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CNN Live Today
Suffer the Children
Aired January 09, 2003 - 10:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go ahead and focus on that story that we have talked about out of Newark, New Jersey, a very horrific case of child abuse involving three children. They were locked in a squalid basement, where they were starved, and one ultimately died. Police have arrested and they are now questioning the woman assigned to care for them.
Our Jamie Colby has been following the story, and she is in Newark this morning.
Jamie, good morning.
JAMIE COLBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, we're moments away from that news conference that CNN will be taking live. Newark's mayor will be updating us on the arrest overnight of Sherry Murphy.
After a nationwide manhunt, she was found right here in Newark at the home of a Newark cab driver. Police have also arrested and charged a family friend, Joseph Reese, and he has been charged and arraigned yesterday for sexually abusing one of those boys.
Meanwhile, CNN has learned that homicide detectives are questioning Sherry Murphy this morning. She will be arranged on three charges of child endangerment for the time the boys were entrusted in her care. Those charges could be expanded to include a homicide charge, pending the outcome of those interrogations.
And meanwhile, the governor of New Jersey, Jim McGreevy, calling for sweeping reform of the child welfare system. The case of the boys who were to be supervised by the division of youth and family services had been closed, despite open abuse allegations. They've declared a state of emergency -- Daryn.
KAGAN: You look at this story, Jamie, and you just shake your head, and it breaks your heart. How many adults, time after time, let down these three little boys? Even when they were in the care of their mother, I was reading, from youth and family services, there were 10 complaints over 10 years of child abuse and child abandonment, and those were substantiated. And yet these boys remained with their mother, and she was able to hand them over to this cousin.
COLBY: That's right, Daryn. There were a number of times that the case was noted for abuse, both by the mother, by a boyfriend, failure to get medical care for them, and that's really the question now. The file's being closely scrutinized, as are others. The commissioner of that department has ordered that no other cases be closed where abuse allegations exist without a personal visit and potentially an examination of the children. That was not done in this case. The children were not visited. They didn't even know their whereabouts.
Their mother, meanwhile, claims she was trying to find them. She served a five-month prison sentence for child endangerment. That's why the boys had been entrusted in her cousin, Sherry Murphy's care -- Daryn.
KAGAN: You mentioned, Governor Mcgreevy, a spokesman for his office, says -- there's a quote in the paper -- "It appears there have been mistakes made in this case." I would say that's one of the biggest understatements I've heard in this story in a long time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 9, 2003 - 10:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go ahead and focus on that story that we have talked about out of Newark, New Jersey, a very horrific case of child abuse involving three children. They were locked in a squalid basement, where they were starved, and one ultimately died. Police have arrested and they are now questioning the woman assigned to care for them.
Our Jamie Colby has been following the story, and she is in Newark this morning.
Jamie, good morning.
JAMIE COLBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, we're moments away from that news conference that CNN will be taking live. Newark's mayor will be updating us on the arrest overnight of Sherry Murphy.
After a nationwide manhunt, she was found right here in Newark at the home of a Newark cab driver. Police have also arrested and charged a family friend, Joseph Reese, and he has been charged and arraigned yesterday for sexually abusing one of those boys.
Meanwhile, CNN has learned that homicide detectives are questioning Sherry Murphy this morning. She will be arranged on three charges of child endangerment for the time the boys were entrusted in her care. Those charges could be expanded to include a homicide charge, pending the outcome of those interrogations.
And meanwhile, the governor of New Jersey, Jim McGreevy, calling for sweeping reform of the child welfare system. The case of the boys who were to be supervised by the division of youth and family services had been closed, despite open abuse allegations. They've declared a state of emergency -- Daryn.
KAGAN: You look at this story, Jamie, and you just shake your head, and it breaks your heart. How many adults, time after time, let down these three little boys? Even when they were in the care of their mother, I was reading, from youth and family services, there were 10 complaints over 10 years of child abuse and child abandonment, and those were substantiated. And yet these boys remained with their mother, and she was able to hand them over to this cousin.
COLBY: That's right, Daryn. There were a number of times that the case was noted for abuse, both by the mother, by a boyfriend, failure to get medical care for them, and that's really the question now. The file's being closely scrutinized, as are others. The commissioner of that department has ordered that no other cases be closed where abuse allegations exist without a personal visit and potentially an examination of the children. That was not done in this case. The children were not visited. They didn't even know their whereabouts.
Their mother, meanwhile, claims she was trying to find them. She served a five-month prison sentence for child endangerment. That's why the boys had been entrusted in her cousin, Sherry Murphy's care -- Daryn.
KAGAN: You mentioned, Governor Mcgreevy, a spokesman for his office, says -- there's a quote in the paper -- "It appears there have been mistakes made in this case." I would say that's one of the biggest understatements I've heard in this story in a long time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
