Christina's Story: Newspaper Articles

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Christina's Story - Newspaper Articles

The following links take you to various articles in Christina's story as it appeared in the South Florida media.

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*In Loving Memory Of* Christina Diane Holt May 23, 1987 - September 16, 1994 "Beautiful Child who has found love from the angels...RIP..."	(Not her actual headstone)
These pages contain all of the articles from the Palm Beach Post and The Sun-Sentinel throughout the years.

Grand Jury: HRS Failed Kids (1/14/95)
Jurors Critical Of HRS (1/14/95)
HRS Chief: We Need An Independent Review (1/17/95)
Indicting Performance Of HRS Is Just Too Easy (1/19/95)
Lawyer: Ziles Were Misled (1/19/95)
In Court (1/20/95)
Briefly (1/21/95)
Zile Helps Guard Attacked By Inmate (1/21/95)
Officials: Zile Aided Jail Deputy (1/21/95)
Local (1/24/95)

GRAND JURY: HRS FAILED KIDS
The Palm Beach Post
January 14, 1995
Author: JENNY STALETOVICH
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services has tragically failed in its mission to protect children, a grand jury concluded Friday in a scathing report after questioning the agency's top administrator.

In fact, children who turn to the agency for help risk suffering even more abuse, the report said.
``It is clear that the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services is not adequately protecting children in Palm Beach County and appears to be unable to make the changes necessary to protect children,'' the report said. ``Children . . . are at significant risk for further abuse if they are taken into (HRS) custody.''

Jurors made their findings after reviewing the deaths of four children and charging their parents or guardians with murder.

In the past few months, jurors have questioned police investigators, HRS officials, foster parents, therapists and school officials in the deaths of 7-year-old Christina Holt; Dayton Boykin, 5 months; Kayla Basante, 8 months and Pauline Cone, 2. On Friday, they ended their investigation by questioning HRS Secretary Jim Towey for more than an hour, then questioning District Administrator Suzanne Turner.

``I got a good earful from people who really care about children,'' Towey said after appearing by invitation before the grand jury. ``We can do better and we must do better.''

Jurors have asked the agency to respond to the report, but HRS officials are not required to by law.

Both Towey and Turner said they have not decided how they will answer the review. Many of the recommendations would require changing state law and spending more money, Turner said.

``We do help thousands of individuals and do save lives,'' she said. ``The unfortunate thing is we keep coming up with new ideas. We have the issues of foster care versus orphanages and state hot lines versus local hot lines and law enforcement doing investigations versus us. It doesn't matter who's doing it if the resources aren't there.''

Jurors based many of their findings on the case of Pauline Cone, a crack baby seized by HRS and placed with a Lake Worth foster couple whose troubled past included a shooting conviction, psychiatric evaluations and drunken driving.

Pauline died Nov. 10 after a lid Timothy and Paulette Cone rigged to her crib slammed shut and strangled her, the medical examiner's office found.

Jurors charged the Cones with felony murder and aggravated child abuse, saying they illegally caged her. Jurors also charged the couple with caging a second adopted daughter and abusing an 18-year-old foster daughter.

After licensing the Cones as foster parents in January 1991, the agency placed 43 children in their home, paying them more than $65,000 through September 1994.

Records show the agency was warned about problems in the home weeks before Pauline died but found nothing wrong. Officials knew but were not worried about Paulette Cone's 1979 conviction for shooting a man. Lake Worth police also visited the house repeatedly for fights and neighbor disputes during the three years the Cones provided foster and emergency shelter care.

In reviewing the agency, jurors found faults in administrative procedures and in the very workings of child abuse investigations. Some of those findings include:

Workers, who respond too slowly to abuse complaints, don't provide immediate protection for children in danger.

Delays on an abuse hot line make it useless.

Agency investigators and attorneys are not qualified to handle child abuse complaints and court proceedings.

Background checks into foster homes are inadequate, putting children in danger.

Foster parents are allowed to spend HRS money without having to account for it.

Workers don't share information.

Jurors also found that the agency ignored a critical report issued in December 1993 after 10-year-old Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz died. After a grand jury charged his stepmother with murder, they found agency workers cared more about closing cases than protecting children. The panel asked for a centralized filing system and that police take over investigations.

Turner said the agency is working to get computerized records and has struggled to work more closely with police.

