Mother held in toddler's fatal starving
14-month-old weighed 10 pounds but DYFS was told he was 'small'
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
BY MARY ANN SPOTO AND SUSAN K. LIVIO
Star-Ledger Staff
In a case that the state's top welfare official has called an "unacceptable" tragedy, a 14-month-old toddler died of malnutrition two months after a caseworker noted his small size but accepted his mother's explanation that he had "always been small."
Yesterday, Tahija Handberry, a 22-year-old disabled mother of three from Asbury Park, was charged with aggravated manslaughter and child endangerment in the death of Jmeir White, her middle child, on Aug. 22.
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