How Could You? Hall of Shame-Cari Michelle Eckhart case and Kenneth Glenn Randolph 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 Skiatook, Oklahoma, kinship foster parents, Cari Michelle Eckhart, 26, and Kenneth Glenn Randolph, 37, were arrested on April 12, 2013. Kenneth was charged with child abuse by injury. Cari was charged with enabling child abuse by injury. The prosecutor requested a $7,000 bail, but the judge set bail for $50,000. They bonded out on April 12, 2013.
The charges are related to a potentially life-threatening subdural hematoma (bleeding on the brain) injury on their 5-year-old foster son who was hospitalized in intensive care for two weeks in December 2012. He has regained the ability to speak now.
Glenn is related to the boy. They lived in a trailer with seven children. The other children were removed and placed into other kinship foster care.
Sheriff’s investigator Justin Kling said , ““Kinship placements” by the state Department of Human Services require background checks and home inspections but are not as rigorous as those for children placed in the homes of foster parents who are unrelated to them.”
Chief Deputy Charlie Cartwright says that there are 1,006 pages of medical records in this case!
“According to Kling’s probable cause affidavit in the court case, Randolph told Deputy Kevin Burke that the boy had thrown “fits” that would have contributed to the injuries, but neither parent offered a “plausible” explanation. Interviews with other children in the house incriminated the defendants, according to the affidavit.”
They have both pleaded not guilty.
“Skiatook foster parents face abuse charges” The Bigheart Times by Louis Red Corn
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: “Felony child abuse charges against a woman whose five-year-old foster son suffered internal head injuries in late 2012 were dismissed last week, at least the third time in the past several months that such a case has been dropped by the District Attorney’s Office.
The case against Cari Eckhart, 27, of Skiatook, was dismissed without explanation other than it being in the interest of justice. Another defendant in the same case, the child’s foster father Kenneth Randolph, 38, pleaded guilty at the same hearing in exchange for a 10-year deferred sentence, which means he will not serve time in prison unless he fails to follow his rules of probation, and that the charge can be expunged from his record in 2024.
The case against Eckhart is one of 53 felony cases filed in 2013 to be dropped, and is one of three notable child abuse by injury ones. Almost all of the cases were dropped without prejudice, meaning they can be refiled – though very few have.
Police reports on the Eckhart-Randolph case say that Deputy Kevin Burke investigated the case after a 5-year-old boy was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa with internal head injuries. Neither of the child’s foster parents could explain the injury to lawmen’s satisfaction, though Randolph said that the child would throw fits and that he had cared for the boy the night before he was hospitalized.
Eckhart and Randolph’s attorney, Gentner Drummond, did not return a a message Tuesday seeking information about the case, nor did either District Attorney Rex Duncan or his first assistant, Mike Fisher.
In March, prosecutors dropped charges against a Wynona man, Stetson Lee Gross, 24. In the case, the mother of an 11-month-old boy who had numerous bruises, told police that Gross had been physically abusive to the baby, hitting him, thumping the baby’s head and face, striking his feet and shoving him down when he was seated. The woman told police that the defendant informed her he was “toughening” the child.
In December, a child abuse by injury charge against Rory Christopher, 23, of Sand Springs was dropped, again “in the interest of justice.” In Deputy Investigator Justin Kling’s affidavit in the Christopher case, Kling says a six-month-old baby was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa with a fractured femur, skull and rib. The child’s mother told police initially that the baby had broken its leg trying to crawl and sit up, but later amended her story to say that she had been asleep and was awakened by the baby crying in her husband’s arms. She told police that Christopher told her that the baby was crawling and bent its leg backwards.
When Christopher was interviewed, he told police that he was trying to sleep and the baby kept crying in bed with him, and he forcefully grabbed her by the legs, jerking her upwards when he heard a bone snap. Before he took the baby to the hospital, he told Investigator Bill Gee that he smoked marijuana to “calm down.”
Christopher’s lawyer, Steve Venturi, said Tuesday that he had no idea why the case was dropped.
“I showed up at the preliminary hearing and announced I was ready and the DA made the announcement to dismiss it without prejudice,” Venturi said. “I ran with it. I didn’t ask too many questions.”
A Bigheart Times review of all felony cases filed in Osage County in 2013 shows that more than 11 percent – 53 cases – of the 474 felonies filed that year have been dismissed. The reasons for dismissal vary widely when specified, but many are simply dropped without explanation other than “in the interest of justice.”
In those cases for which a specific reason is given, the newspaper’s review found one case that was dropped because the defendant died, a handful that were diverted to drug court, one that was transferred to U.S. District Court and three that were tossed by a judge, including one aggravated assault and battery involving serious facial injuries inflicted with a car jack that the judge noted had come on for preliminary hearing and the state was not ready. In four cases, witnesses refused to testify or could not be found, according to court records that specified a reason. In several cases, home repair fraud, confidence game and bogus check charges were dropped after the defendant paid back what he or she had taken”
Child abuse cases dropped[Barnsdall Times 7/22/14 by Louise Red Corn]
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