4 children found amid fracas at apartment
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Boston
Globe newspaper:
4 children found amid fracas at apartment
By Doris Sue Wong, Globe Staff, 02/04/99
Emergency medical workers removed four young children from a Roxbury
apartment
Tuesday night after authorities found them cowering and crying in the
middle of
a domestic dispute with nothing to eat but food that was strewn on the
living
room floor amid empty beer cans.
The children, who included three 2-year-olds and a 6-year-old, looked
''unkempt'' and were clad only in T-shirts and underwear when emergency
medical
technicians arrived, said Boston Emergency Medical Services spokesman
Tom
Lyons.
By the end of the day yesterday, however, all but one of the children,
members
of three families, had been returned to their parents.
One 2-year-old remained in foster care because her mother is homeless.
Boston city and Housing Authority police were called to the third-floor
apartment at 2 Ditmus Court in the Camden-Lenox public housing complex
because
of a loud dispute and reported they were punched and kicked by the two
arguing
adults, Tonjalia Jones and Kevin Brevard.
Jones, Brevard, and two other people were arrested in the fracas.
Jones, 23, lived in the apartment with her two children, ages 2 and 6,
and
Brevard was described by police as her 30-year-old boyfriend.
The two others, Dwayne Jones, 21, whom neighbors described as Tonjalia
Jones's
brother, and Tina Goodnow, the mother of the child who remained in
foster care,
allegedly assaulted an officer on a second-floor landing as he helped
carry one
of the children out of the building.
Bail was set at $1,000 cash each for Brevard and Dwayne Jones. They
pleaded not
guilty in Roxbury District Court to charges of assault and battery on a
police
officer, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and making threats.
Dwayne Jones was also charged with assault and battery with a dangerous
weapon
for allegedly kicking an officer in the groin.
Defense attorney Harold Krasnow said Dwayne Jones, who had a bruised
forehead,
said the officer had attacked him. Brevard's attorney could not be
reached for
comment.
Default warrants were issued yesterday against Tonjalia Jones and
Goodnow after
they failed to show up for their arraignments.
DSS spokeswoman Lorraine Carli said, however, the two women did appear
for a
custody hearing concerning their children yesterday.
Over the objections of DSS, a judge ordered the agency to return the two
children to Tonjalia Jones after Jones said she had cleaned up the
apartment
and stocked it with food, said Carli.
The judge granted DSS continued temporary custody of Goodnow's
2-year-old child
while the state helped her look for permanent housing.
DSS on its own had returned the third 2-year-old to her mother, who was
not at
the Roxbury apartment when police arrived, after a social worker visited
her
Dorchester apartment to make sure it was safe.
Carli said the troubles at Jones's apartment Tuesday seemed to be an
isolated
incident and stemmed from a party that had gotten ''out of hand.''
But, according to neighbors, police had been called several times over
recent
months to Jones's apartment because of loud disputes that often spilled
into
the hallway.
BHA spokeswoman Hilary Jones said complaints had been received about the
apartment but declined to elaborate other than to say the complaints
were being
investigated.
This story ran on page B02 of the Boston Globe on 02/04/99.
---------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 2/4/99 online edition of The
Boston
Herald newspaper:
Kids caught in middle of Roxbury fisticuffs
by Ann E. Donlan and Joe Heaney
Thursday, February 4, 1999
Two weeks after five Everett children were liberated from their filthy
home,
Boston police were allegedly punched, kicked and cursed at while
attempting to
rescue four young children from a trash-strewn apartment in Roxbury
Tuesday
night.
Two Roxbury men continued the abuse while being booked at the District 4
Station in the South End, threatening officers and yelling racial slurs,
police
said.
``The Roxbury case didn't rise to the level of neglect we saw in the
Everett
case,'' Department of Social Services spokeswoman Lorraine Carli said.
The four children - between the ages of 2 years to 6 years - were taken
overnight by the DSS and two of them were returned to their guardian
yesterday
afternoon, who police said will be in Roxbury District Court today to
face
charges in the incident.
``We were seeking to continue temporary custody, but it was determined
at court
the kids could be returned home,'' said Carli, who has been confronting
a
torrent of DSS criticism over the Everett incident.
A loud lovers' quarrel brought police to an apartment at 2 Ditmus Court
in the
Lenox Street public housing development about 8:45 Tuesday night, police
said.
Inside, police found Tonjalia Jones, 23, and boyfriend Kevin Brevard,
30, in a
screaming match as the four horrified children watched from the floor of
a
trash-strewn back room.
Also present were Dwayne Lee Jones, 21, and Tina Goodnow, 19.
Police decided to remove the children after finding insufficient food
and
clothing, according to a statement from Suffolk County District Attorney
Ralph
C. Martin II.
Martin said Brevard then jumped one of the officers, punching and
kicking him
as the officer shielded the child from the blows while carrying the
child from
the apartment.
Tonjalia Jones and Goodnow were also arrested and released on bail.
Goodnow,
who was charged with disturbing the peace, failed to appear in court
yesterday
for arraignment, police said. Tonjalia Jones is scheduled for
arraignment
today.
Dwayne Jones was arrested after obeying a police order to leave the
apartment,
only to return from a neighboring apartment and begin punching and
kicking
police officers, police said.
Brevard and Dwayne Jones are being held on $1,000 bail after pleading
innocent
to charges of assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest,
disorderly conduct and making threats to police. Tonjalia Jones and
Dwayne
Jones are also charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon,
a shod
foot.
Carli said two of the children lived at the apartment, and the other two
came
from two separate families. It was unclear what relationship Tonjalia
Jones had
to the two children who were returned to her. Carli said DSS had prior
involvement with all three families.