Guardian Charged in Boy’s Death

A state-licensed foster mother from Lakewood was charged Friday with murder in the death of a 2-year-old boy who doctors said was a victim of “shaken baby syndrome.”

Evelyn Kay Miller, 46, is being held on $1-million bail and faces arraignment next week in the October killing of Kameron Demery, a foster child who had been taken from his birth mother about a year earlier.

The toddler’s biological mother and grandmother complained bitterly in interviews Friday that the child had been improperly removed from their care and that county social workers who supervised the foster home had failed to act on the family’s suspicion that the boy and his twin sister were being abused.

“We had repeatedly asked for an investigation of the foster home,” said Jacqueline Bishop, 29. “I told my social worker at least three times my concerns that abuse was going on, but she just invalidated everything I said.”

Bishop said she complained that her son had sustained a black eye and her daughter a broken arm--injuries she learned of when she visited the children.

An official with the state agency that licenses families to take care of foster children confirmed that it received reports that the children had sustained injuries in Miller’s home.

Robert Pate, district manager of the state Department of Social Services licensing office in El Monte, said the file on the Miller home is being reviewed and was not available Friday. He said no action was taken against the Miller family’s license as a result of the injuries.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services--which was responsible for ongoing supervision of the foster home--confirmed that Demery’s twin sister had suffered a broken arm within the last year. But there was no evidence to indicate that the injury was of “suspicious origin,” said spokesman Schuyler Sprowles.

The social worker on the case had checked to make sure the twin brother and sister had attended a medical checkup Oct. 1 and then visited the children and their foster family Oct. 10--one day before paramedics were called with a report that the toddler was not breathing. “From the case record it seems the social worker on the case had done a very good job,” Sprowles said. “She had followed all the procedures and visited the children. This certainly is a tragedy, but an unforeseen one.”

“Shaken baby syndrome” may be responsible for as many as 10% of about 2,000 child abuse deaths in the United States each year, according to some experts. The violent shaking of young children has been proved to cause brain damage, seizures, paralysis and even death.

Police said they were called to Miller’s home on the evening of Oct. 11, after her adult son called authorities to report that the child was not breathing. Demery was declared dead several days later. His twin sister and another foster child were removed from the home.