Father of Murdered Girl: 'I wanted custody...this could have been prevented, but it's too late'
Yet another story which illustrates the high cost exacted upon children by our family law system's severe anti-father bias. In this case, a loving father shared a special bond with his little girl. Nevertheless, the family law system allowed a vindictive and apparently abusive mother to push the father out of his daughter's life--and it cost the little girl her life.Toddler was 'healthy, happy little girl'
body was found in a plastic container in the trunk of her mother's car earlier this week, is going through the worst kind of pain a parent can endure.
Marco Gonzalez, 21, sat in his parents' apartment Friday in Northeast El Paso and recalled his daughter in the good times.
"We were very close. Every time I left, if I didn't take her, she would open the door herself and say, 'Daddy, I want to come,' " Gonzalez said. "She was a healthy, happy little girl, as you can tell from the pictures. She always had a smile on her face."
On Tuesday, while picking up his mother at a restaurant, Gonzalez got the news that Jacqueline had been found dead outside her mother's apartment at 625 S. Yar brough.
"I felt like my heart just dropped to the floor," Gonzalez said Friday, having a difficult time explaining his grief.
"I don't really show a lot of emotion. I'm the one who's supposed to be strong because it's my loss, nobody else's. I can't explain to you what kind of emotions," he said.
Jacqueline's mother, Yara Belen Perez, and her common-law husband, Francisco Javier Castaneda, were arrested Tuesday and charged with injury to a child resulting in death. They remain in custody in lieu of $200,000 bail.
Gonzalez said he was locked in a custody battle for Jacqueline after Child Protective Services closed an investigation into accusations of abuse against the girl's mother.
"The reason I was trying to fight for custody is because CPS closed the case, and I didn't think it was right," Gonzalez said. "CPS closed the case and she already had two charges of abuse against her." Officials with CPS said Friday that Perez was investigated in two separate cases and that the agency did not identify any risk factors for abuse or neglect, but said she might exhibit irrational behavior at times. Perez came across as protective of her children, they showed no signs of physical abuse, and she willingly signed a safety plan in which she promised not to physically discipline her children or leave them unattended, said Paul Zimmerman, spokes man for the agency. "Through our investigation, risk factors were determined to be controlled," he said. "Mom did have some problems with irrational behavior." About a year ago, a judge ruled that Perez would have custody of Jacqueline, but Gonzalez was allowed specific visitation days and Jacqueline could visit overnight once she turned 3 years old. After Perez got together with Castaneda, the couple moved away, and Gonzalez did not know how to get in touch with them. Perez's mother, Margarita Alcocer, secretly took Jacqueline to the Gonzalez home, a ruse designed to keep Perez from knowing that Gonzalez and his parents were seeing the little girl. Perez's alleged lack of cooperation over visitation by Gonzalez prompted him to fight for custody, a suit that was scheduled for a court hearing in January. "I know I could have taken custody," he said. "With court, all of this could have been prevented, but it's a little too late." Gonzalez said that until about three weeks ago, he was staying at the West Texas Community Supervision and Correction Restitution Center, a halfway house. He said he lived there for about three months as part of his recovery after a DWI conviction from a year ago. Jacqueline stayed at her father's parents' apartment for three months until about five weeks ago, but during that time Perez never called to check and see how her daughter was, whether she needed clothes or money or anything at all, said Antonio Gonzalez, Jacqueline's paternal grandfather. Whenever the time came for Jacqueline to return to her mother's custody, Jacqueline would resist, saying that she didn't want to go home. The last time Jacqueline was at her paternal grandparents' home, she jumped on the sofa and said she didn't want to leave when her grandfather said it was time to go back to her mother's apartment. "I told her, 'Mija, we've got to get ready to take you to your mother,' and she said 'No, Pa! No, Pa! Bad boy.' " Jacqueline's grandfather said. "We picked up the sense more or less that something was wrong."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment