BROOKLYN — The city is investigating its own handling of the case of a 3-year-old boy beaten and left brain dead in his Gravesend home, sources and officials said Wednesday.
Salvatore Lucchesse, 24, was charged with assault and acting in a manner injurious to a child after prosecutors say he beat his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son, Jaden Jordan, who was found with a skull fracture and covered in feces at West Fifth Street near Lake Place on Nov. 28, according to the NYPD.
An anonymous tipster had contacted the Administration for Children's Services two days before the boy's death to warn them that that a man was abusing his girlfriend and her young child, threatening the boy with a dog and locking him in a dog cage, sources and the agency said.
But the tipster gave the address next door and ACS investigators left when they could not find the child, officials said. They returned the next day but left again without success, officials said.
Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters told DNAinfo New York his agency is not only probing the specifics of Jaden's assault, but continuing to eye the ACS’s handing of several other previous incidents involving abused or murdered children.
“We have to see if there are potentially bigger concerns beyond any one case, and it is not only important to see what goes on in this case, but to how they all might tie together to prevent the next one," the commissioner said.
ACS has come under fire by the DOI previously for its sub-par handling of prior cases in which investigators found they failed to prevent abuse, leading to the death of two children.
Lucchesse first claimed the child slipped in the shower and hit his head, an NYPD spokesman said.
But investigators don't believe his story because Jaden's injuries included a lacerated liver and brain damage from a lack of air, which don't appear accidental, they said.
Jaden was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and is being kept alive on life support, according to reports.
A doctor at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center said Jaden's lacerated liver was likely caused by a blow to the abdomen and his brain damage was likely caused by suffocation, strangulation or shaking, prosecutors said.
Lucchesse, who hasn't been arrested before, was arraigned Wednesday night and ordered held without bail, officials said.
An ACS spokesman said in an email the agency received the anonymous tip on Saturday, rang several doorbells unsuccessfully and returned on Sunday, when representatives spoke with several tenants who said they did not know the boyfriend, mother or child.
The ACS worker finally got the right address and name of one of people involved on Monday, the spokesman added.
"Within two hours, we responded to the address provided in the report. After two days of diligently and aggressively investigating the complaint, it became clear to our Child Protective Specialists that the caller reported an inaccurate address," the agency said in a statement. "We then promptly responded to the location in question and began what is now a highly active investigation.”
Meanwhile, Public Advocate Letita James also called for a “swift, transparent” investigation into ACS.
“Every day we move forward without systemic reforms, such as splitting the responsibilities of ACS into different agencies, implementing rigorous oversight over contract agencies and adequately training and supervising caseworkers, and providing deeper ongoing supports to children exiting foster care or child preventative services, we put lives like Jaden’s at risk,” James said in a statement.
