Siblings of boy who died to stay at Child Haven

Four children whose 4-year-old brother died after 17 hours in a family vehicle will remain in protective custody, a Family Court hearing master ruled Friday.

Lawyers for Stanley and Colleen Rimer had hoped the children would be released to their uncle, but the four brothers, ages 7 to 15, will remain in Child Haven indefinitely, said attorney Lew Wolfbrandt, who represents Stanley Rimer.

"Everyone involved is going to work with an overabundance of caution," he said. "If it's inconvenient to the family for a little bit, that what's going to happen."

The children will remain at Child Haven "until we can get something better in place," Wolfbrandt said.

The Rimers had visited their children three times at the children's shelter since hearing master Frank Sullivan granted supervised visits Monday, he said.

The boys will undergo grief counseling to deal with the death of their brother, Jason Rimer, who died June 9. Child Protective Services removed the children from the home because of worries about their environment.

Also at Friday's hearing, the Rimers learned that the district attorney's office filed a formal civil petition charging them with abuse and neglect involving the four brothers. The parents denied the allegations and face an Aug. 18 trial, Wolfbrandt said.

If the court doesn't find enough evidence to support the allegations, the case would be dismissed and the children would be immediately returned to their parents.

If the court finds the allegations are true, the parents would be required to follow a case plan supervised by the county Department of Family Services before they are reunited with their children.

A case plan can include counseling, parenting classes and other measures.

The Department of Family Services revealed Friday that it uncovered a second substantiated neglect case involving the Rimer family from 1991. The first was in 1988.

Researchers were reviewing files and records for the roughly 22 contacts the Rimers have had with the department in the past two decades, spokeswoman Christine Skorupski said.

Contacts include any report the department receives about a family. Some are information-only reports that don't get investigated, and the number can include multiple reports of a single incident, Skorupski said.

The legal troubles for the Rimers could get worse next week, when Clark County prosecutors plan to review the police investigation of Jason's death and decide whether to file criminal charges.

Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.