How Could You? Hall of Shame-Tyler Griffin-Huston case-Child Death and Lawsuit 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 Linda, California, a 9-year-old adoptee,Tyler Griffin-Huston, “was mauled to death by his guardian’s three pit bulls after he was left alone with the dogs inside her mobile home in Northern California.
Alexandria Griffin-Heady, 24, left her brother Tyler Griffin-Huston, who she recently adopted, home alone on Sunday while she went to work.
When she returned about three hours later and found the boy had been mauled by the dogs.
“The child was unsupervised. The dogs became aggressive. Why or what caused them to become aggressive, we don’t know,” said Lt. Brandon Barnes of Yuba County Sheriff’s Department, reported ABC10.
The child was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The three dogs, a mother and two offspring that Griffin-Heady had raised from puppyhood, had been seized and placed in an animal shelter. They will be euthanized if they are determined to be dangerous animals, Yuba County Undersheriff Jerry Read told the Sacramento Bee.
Animal Care Services reported having no history with the animals.
Read said officers were still investigating and that Griffin-Heady could face criminal charges of child endangerment.
But Roberto Marquez, a lawyer representing her, said criminal charges would be inappropriate considering the situation was unpredictable.
“If she had any hint at all that these dogs had any propensity for violence, she would never have left her brother with them,” he said. “She raised them and cannot fathom what could have happened that caused them to attack a little boy.”
“I don’t even think it rises to the level of negligence,” he added. “She had no knowledge that anything like this could occur.”
A relative living nearby confirmed that the dogs didn’t appear dangerous.
“They’ve never done anything like that. They’ve never bitten anybody,” said Stephanie Harvey.
Still, what happened was shocking.
“It’s shocking to me,” said neighbor Dwayne Daniel. “It’s just sad that it happened. It’s something you don’t expect. I know they all love their animals. I love my animals.””
9-Year-Old Linda, California Boy Mauled to Death by Pit Bulls [Epoch Times 1/5/16 by Zachary Stieber]
“She wanted, she said, to help raise him and “shape him into an amazing man.” Sacramento County Child Protective Services had given her permission to have the boy for overnight weekend visits in the travel-trailer she shared with her dogs, on property adjacent to the rural Yuba County home of the adoptive parents of two of her other siblings.
But it all went tragically awry on Sunday, when she left the boy alone with her three pet pit bulls. When she returned from her security guard shift a few hours later, authorities said, the small blond boy, Tyler Griffin-Huston, had been mauled to death.”
“The mauling has left police, neighbors and authorities with troubling questions about the circumstances of the boy’s fractured life and terrible death. Was Griffin-Heady, who recently moved to Northern California from Florida, capable of parenting her young brother? Was the trailer where she lived, which Read said had no working bathroom, safe for Tyler? Why would she leave her brother with three dogs capable of killing him?
Griffin-Heady did not respond to requests for an interview. Read said officers were still investigating, and that she could face criminal charges of child endangerment.”
Laura Badeker, Tyler’s aunt, said her niece was trying to “rescue” her brother from the foster care system, where he had lived off and on since his mother’s death. But she said Alexandria was incapable of caring for him, and that her living circumstances and dogs put the boy at risk.
Badeker said Tyler was living in a foster home under the supervision of Sacramento County Child Protective Services at the time of his death. She said she repeatedly told the agency she thought Tyler was unsafe with his sister, who was granted unsupervised overnight visits with the boy after she moved from Florida several months ago.
“She was trying to rescue him from the system,” Badeker said. “But I told everyone on the team that was supposed to be protecting Tyler that Ali was not prepared to take care of him on any level. They were warned over and over again.
“Why didn’t someone evaluate what was happening? Somebody needs to be held accountable for this.””
“CPS issued a brief written statement in response to questions about the case.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of this child,” said the statement, issued by agency spokeswoman Laura McCasland. “CPS is continuing to work with Yuba County law enforcement during this investigation.”
According to Badeker, Tyler also was receiving “wraparound services” from EMQ FamiliesFirst. The agency provides services designed to help children with “emotional and/or behavioral disturbances so they can be reunited or remain with their families and communities,” according to its website.
