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Mom Pleads Not Guilty To Shaking Baby To Death

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#1 ·
Mom Had Several Run-Ins With D.S.S.

BOSTON (WBZ) ― A Peabody mother is accused of shaking her infant child to death, according to the Essex County District Attorney's Office.

Jennifer Ward, 37, was arrested on Sunday in connection to her 10-month-old daughter's death.

Officials say Jocelyn Ward Anderson died on November 21 -- three days after she was allegedly shaken by Ward.

Jocelyn was allegedly taken away from Ward at birth after both mother and baby tested positive for drugs, according to the D.A.'s office. Officials would not specify what kind of drug was detected.

A spokesperson from the Department of Social Services tells The Salem News that the baby was given back to Ward shortly after the incident when she agreed to undergo outpatient therapy.

Jocelyn was then put back in DSS custody after a report of neglect, the paper reports.

After going through drug treatment and parenting programs, Jocelyn was given back to Ward. Officials with the DSS would not say how long the baby was back with her mother before she was injured.

Ward was arrested at her parent's house and is now being held at York County Jail in Maine. If convicted of murder, she could receive a life sentence.

http://wbztv.com/local/shaken.baby.peabody.2.616816.html
 
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#2 ·
Jennifer Ward, 37, was arrested on Sunday at her parents' home in Kennebunk, Maine in connection to her daughter's death. WBZ

Mom Had Several Run-Ins With D.S.S.

BOSTON (WBZ) ― A Peabody woman has pleaded not guilty to charges she shook her 9-month-old baby to death back in November.

Jennifer Ward, 37, was arrested on Sunday at her parents' home in Kennebunk, Maine in connection to her daughter's death.

Officials say Jocelyn Ward Anderson died on November 21 -- three days after she was allegedly shaken by Ward.

Jocelyn was allegedly taken away from Ward at birth after both mother and baby tested positive for drugs, according to the D.A.'s office. Officials would not specify what kind of drug was detected.

A spokesperson from the Department of Social Services tells The Salem News that the baby was given back to Ward shortly after the incident when she agreed to undergo outpatient therapy.

Jocelyn was then put back in DSS custody after a report of neglect, the paper reports.

After going through drug treatment and parenting programs, Jocelyn was given back to Ward. Officials with the DSS would not say how long the baby was back with her mother before she was injured.

Ward will return to Salem Superior Court on Wednesday to discuss bail.

http://wbztv.com/local/shaken.baby.peabody.2.619539.html
 
#3 ·
Family of dead baby: 'It's all DSS' fault'

Outraged relatives of a baby girl allegedly shaken to death by her Peabody mom lashed out at social workers yesterday, blaming the state for allowing the "miracle" child to be sent home after being born with drugs in her system.
A neglect complaint months later, they added, should have been enough warning for the state Department of Social Services to take custody of 9-month-old Jocelyn Mae Ward-Anderson.
"We're speaking for the baby. She wants justice and she wants peace," cousin Tasha Anderson, 21, told the Herald yesterday.
"It's all DSS' fault," added another cousin, Amanda Anderson, 19. "(The mother) was doing drugs. She should have never left the hospital with the baby."
The baby died Nov. 21 at Children's Hospital in Boston after being treated for head trauma, authorities said.
The accused mother, Jennifer Ward, 37, of Peabody, pleaded not guilty yesterday to murder in Salem Superior Court and was ordered held without bail. Her arraignment was continued to Wednesday, on the request of her attorney, when more details of the alleged shaken-baby slaying are expected to be released.
DSS refused to accept blame yesterday, sending the Herald a statement listing steps that were taken to try and wean the mother off drugs and teach her how to be a better parent.
DSS spokesman Richard Nangle said the case was first reported to the agency in March "following positive drug screenings on both the mother and child at the time of birth" in February.
Nangle said the mother agreed to undergo "intensive therapy for her drug use" and was allowed to keep her baby at home.
"In late March," Nangle added, "DSS was contacted with a report of neglect and the decision was made to remove the child from the home and place her in temporary foster care while DSS worked with the mother."
The baby was again sent back home in mid-July after Ward completed her parenting training and drug treatment programs and Lynn Juvenile Court "dismissed the care and protection order," Nangle said.
Ward was arrested last week at her parents' home in Kennebunk, Maine, after a grand jury indicted her for the death of her daughter.
"She was a miracle baby," added Amanda Anderson outside the Salem court, saying Ward struggled to have children and Jocelyn was born premature, yet she was "a happy baby."

