Jun 9, 2008 6:21 pm US/Eastern
Godmother Of Beaten 3-Year-Old Has Sketchy History
Nymeen Cheatham Was Investigated For Abuse Of Her Own 4 Children In Texas Back In 2002
BROOKLYN (CBS) ―
New questions and accusations have surfaced surrounding the death of a 3-year-old Brooklyn boy.
It appears the godmother accused of killing little Kyle Smith may have been investigated for past child abuse.
Nymeen Cheatham, 30, has been charged along with her boyfriend, 25-year-old Lemar Martin. It turns out she had been investigated for neglecting her own children in the past. It happened in 2002 in the north Texas town of Borger, where the district attorney's office tells CBS 2 HD that Cheatham was investigated on a complaint of "neglecting her own four children, in unsafe conditions, without providing food."
The case was turned over to Children Protective Services, and "Cheatham's parental rights to those children were relinquished by court order."
Officials could not say where the children were on Monday.
Nevertheless, 10 months ago, Cheatham ended up taking care of her godchild because the natural mother could not, and Cheatham asked family court for custody.
On Oct. 3, Cheatham requested custody. A judge ordered ACS to do a home study, which found the child "happy and healthy."
And on Nov. 5, a judge ordered ACS to do a home study of the maternal grandmother. But on Feb 4, Cheatham didn't show. The case was dismissed.
"We conducted those investigations and didn't find anything wrong whatsoever," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
So with no custody petition before the court, the child stayed with Cheatham, and on Friday, he was found dead in the Patchen Avenue apartment where he lived with his godmother and her boyfriend. The medical examiner described the injuries he suffered consistent with beatings and sodomy.
What's troubling is that when ACS did a home study on Cheatham, and found everything okay, it apparently didn't check Cheatham's background to find that she'd been denied custody of her own children in Texas.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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