Are local agencies responsible for Jasmine Bedwell’s baby’s death? Or is she?

A young girl, Jasmine Bedwell, is abused. Her mother is incompetent, so the girl is turned over to the state and made a foster child.
At 17, she drops out of school and gives birth to a baby boy, Emanuel Murray.
Within three months, she gets herself a new boyfriend named Richard McTear, who turns violent. McTear beats her and Emanuel, so Jasmine files a restraining order against him.
Jasmine promises case workers that she’ll follow through on a court order, but doesn’t.
McTear breaks into Jasmine’s apartment, throws Emanuel on the concrete floor, and then kidnaps the child only to throw him out of a moving vehicle on I-275.
Emanuel dies.
She says they are responsible for her baby’s death. She even blames the apartment complex where she lives.
It’s everyone’s fault, but her own.
Whose fault is that?




Wow, that’s certainly a…um…story. I mean, how do you respond to that? She’s a clearly an immature child thrust into a situation she can’t control, but golly.
I mean, where do you start?
Were this a site, I would clear out the bad taste in my mouth by posting a picture of a rabbit with a pancake on its head. However, I can’t do that here, so I’m at a loss…
Truly, anyone can file a suit (I’ve recently been sued by a criminal defendant I didn’t even represent. The office sent it along to the insurance carrier, and it will almost certainly be dismissed without costing me a nickle); however, if a suit is genuinely frivilous, the judge won’t let it get to the jury. When I was in private practice, I got some verdicts that, if I chose only to tell you a few facts, would make you believe I was a magician or a demon (I’m pretty sure I’m neither). I got one guy $6,000 in a wreck where he wasn’t hurt and had a b.a.c. of 0.08 at 9:00 in the morning, AND he had a prior conviction for possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine (which the jury heard about) AND he showed up to court drunk. How did I do it? I proved the wreck was the other guy’s fault, because the defendant was in my guy’s half of the road. The money was to cover the exorbinent towing and storage charges the tow driver charged. See, but that part’s not so interesting, is it?
The article includes the following quote:
“Workers also neglected to run a background check on McTear when he became involved with Bedwell, who was living on her own but being supervised by the state.
“We dropped the ball,” Rainey said after the report was released in May.”
So it appears that someone may have been negligent. Still, cases always turn on facts that you generally don’t read about in the paper. It’s hard enough to sell newpapers these days, so you can’t expect reporters to include the facts that might allow the suit to go on.
They (Bedwell and McTear) are responsible. The DCF, HSCO, Kids Inc. et al did not force her to associate with him. They did not beat her. They did not murder the child. Yes sometimes it is that cut and dry, but there will always be weak individuals that will never take responsibility for their actions. Having a bad childhood does not give you the right to act like a POS.
I feel much compassion for Jasmine, and am appalled by the racist, sexist, hate speech being spit at her all over the Internet.
She is a girl who has been abused her whole life. And yes, the system let her down, as it REPEATEDLY does to the women that men abuse.
I don’t AT ALL hold Jasmine accountable for her son’s death. Jasmine is an ABUSE VICTIM… and I am sick of everyone blaming abuse victims for being abused.