths.

A special committee that reviewed what role DHS had in child deaths since 2010 identified problems at the agency but also concluded there appeared to be “much blame to go around.” In a report released in April 2013, the committee made 37 recommendations that could help prevent child deaths.

The committee reported many times DHS caseworkers committed extraordinary acts of kindness and behaved with consummate professionalism.

It also noted, though, that frequently in the child death cases, a child welfare worker did not implement an “obvious step.””

DHS admits mistakes found after foster mom murdered 2 -year-old girl placed in her care[The Oklahoman 3/16/15 by Nolan Clay]

Update 3:“The Oklahoma Department of Human Services has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit filed against it and a dozen child welfare workers after a 2-year-old girl was murdered by her foster mom.

DHS settled the federal lawsuit for $435,000.

The victim, Alysa Horney, bled to death on Dec. 8, 2013, after her liver was torn by a blow to her body. Her foster mother, Delila Ann Pacheco, 49, was convicted at a 2014 trial of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors alleged the foster mother struck Alysa in the main bedroom of the rural trailer home outside Tahlequah because the girl wouldn’t go to sleep. Alysa and an older sister had been in the foster home less than four months. Alysa spent nights on a pallet on the floor in the main bedroom.

DHS admitted mistakes were made. The supervisor who approved Pacheco’s application to be a kinship foster parent was demoted. Another supervisor involved in the girl’s case resigned rather than face termination. Alysa’s primary care worker retired.

The demoted supervisor failed to have an adequate background check done on Pacheco and failed to take action after Alysa suffered a broken leg and a bruised face at the foster home, a DHS internal investigation found. He was specifically criticized for never even getting a 2011 arrest report about Pacheco or a 2012 request by a relative for a protective order against her.

Pacheco had been arrested in 2011 on an aggravated assault and battery complaint. A Cherokee County sheriff’s deputy reported she admitted grabbing a large kitchen knife during a fight with her husband. The deputy reported she also admitted to using marijuana and methamphetamine in the past. The supervisor said he did not review the arrest report because Pacheco was never charged and obtaining it would have “wasted another day,” disciplinary records show.

The girl’s estate sued DHS and the child welfare workers in January 2015, at first in Cherokee County District Court. The case was later moved to the federal courthouse in Muskogee. A federal judge there approved the settlement in April.

“This entire ordeal has been heartbreaking for everyone involved,” DHS Director Ed Lake said Tuesday. “Though it was agreed by the parties to not pursue this case any further, nothing can make up for the underlying tragedy that cost this precious little girl her life.

“The lessons learned … was that we needed to ensure a consistent process in evaluating background checks before approving foster families and we need to more thoroughly assess the safety of children when visiting them in foster homes,” Lake said. “More training has been provided to workers and supervisors on assessing the safety of children in foster homes and evaluating the needs of foster families to ensure they can adequately care for the children in their homes.”

The first $275,000 of the settlement was paid May 6 from funds in the state’s self-insurance program, records show. The rest will be paid from DHS funds next fiscal year.

Alysa and her sister, Halia Horney, had been taken into emergency custody by DHS “against the wishes of their mother and father” on Jan. 3, 2013, according to the lawsuit.

The mother, Holly N. Adair, 29, of Welling, and father, Donald Horney, 29, of Tahlequah, divorced in April after eight years of marriage. They are splitting the settlement, after attorneys’ fees and the lawsuit costs are paid, records show. Also, the estate’s personal representative is getting $5,000 for his services. A Cherokee County judge approved that distribution Friday.

Halia, now 6, was removed from the Pacheco foster home on Dec. 8, 2013, and is now living again with her mother, records show.

Pacheco is serving a life sentence and will not be eligible for parole until 2052. Her conviction and sentence were upheld on appeal in April.”

Oklahoma DHS pays settlement over murder of girl in foster care [The Oklahoman 5/17/16 by Nolan Clay]

Update 4:“A Cherokee County foster mother convicted of killing a 2-year-old family member in 2013 is asking a federal court to determine she is being illegally imprisoned, court records show.

Delila Pacheco filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court this month against Warden Debbie Aldridge of the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud.

A writ is a document that orders a prisoner to appear in a courtroom, where a judge could determine whether he or she is being unlawfully imprisoned.

Pacheco, who turned 50 this week, has argued since her conviction in 2014 that prosecutors had insufficient evidence to prove she killed Alysa Horney, and that the District Attorney’s Office used an “unqualified and ineffective” interpreter during the testimony of Pacheco’s husband, Longino Pacheco.

She’s also alleged prosecutorial misconduct and admission of “inflammatory, irrelevant” evidence resulted in her denial of due process.

Pacheco and her husband were picked by the Department of Human Services to care for Alysa Horney and Alysa’s older sister shortly before the toddler’s death at a Woodall home. Pacheco and Alysa were relatives, authorities have said.

An autopsy concluded Alysa died from a lacerated liver, which was purportedly pushed into her spine. Prosecutors, during the trial, suggested there were 40 bruises on Alysa’s body.

Pacheco, in her appeal, argued the autopsy found some of the bruises could have been self-inflicted and some of the marks may have occurred during resuscitation efforts.

During a 2014 trial, jurors found Pacheco guilty of first-degree murder and recommended a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Pacheco appealed, but the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in April upheld the decision with a written ruling that dismissed each of her complaints.

“Given the nature of the fatal injury, the considerable external bruising, and the undisputed fact that the child was in [Pacheco’s] care during the night, a rational juror could conclude, beyond any reasonable doubt, that [she] inflicted the injuries and that they were not accidental in nature,” the court ruled in April.

Pacheco then turned to the Cherokee County District Court and asked District Judge Darrell Shepherd for a modified sentence that would cite her term of imprisonment to be somewhere between 18 and 45 years. But in August, Shepherd refused to consider the modification and instead told Pacheco a sentence imposed by a jury cannot be changed without the consent of prosecutors.

The newest filing in federal court rehashes the details of Pacheco’s state appeal, using the same claims to argue she is being unlawfully held in prison. She is asking a federal judge to “reverse judgment for new trial” or “dismiss for insufficient evidence … “”

Foster mom convicted of murder wants release [Norman Transcript 10/26/16 by Josh Newton]