How Could You? Hall of Shame-Rogelio,Tim and Iliana Archuleta 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 San Antonio, Texas, Rogelio Archuleta (related to adoptive parents Iliana Archuleta and her husband Tim) ” 26, was arrested Wednesday on three charges of causing serious bodily injury to three adopted children.
“He claims that he didn’t know what was going on or why he was being charged,” said Lou Antu, a spokesman with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
Officials say the three children, an 8-year-old boy and two 10-year-old fraternal twins, were adopted by 40-year-old Iliana Archuleta.
Rogelio Archuleta was arrested Wednesday at the Honey Tree Preschool and Child Development Center, which is owned by Iliana Archuleta.
Authorities said Iliana Archuelta[sic] is in Houston with her attorney, and that there is a child abuse warrant out for her arrest.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, one of the children told investigators the two relatives beat and starved all three of them, and that they were forced to bite each other.
A Child Protective Services official said Iliana Archuleta and her husband adopted the three children back in February of 2011. Archuleta’s husband has not been charged in the case. [WHY? He thought 10 year olds in diapers is normal?He didn’t see all-over body bruising? And pouring bleach on open wounds is normal, too?]

The Honeytree Preschool and Child Development Center has shut down pending the outcome of the investigation.”

Daycare owner and relative arrested on child abuse charges

[WOAI 10/17/12 by Melissa Vega]

“According to Pascual Gonzalez, a spokesperson for the Northside Independent School District, the three adopted children previously attended Scarborough Elementary School.

Gonzalez told News 4 WOAI the principal recalled numerous conversations and multiple visits from Children Protective Services (CPS) to the school about the children’s welfare.

Gonzalez said the principal was extremely concerned and voiced those concerns to CPS. The district said the children were removed from the school in May of 2011.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Iliana Archuleta told investigators she was home schooling the children at the Honey Tree Preschool and Child Development Center she owned.”

New details on suspects accused of child abuse

[WOAI 10/18/12 by Melissa Vega]

“School officials repeatedly alerted Child  Protective Services of their suspicions that three adopted children of a day  care owner were being abused and neglected several years before they were found  last week bruised and malnourished.

“The principal recalls being very concerned about the safety of these  children, and that was expressed” to CPS, said Pascual  Gonzalez, spokesman for Northside Independent School District. “Multiple  visits were made to the school by CPS social workers.”

The children, one now 8 and fraternal twins age 10, sporadically attended  Scarborough Elementary, missing months at a time after they arrived in 2008,  he added.

The Children’s Shelter, which provided services to the children for six  months in 2009, also reported to CPS when one child missed 60 days of school  one year.

Neighbors in the couple’s Northwest Side subdivision said for years they had  thought the behavior of Tim, Iliana and Rogelio  Archuleta was unusual and secretive, but were shocked by allegations that  the children were abused and neglected.”

“The 10-year-old girl told investigators last week that she and her two  siblings were being starved, beaten, punished for stealing food, locked in  closets and forced to bite each others’ toes, after which they were made to pour  bleach on the wounds, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

They were made to sleep in the bathtub, she said, with the sliding door  locked and only a bucket for their wastes.

They sometimes were made to eat butter and drink water until they vomited,  and then were forced to eat the vomit as well, she said.

Iliana  Archuleta, 40, owner and operator of the Honey Tree Pre-school and Child  Development Center in the 8300 block of Culebra Road, still was wanted  Thursday night on three warrants, accusing her of serious bodily injury to  a child.

Her relative, Rogelio Archuleta, 26, who worked at the center and lived with  the couple, was arrested at the center Wednesday on three charges of causing  serious bodily injury to his two nephews and a niece.

The state shut down the day care center, though none of the allegations  involve children there.

Mary  Walker, CPS spokeswoman, said she couldn’t comment on the adoptive family’s  history with the agency because of confidentiality rules and the  ongoing investigation.

