The Death of Ethan Henderson
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There is a tragic tale that comes from the town of Arundel of little 10 week old Ethan Henderson whose father got frustrated and violently threw him into a chair. The infant died a few days later and the father, Gordon Collins-Faunce, was ultimately convicted of depraved indifference murder and sentenced to serve 20 years in prison.
As tragic as this story already is, the horrors in this case actually started much earlier. Collins-Faunce, dressed in the orange sweatshirt and pants of a county jail inmate, with his legs chained at the ankles, did not address Justice John O’Neil at the sentencing. |
Apparently, this father was a former foster child in Maine's child welfare system. While in care, he was molested by various foster parents and later medicated for PTSD. At the time of the murder, he was apparently changing to a new psychiatric medication.
So Basically, they messed this guy up when he was a kid. That is not an excuse of course, but it is a signifigant factor in my humble opinion.
What is most disturbing about this case is how Governor Paul LePage would use this case as a springboard to undo the positive changes brought about by the Logan Marr case that led to Maine's being a National Model Child Welfare System. It was his belief that the state had gone from one extreme to the other and wasn't taking kids fast enough. |
LePage told a television station Wednesday that he supports the death penalty "for those that kill babies" and feels DHHS has "gone from one extreme to another" when it decides whether to remove a child from a home in which abuse is suspected.
The department has been criticized in the past for being too quick to remove a child, LePage said, but now, "sometimes we're putting them back too quickly and sometimes we're not taking them out fast enough."
LePage, a victim of abuse as a child, supports a "system that protects our children," Bennett said.
DHHS won’t release information on dead baby
Unfortunately, Governor LePage doesn't understand how that system would work.
Now LePage has found a horror story to exploit. In the wake of that case, LePage now says he “feels” that the state has gone too far in reducing entries into care. The state’s largest newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, compounded the error by confusing two sets of numbers, wrongly claiming that entries into care in Maine have been cut in half. They have not. |
Because of this case, the people of Maine are left with all of the normal media concerns such as, did anybody report the abuse, and if so why didn't CPS act on these reports?
The only answer, of course, is that try as they might, they're not going to save every kid, and even when they do, they're liable to create a monster. |
Of those who did nothing that could have saved the life of little Ethan Henderson...
A nurse lost her license to practice in Maine
but
No state workers were punished for their failures to act
A nurse lost her license to practice in Maine
but
No state workers were punished for their failures to act
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