This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
ALMDALE, Calif. - Before he was sent to Utah, Jose Rodriguez walked to Tumbleweed School every weekday, eager to get to Head Start.
Even on weekends, the 4-year-old asked to go to class.
Jose still loves school, but getting there is harder these days. Now, he sits in a wheelchair with a brace on his right leg and a helmet on his head, one arm dangling motionless, as his paternal grandmother pushes him down the street.
The heartbreaking change was caused by horrific abuse Jose endured last August during a stay with his other grandmother in Fort Duchesne, authorities contend.
California child welfare officials sent the boy to the Ute tribe in Utah, where he was placed with Charlissa Sireech, despite her history of child endangerment and alcohol abuse. Three weeks later, an unconscious Jose, bruised on his genitals, buttocks and arms, was hospitalized and not expected to survive a skull fracture.
While Sireech is scheduled for trial on assault charges next month, no one in California or at the Ute tribe appears to be investigating or will even discuss the disastrous placement and the gaps it exposed in their child protection systems.
Jose has returned home to Palmdale, north of Los Angeles. But he will never be the same.
"He is going to have significant impairment for the rest of his life," said Dr. Luis Montes, director of rehabilitative services at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, where the boy was transferred last fall after he emerged from a coma. "It's difficult to predict the outcome."
One thing is certain: Jose will always struggle as a result of damage from his fractured skull, allegedly caused when his Utah grandmother slammed him against the floor. Investigators think she might have been enraged over his inability to understand English.
Jose at home
Jose and his siblings, 3-year-old Emilio and 2-year-old Mona, have rejoined their paternal grandparents in a crowded two-bedroom, one-bath rental house. In addition to caring for their grandchildren, Leoncis and Samuel Rodriguez have three children of their own at home - Miguel, 11; Alex, 5; and Jessica, 3.
The yard has worn down to dirt in most places and a chain-link fence protects the children from cars that zoom by on the busy street. But the modest surroundings are unimportant.
The children play happily, chasing each other and sliding down a small plastic slide. Jose laughs as he runs, dragging his right leg a little and holding his head to one side.
Emilio is quieter, but also seems content at home. Physical reminders of his stay in Utah - burn marks on his body and dark patches under his eyes from head injuries - have faded but are still visible.
Mona, who authorities believe was not physically harmed, is a trusting child who hugs visitors and shows off her Dora the Explorer T-shirt, laughing about her striking resemblance to the cartoon character.
The grandchildren, who have lived most of their lives with Leoncis and Samuel, consider them their parents. Jose frequently hugs and kisses his brothers and sisters and Mama and Poppy, his names for the grandparents.
He knows the names of many objects in both Spanish and English. He won't eat hamburgers but loves Chinese food and his grandmother's posole, a Mexican stew.
But Jose is not a typical 4-year-old. He sleeps in a bed with high bars to prevent him from rolling off and sits in a high chair to eat, grasping a spoon in his left hand, unable to even lift his right arm.
When asked questions, he bounces slightly and smiles, happy with the attention. But he frequently doesn't answer. Given paper and a crayon, he draws a faint, crooked line, not a sun, or a house, or a family stick figure.
Montes said Jose, while hospitalized in California, underwent intensive therapy for the paralysis on his right side and for learning difficulties.
"He reached some goals," the doctor said. "I would have liked him to walk out, but he needed help."
Although he is improving, Jose is easily distracted, Montes said, a trait common among children with brain injuries. Other characteristics of these children include a decreased attention span and impulsive behavior, he said.
The boy should be able to go through high school, but he will be in special education classes, Montes said.
"You look at kids who survive these traumatic injuries and two-thirds have functionally good outcomes. They can walk and talk and they have some life skills," he said. "It doesn't mean full skills; you learn to adapt, you learn to maximize your potential."
Besides their physical injuries, Jose and Emilio are occasionally gripped by fear that they will be sent back to Utah, subjected again to the "spankings." Strangers are scary, triggering memories of when they were whisked away.
Taken to the hospital
after three weeks
The three children had been living with their grandparents in California for more than a year, placed there informally by their parents, when a question arose about who had authority over their care.
Officials in California decided - apparently inaccurately - that the Ute tribe had a say in the matter, based on the heritage of the children's mother. The tribe agreed to take them, and on Aug. 7, a tribal van brought the children to the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in eastern Utah.
After several relatives declined to care for them, tribal officials placed the Rodriguezes with Sireech, their maternal grandmother.
Leoncis was furious. "She hated them," she said. "She didn't like them because they're Mexican."