EMQ FamiliesFirst spokeswoman Eva M. Terrazas originally agreed to answer questions submitted in writing by The Bee, but later issued a statement saying the agency was unable to discuss the case in detail because of privacy issues and a pending investigation.”
“Tyler and his four siblings endured a chaotic family life marked by crime, drug abuse and homelessness, said Badeker. Their mother, Natalie Griffin-Trammell, spent years homeless and addicted to drugs, and her criminal record included felony child abuse in 1999. She died on the streets of Sacramento in 2011, at age 44. Loaves & Fishes, a Sacramento homeless services agency, held a memorial service for Natalie shortly after her death.
Tyler was the youngest of the five children she left behind; his siblings range in age from 17 to 27. Two of his siblings live with their adoptive parents on property adjacent to where Griffin-Heady was living, said Badeker. Tyler’s father, she said, is mentally disabled and unable to care for his son.
Badeker said her niece had drifted around the country in recent years, and before arriving in Sacramento had been living in a motel room in Florida with her dogs.
Griffin-Heady’s dogs appear to be a huge part of her life. Badeker said her niece has an affinity for pit bulls, believing they have been unfairly stigmatized. She has posted dozens of videos of her dogs on YouTube, mostly under the title “My Wolf Pack.” Many show her interacting with the animals in bed as they lick her face and playfully romp with her.
On her Facebook account, Griffin-Heady lists her motto as “live fast, die young, be wild and have fun.” She recently posted comments about Tyler:
“Life hits you sometimes in ways you cannot describe,” she wrote. “I never thought at 24 I’d be adopting my 9-year-old brother, but you roll with the punches.”
She added that she is grateful that “I get to raise him and shape him into an amazing man…God wouldn’t have made such an amazing boy just to be ordinary. In my life during all the bad I always wondered why I was here… I know now it was to care for him.”
On the morning that Tyler died, Griffin-Heady left home before 7 a.m. for a “short shift” at work, said Marquez, her lawyer. She felt comfortable leaving him knowing that his siblings were close by, he said. “She told him she would be back very soon,” he said.
When she returned, she found his mangled body and the dogs covered in blood.
The three dogs seized on Sunday are a female pit bull or pit bull mix and her two puppies. When a visitor approached their kennel at the shelter, one wagged her tail in a friendly manner. Another barked loudly. Undersheriff Read said the dogs will be euthanized in short order unless their owner intervenes.
Read said he was deeply affected by the case. “It made my heart hurt this morning,” he said. “That kid must have been terrified.”
“This one bothers me more than most,” he said. “I see lots of bad things, but none much worse than this. I have kids myself, so it goes deep with me.”
He questioned the boy’s living circumstances with his sister. “Not having a bathroom in place is certainly not optimal,” he said.
The Linda neighborhood where Tyler died features large semi-rural lots with older homes and trailers. On the Dunning Avenue property where Griffin-Heady lives, a white stucco house with purple shutters sits beside an aging travel-trailer.
A man who answered the door at the house said the family was in mourning and declined an interview.
Across the street, Ronald Trapp said he had seen the boy with blond hair once or twice.
“It’s just an awful tragedy,” he said. “I’ve had dogs, pit bulls, my whole life and never had a problem with them like that. It’s awful. There’s no words to describe it, and I feel for the parents. May the child rest in peace.””
Foster child, 9, mauled to death by dogs in Northern California
[Miami Herald 1/4/16 by CYNTHIA HUBERT, HUDSON SANGREE AND PHILLIP REESE]
Update:”The father of a 9-year-old boy who was mauled to death by his sister’s dogs earlier this month has filed a claim for damages against Sacramento County Child Protective Services.
John Huston, along with his lawyer, held a news conference Tuesday to announce the wrongful death claim filed against CPS in which he’s seeking damages for at least $10,000.
“It’s because the government said they were going take care of Tyler and did not,” said Huston’s attorney, Mosley Collins.
Tyler-Trammel-Huston was in foster care following his mother’s death.
He was living with a foster family in Elk Grove but was visiting his adult half-sister at a camping trailer in Yuba County during the first weekend of the year
According to sheriff’s deputies, 24-year-old Alexandria Griffin-Heady left her brother alone in the trailer with her three pit bulls on the morning of Jan. 3 while she went to work for about three hours.
