The Misery Machine - Rhode Island Protects Child Killers

Starting point is 00:00:00 And due to Rhode Island's privacy laws, there's limited info being released around people who kill their children. What's to stop them from getting out of prison and doing this again? In March of 2020, a man by the name of George Whitford of Exeter Rhode Island answered a middle-aged woman's frantic Facebook plea. She was living in a van and was looking for a peaceful place to park it on a temporary basis while she sold her home and mourned the death of her child. Whitford felt bad for the bespectacled woman and allowed her to park her handicap accessible van behind his home. He was going through a tragedy of his own. His father was dying of cancer and his deteriorating condition often occupied his mind.

Starting point is 00:00:44 He'd often observed the woman who told him her name was Shelly Guy single, sitting outside of her van next to a generator reading a book. Although he thought what she was doing was a bit odd, he didn't invade her space and allowed the mother to grieve. Whitford owned ample acres of woods and farm fields and there was plenty of room for both of them on his property off of Tenrod Road, where she made a makeshift camp for five months. Shelly had shared with Whitford that her young daughter had died from a seizure playing with toys in her bedroom. Soon, Whitford would learn that all of this was a lie.

Starting point is 00:01:19 Shelly wasn't Shelly, and her daughter had not died from a tragic medical event. Her real name was Michelle Rothgib. She was a 58-year-old woman from Warwick, Rhode Island, and she had decided to become a foster mother in 2007. Now, this seems all great and all, but she also had a criminal record. What that record was for, I couldn't find the information on it, but we'll get to why this is problematic. So, red flag after red flag were completely ignored.

Starting point is 00:01:46 In 2015, Rothgab became concerned about her house, to which a social worker responded, I'm not worried. By 2018, DCYF deemed Rothgeb indicated for neglect. But five months later, they allowed her to adopt another child. Rothgab had pulled many of her children out of school and isolated them after teachers and nurses' voice concerns. However, the state closed all cases. Even more disturbing, by 2019, the Rhode Island DCYF had allowed Rothgib to adopt eight children with special needs.

Starting point is 00:02:20 When authorities responded to Gothrabs' 405 Oakland Beach Avenue home on January 3rd, 2019, it was in deplorable condition, covered in feces and other bodily fluids. There were also large piles of clothes with food and other objects throughout every room and hallway in the home. Authorities noted that it was very difficult to maneuver around due to the clutter. Dozens of medications were left out on the couch, floor, bathroom sinks, as well as a small bag labeled medical marijuana. There was a very strong odor of urine and feces throughout the home. There were dozens of soiled diapers piled in several rooms, and the home was infested with insects. In addition to the deplorable condition of the home,

Starting point is 00:03:04 they also found the family dog that was in such poor condition due to malnourishment that it had to be humanely euthanized. And the reason for the January 2019 call, Gothrib's nine-year-old adopted daughter, Jeanne, was found, dead. The little girl was found unresponsive in a bathtub

Starting point is 00:03:23 after being left alone for hours. Her body temperature was just 87 degrees when she arrived in Kent Hospital in Warwick. Jeanne, who had cerebral palsy, as well as the other children, were left in the care of Gothrib's 15-year-old grandson, who was on the autism spectrum. The arrangement had become a routine,

Starting point is 00:03:43 and the day of Jeanne's death, Rothgeb left the care of seven children, ages 2 to 13 to her 15-year-old adopted grandson as she watched TV in their squalid home. The 15-year-old had placed Jeney face down in the bathtub that morning with a few inches of water in it after she had thrown up. The teenager gave Jene a sippy cup and checked on her later, refilling the tub with some water. It was Rothkeb's 13-year-old adopted grandson who had discovered Jeney unresponsive and rigid when he returned home that afternoon. Rothgab ordered the children to throw bags of trash in the basement after directing the 15-year-old to call 911. It was also found that Rothgeb had failed to give Jeannay her medication to prevent seizures.

Starting point is 00:04:29 Her medicine was found unused and an autopsy revealed that it was not in her system. Medical examiners determined that Jeanne's cause of death was complications of cerebral palsy, exacerbated by child neglect. While on trial, the defense said Rothgib fostered kids with special needs and had a long-standing. record of excellence in child care, but prosecutors claimed it was all a ploy. According to the prosecution, quote, narcissism and greed, not just for money of which she received substantial amounts, but also greed for Facebook likes, for the social media publicity, and the strangers' messages praising her perceived selflessness for adopting special needs children, end quote. On August 5, 2021, Michelle Rothgib pled no contest to manslaughter in the death of Jeanne.

