I was a relatively new mom when this story unfolded, and it had a profound effect on me. My son was almost the same age as the tiny victim in this incident, and I could not imagine ever harming my son’s little body. I remember going to the ladies room and crying in the middle of the reporting process — both out of sympathy for the boy and anger toward the mother.

Child abuse prevention is an issue that became more important to me the more I reported on abuse cases, especially after I had children of my own.

Toddler scalded; mother arrested / Boy allegedly put in hot water after soiling his diaper
April 1, 2006

A Springfield woman was jailed Friday after she allegedly punished her 15-month-old son by scalding him in the bathtub with hot water, causing second- and first-degree burns, police and prosecutors said.

The burns were severe enough that some of the baby’s damaged skin fell off when he was lifted out of the bathtub by a witness, police said.

Brea N. Reese, 20, of the 1700 block of East Clay Street is charged with one count of aggravated battery to a child. Reese also goes by the alias Sherika M. Smith, according to jail officials.

The boy is being treated in the burn unit at Memorial Medical Center for deep second-degree burns on his feet, legs and bottom and first-degree burns on his lower back. Police said the injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, though he is expected to be hospitalized for several days.

Police were sent to St. John’s Hospital shortly after 1 a.m. Friday, after medical personnel notified them that a possibly abused child had been brought in for medical attention. Officers arrived as the child was being transferred by ambulance to Memorial.

A woman who was at the house at the time of the alleged abuse took the baby to the hospital. Police said Reese fled after the incident but showed up at the hospital later in the morning.

Police said the child soiled his diaper, which apparently infuriated Reese, who also is mother to a 3-week-old baby and a 2-year-old child.

Reese allegedly took the baby into the bathroom at her home on Clay Street, shut the door, ran scalding hot water and put the baby in the tub. There were three other adults in the house at the time, two of whom live there. The child’s father apparently was not there at the time.

One of the adults in the house told police she heard Reese slapping the child and went to the bathroom door and pounded on it, demanding to be let in because she could hear the baby screaming.

Reese allegedly walked out of the bathroom and left the house. The woman who pounded on the door went into the bathroom, picked the boy up out of the tub and noticed skin hanging from his legs and bottom. She drove the baby to the hospital for help.

Authorities began searching for Reese, who eventually showed up at St. John’s, where she was arrested and taken to the police department to be interviewed.

Springfield police spokesman Sgt. Pat Ross said there was no indication in any of the police reports that Reese was intoxicated or impaired at the time of the alleged incident.

A physician at the hospital told police that burns of the nature the boy suffered would require water temperatures to be anywhere from 115 to 130 degrees.

Police took custody of Reese’s other children, and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services was notified.

“Our investigators will be assisting in the investigation with DCFS,” Ross said.

Aggravated battery to a child is a Class X felony punishable by six to 30 years in prison.

Associate Circuit Judge John Mehlick set Reese’s bond at $100,000 and appointed a public defender to represent her.

Assistant state’s attorney Randy Blue asked that bond be set at $250,000, saying that Reese had an argument with her boyfriend before going home and putting her child into the tub. Assistant public defender Bill Conroy asked that bond be set at $50,000.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 20.

A search of Sangamon County Circuit Court records shows that Reese was on probation for shoplifting. She has no other criminal record.
Mother had lost boy before / Evidence of neglect in case of child scalded last month
April 8, 2006
Byline: DEAN OLSEN and JAYETTE BOLINSKI STAFF WRITERS

At least six months before a Springfield toddler allegedly was scalded by his mother, Illinois’ child-welfare agency temporarily took him from her because of suspicions he was being neglected.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services removed Demetrius Taylor in September after finding credible evidence that his mother, Brea N. Reese, had neglected him, DCFS spokeswoman Kim McMorris said this week.

The now 16-month-old boy, who was burned by hot water last week, remained in foster care until February, when a local judge ordered him returned to his mother, McMorris said.

Reese, 20, was offered and received “supportive services” – including several visits by a caseworker – once Demetrius was back at home, McMorris said.

“There was no indication that anything was wrong in the home,” McMorris said. “At that time, things appeared to be fine.”

