DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — A father who’d confronted a collection of home violence fees was sentenced to 25 years in jail for the dying of his 1-month-old son in a case that renewed criticism of Maine’s youngster welfare company.
Reginald Melvin, 30, of Milo, was sentenced Wednesday after getting into a plea that had an analogous consequence to a responsible plea to a cost of manslaughter. Under an settlement, prosecutors dropped a homicide cost. His son, Sylus, died in August 2021 from blunt drive trauma that left him with a number of inside accidents, based on the state health worker.
Sylus’ mom, Desiree Newbert, mentioned she reported to the Department of Health and Human Services that Melvin threatened to kill the household together with her, Sylus, and her daughter, however {that a} caseworker by no means returned her name or visited the household. Melvin had been beforehand charged a number of occasions with home violence.
Former state Sen. Bill Diamond accused the company of “leaving vulnerable children in dangerous situations despite repeated warnings by family members and others that children are not safe.” The household had a number of caseworkers, and none of them in contrast notes with one another, Diamond mentioned.
The toddler’s dying was considered one of a number of dozen flagged by the Office of Children and Family Services, a part of the Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services.
DHHS had visited Melvin and Newbert beginning in 2018 when she had her first youngster, based on a memo launched this week that chronicles the household’s interactions with the company.
When Sylus was born in 2021, DHHS opened an investigation into his security due to his publicity to his mom’s medicine used to deal with substance abuse dysfunction, based on the memo. Doctors and different well being care suppliers noticed Sylus a number of occasions, together with two days earlier than his dying, with no be aware of accidents.
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