Aspies For Freedom

Autistic Kids Left Home Alone, Parents in Vegas

KABC Los Angeles
4th January 2006


SAN RAMON, CA - Police are investigating the case of two young children left home alone while their parents went to Las Vegas to ring in the New Year. The boys are now with their grandmother. Their dad and stepmother still haven't made it home.

Police found 10-year-old, Joshua and his 5-year-old autistic brother, Jason home alone and asleep in their beds after their maternal grandmother called. She had asked officers to check on them because she says she was afraid the parents had gone to Las Vegas and left the kids behind.
Grandmother Libbey Holden says the boys' father and stepmother had asked her to watch them so they could go to Las Vegas, but she told them she wouldn't be able to. They told her they couldn't find anyone else to take care of them.

Police got into the house through an unlocked second floor sliding glass door late Saturday night. They say the gas fireplace was on and the boys were safe. But the boys had been there by themselves since Friday December 30.

Police say the children acted as if this has happened before. Libbey Holden says it has.

Investigators left several messages for the parents on their cell phone over the weekend, but didn't hear back from them for two days. They finally called Monday night to say they are still in Las Vegas.

The parents' names have not been released. Police say they are conducting a criminal investigation.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?sectio...id=3781840

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Follow-up:

Dad, stepmom arrested on return from Vegas
San Ramon boys, 10 and 5, were alone during holiday weekend

Henry K. Lee,
San Francisco Chronicle

Wednesday, January 4, 2006

(1-4) 13:00 PST SAN RAMON -- The father and stepmother who left two boys in San Ramon home alone so they could spend New Year's weekend in Las Vegas were arrested today as they arrived home on a flight to Oakland, police said.

San Ramon police met Jacob Calero, 39, and his wife, Michelle De La Vega, 32, as they emerged from an America West flight that arrived at 11 a.m. at Oakland International Airport, police said.

Calero and De La Vega were taken to Contra Costa Jail in Martinez, where investigators were planning to interview them, authorities said.

The couple could face child endangerment charges pending further investigation by San Ramon police. Investigators could turn over their case to the Contra Costa district attorney's office this week.

Police found the boys, ages 5 and 10, unharmed in their beds at their home on Watermill Road at about 11 p.m. Saturday after being summoned by the children's maternal grandmother, Libby Holden of Manteca, police said.

No one answered when the officers knocked on the door, so they entered the home through an unlocked sliding glass door.

The boys had been eating cereal and frozen food that they heated in a microwave, and a gas fireplace was lit inside the home, said San Ramon police Sgt. Brian Kalinowski. The boys had been told not to answer the front door, Kalinowski said. The younger boy is mildly autistic, Holden, who now has custody of the boys, told The Chronicle today.

"I feel like this is not a thing I would do myself," Holden said. "I believe that children are not only a blessing but also our responsibility."

The boys had been left home alone on at least one previous occasion in October, police said.

The boys' mother, Maria Cristina Calero, 31, died of breast cancer in 2003, said Holden.

Jacob Calero married De La Vega in April 2005, Holden said.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

It seems as if the grandmother knew that the parents would be tempted to leave the kids alone, or had specifically told her that they would.

Malice aforethought.

We know barely anything, maybe she had them while they went away at xmas, and then they wanted her to have them for new years too.
Maybe she babysits all the time while they go out and party.

Maybe it was the first time she said no, and they tried to force her to do it with the threat of we will abandon them.

We do know for sure that they were in the wrong for leaving the kids.

Another factor could be that the mother was a stepmother to 2 autistic children and she may not have realise the responsibility she was taking on when she married.

Follow-up:

Puppies got sitter but kids left home alone
Parents arrested after they return home from Las Vegas

Associated Press

Thursday, January 5, 2006

MANTECA, California (AP) -- A married couple who got a dog sitter for their puppies but left the man's young children home alone while they vacationed in Las Vegas were arrested Wednesday, police said.

Jacob Calero, 39, and Michelle De La Vega, 32, were taken into custody as they arrived home on a flight to Oakland. They had left town Friday to celebrate the new year, authorities said.

The couple apparently told 9-year-old Joshua to look after his 5-year-brother, Jason, who is autistic. The children spent one night alone before police found them.

The grandmother, Libbey Holden, said she called police because she had suspected the couple left the children at home in San Ramon, about 35 miles east of San Francisco.

"I had big concerns," Holden said. "These kids are helpless."

Joshua said his father and stepmother got each other puppies for Christmas, which they brought to De La Vega's mother to care for before leaving town.

"I thought they loved them more than us," Joshua told The Associated Press during an interview at his maternal grandmother's apartment. The children's mother died in 2003.

He added that he and his brother ate cereal for breakfast and cooked frozen dinners in the microwave.

"I didn't know who I could call in an emergency. Even if I called my father, he's far away, so there wouldn't be much he could do,"

Calero and De La Vega each were being held on suspicion of two felony counts each of child endangerment. Bail was set at $200,000.