When Griffin-Heady returned home, she found her brother dead after being attacked by the dogs, deputies said.
Huston described the moment a deputy told him about his son’s death.
“He’s like, ‘Mr Huston, I hope you’re sitting down.’ And I was like, ‘What’s this about?’ And he was like, ‘It’s your son,'” Huston said Tuesday. “He told me that he’d passed away because he’d been mauled by three pit bulls.”
The Yuba County Sheriff’s Department has yet to decide whether it will recommend that Griffin-Heady should face criminal charges.
Her attorney, Roberto Marquez told KCRA 3 that Griffin-Heady she was just trying to do the right thing, and what happened was “just a sad, sad tragedy.”
However, Huston argues that Griffin-Heady “resided in a dilapidated travel trailer” that was “legally uninhabitable,” according to a released statement.
The county has 30 days to accept or reject Huston’s claim.
If it is rejected, Huston’s attorney said he plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
Both Huston and Griffin-Heady were among the friends and family members who attended a memorial service Tuesday afternoon for the boy.
A small, light blue coffin covered in flowers lay at the front of the chapel of Sierra Hills Memorial Park and East Lawn Mortuary in Citrus Heights.
On a screen above the coffin flashed images of a toothy grinned boy playing with his foster siblings.
His foster mother, Gloria Hudson, talked about the six months during which he lived with her.
Hudson told people at the ceremony they should have no regrets if they did everything possible to protect him.
“But if you didn’t, God have mercy on you,” said Hudson.
Griffin-Heady said she did not agree with the father’s decision to invite news reporters to attend the ceremony.
“I do not want this being a show for my brother’s funeral,” she said.
Griffin-Heady’s attorney said she has consented to allow the Yuba County Animal Shelter to put them down.”
Dad of boy killed by dogs files for damages [KCRA 1/12/16 by David Bieneck]
Update 2:“The Yuba County Sheriff’s Office is recommending that the district attorney charge Alexandria Griffin-Heady in connection with the death earlier this month of her younger brother, who was killed by her pit bull terriers while she was away at work.
Nine-year-old Tyler Trammell-Huston was mauled to death Jan. 3 in the dilapidated trailer in Linda where Griffin-Heady was living while pursuing custody of the boy and trying to reunite her fractured family. Their mother was an addict who died homeless on the Sacramento streets in 2011 and left five children.
Tyler, the youngest, was living with a foster family at the time of his death. Sacramento County Child Protective Services had approved regular visits with Griffin-Heady, 24.
Yuba County Undersheriff Jerry Read said in a statement issued late Tuesday that his office forwarded the results of its investigation to District Attorney Patrick McGrath and is “requesting that a complaint be filed against Griffin-Heady charging her with felony child endangerment.”
Griffin-Heady has not been arrested in the case. McGrath told The Sacramento Bee last week that his review “will take some time, and there may be a need for further investigation,” before a decision is to made as to whether to file charges.
Any charges would hinge on whether Griffin-Heady knew the dogs could be dangerous, according to legal experts.
In California, the crime of child endangerment occurs when someone “causes or permits a child to suffer unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering,” or “willfully” causes or allows a child in his or her care to be injured or placed in a dangerous situation. A conviction of felony child endangerment can lead to a sentence of as long as six years in state prison.
Griffin-Heady has said that she never thought her three dogs were capable of violence, and that Tyler had played with them many times without incident. The animals were put to death last week with her permission.
The case has sparked a spirited debate about who is responsible for Tyler’s death, and whether pit bulls are inherently dangerous.
Tyler’s father, John Huston, who is mentally disabled and said he is incapable of caring for his son, is pursuing a lawsuit against CPS. Huston, who saw his son regularly, alleges that CPS “knew or should have known” that Tyler was at risk of great harm with his older sister and her dogs.
On her Facebook page, Griffin-Heady recently posted a collage of pictures of her and Tyler. She wrote that she would “never forgive myself” for what happened.
“I miss you so much,” she wrote. “I am so sorry, baby.”
Sheriff recommends criminal charges in mauling death of boy, 9 [Miami Herald 1/20/16 by Cynthia Hubert/Sacramento Bee]
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