Starting point is 00:05:16 eight counts of child cruelty and neglect, one for each of her adopted children, and one count of animal cruelty. As part of her plea agreement, she was ordered by the Providence County Superior Court to serve 18 years in prison at the adult correctional institution. Which is the maximum sentences outlined in her plea deal, so she can only get a maximum of 18 years for what she has done. Let me be clear about that. Rothgab sobbed at the stand while taking accountability for her daughter's death, stating, quote, It's my fault. I'm responsible. I'm the mom. I'm supposed to take care of it, and I didn't. End quote. Following the police response to Rothgeb's home, the remainder of the children were replaced with new caretakers by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. The adoptive parents of one of the children told the court their son was mentally and emotionally abused.

Starting point is 00:06:07 According to adoptive parent, Marie DeLoretto, quote, he's been through probably more than we will ever in a lifetime. He was filthy, dirty, and hungry. he needed was love and care." The state office of the child advocate issued a scathing report that found that the actions or inactions of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families staff contributed to the death of Jeannay. The case-led changes at the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families, including a cap on the number of children that can be in a foster home.

Starting point is 00:06:38 In the wake of Jeanne's death, the DCYF investigated 28 homes that house more than five foster children. Thankfully, none were like Rothgebs. There are many cases in Rhode Island that are absolutely horrendous, but another that we'd like to highlight is the case of Toby Alawesi, who died at Hasbro Children's Hospital on November 30th, 2017, eight months after arriving by ambulance due to suffering from multiple bone fractures, a fractured skull, and a human bite mark. Toby's death could have been prevented. However, a social worker's recommendation allowed baby Toby to remain in the custody of his mother, Aranola Alwoussi, who had previously had her older son taken away by DCYF when he was born.

Starting point is 00:07:28 Aranola was only allowed to have supervised visitation with her older child, but was allowed to take baby Toby home, after a social worker failed to report the extent of her mental health problems to a family court judge. The judge allowed the baby to go home with the parents under a safety plan, in which the mother was not supposed to be alone with the baby. Her husband, Ola Lake and Alwoussi, was tasked with watching the baby at all times. According to reports, the father said Toby would go to daycare, for which she gave DCYF a fake name and address. DCYF never visited the daycare or verified that it was appropriate or even existed.

Starting point is 00:08:07 It was not until after Toby presented with extensive injuries that they learned that the address provided was for a vacant building. Now, I want to add on this. I don't know how many people are really familiar with Rhode Islands. The whole state takes you one hour to get to top to bottom. Providence is really small. You would think that the Department of Youth and Families would know what child care places exists within the city. The fact that he just made something up and it was never verified is crazy. Both Aranola and Ola Lake and Alwesi were arrested and charged with child abuse and neglect in April.

Starting point is 00:08:44 of 2017, which was expected to be upgraded due to the fact that baby Toby succumbed to his injuries. Prosecutors said that Aranola knew about her husband's alleged abuse and didn't report it. Shortly after her arrest, Aranola, who records show had been committed to Butler Hospital after giving birth to her first son, told a Providence police officer her husband bit Toby and pulled at his legs to make him grow and be strong. Ola Lake and Alawusi posted a $40,000 surety bail weeks after his arrest. As a condition of his release, he was supposed to surrender his passport to the court. But the courts never received it, and in October of 2017, Ola Lakin missed a court date. Providence police said that they had suspected that he had fled to Nigeria.

Starting point is 00:09:30 Last August, Donald Freeman, who is a supervising deputy U.S. Marshal, said marshals tracked Ola Wusi to Nigeria. But there, the State Department ran into problems trying to extradite him because of political instability within that country. The even more outrageous part, Aeronola Alawesi also fled to Nigeria in February of 2021, so had been years at this point. She had been out on a $10,000 cash bail since April of 2017 and had been attending court hearings in her case as late as summer of 2020. But in February, a U.S. Marshal and a state police detective went looking for her after she missed a subsequent court date. So the U.S. Marshal and Police, they interviewed her parents in Pawtucket, and they said her daughter had traveled to Nigeria on a one-way ticket two weeks earlier and was living with a relative. Her parents provided the investigators with a street address in Nigeria.