On Friday, jurors recommended overhauling major areas of the agency. Again, they insisted police take over child abuse investigations. They also suggested the state attorney's office handle court proceedings. The abuse hot line should be abandoned, and a new one established and run locally like the county's 911 system. State laws should be revised to put police in charge of children's safety in emergency situations and investigations. HRS should be limited to children's services.

Jurors also asked that a statewide grand jury be impaneled to collect critical reports about the agency from around the state and investigate the agency's operations.

Copies of Friday's report will be sent to Gov. Lawton Chiles, Towey, various elected officials, the statewide prosecutor and all state attorneys.

KIDS AT RISK

It is clear that the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services is not adequately protecting children in Palm Beach County and appears to be unable to make the changes necessary to protect children. Children . . . are at significant risk for further abuse if they are taken into (HRS') custody.'

- GRAND JURY REPORT

FOR HRS, A SYSTEM CHECK

After reviewing the death of 2-year-old Pauline Cone and three other children, grand jurors found the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services tragically fails to protect children. They found other problems with the agency and suggested changes. Some are:

FINDINGS:

CRIMINAL abuse investigations are hampered by the agency's delay or failure in reporting abuse complaints.

DELAYS in the abuse hot line discourage the public from making complaints.

INSUFFICIENT background checks are done on foster families.

FOSTER parents are not required to account for how they spend the money HRS gives them.

AGENCY officials fail to share information.

THERE are no rewards for good workers nor penalties for those who fail to do their jobs.

AGENCY attorneys are not qualified to handle cases.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

SET UP a new, local abuse hot line.

WHEN licensing foster families, check with local police, fire and health departments. Interview neighbors, teachers and professionals who deal with the family and complete local, state and federal criminal background checks.

ACCOUNT for HRS money spent by foster families.

CHANGE state laws to put police in charge of children's safety in emergency situations and investigate abuse. Limit HRS to providing social services.

CREATE a central filing system.

MAKE recommendations from the Child Protection Team binding.

TURN over court proceedings on dependency cases to the state attorney's office.

JURORS CRITICAL OF HRS
REPORT: CHILDREN WERE NOT PROTECTED
Sun-Sentinel
January 14, 1995
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

Abused and neglected children taken into the state's child welfare system face further risk of abuse, rather than protection, a Palm Beach County grand jury that reviewed the killings of four children said on Friday.
In a harshly critical five-page report, the 16-member panel called for a statewide grand jury investigation into the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services' handling of child abuse cases.

The report was critical of a wide range of the agency's functions, from the state's child abuse telephone hotline to the foster care system.

The report was the culmination of outrage by a grand jury that since October has indicted:

-- HRS-licensed foster parents Timothy and Paulette Cone, of Lake Worth, accused of first-degree murder in the death of their adopted daughter. Pauline Cone was crushed to death by a plywood lid on her crib. The Cones are also accused of aggravated child abuse of a mentally handicapped teen-age foster child and another daughter adopted through HRS.

-- A Singer Island couple, Pauline and John Zile, accused of first-degree murder in the beating death of their daughter, Christina Holt, 7, and trying to cover up her disappearance by reporting she was abducted at the Swap Shop near Fort Lauderdale.

-- A Royal Palm Beach mother, Clover Boykin, 19, who confessed to killing both her own infant and a friend's baby.

Before issuing the report, the grand jury met individually with state HRS Secretary Jim Towey, state Rep. Lois Frankel, and Palm Beach County HRS Adminstrator Suzanne Turner.

Towey said after testifying that his agency can and should do better to protect children, but that some things were beyond the agency's control.

"You've got crazy people killing their own children, and that's epidemic down here, right now, in South Florida," Towey said. "And HRS, unless they're living in the living room, it's sometimes hard to prevent it."

But the grand jury found a number of child abuse cases reported to the state's hotline were either not relayed to law enforcement agencies or reported as much as four months later. And reporting child abuse was an ordeal that required people to wait more than an hour when calling the hotline, the panel said.

The grand jury recommended HRS not investigate child abuse at all and leave the job to law enforcement.

"The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services investigators are ineffective in providing for the immediate safety of our children who are victims of abuse," the report said.

HRS involvement often hampers police investigations, grand jurors found.

As for the state's foster care system, grand jurors said the agency engaged in shoddy background investigations of applicants and that foster parents often were incapable of handling the needs of physically or mentally handicapped children entrusted to them.

Grand jurors were especially critical that HRS did not ask foster parents to account for how they spent up to $1,500 a month they receive to care for children.