The battering began within a week, according to investigators. The FBI said Sireech beat Jose and Emilio with her fists, a cane, a wooden back scratcher and fly swatters, and used a hot curling iron to prod Emilio.
Court documents say the boys' 8-year-old half-sister, who had been living with Sireech, told police that their grandmother held Emilio's head under water "until bubbles came out," and placed her hand over Jose's mouth and plugged his nose so he couldn't breathe.
It is unclear whether the tribe ever made a required weekly check on the children. Sireech's live-in boyfriend, Michael Deherrera, told officers that he always left when he heard Jose and Emilio screaming while their grandmother beat them.
On Aug. 30, just three weeks after their arrival, Deherrera brought an unconscious Jose to Uintah Basin Medical Center. An aunt brought Emilio in separately and when doctors saw him, they were alarmed by dark bruising on his forehead and behind his ears, an FBI report said. He also had a skull fracture, which gave him "raccoon eyes," it said.
The half-sister said Sireech had become angry that day, slamming Emilio on the floor and burning him with a curling iron. Later, her grandmother also became upset with Jose and threw him down three times, the girl said.
At first, doctors did not expect Jose, who was transferred to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, to survive. When he did, medical personnel thought he would never walk, talk or feed himself again.
However, the boy began to improve. He was transferred to the Los Angeles hospital and eventually went home to Palmdale.
"A long way to go"
Leoncis and Samuel assure the children they are safe. Despite the financial strain of a full household, where government aid provides some child support and covers medical bills, the grandparents are adamant that the children will never again be taken from them.
"It's fine," Samuel says, brushing aside any concern about the crowded conditions. His wife, who now has formal custody of the trio, says the youngsters would go back to the reservation "over my dead body."
At times, the two feel alone in protecting the children. So far, they have been unable to learn exactly how the tragedy unfolded. They wanted to hire a lawyer, but couldn't come up with the money.
California court officials have refused requests from The Salt Lake Tribune for comment, citing juvenile privacy laws. The Tribune also was denied access to the Ute Juvenile Court records.
Maxine Natchees, chairwoman of the governing Ute Business Committee, promised an investigation, but has not returned several calls seeking an update. The director of Ute Social Services refused to say whether the tribe's case worker responsible for checking on the Rodriguez children is still employed there.
Help does come from Jose's teachers and the personnel at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, who will stick with him as long as they are needed.
"We can work with his disabilities," Montes said. "It usually requires a lot of intervention throughout an individual's life. He's a wonderful little boy but he's got a long way to go."
JOSE'S JOURNEY:
From a coma to safety California
* The chain of events that put 4-year-old Jose Rodriguez in a Utah hospital with nearly fatal injuries began in California, where he and siblings Emilio, 3, and Mona, 2, were being raised by their paternal grandparents.
* The youngsters had been left in the care of grandparents Leoncis and Samuel Rodriguez in Palmdale in spring 2003 by their parents, Jose Rodriguez and Maria Raines. But after California officials became aware of this, according to Leoncis, a social worker told her she had to give the children to the Ute Tribe.
The court controversy
* Court officials believed that, because of their mother's Ute heritage, the children fell under jurisdiction of the Indian Child Welfare Act [ICWA,] which gives tribes some authority to control placement of American Indian children.
* But the Rodriguez siblings fell outside the act, because a person must be at least five-eighths Ute, and the children are three-eighths Ute.
* Still, the Ute tribe agreed to take the children and placed them with their maternal grandmother, Charlissa Sireech.
* The paternal grandmother, Leoncis, petitioned Los Angeles County Superior Court for their return, but her request was rejected with a handwritten note that said the case fell under ICWA.
* Raines said she considers her children to be Mexican-American and was angry that they were placed with their maternal grandmother, who could not understand their Spanish.
Utah
* Tribal officials said Sireech had been caring for Raines' two eldest children, girls ages 7 and 8 from a prior relationship, without a problem. However, a home study failed to turn up warning signs, including Sireech's convictions for child endangerment and drunken driving and numerous alcohol-related arrests.
* Three weeks after they arrived, Jose and Emilio were hospitalized with severe injuries, leading to the arrest of Sireech and her boyfriend. The two older girls were placed in foster care.
Charges filed
* Sireech, 45, is charged with seven counts of assault, which carry maximum prison terms of 10 years each. She is being held pending trial in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.
* Boyfriend Michael Deherrera, 48, was sentenced to 1 to 15 years in prison in 8th District Court after pleading guilty to child abuse for failing to protect the boys.
- Pamela Manson