Gonzalez said the children attended Scarborough Elementary at 12280 Silver  Pointe for the full school year starting in August 2008, but then didn’t return  to school until January 2010. They stayed through May 2010.

They attended for a full school year after that, but didn’t return in  fall 2011.”

“The adoptive parents “would say they were taking them to a charter school or  were homeschooling them,” he said. “That’s all they have to say. They don’t have  to prove it.”

School personnel are required by law to report suspected abuse or neglect to  state authorities. Gonzalez didn’t know what, if any, action was taken by CPS as  a result of the staff reports.

The most recent CPS investigation began Saturday after Iliana Archuleta  called an ambulance to her home after her 8-year-old son suffered  a seizure.

Neighbors said Iliana rode with the boy to the hospital. As soon as the  ambulance left, neighbors said, Tim  Archuleta and Rogelio Archuleta as well as the two biological children began  loading the family truck with boxes and suitcases.

“It wasn’t 20 minutes later and they were gone,” said a neighbor, who like  the others didn’t want to be identified because they fear retaliation.

Hospital staffers found bruises all over the boy, who weighed only 45 pounds,  at least 10 pounds below average. Examinations of his two siblings found similar  injuries and malnourishment. One had developed a bone infection after his toe  was bitten.

Neighbors said the Archuletas’ behavior had been unusual since they moved  there in 2006.”

““It’s sickening to me that we lived here this long and never knew,” one  neighbor said.Tim, Iliana and Rogelio moved into the home, neighbors said, when  the couple’s biological daughter was 7 and Iliana was pregnant with her now  6-year-old son.

On a block where children play in the streets, neighbors know each other and  wave at passing cars, several said the Archuletas were secretive.

For instance, they were careful to pull the van into the garage and shut the  door before allowing the children to get out, neighbors recalled. The family  rarely opened their front door for anyone but traveling  Mormon missionaries.

“The kids were always in baggy clothes, so we couldn’t tell if they were too  skinny,” said a neighbor and mother. “And I always felt so bad in the winter  because I never saw them with a coat.”

Another neighbor recalled an instance about a year ago when, in a rare  sighting, Rogelio was walking along the street with all three  adopted children.

“He saw the CPS car turn down the street and he grabbed the kids and ran  inside,” he said. “She knocked and knocked and knocked, but they never came to  the door.”

“Around that same time, several neighbors said CPS and Bexar County Sheriff’s  Office investigators knocked on their doors, saying the children had missed two  weeks of school and asking if they had seen anything unusual.

Walker said the three adopted children, who are not related to the  Archuletas, now are in CPS’ care. The couple’s two biological children, who  investigators said don’t appear to be abused, are now in a “safety plan” with  family or friends, she said.

The adopted children originally were removed from their biological parents by  the state because of abuse and neglect, Walker said.

Those who would adopt such children go through an involved vetting process,  including criminal and CPS background checks, home studies, personal references  and special training, according to a Texas  Department of Protective  and Regulatory Services website.

Annette  Rodriguez, executive director of the Children’s Shelter, said the children  already had been placed with the family by another adoption agency when they  showed up for services in April 2009.

When staffers noticed one child was regularly missing school, they called  CPS. According to her records, that was the only concern the agency had about  the family.

Soon after the investigation ended, in October 2009, the family switched to  World For Children, another agency that contracts with TDFPS to provide care to  foster and adopted children who have been abused and neglected.

Region Director Marni  Morgan said her agency worked with the three children and the adoptive  parents until February 2011, when the children were formally adopted. She  couldn’t comment on the types of services they received for privacy reasons,  she said.”

“The 10-year-old girl told investigators that while at the day care center,  her brothers usually were locked in the office. She would help at the center by  cleaning, but was locked in the office as well if she misbehaved,  she said.

When asked by an interviewer if they were allowed out to use the bathroom,  she replied they were forced to go in their pull-up diapers. She and a brother  were wearing the diapers when they were transported to the hospital  last week.