"The way the money is given, especially for special-needs children, can encourage unscrupulous foster parents to live off the foster care subsidies," the report said.

The criticism is aimed at the Cones case, in which the couple received more than $65,000 from taxpayers over three years to care for foster and adopted children. Yet, a mentally handicapped teen-age foster child who lived with the Cones said she was forced to sleep in the garage and only fed with an occasional hot dog or bologna.

HRS administrator Turner said she would immediately begin studying the grand jury's report to see what can be changed locally and pass on those beyond her control to state officials.

But she said she was disappointed by the blanket criticism.

"I'm concerned and hurt, hurt tremendously on behalf of the workers who work so hard every day to help families and children," Turner said.

HRS CHIEF: WE NEED AN INDEPENDENT REVIEW
Miami Herald, The (FL)
January 17, 1995
Author: Associated Press

The head of the state's social service agency says he'll ask the Legislature to appoint a panel as a first step in overhauling Florida's child welfare system.

Jim Towey, secretary of the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, made the announcement during the weekend after the Palm Beach County grand jury harshly criticized the agency.
Jurors made their findings Friday after reviewing the deaths of four children and charging their parents or guardians with murder.

"The confidence in our child welfare system, particularly in our foster care system, is very low right now," said Towey. "What I want to do is ask the Legislature to immediately appoint outside experts that will check every foster home and foster child."

The information then would be presented to the Legislature before its upcoming 1994 regular session so the system could be improved, he said.

The request, Towey said, will be made in writing next Tuesday.

"We can't let another session go by without changing our child welfare system," the top HRS official said.

The grand jury concluded HRS "appears to be unable to make the changes necessary to protect children."

Children "are at significant risk for further abuse if they are taken into (HRS) custody," the report stated.

Other criticism listed by the grand jury of the HRS:

* Delays on an abuse hotline make it useless.

* Agency investigators and attorneys are not qualified to handle child abuse complaints and court proceedings.

* Background checks into foster homes are inadequate, putting children in danger.

* Foster parents are allowed to spend HRS money without having to account for it.

* Workers don't share information.

INDICTING PERFORMANCE OF HRS IS JUST TOO EASY
The Palm Beach Post
January 19, 1995

Here is what can happen when the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services investigates child abuse in Palm Beach County:

A worker in Belle Glade was checking out reports about a potentially abusive father. The father showed up at her home. Fortunately, nothing happened. Another investigator was in a home when a young man high on PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, put his hands around her neck. Luckily, the boy's father stopped him. Far more often, workers go into homes where crack cocaine is smoked, causing the parents to become extremely violent. (``Hi. Mind if I ask some questions to find out whether you're beating your kids?'')
It in this context that we must consider last week's report by a Palm Beach County grand jury that ``children alleged to be abused, neglected or abandoned in Palm Beach County are at significant risk for further abuse if they are taken into the custody of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.'' The grand jury examined HRS itself after issuing indictments against ``two biological mothers (Pauline Zile and Clover Boykin), one step-father (John Zile) and a foster-care couple (Paule tte and Timothy Cone).'' The Ziles were indicted on murder charges in the death of their daughter, Christina Holt; Boykin for allegedly killing her own baby and another infant; the Cones in the death of their adopted daughter, Pauline.

The grand jury said, in effect, that when it comes to child protection, HRS doesn't work. That was true when it came to these four children. And it is true that HRS has too often blamed problems on money, not its own bad decisions. It is also true, however, that HRS gets no points for success. Reunited families or children who get new, good homes are like airplane flights that land safely. Only crashes get noticed.

But since the grand jury report included several recommendations, and since two task forces are also looking into HRS' performance, and since a misguided but regrettably influential state senator has asked HRS to figure how the agency would cut $1 billion from its budget and do good work, let's keep our minds on one question: How well can any system work under the burden of too much work, too little money and too many rules?

For example, the grand jury concluded that HRS can't reward good employees or fire bad ones - such as the supervisor in the A.J. Schwarz case who dithered until the 10-year-old Lantana boy was found dead in his pool. (His stepmother, already convicted of abuse, faces murder charges.) The people who actually conduct investigations and make decisions about removing children from homes have to move into administration or leave to get better pay. The grand jury also mentioned ``employee turnover and low morale.''

Guess what? HRS officials under Republican and Democratic governors have made the same complaints to the legislature for years. The response? The legislature has made little effort to change rules about hiring, firing and pay. The legislature has refused to provide enough money to run a good foster-care program, leading to a lawsuit that could result in federal sanctions.

