Texas Child Protective Services / Gilberto Sotelo
Power Window Claims Toddlers Life

I am writing this report for my Sister's Granddaughter Ivet Anmeri born July 17 and Died August 6 may she rest in peace.

Ivet Anmeri had a short life, but in her short life she touched a lot of people, she was a beautiful child full of life and she loved her baby brother Jose Alejandro 11 months old. She for the majority of the time was his mama. Jose would look for her but she would not leave his side but for a minute or two at a time. She is gone forever now, and I can only imagine how much he misses her and how often he has looked for her since Wed.

Ivet and Jose were reported to Texas Child Protective Services on May 15. Before that both Ivet and Jose were in my sisters care, while my niece was seperated from her husband. My niece was not being a good mother and she offered her kids to my sister, stating she did not want them, the kids were in her way.

My sister took the kids in and cared for them for two weeks, once she began seeking medical attention for them and my niece and her husband found out my niece called my sister and demanded her to give the kids back, because her son in law hates her and did not know that the kids were with my sister.

My sister called the local Police Dept. And asked for advice and she was told because she did not have any legal documents giving her custody of the children my niece and her husband could file kidknapping charges. The officer told her to return the children and call CPS. So my sister reluctantly gave the children back to my niece and as soon as the kids were taken she called Child Protective Services to report the abuse the kids were living at the hands of their parents.

CPS advised my sister they would call her with in 24 hours. That did not happen, after several phone calls to CPS she was advised that my niece, her husband and the children could not be located. That is because they did not live in any particular place, they would live with my sisters son in laws mom, until she tired of them and would throw them out. They would live with his dad until he tired of them and he would throw them out, they would live on the street or in a delapidated mobile home his dad told them they could have, but he would throw them out of that whenever he, the father, the childrens grandfather, wanted to.

Apparently they were located because my niece started receiving bills from a local hospital where baby Ivet had been taken for special sexual abuse tests. I was receiving the bills at my home because at one point my niece had left the husband and came to live with me with her two children. While with me she was using my address as hers. My niece stayed with me about 3 days only and then went back to the husband.

I contacted my sister and advised her of the bills coming in and what they were for. My sister again contacted CPS to find out what had happend with the children. She got nowhere, and finally she was advised by CPS that the children had been placed with the parents and they were placed in a special program in Edinburg.

That is what we thought until Wednesday August 6 at 9:50 P.M. When my sister received a phone call advising her the baby Ivet was no longer with us, she was gone. She was told my niece had been involved in a car accident with her father in law and the children and Ivet had been lost. When we arrived at the Hospital in McAllen, Texas we found out what CPS had actually done with the kids.

The Sheriff's Deputies told us we could not see the baby, she had already been placed in a body bag and had been removed from the hospital as Evidence. We were told they were investigating a Homicide not an accident.

It is at that time that we found out that the babies had been removed from the parents, but that the parents had chosen for the babies to be placed with my nieces husbands father, their paternal grandfather. This man Gilberto Sotelo a 52 year old seperate or divorced man, living alone with no wife in the home. This man was bathing at the time a 1 & 1/2 year baby girl and changing her pampers as well as her baby brother. He was the one that would throw the babies and their parents out to the streets with out giving them a second thought, he was the one CPS gave the children to.

Well, he picked up the kids from day care Wed. Evening at 5:30 P.M. And from there he wound up with what he is calling a friend delivering tamales to this friend. He states in his report to the Sheriff's Dept., which I am going to quote becasue it was in our local newspaper the monitor and the valley morning star "The grandfather was selling tamales at a home between Donna and Alamo when he left the siblings in the Ford F150 with the air condition running. The 8 month old, of which they have his age incorrect he is 11 months old, was restrained in a child seat the the toddler was left sleeping, unrestrained, on the seat of the truck, Trevino said." Trevino is the Hidalgo County Sheriff. The grandfather was in the home for about 15 minutes and would poke his head out of the door to check on the kids frequently.