Starting point is 00:10:24 As condition of her bail in 2017, Aeronola did surrender her passport, but apparently she had time to apply for another, since court records say she used one to travel to Nigeria. And somehow received it in that time and wasn't blocked. Usually when you apply for a passport, you're checked against a criminal record. At that point, you would be denied if you're on a no passport list. As for the social worker whose recommendation allowed Toby to go home with such a family, they're still employed by the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families to this day. So this is a humongous failing, and part of what I do in my day job helps prevent things like this. This is complete and utter neglect and should have easily been caught in these two.

Starting point is 00:11:09 should be in prison right now, had any amount of due diligence been done by those responsible for this case? So another tragic fact about trial-related cases in Rhode Island is that there's actually very little published information on them unless the case is especially egregious. And it's really sad. So unless they're like the ones we just highlighted to you, you're not going to find much information. So many of the articles that we found, and we dug pretty deep on this, gave very little details to the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the children. For example, in June of 2021, a two-month-old baby who was in the temporary custody of DCYF died. No other pertinent details were provided other than the infant was male, and his father, Lindsay Brown, was arrested the day of the incident for an outstanding

Starting point is 00:11:56 bench warrant and a violation of a no-contact order with the mother. The baby passed away after resuscitation efforts provided by emergency services failed after his parents transported him to the hospital. I found a ton of vague cases like this. It was just a toddler has died, a two-year-old has died, and then it would say they wouldn't give any information due to privacy. So who's to say somebody goes to prison, gets out, has some record expunged or pled down or whatever, and you're applying for a job with children. You would hope that would come up in a criminal background check, but it doesn't always depending. And so this is why employers, and I've talked to people in hiring that do Google searches on names and the areas they do

Starting point is 00:12:40 social media searches and it's for things like this as well. And when this type of information is hidden from media sources, who's to say these people couldn't go and do it again? Exactly. So here's another one that kind of follows this similar rubric. And this one's even more vague. And it just leads me with so many questions. So in December of 2020, DCYF determined neglect contributed.

Starting point is 00:13:04 to the deaths of two girls after a fire broke out inside of their Providence home. The devastating fire on Lucy Street on December 22nd killed 7-year-old Ashley Sandoval and her sister, 2-year-old Allison Sandoval, who were both pulled from the fire and rushed to Hasbro Children's Hospital. Ashley succumbed to her injuries that day while Allison died a few days later. Providence police said at the time of the fire that adult relatives and a younger relative were in the apartment with the girls at the time of the fire. While the girl's mother, had walked to a nearby market. DCYF did not indicate whether they deemed a specific person was responsible for neglecting

Starting point is 00:13:41 the girls, and further information would not be released because of confidentiality laws. However, the DCYF said it had no prior involvement with the family. No charges have been filed in this case thus far. So it just raises the question, what happened? So in a case like this, if some employer was doing a Google search for something of this nature, and no charges have been filed, so that's not going to come up in your background check. They're not going to know.

Starting point is 00:14:09 It's already been over a year at this point. So it's just insane. I mean, what were the neglect? Were they locked in a room? Was the house and squalor? And they weren't able to get out? I mean, these are the questions that I have. Rhode Islanders are required by law to report known

Starting point is 00:14:23 or suspected cases of child abuse or neglect to DCYF within 24 hours of becoming aware of such abuse or neglect. If you're in Rhode Island and suspect that a child maybe the victim of abuse or neglect, please call 1-800. R-I-child. We'll have that information down below. And if you're in your own local area, I'm sure there's many different resources that you have. Simply call 911.

Starting point is 00:14:48 If it's that much of an emergency, call 911 or your local police. Now, as was mentioned last week, since we are doing more of these child cases by state, the problem is that a lot of them don't hit the media. There's not a lot of information. So that's why we need your help to provide us with cases that you know that kind of flown under the radar with the media. So let us know these cases, link them to us in the comments or send it to us directly, Miserymachinepodcast at gmail.com. That would be a huge help to us. The best way that you can support this channel is to watch this video towards the end, like, subscribe.

Starting point is 00:15:22 I'll have a playlist at the end if you want to binge our content. These are things that help us get into the YouTube algorithm, which is very sorely needed because doing cases, like this, YouTube has throttled us over the past few months because they don't like when we cover cases like these. I would highly suggest hitting the bell notification as well if you haven't, because a lot of folks have been letting us know that they're just simply not getting notifications from us. And we might think about doing an email list in the future if this goes on to be an issue. Just know Monday, mid-afternoon, there will be a case every week. Yeah, every Monday. We need to make a website. So if you know how to make a cheap website,

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The Misery Machine - Rhode Island Protects Child Killers

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