So before we tear apart HRS' child-protection system, we ought to decide how much of the problem is HRS and how much is the ``system'' HRS has been given. Rather than turn over all child-protection duties to police agencies, what if the legislature allowed the agency to hire, fire, promote and demote at will? Rather than ask HRS to cut $1 billion, what if HRS was given more money and could, as the grand jury recommended, ``pay wages commensurate to the position?'' (Investigators start a t about $22,000; teachers get $27,000.) Rather than the legislature sending orders, what if local HRS districts could set rules, as Palm Beach County's HRS board has asked to do?

Finally, any ``perfect'' system will fail sometimes. Our homes have too many guns, too many drugs and too little parental responsibility. We can change agencies all we want, but we won't make real progress until we change ourselves.

LAWYER: ZILES WERE MISLED
Sun-Sentinel
January 19, 1995
Author: Staff Report
Estimated printed pages: 1

Broward County sheriff's deputies tricked John and Pauline Zile into allowing a police search of their apartment, and all evidence collected should not be used at their trial, Pauline Zile's attorney contends.

In a motion filed on Wednesday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, the attorney, Ellis Rubin, said the police search that the Ziles agreed to was only for fingerprints and hair samples to identify their missing child, Christina Holt, 7.

But the Oct. 24 search went beyond that scope with furniture, walls and carpeting tested for blood, Rubin said. Based on the findings of the Broward County sheriff's deputies, Riviera Beach police followed with search warrants to gather criminal evidence against the Ziles.

Broward County was involved in the case because Pauline Zile reported her daughter abducted at a flea market near Fort Lauderdale. Later, the Ziles admitted Christina had been buried after a fatal beating. Both Ziles are charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

Items that Rubin wants thrown out of court include Christina's clothing, such as a pink-and-black dance ensemble; blood-stained carpeting, bedsheets, mattress and pillow cases; and a Lion King poster.

IN COURT
The Palm Beach Post
January 20, 1995

WEST PALM BEACH

Pauline Zile's attorney, Ellis Rubin, has asked a judge to throw out all the evidence seized when police searched the couple's Singer Island apartment in October, claiming the search was illegal. Detectives from the Broward County Sheriff's Office used ``fraud and trickery'' to persuade Mrs. Zile and her husband, John Zile, to sign consent forms, Rubin wrote in court papers. The detectives also had no jurisdiction to search a home in Palm Beach County, Rubin wrote. During the search detecti ves performed chemical tests that confirmed human blood was on a bed and walls, according to court records. The Ziles face first-degree murder charges for the death of Mrs. Zile's daughter, Christina Holt.

BRIEFLY
The Palm Beach Post
January 21, 1995

POOLESVILLE, Md.

Residents held a candlelight vigil Friday night in memory of Christina Holt, the 7-year-old whose mother and stepfather claimed she'd been abducted from a flea market before admitting they'd beaten her to death a month earlier. Among the mourners were the family of Dorothy Money, Christina's great-grandmother who raised her in this rural town 40 miles northwest of Washington for the first five years of the girl's life. Bundled against the cold, several hundred people - including families and many young children - marched through Poolesville carrying candles and a banner that read: ``Children are the light of the world.'' Christina's mother and stepfather, Pauline and John Zile, have been charged with first-degree murder. John Zile claim ed that Christina died while he was disciplining her but that her death was unintentional.

A memorial concert for Leander Kirksey, the legendary Roosevelt High School bandleader who died Sunday in Maryland, will be at 2 p.m. Jan. 28 at Roosevelt Middle School, 1601 N. Tamarind Ave., West Palm Beach. Several bands will play, including a jazz ensemble with former students Nat Adderley and Panama Francis. Alumni who want to play at the free concert should call Stafford Ferguson at 842-8542. Friends are also establishing a Leander Kirksey scholarship.

ZILE HELPS SAVE GUARD ATTACKED BY INMATE
The Palm Beach Post
January 21, 1995
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

John Zile, accused of first-degree murder in the beating death of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, helped save a corrections officer being attacked by an inmate, according to a jail deputy's report.

``This flies in the face of the portrayal of John as a monster,'' said Assistant Public Defender Iola Mosley. ``It shows how he really is. He didn't even mention it to me.''
Zile, 32, and two other inmates were watching television in a day-room at the jail on Jan. 7 when inmate Kevin Kerli attacked Deputy Lawrence McLaughlin at 1:45 p.m., according to McLaughlin's report.

