Starved Child

Re “Boy Who Starved Was Returned to Parents by Reluctant Judge,” Sept. 14:

The 4-month-old baby was removed from his parents’ custody in 1989 after suffering a fractured skull from his father’s beating. His grandparents, who lived with the parents, were appointed his legal guardians after a social worker said the grandparents would protect him. The judge admits the parents weren’t doing their parent counseling, that the injuries were serious. A foster parent warned that she fears the child would end up dead. Nevertheless, the boy was returned to the parents’ home.

The 5-year-old boy was found dead in that home last April. He weighed just 19 pounds. His parents are charged with murder, his grandparents with felony child endangerment. But what are the reluctant judge and the uncaring social worker charged with? I accuse them of aiding and abetting in the cruel sadistic killing of a helpless child.

SHIRLEY WOLF

Santa Monica

I almost missed (and wish I had) the AP story about the 5-year-old boy found dead of starvation in his parents’ Milpitas apartment.

If cases like these were exposed, front-page style, by every newspaper in the land, what are the chances that each judge might be held more personally accountable after making such an obvious error? Yes, our courts are overburdened by abuse cases, but think what the judge’s mistake meant to this suffering child and then multiply the tragic results of court leniency many times over.

J. PORRU GREEN

Anaheim