Demetrius was released Thursday from Memorial Medical Center. He had been scalded about midnight March 30 in a bathtub at a home in the 1700 block of East Clay Street.

He initially was taken to St. John’s Hospital about 1 a.m. March 31. Hospital officials notified authorities, and Reese was arrested.

She was charged with one count of felony aggravated battery to a child and was being held Friday in the Sangamon County Jail on $100,000 bond. She has been appointed a public defender.

Her son was transferred later March 31 from St. John’s to Memorial’s burn unit, which treated him for deep second-degree burns on his feet, legs and bottom, and first-degree burns on his lower back.

Reese’s two other children – a 3-week-old daughter and a 2-year-old daughter – were temporarily placed with relatives “because of the risk of harm,” McMorris said.

DCFS officials wouldn’t say where Demetrius is now, but Monique Reese – Brea Reese’s mother – said the boy had been placed in the home of his father’s cousin, who also is caring for Brea Reese’s other two children, Demetriona and De’Nasia.

Monique Reese, 37, a landscape worker and divorced Springfield mother of three, said she doesn’t believe the allegations against her daughter. She said the scalding probably was an accident involving a busy, single mother who may have been dealing with postpartum depression.

“My daughter’s not a monster,” Monique Reese said. “My daughter’s a loving mother and very good with her kids. It’s not up to anybody to judge but God.”

Police said the alleged abuse happened when Brea Reese, apparently angry that Demetrius had soiled a diaper, took him into the bathroom, shut the door, ran scalding hot water and put him in the tub.

The baby’s father was not in the home at the time, police said, but three other adults were. One got Demetrius out of the tub and took him to St. John’s after Brea Reese walked out of the house.

Reese, an unwed, unemployed mother who dropped out of Southeast High School her sophomore year, was staying with her children at the home of a friend at the time, said Vernice Miller, 39, of Springfield.

Miller, a nurse’s aide, said the East Clay Street home is owned by Miller’s fiance, Memory Bailey. Reese and her children were living there temporarily with Miller’s 20-year-old daughter and 22-year-old son.

Reese “said she was getting stressed out with three kids,” Miller said.

Reese appeared to be more agitated when she cared for Demetrius, Miller said. But Reese’s mother and Reese’s boyfriend, whose name is also Demetrius Taylor, said that wasn’t the case.

Taylor, 23, who said he is unemployed and the father of all three of Brea Reese’s children, said he doesn’t believe Reese intentionally hurt his son.

“I don’t blame nobody. Mistakes happen,” he said, though he added that he blames himself “a little” for the incident because he wasn’t there to help Reese with child care that night. The couple don’t live together, although they have in the past, he said.

Reese’s mother said she raised her own children without much involvement from their two fathers and doubted that poverty had anything to do with her grandson’s injuries.

But The Children’s Defense Fund, a child-advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., says research indicates that children in poor families are 22 times more likely to be abused or neglected – in part because of the stress that poverty creates.

Children with teen parents – especially poor, unwed parents – face an even higher risk of being abused because of the burdens on those single parents, according to Mark Testa, director of the University of Illinois’ Children and Family Research Center.

“It creates a very difficult situation for the caregiver,” he said. “It results in a multiplier effect.”

More than 93 percent of births to Sangamon County teens in 2003 took place out of wedlock, and about 40 percent of all births to Sangamon residents each year occur out of wedlock, according to the latest statistics available.

DCFS previously removed young Demetrius Taylor in September because he was failing to gain weight, according to his father. The elder Taylor said DCFS officials at the time contended that he and Reese weren’t capable of caring for the boy.

DCFS officials wouldn’t discuss the details of why they removed the boy last year.

Demetrius’ father noted that his son had to undergo treatment in St. Louis and Springfield when he was born with intestines outside his body – a condition successfully treated with surgery.

Monique Reese, said she has visited her daughter in jail, where she is being kept under constant supervision in an area reserved for prisoners at risk of harming themselves or committing suicide.

“She’s crying a lot and worried about her kids,” Monique Reese said. “She’s taking it hard. We’re all taking it hard.”