``I was struck from behind,'' McLaughlin wrote in his report. ``I felt someone hitting both sides of my head.''

Zile and the other two inmates helped pull Kerli off McLaughlin and held him on the floor until other corrections officers could arrive, McLaughlin's report said.

``It's a hazard we face every day,'' said a corrections officer who asked to remain anonymous. ``You never know. You can go a month without any problems, and then a inmate goes off.''

Kerli, 36, was put in waist chains and leg irons. His cell was stripped of sheets, a pillowcase and a blanket. The inmates were not seriously hurt, according to McLaughlin's report.

Kerli will face a Disciplinary Hearing Board within a month. McLaughlin will not be investigated, a sheriff's spokesperson said Friday.

Because of threats from other inmates, Zile usually is held in protective custody, an isolated form of confinement, but he is allowed limited outings with other inmates during the day, Mosley said.

Zile and his wife Pauline face first-degree murder charges for the death of Pauline Zile's daughter, Christina Holt. Zile told detectives that the girl had convulsions shortly after he hit her and died, according to court records. Zile buried her four days later behind a shopping center in Tequesta, according to court records.

OFFICIALS: ZILE AIDED JAIL DEPUTY
THREE INMATES HELPED GUARD SUBDUE ATTACKER
Sun-Sentinel
January 21, 1995
Author: MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

John Zile, facing murder charges in the death of his stepdaughter, was one of three prisoners who came to the aid of a jail deputy under attack by an inmate, jail officials said on Friday.

Zile, 32, helped Deputy Lawrence McLaughlin subdue Kevin Kerli when the deputy was assaulted on Jan. 7 at the Palm Beach County Jail.
McLaughlin received minor injuries in the attack. Kerli, who was in the jail on charges of unarmed burglary and grand theft auto, was confined to his cell and will remain there 24 hours a day until a disciplinary hearing.

The attack on the deputy occurred in the day room of a 24-bed maximum security mental health housing unit for male prisoners, a Department of Corrections report shows. The unit at the County Jail on Gun Club Road houses inmates who need mental health treatment.

Lt. Chris Kneisley, an inmate classification supervisor at the jail, said on Friday that Zile was not being held in the unit to receive mental health treatment, but because of threats from other inmates. Zile and his wife, Pauline Zile, 24, each face first-degree murder and child abuse charges in the September slaying of Pauline Zile's daughter, Christina Holt, 7.

The other two inmates who aided the deputy were Jon Barnocky, jailed on a charge of aggravated assault on a person 65 years or older, and Michael Wells, held for violation of probation for a drug conviction.

Zile, Barnocky, Wells and other inmates were watching television in the unit's day room about 1:45 p.m. Jan. 7 when Kerli attacked McLaughlin from behind and struck him on both sides of his head.

McLaughlin struggled with Kerli, and Zile, Barnocky and Wells joined the fray.

McLaughlin and the three prisoners brought Kerli down to the floor and held him there, the report said. McLaughlin tried to call for assistance on his radio but did not hear a response. He then had the nurse push an "officer's duress" button on a nearby control panel, and six deputies rushed to the unit.

McLaughlin, who could not be reached for a comment, was treated by a nurse for minor injuries to his neck and his finger as well as a mark on his neck, the report said.

None of the inmates was injured.

Kneisley said one deputy, a mental health technician and a nurse routinely are stationed in the unit. At the time of the attack, only McLaughlin and the nurse were there, with McLaughlin standing at the door.

Kneisley said inmates previously have helped deputies under attack. "It's not an everyday event, but it has happened in the past," he said.

After learning of her client's deed, public defender Iola Mosely told reporters about it on Friday in a courthouse corridor. His actions, she said, show the public another side of John Zile.

"We've got a bad case, and it's a case where the public's perception has been that he's a horrible, evil person," Mosely said. "I think it was really a brave thing to do. It certainly shows he's not an evil, vicious person."

LOCAL
The Palm Beach Post
January 24, 1995

ZILES' APARTMENT SEARCH RULED REASONABLE
WEST PALM BEACH - Pauline and John Zile (background) attend a hearing Monday where Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp ruled that an Oct. 24 search by Broward County detectives was `reasonable.' He said the Ziles voluntarily consented. Blood was found during the search of their apartment. They are charged with murder in the death of Pauline Zile's daughter, Christina Holt, 7.