This angers me,I personally knew this little boys foster mother,my heart goes out to this little boy,he was so cute and his foster mom was very good with him,how dare they let this little boy go stay with a creep like him. Guess thats are CPS,not doing there job,and allowing this boy to be with the likes of his so called dad,a junkie,way to go CPS.

I am not surprised that the Rock County HS dept. let this happen. I've seen numerous thoughtless moves on their part. Maybe now they will see that they need to screen and test these parents THOROUGHLY before allowing visitions. There is NO WAY that this man was a fit father and you cannot tell me that there was not evidence of abuse or neglect before this awful incident. I cannot even look at his photo with becoming enraged.

It's useless to blame CPS regardless if they are at fault or not. What's it going to do?
How about an IQ test at age 12 and if you can't pass it, you are sterilized. These idiots shouldn't be having children to begin with. I know, that's cruel and dramatic. This kind of thing angers me though.

How can we not blame CPS? They took responsibility for this child upon themselves. Obviously, this father was know to CPS to have behaviors that disqualified him for custody, therefore they knew full well that unsupervized visitation was a risk to the child. Of course, the CPS worker could not know this child would die. Never the less CPS bears some responsibility for what happened.

stop blaming cps!!! i agree that they are under trained... blame that on rock county who wants to throw our money into a new jail system that will provide a bed for this awful man instead of bettering our legal system and training for people we trust to protect!!!! anyone can pull a quick one on a case worker and the judge is the one who altimatly makes the dicision on visitation. this man did probablly exactly what a rapist doe...gains trust then makes the move.. People we need to fight for the future of our children! get our money where it belongs so we can prevent a situation like this in the future!

The court system and CPS had the ability to contol this situation and they did NOTHING!!!!

SAD SAD SAD, way to go CPS! This man should have had SUPERVISED!!!! visitations. Another case being pushed out of sight out of mind!!! What was the CPS thinking? A drug addict taking care of a child even after the mother had aprehensions!!! Maybe the case worker should have Charles and April watch your children!!! My heart goes out to the foster parents.

"Rivers is charged with child neglect resulting in death and obstructing" and was given a $5,500 cash bond?! People have to know that child didn't fall in a bathtub and sustain that kind of head injury, not by himself!! Let's tell the public that it's perfectly okay to murder your child and we'll let you off with a slap on the wrist. I'm disgusted with our "justice" system and heart broken for that poor baby's suffering. My thoughts and prayers go out to his birth mother and the foster family that was raising this little boy.

This is sooo sad..No1 really nos the truth! No1 really nos what happened and no1 will.. Only those guys no...
How can you allow a toddler to stand on the side of a tub and let go to reach for something? Even a cracked up idiot can figure that out. Charles and April need to sit and think about this in jail. Poor baby boy, he is in a better place now.

Not that this guy isn't a slimeball.

Heroin. The name itself strikes terror into the heart these days. But originally it was named by the Bayer people from the word heroine. Or female hero. Why? Because it was so effective in relieving pain and suffering. If it were legal it would still be one of the most effective pain relievers in the doctor's arsenal. It was also considered such a safe and effective medicine that it was available over the counter until 1914.

The story these days with heroin is different. It not only is not available over the counter, its not available anywhere in America legally.

So where does this leave us today? We have black markets and addicts. Black markets of course require police and addicts require treatment.

An interesting study by Dr. Lonny Shavelson looks into the world of the addicts and their treatment. What do we know? What works? How can addicts be helped?

First we start out with an unusual point of view. Most addicts are in pain. This is quite surprising. It surprised me. I thought they were just in it for the euphoria.

Here is what Dr. Shavelson found in his study of 200 addicts: a high proportion of severely abused children (beatings, rapes, rapes of siblings). He questioned his study methodology. He thought there must have been a flaw in how his sample was selected or in how the questions he asked were framed.

Then while he was doing his research, an article came out in the Journal of the American Medical Association that said that the addiction rate goes up for male sexually abused children. And it doesn't just double or triple. It is 25 to 50 times higher than the rest of the population. Approximately 70% of the women in drug rehab experienced sexual abuse before they started on drugs. In other words, those heroine addicts not in actual physical pain are suffering from severe post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. What is the preferred treatment in America today for these hurt and humiliated souls? We don't deal with the pain that made them liable for drug abuse. We ask that before they can be healed that they heal themselves by giving up drugs. And then we wonder why rehab for hard-core addicts does not work too well. But how could it when the treatment does not match the disease.

So the next time the TV expose shows the junkie with the spike in his or her vein think of what torment that person must be in internally in order to put them in the place they are in. And all too often our response to those suffering is to jail them. Barbaric. Or treatment that deals with symptoms and not causes. Stupid.

oops lost track of how many fathers/kids she has.didnt want her child left with birth parent because of drugs he was on. then why leave your baby with druggie boyfriend while she goes to get him drugs?

then why did she leave him alone with baby when she went to beloit to get him drugs?