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1063391
 
#4 ·
Mother pleads not guilty in baby's death

Published: 12/29/2007
Mother pleads not guilty in baby's death

Jennifer Ward is arraigned in Salem Superior Court yesterday. She is charged with shaking her 9-month-old baby to death. Linsey Tait/Staff Photo
By Julie Manganis
Staff writer

PEABODY - A downcast-looking Jennifer Ward pleaded not guilty yesterday to a first-degree murder charge in the shaking death of her 9-month-old daughter last month.
Ward, 37, a former Peabody woman, was barely audible as she entered her plea before Salem Superior Court Judge David Lowy.
Lowy ordered her held without bail, pending a hearing on Wednesday. She will be held at Framingham State Prison.
Jocelyn Ward-Anderson was one day shy of being 9 months old when she was pronounced dead at Children's Hospital Boston on Nov. 21. Three days earlier, Ward had taken her daughter to the Lahey Clinic in Peabody.
An autopsy concluded that Jocelyn died of abusive head trauma.
No new details about the case emerged from yesterday's hearing. When prosecutor Kate MacDougall asked the judge if he wanted her to state facts to support her request that Ward be held without bail, defense lawyer Thomas Barrett quickly asked the judge to postpone the bail hearing until Wednesday.
The judge granted the request.
Members of both the Ward and Anderson families attended yesterday's brief hearing. The baby's father, Robert Anderson, did not attend. Anderson's mother, also named Jocelyn, said her son was too upset. She declined further comment but showed reporters a Mass card bearing a tiny photo of the smiling baby. Ward's father, Robert Ward, also declined comment outside the courthouse.
An obituary published on the Web site of the Bibber Memorial Chapel in Kennebunk, Maine, describes Jocelyn as a "happy and loving daughter," who was nicknamed "Buddha" by her family.
"She loved the Teletubbies, jumping, dancing, kisses and hugs," the obituary says. "Although just starting to walk, she enjoyed her swing. Jocelyn loved sitting outside and watching birds fly and cars go zooming by, along with walks on the beach and the wind in her face."
The little girl had two stepbrothers and a stepsister, but was Ward's only child.
The Department of Social Services was notified after Ward and Jocelyn both tested positive for drugs when the baby was born on Feb. 22. Despite the positive test result, Ward was allowed to take the baby home, until a report of neglect led DSS to take the child out of her care.
A care and protection case filed by DSS was dismissed in September by a Lynn Juvenile Court judge with the support of DSS. Ward had completed drug treatment and a parenting education class.

Ward was brought back from Maine yesterday morning by state troopers to answer to the charge, a week after her indictment and arrest at her parents' Kennebunk, Maine, home.
 
#5 ·
DA: Baby abused more than once

Published: 01/03/2008
DA: Baby abused more than once
By Julie Manganis
Staff writer

SALEM - On the afternoon of Nov. 18, Jennifer Ward was on the phone with Robert Anderson, the father of their nearly 9-month-old daughter, Jocelyn.
Ward was irritated and frustrated, complaining that the baby was always getting underfoot, according to prosecutors, who have a tape of that call.
Anderson was in no position to help, having been sent back to state prison after testing positive for drugs. But he could hear the child cooing and making normal baby sounds in the background, he would later tell investigators.

It was sometime between that call (around 4:30 p.m.) and midnight, prosecutors say, that Jennifer Ward violently shook Jocelyn, slammed her head against something, then put her to bed.
By the time a friend showed up at around midnight, the baby's brain was so swollen it had lost all of its ridges and no longer looked like a brain, prosecutor Kate MacDougall said. And that was only the beginning of her injuries.
There was bleeding in both of her eyes.
Her skull was fractured in the area of her forehead.
Her arms and belly were bruised. She had fractures to her shoulders, elbow, left forearm and vertebrae in her back - the result, MacDougall said, of being slammed down on her backside.
According to prosecutors, the injuries were the result of at least three attacks on the baby by a mother who had, just a few months earlier, been deemed fit to care for the child by the Department of Social Services, despite a history of drug use.
Ward had denied using drugs during her pregnancy, insisting that she was using only methadone and had in the past used prescription painkillers. But a test done after the birth showed cocaine, benzodiazepam (a tranquilizer) and marijuana in her system.
An autopsy has raised the possibility that the baby suffered other, earlier injuries, including fractured ribs and legs, MacDougall said, and the investigation is ongoing.
Salem Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead yesterday granted MacDougall's request that Ward be held without bail until her trial on first-degree murder charges. She will remain at Framingham State Prison.
Whitehead said prosecutors appear to have a "strong case" and that Ward's history of drug use and some psychological issues made her an unsuitable candidate for bail.
Born with cocaine
Jocelyn Mae Ward Anderson overcame a lot in her short life. She was born on Feb. 22, two months premature, 33 weeks into her mother's pregnancy, and weighing less than 4 pounds.