On Thursday at the day care center, a yellow piece of paper was taped to a  front window with a note that read, “Please Support the Honey Tree,” underneath  which was listed a phone number, which connects the caller to a state child care  licensing office.

Walker said that by late Thursday afternoon, staffers had received  no calls.”

 

Fears of abuse raised years ago

[My San Antonio.com 10/19/12 by Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje and Michelle Casady]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Update: “The daycare owner police have been looking for has turned herself in. Iliana Archuleta is charged with three counts of injury to a child in the investigation into abuse of three children she adopted. We’re told Iliana Archuleta turned herself in before noon Friday, and is already out on bond.
Her relative, Rogelio Archuleta, was arrested two days ago and is still behind bars on a $150,000 bond.
In the meantime, we are learning more about the Archuletas and another case of alleged child abuse. A mother has come forward claiming her two young children, once fostered by the Archuletas, were also abused.
That mother recognized Archuleta when we showed her picture on the news. She says Iliana Archuleta is the same woman who was abusing her son and daughter. The mother described similarities in the type of abuse reported just this week.
“I don’t know how these people are still foster parents and can adopt kids,” said the mother.
She said she tried to tell case workers and attorneys for years, but was ignored.
Her newborn son and 4-year-old daughter were taken away from her back in 2006 for something unrelated to child abuse. They were placed in the Archuleta’s home. She then started noticing bruises on the children during her visits. Eventually, she reported it to an attorney after noticing her son had a horrible rash that wasn’t being treated.
“My lawyer has to request actually a doctor visit,” she explained. “He made a paper, took it to CPS that said I want them to take them to the doctor.”
Her daughter then started telling her things that were happening to them inside the home.
“My daughter, she was crying. She said she couldn’t take it and said one time this man came to her room and put a gun at her head and that she wanted to come home.”
From then on this mother took pictures and video taped their injuries for proof. The worst she said was an infected bite on her baby boy’s foot, similar to the type of abuse reported in the Archuleta’s home this week.
“Then my daughter told me in my ear, ‘Don’t say mom, but Ilana’s son bit Baby Edward’”
She says it took her baby suffering a skull fracture for him to be taken to the doctor. Finally, she says after a year and a half of reporting the abuse, she received a letter from an attorney for the state saying the department is unhappy with the speed at which the baby was receiving medical treatment and that both children were removed from the foster home.
“I hope now that the state come forward and really do something about it,” said the mother.
We should tell you this mother was not trying to get her children back. She just wanted them in a good and healthy home. They have since been adopted.
We have learned that anything involving foster placement or allegations reported are investigated by residential child care licensing, so they would have had to record this and ultimately decide whether the Archuleta’s should continue fostering. Obviously, they were cleared because it was five years later before more abuse was reported and warrants went out for their arrest.  ”

More child abuse allegations against daycare owner

[WOAI 10/19/12 by Jozannah Quintanilla]

Update 2: “Tim Archuleta, 42, was arrested Thursday afternoon on charges of serious bodily injury to his three adoptive children. The children, an 8-year-old boy and two 10-year-old twins were adopted by Tim Archuleta and his wife, Iliana back in February of 2011.
Iliana Archuleta, 40, and her nephew Rogelio Archuleta, 26, were arrested last month in the case. Iliana owns the Honey Tree Preschool and Child Development Center.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, one of the children told investigators that Iliana and Rogelio beat and starved all three of them.

They also said the pair forced the children to bite each other and eat whole sticks of butter. The warrant also stated the children were allegedly forced to sleep in a bathtub or in a locked closet. According to the warrant, one of the children told investigators Tim would hit them on the buttocks with a backscratcher. The document also states the adoptive father knew the children were eating butter sticks, because one child told police, “he would watch us.”
“Whenever you have not only a parent or adult in that home, and they’re witnessing these kinds of things, they need to put a stop to it immediately,” said Lou Antu, spokesman with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department. “He apparently did nothing of it.”
All three adoptive children remain in state custody. ”

Adoptive father arrested in child abuse case

[WOAI 11/9/12 by Melissa Vega]

Update 3/June 14,2014: Their cases are STILL open.