I wish I hadn't read this article. My heart breaks for the poor child who was just a month younger than my own child. What chances did this baby have to have a decent life with parents like that? CPS failed that child.

I'm just hoping the same thing doesn't end up happening to April's daughter. Let's hope the system is corrected before another life is lost.

It's hard to think of this as a learning experience. But thats exactly what it is. Unfortunately, terrible things have to happen for measures to be taken to change how things are done. Does anyone at CPS or the court system foresee a tragedy like this happening? Probably not. But, tragically, this poor baby had to die to prove a point. We MUST take care of our children from the moment of conception til the day we die. It is our responsibility to care for them and teach them how to be honest, responsible, and caring parents as well. Rather than push blame, the "authorities" who chose to allow these visitations, need to do what they can to make sure this never happens again.

Crickett, you are so right! I work in Occupational Health and everyone and their brother has to have either a urine drug test or a hair test for employment. The truck drivers have to have random drug testing. I would think that a child is just as important a reason to drug test these so-called parents! I think that when parents aren't qualified to have custody of their kids and have addiction issues they should be drug tested frequently. Maybe they should even wear a tracking device while they are with the child so they can be monitored if they go to buy drugs. As nurses we have to rub people the wrong way all the time in order to advocate for our patients, I expect no less from caseworkers who should be advocating for the children.

billnewbie, you are totally right. What gets me is that the parents get so LONG and SO MANY CHANCES to get their kids back. Five years of foster care? Five years of continually messing up and not meeting return conditions, and 'parents' STILL get to tie up the courts and spend taxpayer money in the battle over their kids.
CPS was TOLD by the mother that the bio-dad had a history of drug abuse. Why on earth was he not assessed more rigidly???

Well corporate counsel, the baby wasn't PLACED in care because if abuse. That's reasonable. But then why, after the father was adujuticated as the biological father, not awarded FULL custody? And in February, why was the boy STILL judged under need of protective services? There was obviously SOMETHING that tripped CPS's trigger and made them tell the judge that the boy could not live with the father fulltime.

I think this is another case of Neglect and Abuse.They should have had a very High bond considering they Killed a Baby ! A cash bond of $5,500 isn't even enough to Pay for a Decent Burial.As far as the Tub Insident , Didn't they ever here of a Tub Ring that holds the Baby in Place so they cannot hit their Head ? Why didn't they have to attend a child care class so they knew how to bathe a baby properly ?

I can not believe this. I have a 5 yr old daughter and a 3 yr old nephew and if either of them tryed to stand on the side of the tub I would take them off myself NICELY and explain to them that it is not good to stand on it like that... NOT LET GO AND REACH FOR SOMETHING. And the drug issue you have children for crying out loud they require all attention the drugs dont get some help. I hope they both go to prison for the rest of there lives and have to think about why they are in there everyday and a very very precious life was lost and that is very sad.

I agree I hope both april and charles sit in jail and think about the child that died at their hands.....instead of getting medical attention for the baby they were getting heroin.....HOW PATHETIC AND SELFISH!!!!

I personally know the foster family. What adirty rotten shame. She had wanted to adopt the child and was turned down because of parental rights. Those rights did not include hurting and killing that child. My heart just breaks for them. The child was a gift from GOD and someone stopped it. they deserve any penalty they get.

I highly agree that drug screening should be done in all cases that involve drug use...This man obviously pulled a good one over on the childs case worker and judge to allow visitation!! But again.. no case worker can predict exactly what may or may not happen once that vistitaion right is allowed. I pray justice is served for that poor child!

billnewbie: Amen to your post! Having just dealt with CPS myself, I couldn't have said your thoughts better myself. The entire system is in need of an emergency overhaul!!

The primary goal of the county child protective service is to reunite children with their parents. They view drug use as just another irresponsible behavior that parents have to change, along with alcoholism, and unemployment, to name a just a few. Unsupervised overnight visits with these parents are experiments to see how well the parent performs. Reports of problems from the foster parents who have to deal with the resultant problems are often ignored by the social workers who consider the opinions of foster parents to be uninformed and or self-serving. Very often, due to tremendous turnover, the social workers are young, inexperienced, fresh college graduates who have theoretical methods of parental rehabilitation. They sometimes miss warning signs or as a result of their inexperience, do not recognise a potentially dangerous situation.

Aren't "parents" (I use the term loosley in this case) screened for drug use BEFORE every visit with their children, especially if there have been problems in the household? You have to be drug tested to get a job cleaning toilets these days. What state or government entity allowed him this privledge at all?

Another super sad story here! How can you allow a toddler to stand on the side of a tub and let go to reach for something? Even a cracked up idiot can figure that out. Charlie and April need to sit and think about this in jail. Poor baby boy, he is in a better place now.