At birth, she tested positive for cocaine. Despite that, the Department of Social Services let Ward and Anderson take the child home, according to a summary of facts filed by MacDougall yesterday.
At the time, Anderson was on parole and random drug tests were a requirement of his freedom. He had been testing clean, MacDougall said, so with the promise that Ward would complete a drug treatment program, Jocelyn was sent home with her parents on March 5.
Just weeks later, on March 29, the DSS received a report alleging that both parents were using drugs. DSS put the child in the home of Anderson's mother in Lynn, where she spent the next several months, apparently thriving.
"Jocelyn was a happy, healthy baby who quickly recovered from the circumstances of her birth," MacDougall wrote. By summer, Jocelyn had caught up and was meeting all of the developmental markers for her age, the prosecutor said.
An obituary said family members nicknamed the baby "Buddha."
An evaluation concluded that Jocelyn would not require further services from an early intervention program.
And while Anderson was now back in prison, because the drug use in March was a violation of his parole, by July 18 DSS decided that Ward was ready to handle the responsibility of parenthood, as she had completed several drug treatment programs, according to prosecutors.
Ward and the baby spent most of the fall living in Kennebunk, Maine, with Ward's parents, but on Nov. 18, Ward drove with the baby from Maine to her new apartment at 30 Keyes Drive in Peabody, an apartment complex across from the Northshore Mall.
Ward loaned her car to one of Anderson's cousins, Latasha Anderson, that afternoon. Latasha Anderson would later tell investigators that Jocelyn was "her normal, happy self."
Two hours later, Robert Anderson said he heard his little daughter making normal sounds in the background.
Crying all night
Hours later, around midnight, Josef Ferrini, a friend of Ward, showed up to spend the night.
He told investigators that Jocelyn's crying sounded louder than normal. He went to check on her and noticed that while crying, she did not appear to be awake.
Ward came out of a bathroom and told Ferrini that "she's been doing that all night." Ferrini noticed "discoloration" on the baby's forehead and carried her downstairs. Moments after he placed the baby on Ward's chest, the baby began projectile vomiting, though she still appeared to be asleep. After cleaning the baby and themselves, they put the baby in her crib, where she vomited again.

Then she went "completely limp," Ferrini would tell investigators.
Ferrini urged Ward to bring the child to the hospital, as Ward continued to try to wake her. At some point, Ward called her mother, and the two women got into an argument on the phone, MacDougall said. Finally, just before 2 a.m., Ferrini and Ward brought the baby to the Lahey Clinic, a hospital that is just behind the Northshore Mall.
The baby was transferred to Children's Hospital Boston, where "it was clear from the beginning that Jocelyn would not survive," MacDougall said.
As doctors performed "extraordinary medical intervention," DSS and the state police began an investigation. Ward "refused to cooperate with the investigations conducted by either agency."
Anderson was brought from the state prison in Concord to see his daughter one last time, MacDougall said, and then, on Nov. 21, she was declared brain-dead.
DSS spokesman Richard Nangle refused to answer questions about the specific facts of the case or the agency's decision to return custody to Ward.
Nangle said in an e-mail last night that DSS "worked extensively with the mother, both before and after she completed her drug and parenting programs, and before and after the court's decisions."
Those decisions by the Lynn Juvenile Court to return custody to the mother were made, Nangle has previously said, with the assent of DSS.
Drug use continued
After the death of their baby, Anderson and Ward maintained contact by phone. Like all of their other calls, this one was taped by prison officials - who tape all phone calls inmates make from the prison. Ward told him that she was staying with her parents in Maine, but she would be leaving for a vacation in Florida, where, her lawyer confirmed, the family had gone.
She also expressed suicidal thoughts to Anderson.
MacDougall pointed out that Ward's use of prescription drugs appears to have continued after her daughter's death. During her arrest, police found six Percocet tablets on her.
Defense lawyer Thomas Barrett suggested that Ward be released to stay with her parents, saying they would be willing to move back to Massachusetts and Ward would wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. He argued that it would be "difficult to defend such a serious and complex matter" if Ward remained in custody.

Under the state's bail law, suspects charged with first degree murder are not presumed to be entitled to bail.
Ward's father attended yesterday's hearing and, like his daughter, showed no visible reaction as MacDougall read the details of his granddaughter's injuries.
Anderson's mother and grandmother (the child's great-grandmother) both wept during the hearing.
Ward is due back in court on Jan. 31
 
#6 ·
Bail refused for mother charged in death of infant daughter

SALEM, Mass. -- A Superior Court judge has denied bail to a Peabody woman accused in the death of her 9-month-old daughter.
The ruling means 37-year-old Jennifer Ward will remain behind bars as she awaits trial on a first-degree murder charge.
During Wednesday's bail hearing, assistant district attorney Kate MacDougall said Jocelyn Ward Anderson was the victim of at least three attacks that caused injuries to her arms, shoulders and spine.
The prosecutor said the baby was shaken and slammed into something during the final attack, leaving her with a skull fracture and brain swelling that resulted in her death in November.
The state Department of Social Services said the baby was taken from her mother in March after a report of neglect, but Ward later regained custody after completing a drug treatment and parenting education program.

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO70217/
 
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