The medical examiner verbally told the Sheriff' office that it would only take a toddler about 30 seconds to suffocate. According to the Sheriff's interview on a local New station Newschannel 5, he "Trevino" said that baby Ivet stepped on the power window button and the truck window rolled down, she then stuck her head out and pressed the power window button again and the window rolled up and caught her neck suffocating her.

The monitor quoting the Sheriff's Dept. Stated that Witnesses said the child eventually woke up and was jumping around the vehicle. Why if the granfather was frequently checking on them, did the grandfather not see her jumping around. As to the witnesses if they say her jumping around, why did they not call the Police dept. To report that the kids being left alone in the running vehicle, if they were watching her for the 15 minutes the kids were alone and unattended why did they not do anything to save her when she rolled the window down and stuck her head out.

The stories say that Trevino's office is waiting on the written autopsy report, expected some time next week, we were told tomorrow August 11 the report should be ready, before deciding whether to forward the case to the Hidalgo County District Attorney for review or seek a warrant for the grandfathers arrest. Who does this man know that he has not even been charged?

If anything, the grandfather should have a least been charged with neglignece, becasue Sheriff Trevino is quoted in the newspaper to say "Obviously there is no intent, however it is a crime under Texas law to leave a child unattended in a vehicle, and the grandfather could be found to have acted neglignetly."

The grandfather stated he left the kids unattended in the running vehicle. He is a 52 year old man that is an Adult Day Care owner, he knew the responsibility he was taking on by agreeing with CPS to take the babies and care for them. The babies did nothing but depend on him to care them and he knowingly and willingly left them alone for what he said was just 15 minutes. Because of his Gross Negligence a 2 year old baby is now Dead and he and CPS should be made to be held accountable for their actions.

CPS spokesperson Mr. John Lennon said in a statement given to Newschannel 5 that CPS did not give the children to the paternal grandfather, the parents choose to place their children with the paternal grandfather they, (CPS) just delivered them to him while there was an ongoing investigation into the parents and there abuse of the children. That is CPS' excuse and that is why CPS states they are not responsible for the death of baby Ivet Anmeri.

CPS is at fault and needs to be held accountable. We need your help to spread the story to any and all that will listen and will publish it, run it, talk about it and forward it to others they know. We can not allow for this needles and sensless death to go unpunished, the grandfather and CPS as well as the parents need to punished to the full extent of the law.

The laws were put in place to help the innocent, it seem they are there to help the Criminals. CPS has made this lethal mistake over and over and millions of babies and children have died at the hands of a relative because CPS has allowed the parents to choose where they want the kids. It's like saying I couldn't finsh them ourselves, give them to this person in my family so that they can finsh them for me! It's happening over and over and CPS is just walking away only to do it again.

Baby Ivet's brother Jose Alejandro is now in the custody of CPS again, he has been placed in a foster home and we will not be told where he is, or even how he is doing. I remember watching Jose and Ivet playing with eachother and how she loved him and when she would leave the room, even though he did not crawl he would get on his belly and pull himself to look for Ivet, she would not leave him too long a few minutes at the most and she'd come back to the room and say "my baby", smile at him and hug him and then run off to play again. This happend the whole time I watched them, over an hour that day.

I find myself thinking about him and how he is doing becasue I know he is looking for Ivet, but he does not know he will never find his sister again.
She is not going to come back into the room and hug him and tell him "my baby" ever again. I think how alone and lost he must feel and now with no family there to hold him and love on him and to help him feel secure and to know that he is loved. We heard through the Newschannel 5 report that there will be a hearing to decide where baby Jose Alejandro will be placed and that we can petion the court for him. We do not know how to do that, or what we need to do or even what is expected of us, but we do know that we want him and will do whatever it takes to get baby Jose Alejandro out of CPS' custody so the he will not be harmed like his sister was.

Please help us, demand Justice for baby Ivet Anmeri and baby Jose Alejandro.

Dee
Weslaco, Texas
U.S.A.

Company: Texas Child Protective Services / Gilberto Sotelo
Country: USA
State: Texas
City: Alamo
Site: www.dfps.state.tx.us

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