Here are four cases in which questions about the state’s reunification strategy have been raised over the years:
Reubyne Buentipo
The odds were stacked against Reubyne from the beginning. He was born prematurely in August 1993, partly because of problems associated with his mother’s drug use. In his early years he was placed in foster homes five times.
In 1995, while under the Department of Human Services’ oversight, Reubyne twice suffered injuries during extended visits with his mother, Kimberly Pada, according to court records. The agency determined the injuries stemmed from physical abuse. In 1996, Reubyne was injured again while with his mother, and DHS again concluded the boy had been abused.
In May 1997 his mother allegedly assaulted Reubyne, and a few months later he was so badly beaten by her that he was left brain-damaged, blind and in a persistent vegetative state.
DHS eventually was sued for negligence in the case, and in 2006 the state settled out of court for $2 million. Pada was convicted in 1999 for attempted manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Reubyne, now 21, remains in a vegetative state.
Ronela Pascual
When Scott and Beverly Hawver became foster parents to Ronela Pascual in 2003, the couple said the 15-month-old girl weighed only 18 pounds, was lethargic and didn’t walk. She had been removed from her home because of neglect and suffered from several disorders.
In late 2005 and early 2006, the court approved the resumption of visits between the girl and her biological mother with the aim of family reunification. The Hawvers said Ronela would return from those visits and exhibit multiple behavior problems.
A few months later the girl was taken from the Hawvers without discussion of her special needs and reunited with her biological parents, the Hawvers said. The transition was handled so poorly that the couple said they warned a judge about what might happen to Ronela.
In 2008, Dela Pascual critically injured her daughter. Pascual was sentenced in 2011 to five years’ probation and 60 days’ incarceration for assault. Ronela was injured so badly that she spent her remaining years in a care home until her 2013 death.
Zachary Dutro-Boggess
While pregnant with Zachary Dutro-Boggess in 2008, Jessica Dutro was investigated for abusing another child. The Hawaii island woman eventually pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and was ordered to take parenting and anger management classes as part of a plea deal.
But that didn’t resolve the problem. Before Zachary was even a year old, he and an older sister were removed from their home because of another report of suspected abuse. Eventually the family was reunited, and in 2010 they moved to Oregon, where the abuse continued.
In April an Oregon judge sentenced Dutro to life in prison for brutally beating Zachary, 4, to death in 2012; her boyfriend, Brian Canady, received 12 1/2 years for manslaughter and assault. The court was told Zachary and three of his siblings were subject to regular beatings. "These four beautiful children lived every day in fear," Dutro’s relatives wrote in a statement to the court.
The judge told Dutro that she failed to learn from her Hawaii conviction and parenting classes.
Five siblings
It was called the House of Torture the Waianae home where five siblings were subjected to frequent abuse by relatives, including being forced to eat dog food sprinkled with hot sauce and getting hit in the teeth with hammers.
After several attempts at reunification, the children in 1999 were placed with Allen and Rita Makekau, their uncle and aunt, and then with Gabriel and Barbara Kalama, also their relatives.
While under their care, the siblings, who were 7 to 14 when the abuse occurred in 2004 and 2005, told authorities they were hit on their heads and bodies with metal spoons, a bat and cans; starved for days at a time; and forced to hit each other. A lawsuit accusing the state of negligence alleged that one or more of the children was sexually assaulted by the state-approved caregivers.
Rita Makekau began serving a five-year prison sentence in 2009 after she pleaded no contest to assaulting the children. The Kalamas in 2008 were convicted of abuse, child endangerment and assault and sentenced to a year in jail and five years’ probation.
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The state of Hawaii has a policy of trying to return abused or neglected children with family members after problems have been addressed, a process known as reunification. In February, the state Supreme Court ruled that the policy of favoring family in permanent placements of foster children was inconsistent with state and federal law. While successful family reunifications promote stability in a child’s life and preserve important biological, cultural and other ties, some reunifications have ended in tragedy.