Update 4:“A judge handed down a 35-year prison sentence for a man who abused his uncle’s three adopted children.

Rogelio Archuleta cried in court on Tuesday as he begged the judge for mercy, saying he was also a victim of abuse in his younger years.

“Before I was in foster care, my mother would abuse me, hit me with a lot of stuff, 2×4’s, water hoses, hot spatulas,” Archuleta said.

This testimony was 20 minutes into the hearing when he finally broke down, expressing sorrow for what he had been through and also for what he had put his uncle’s kids through.

“I’m sorry I projected my anger on them and towards them,” Archuleta said.

Convicted on four counts of child abuse, he readily admitted to punching one of the children in the stomach and twisting and injuring another one’s leg.

He also admitted that he was well aware the children were kept isolated and that they slept in the shower.

In response to Archuleta’s cycle of abuse explanation, prosecutor Stephanie Boyd was quick to point out he made choices about the children in the home he selected to abuse.

“Can you explain to the court, how is it that the only children who suffered injuries and were abused in that house were the adopted children and that the biological children were not abused at all,” Boyd said.

Archuleta’s brother Tim and his wife Iliana had two biological children who did not suffer starvation and abuse at the hands of the 3 adults living with them.

Iliana was sentenced to 30 years in prison last week and Wednesday Archuleta’s plea for deferred adjudication was denied.

The plea for leniency did not help Archuleta. He received the maximum sentence possible.

Tim Archuleta, the father of the adopted kids was also convicted of child abuse and is scheduled to be sentenced March 9th.”

Second family member sentenced in horrific child abuse case [FOX San Antonio 3/1/16]

Update 5:“A third former operator of a San Antonio day care center was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for forcing his three adopted children to sleep in a shower, bite each other and pour bleach on wounds.

Tim Archuleta agreed to the 20-year sentence in a deal with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to injury to a child with serious bodily injury by omission. His sentencing comes a week after his wife, Iliana Archuleta, was sentenced to 30 years in prison and his brother, Rogelio Archuleta, received a 35-year sentence. Both pleaded no contest to injury to a child and other charges.

Prosecutor Stephanie Boyd told state District Judge Ron Rangel that the three adopted the children, who had been born drug-addicted, to collect the state support of more than $90,000. “They got $90,000 tax-free and blew it all on themselves,” Boyd said.

Nevertheless, defense attorney James Tocci appealed for probation for his client.

“Should he have done more? Yeah, OK, I’ll give you that. But did he intend to starve those kids out? No,” Tocci said.

Rangel told Archuleta that he “buried his head in the sand” while the children were abused and starved.

The children, 8 to 10 years old at the time, had been taken from an abusive home before being placed with the couple, who operated a day care. They slept in a shower, forced to sit with their knees pulled tight against their chests, Bexar County sheriff’s investigator Tony Kobryn said. The shower drain and a bucket served as toilets, and boxes were stacked against the glass door to prevent the children from opening it.

They ate mostly bread and butter, with some broth and the occasional half sandwich, he said, and weren’t allowed to eat with the Archuletas or their two biological children.

The mistreatment was discovered when one child was taken to a hospital for seizures and staff found him malnourished and bruised.

The case had highlighted long-standing questions about the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which a federal judge last year ruled was unconstitutionally broken. The judge said many kids often leave state custody in worse shape than before.

The system has nearly 30,000 children and is one of the largest child protection agencies in the U.S. Caseworkers face massive workloads and struggle to provide necessary oversight, with only about 100 residential Child Care Licensing investigators to ensure that the state’s roughly 10,000 foster homes are providing adequate care, according to Dimple Patel, senior policy analyst with The Texas Association for the Protection of Children.”

Man Gets 20-Year Term for Starving, Beating Foster Children [ABC NEWS 3/11/16 by AP]