A timeline of events in the Baby Braxton case
Created by wtkr on Aug 3, 2012
Last updated: 03/12/13 at 06:44 PM
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Morin resigns
http://wtkr.com/2013/02/21/director-who-supervised-case-workers-at-beach-social-services-out-after-baby-braxton-investigation/
Morin officially resigns.
http://wtkr.com/2013/02/21/director-who-supervised-case-workers-at-beach-social-services-out-after-baby-braxton-investigation/
Morn resigns.
Morin resigns.
Morin resigns
NewsChannel 3 reports Virginia Beach settles Braxton’s wrongful death case for $450,000.
NewsChannel 3 reports Virginia Beach settles Braxton’s wrongful death case for $450,000.
Virginia Beach settles Braxton’s wrongful death case for $450,000.
http://wtkr.com/2013/02/19/new-details-in-baby-braxton-case/
NewsChannel 3 reports Virginia Beach settles Braxton’s wrongful death case for $450,000.
Some city council members tell NewsChannel 3 Morin should be fired over the reports. City Manager Jim Spore begins assembling a task force to fix the child-welfare division.
The city manager says Morin will help lead the transition, but will not speculate about Morin’s future with Human Services.
http://wtkr.com/2012/07/23/baby-braxton-investigation-councilman-calls-for-firing-of-beach-human-services-director/
The Virginia Department of Social Services issues a pair of stinging reports declaring the city’s child-welfare division is "in crisis" and that the staff believes Morin is "is largely ineffective, distant, unresponsive to the needs of the organization and completely out of touch with the work being done…"
http://wtkr.com/2012/07/20/newschannel-3-gets-big-results-in-baby-braxton-investigation/
After reviewing a draft of the state report, Morin removes child-welfare responsibilities from Cheryl Williams. The draft – and later the final report – says staff members do not respect her, and too many people report to her.
http://wtkr.com/2012/07/12/duties-changed-for-supervisor-in-baby-braxton-case/
Another NewsChannel 3 open-records request shows an organization desperate to contain the story. One of Morin’s assistants orchestrates an employee email campaign to praise Morin to the city manager.
DHS staff works with Virginian-Pilot columnist Roger Chesley, believing he will be sympathetic to Morin. The columnist later writes Morin should not be fired, and Morin circulates that column to city leaders.
Emails from child-welfare staffers reveal intense internal conflicts. Some believe the agency is at fault for Braxton’s death while others do not. Still others say the agency should never have spoken about it.
http://wtkr.com/2012/02/09/director-of-social-services-apologizes-for-baby-braxton-oversight/
At the urging of Deputy City Manager Cindy Curtis, Morin sits for a formal interview.
He reverses course and agrees an outside review is needed.
http://wtkr.com/2012/02/09/director-of-social-services-apologizes-for-baby-braxton-oversight/
NewsChannel 3 airs a six-minute investigation into Braxton Taylor’s death, and reveals how child-welfare workers either missed or ignored signs of chronic abuse.
The story generates intense public interest. Other media outlets including The Virginian-Pilot then begin publishing stories based on NewsChannel 3’s investigation.
http://wtkr.com/2012/02/02/in-memoriam-baby-braxton/
Not willing to accept 'No comment,' Mike Mather approaches Morin at lunchtime outside a Town Center restaurant. Morin says, “We didn’t have any internal investigations. We found that our staff had done everything appropriately.” A state report later disputes that, finding staff members did not communicate concerns about Braxton’s injuries or the second foster mother’s odd behavior; did not appropriately assess the second set of foster parents; and did not follow accepted child-welfare practices. The state report said, in some cases, child-welfare training was “inappropriate and must be stopped immediately.” During that first interview, Morin also tells NewsChannel 3 nothing changed after Braxton’s death. In an email, a city spokesman called NewsChannel 3’s effort to speak to Morin outside the restaurant "outrageous" and "completely unprofessional."
Virginia Beach denies NewsChannel 3’s request, saying all documents are secret, including “protocol updates” issued after Braxton’s death. Through a city spokesman, Morin declines to talk about Braxton or allegations of widespread problems in child-welfare.
NewsChannel 3 files an open-records request to Human Services Director Robert Morin, and asks for on-camera interview with him.
Mike Mather approaches prosecutor Lange about the case. Lange declines to talk, but immediately alerts city and state officials by email that NewsChannel 3 is asking about “the role of DHS in Braxton Taylor’s death.” On the same day, city spokesman Marc Davis writes in an email to colleagues: “I’d blame any city employee who actually talked about this, on or off the record.”
Ben and Sarah FitzPatrick, Braxton’s first foster parents, contact investigative reporter Mike Mather. They say they are frustrated no one in child-welfare was held accountable for Braxton’s death. The FitzPatricks, along with Braxton’s maternal grandparents Betty and Rufus Easter of Eden, N.C., eventually agree to interviews. The Easters provide Braxton’s autopsy report and copies of pictures taken in the Human Services building just before the baby’s death. The pictures were snapped by a Beach social worker as Braxton sat on his biological mother’s lap. The photographs show Braxton bruised and battered, injuries that are not acted upon by Beach child-welfare workers. The Easters provided the pictures to prosecutor Scott Lange, who did not use them in court. When they asked for them back, according to Betty Easter, Lange said they should not show them to anyone else. She ignores the request and provides them to NewsChannel 3. The pictures become the centerpiece of the station’s investigation.
Prosecutor Scott Lange agrees to let Ganiere plead guilty to a lesser crime, manslaughter. The decision stuns Braxton’s first foster parents and his maternal grandparents. Both couples expected a trial would reveal shortcomings in the city’s child-welfare agency. The guilty plea “let them off the hook,” the first foster parents say..
Morin tries by letter to clarify responses to NewsChannel 3, and includes the “protocol updates,” but sends the letter to the wrong address. It’s returned to Human Services. By email, Morin directs his staff not to resend it and declares, “Neither would I like to do a follow up” interview. A city spokesman insists the letter was also emailed, but a search of NewsChannel 3 email servers shows no letter arrived.
City says it is immune to a lawsuit from Braxton Taylor’s biological parents.
Child-welfare supervisors issue new staff rules requiring more scrutiny of foster-child injuries. City keeps the document secret and later declines to release it under open-records act.
NewsChannel 3 is first to report Ganiere is charged with murder.
http://wtkr.com/2012/02/06/did-the-system-fail-baby-braxton/
Braxton Taylor is violently shaken by his second foster mother, Kathleen Ganiere. Braxton dies a day later while CHKD doctors spot obvious signs of repeated abuse.
http://wtkr.com/2012/02/02/in-memoriam-baby-braxton/
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