Agency, foster mom still face judgment

One year ago today, 2-year-old Alizé Vick lay lifeless among the stuffed animals in the hospital as family members said tearful goodbyes. The moment came a day after her foster mother, Jules Lynn Cuneo, allegedly threw her onto a coffee table head-first.

Now, Kids Crossing, the agency that placed the girl, could face licensing penalties over the incident. A state investigation has faulted the agency for not giving sufficient weight to Cuneo's troubled past before hiring her, and for not paying enough attention to the several injuries Alizé suffered before the fatal head injury Oct. 9, 2007. Penalties could range from increased monitoring to probation, said Colorado Department of Human

Services spokeswoman Liz McDonough. Depending on additional findings, the license could even be revoked.

Cuneo, who also has two children of her own, is scheduled to go to trial Nov. 3 on a charge of first-degree murder in Alizé's death.

Before Kids Crossing placed Cuneo in charge of Alizé and her baby brother, Anthoni, it learned from a home study that Cuneo's own childhood was marred by abuse and neglect. She was living on her own by age 16, and she was in an abusive marriage from 1998 to 2001. Although she had undergone therapy, guidelines for home studies note that past behavior, good and bad, is the best indicator of future behavior. One of Cuneo's three references suggested she did not have a strong social support system in place.

Evaluations are conducted, in part, because providing foster care can be demanding and stressful.

The state also questioned why a pattern of injuries Alizé suffered under Cuneo's watch was not investigated further; Alizé had nine head or facial injuries from March to June 2007.

"My concern is that these incidents suggest a pattern ... that was not addressed by the agency personnel," investigator Barry Schultz noted in the investigation summary. "The number of bit lips, bruises and scrapes were concerning and without a clear assessment of potential causes."

Lee Oesterle, executive director of Kids Crossing, declined to discuss the investigation summary because the outcome regarding the agency's license is pending.

The investigation, led by Colorado DHS' Child Care Division, is on hold because information from law enforcement sources is unavailable pending Cuneo's trial, McDonough said. Once the trial is completed, the state plans to recommend adverse action against Kids Crossing. The agency would then have a chance to appeal.

The El Paso County Department of Human Services was also faulted by the state earlier this year over its handling of Alizé's case - specifically not keeping proper documentation on previous abuse complaints against Cuneo. At the time, the county said although documentation was not current, all complaints were fully investigated.

On Thursday, El Paso County DHS Director Barbara Drake said the county's records are now up-to-date and entered into the state computer system, and communication among child welfare workers has improved. In response to Alizé's death, the county now reviews all incidents, even non-critical ones such as a scraped knee on the playground.

The county still uses Kids Crossing, a private nonprofit, because no action has been taken against its license, and county child welfare workers monitor its work.

Alizé was among more than a dozen children in Colorado who died in 2007 despite recent contact with their county's child protective services. The deaths prompted statewide reforms, including a Child Welfare Action Committee ordered by Gov. Bill Ritter. Drake sits on that committee, and she said the group plans to present recommendations to the governor in the next few weeks.

For Kathleen Heil, Alizé's maternal grandmother, a year's time has done little to ease her grief. Whatever changes may come now are too late.

"We put our trust in them to go to the house and make sure Alizé was OK. ... It really angers me. This is a child," she said, breaking down in tears. "This is a child that didn't have to die."

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Contact the writer: 636-0198 or brian.newsome@gazette.com.