Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Couple arrested on murder charges in death of toddler

Charlene Snyder Jack Richardson

Las Vegas police on Tuesday arrested a couple sought in the death of an emaciated 2-year-old girl.

Police have booked the child's mother, Charlene Snyder 28, and her boyfriend, Jack Richardson, 25, on charges of second-degree murder, child abuse and child neglect.

"This case was horrendous, the worst I've seen in my 24 years of law enforcement," Las Vegas police Capt. Terry Lesney said. "It's very rare to see a second-degree murder charge on a neglect case without physical abuse."

The death of Adacelli Snyder, an 11-pound two-year-old, has drawn criticism of Clark County Child Protective Services from children's advocates who say system failures are as responsible for the child's death as are the parents.

Adacelli Snyder, who was born with cerebral palsy, died in a broken crib with soiled blankets, head lice, insect bites and wounds caused by severe diaper rash, according to Las Vegas police. She was isolated in a bedroom of a northeast Las Vegas trailer with her two sisters, surrounded by rotting garbage, feces, roaches and flies, when police and paramedics rushed unsuccessfully to save her life, according to police reports.

Police reports state the family had a history of intervention by Clark County Child Protective Services dating back to 2002.

The family was reported twice to CPS in July 2003. Allegations at that time involved the poor condition of the home, Adacelli Snyder's weight loss and Charlene Snyder's failure to obtain available resources for her children, including services at the Special Children's Clinic and from a state program that provides food and diet supplements to needy women and young children.

The complaints resulted in CPS opening a year-long, home-monitoring case with the family.

Clark County Child Protective Services officials said the agency did all it could for the family during that year. The case was closed in June 2004.

Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of the county's Department of Family Services, which oversees CPS, said the county wouldn't have had the authority to check on the family after the case was closed unless someone in the community reported that they suspected abuse or neglect.

But Lesney said the police investigation into Adacelli Snyder's death revealed several recent reports made to CPS about the family. She referred questions regarding those complaints to CPS.

Klein-Rothschild and other county officials said they had no record of reports on the family between the time CPS closed its case and Adacelli's death.

Ann Rubin, a manager for the county's Department of Family Services, said county records show CPS provided "intensive" case management for Charlene and Adacelli Snyder. She said county social workers met regularly with the family and brought in a public health nurse and an early childhood intervention worker to work with Charlene Snyder. The public health nurse, she said, focused on teaching the older Snyder how to cope with her medically fragile child.

"The public health nurse makes sure the mother knows how to attend to and feed the child correctly and regularly and tend to the child's medical and physical needs," Rubin said. "The early childhood intervention specialist focuses on parenting skills and bonding."

Rubin said that as the family showed improvement, case worker visits would become more infrequent, until CPS officials felt the family could care for the children on its own.

"The social workers involved in this care are grieving for the child," Rubin said. "They worked so hard and thought they had success with this family."

But police reports show that a year after their intervention, Charlene Snyder still had trouble coping with her daughter's condition and was not obtaining necessary medical care for her daughter.

Charlene Snyder told police that she missed doctor appointments for Adacelli "six to seven months ago." She also told police that her daughter could be "irritable and difficult to deal with at times," and that she would sit with her daughter and calm her. Then, she would "just kind of leave her and shut the door and go ... let her cry. ... It's good to let babies cry."

Charlene Snyder and Richardson, who are in the Clark County Detention Center, declined requests for interviews.

Donna Coleman, president of the Children's Advocacy Alliance, said the case, as described in police reports, indicates "there's plenty of blame to go around" in Adacelli Snyder's death.

She questioned the county's plan for the family and wondered why case workers provided intensive help for so long instead of removing the children after a few months of seeing what was perhaps little or no improvement.

Coleman said several people, including neighbors, police and court personnel should have picked up on the neglect and abuse in the Snyder household and reported it.

For instance, police reports show that in April Charlene Snyder filed a complaint with police against Jack Richardson, alleging he had been violent with her.

"If there's a report of domestic violence in a home that's had two referrals to the house by CPS, shouldn't that be a big red flag?" she said.

Steve Hiltz, a lawyer representing the other children in the Snyder home, Annalisa Dees, 5; Maryposa Dees, 4; and Jack Richardson, 1; said the children would be released from Child Haven, the county's temporary home for abused and neglected children, into the custody of Charlene Snyder's mother, Beverly Snyder.

A hearing in Family Court is scheduled for Monday.