State seeks revocation of parental rights under ‘ghost case’ child abuse

State Child Welfare Serv­ices is trying to terminate the parental rights of a former Air Force husband and wife whose son died of abuse as an infant and whose daughter, born about 14 months later, was also severely battered and now has permanent brain damage, officials said.

Onetime Air Force Staff Sgt. Natasha Beyer is trying to regain custody of her daughter, Avaline Noel Beyer, now 4, who suffered “numerous” brain bleeds, a skull fracture, rib fractures and bruising on her face, according to court documents.

A confidential hearing was held last week in family court in Honolulu.

Tech Sgt. Caleb Humphrey, the children’s father, was sentenced by a military court in 2020 to three years in prison for beating his daughter in 2017 when she was 7 days old, the Air Force said.

Humphrey, who was with the 792nd Intelligence Support Squadron, said on his LinkedIn page that he was an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems administrator.

Beyer last year was found not guilty by a military judge on charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment stemming from the death of her son, Grayson Caleb Beyer, according to the Air Force’s 15th Wing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

The boy was 5 weeks old when he died in May 2016. The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s office eventually ruled his death a homicide as a result of blunt force injuries to his head.

Beyer also was charged by Air Force prosecutors with assault of her daughter when she was a newborn, causing a skull fracture, fractured ribs and a broken leg — but records show the charge was withdrawn, with no explanation given.

Also withdrawn, according to filings, was the charge that Beyer failed to “timely” seek medical care after Avaline was injured, which resulted in permanent brain damage.

Beyer, who was reduced in rank to senior airman by the time of her court-martial, had said on her Linked­In page that she was a North Korea ballistic missile and Russia analyst at Pearl Harbor’s Joint Intelligence Operations Center.

Beyer’s attorney, Michael Glenn, said Humphrey is not seeking custody of his daughter, but his client is. The attorney did not reference individual names, noting the family court case is confidential.

Child Welfare Services “is moving against both mother and father” trying to terminate parental rights, but “father has admitted he’s the one who harmed the (daughter),” Glenn said.

“He’s sitting in jail and he said mom didn’t do anything and knows nothing of it,” Glenn added, “and yet, they are still going to pursue mom, even though I don’t think they are going to eventually because mom’s doing everything that she’s supposed to do and there is no proof she did anything wrong.”

Sept. 7 is earmarked for trial if the case goes that far, Glenn said.

Humphrey, who is in a military brig in South Carolina, is expected to be freed next year. His court-appointed attorney, Jake Delaplane, declined to comment about the case.

Delaplane and Katherine Kealoha, former deputy prosecutors for the City and County of Honolulu, were barred from further participation in a high-profile gambling case dismissed in 2014 with a state judge ruling there was prosecutorial misconduct, Hawaii News Now reported.

On Nov. 30, Kealoha and her husband, former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kea­loha, were sentenced in federal court to 13 years and seven years, respectively, following multiple convictions including conspiring to frame a relative to conceal their own fraud, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The 15th Wing previously said Beyer was out of the Air Force. She now lives on the mainland.

In February, Glenn responded to being asked if he was confident Beyer would regain custody by saying: “Not only do I feel confident, the law requires it. She has parental constitutional rights that can’t be violated based on mere conjecture.”

Steve Lane, court-­appointed to stand in for Avaline Beyer as prochein ami, or “next friend,” filed suit in May 2020 in federal court against the U.S. government for Tripler Army Medical Center’s alleged negligence in not spotting the abuse involving her infant brother, who had died 14 months earlier.

That lack of care allowed Humphrey and/or Natasha Beyer to “severely abuse” their daughter when she otherwise would have been removed from her parents following birth had authorities been made aware of the physical abuse of their son, the lawsuit states.

The Air Force couple, who were living in Kapolei and reportedly had financial issues and concerns about child care costs, were initially investigated for involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, intentionally inflicting grievous harm and child endangerment, according to U.S. District Court filings.

Lane said he applauds state efforts to rescind Beyer’s parental rights and hopes similar action will be taken regarding the imprisoned father.

“This battered, permanently brain-damaged child is in a wonderful foster placement on the mainland where she is loved and cared for by a family who adores her,” Lane said. “It would be criminal to allow these disgraced parents to have any contact with this child ever.”

He added that with the secrecy surrounding child safety cases that a repeat of the high-profile “Peter Boy” Kema and Shaelynn Lehano- Stone deaths can easily occur for children going through so-called “587” hearings who are repeatedly sent home to abusive parents.

Lane said it’s possible for the state to award custody to Beyer under some form of supervision without revoking her parental rights.

“That’s generally the purpose of these long, protracted 587 cases — come up with a trial custody plan that involved returning the child to the natural parent to see if they are ‘responsible’ again. That’s what kills all these kids. Kema and Lehano-Stone (were) trial reunifications that should never have been agreed to,” Lane said.

“Our children are dying in secret behind closed doors,” Lane said. “Maybe ‘ghost’ cases in family court aren’t in our children’s best interest.”

Lane’s lawsuit said two Tripler doctors found that Grayson Beyer died of complications of a herpes infection — a cause of death later changed by the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s office to “blunt force injuries” and “homicide.”

One Tripler doctor’s 2016 consultation on the boy’s death noted “healing rib fractures” but said vaginal delivery was one possible explanation with “no known suspicion of foul play.”

However, Lt. Col. Shelly Martin, a child abuse pediatrician at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas, said in a 2017 review that there was no indication the boy had an active herpes infection and that birth was an “unlikely explanation” for rib fractures.

Martin said “non- accidental trauma should have been more thoroughly considered.”

His sister, meanwhile, “clearly suffered from a blunt force trauma as evidenced by the bruising and skull fracture,” she said, adding, “There is no accidental or medical explanation for these injuries.”