Police found the children asleep in their beds Saturday night. A gas fireplace was on, but they found nothing out of the ordinary.

"It appears that the food and the environment were set up for them to be alone," San Ramon Police Sgt. Brian Kalinowski said.

Officers began calling Calero's cell phone Saturday, but he didn't call back until Tuesday. "We get the sense that they felt no urgency for them to return home," Kalinowski said.

Calero and De La Vega have requested lawyers and have refused to talk to police, Kalinowski said. Felony child endangerment carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

Calero is a plumber and De La Vega works in a dental office, police said.

Source: CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/LAW/01/05/home.alone.ap/

Amy is very right to point out that as ever we know no more than is written in the newspaper, and it isn't always sensible to draw too firm a conclusion from news reports.

The bail figure seems very high - $200,000 - which suggests that the police believe - or want others to believe - that they have other reasons to doubt the good citizenship of this couple.

This story has been syndicated all over the place, in only slightly different forms, which points to an absence of "big" hard news stories in the post-Christmas period.

The story has received already more publicity than the atrocious  "autistic kids in cages" affair, the autistic patient who had boiling water deliberately poured on his genitals, and the horrendous story of ABA therapist Michelle Bott-Graham who murdered an autistic toddler, so there really is no telling how stories are prioritized in the news agenda.

I think the time of year is a factor, 'Home Alone' at xmas or new year is like something from a film, literally. The media like to latch onto such things that tug at heart strings more.

Yes, I'm sure that's it, Amy.

Follow-up:

Grandma hopes to get custody of 'home alone' kids San Ramon father and stepmother arrested, won't talk to police

Henry K. Lee
San Francisco Chronicle

Thursday, January 5, 2006

(01-05) 11:33 PST MARTINEZ -- The maternal grandmother of two San Ramon boys who police said were left home alone by their parents said this morning that she hopes to get permanent custody of the children.

Liberata Holden, 60, of Manteca sat with her husband, Douglas, in the hallway of the Contra Costa County courthouse in Martinez, awaiting an afternoon hearing at which she might learn whether she will get full custody of Joshua Calero, 10, and his brother, Jason Calero, 5.

Holden was crying. She explained that she saw a woman down the hallway interacting with her child and that it reminded her of her daughter, Maria Cristina Calero -- the boys' mother -- who died of breast cancer in 2003 at the age of 31.

Police said the boys' father, Jacob Calero, 39, and his wife, Michelle De La Vega, 32, left them alone but got a dog-sitter for the couple's puppies before leaving for a planned five-day trip to Las Vegas over the New Year weekend.

San Ramon police met Calero and De La Vega aboard America West Flight 6550 after it arrived at Oakland International Airport at 11 a.m. Wednesday, police said.

Investigators had been eager to talk to the couple since finding their boys safe but alone in the couple's luxury apartment Saturday, one day after the parents took off. The 5-year-old boy is autistic, relatives said.

Calero and a tearful De La Vega, the children's stepmother, refused to talk to the detectives, who arrested them on two counts each of felony child endangerment, police said.

The couple, who police said may have left the kids home alone before, remained jailed Wednesday night in lieu of $200,000 bail each. They declined media requests for interviews.

The Holdens said today that they caught a glimpse of Calero during a brief session this morning when a judge directed him to appear at this afternoon's hearing.

The two boys were staying today with Erin Stoker, their godmother in Tracy.

Contra Costa Deputy District Attorney Dara Cashman said she would review the case tomorrow and decide whether formal charges would be filed. If the couple is charged, they probably would be arraigned tomorrow afternoon.

Police found the children alone Saturday evening after receiving a phone call from Holden. The children are now temporarily in Holden's custody.

"They should have known better than to leave us alone," 10-year-old Joshua Calero told The Chronicle on Wednesday from his grandmother's house in Manteca. "They knew it was against the law."

G. Wright Morton, De La Vega's attorney, declined to comment. It was not immediately known Wednesday who was representing Calero.

The decision to arrest the couple was "a no-brainer," authorities said, and Calero refused to return phone calls from police while in Las Vegas on Tuesday, apparently heeding the advice of his attorney.

"We found the children home alone, fending for themselves, which was going to be up to five days had we not been involved," police Sgt. Brian Kalinowski said. "These are things that concern us and clearly, from our perspective, make it a criminal issue."

Jacob Calero, a construction plumbing foreman, married De La Vega, a cosmetic dentist and owner of Genesis Aesthetic Dentistry in Santa Clara, in April. Holden expressed outrage Wednesday that her grandsons had been left by themselves.

"I'm upset at their poor judgment," Holden said. "I feel like this is not a thing I would do myself. I believe that children are not only a blessing but also our responsibility."

The couple left for Las Vegas on Friday. Holden said Calero had asked her to babysit the boys, but she was busy and could not. She grew concerned when she couldn't reach Calero on Saturday. She feared the boys were alone and called the police.

No one replied when officers knocked on the door at about 11 p.m. The officers used a ladder to climb to a second-floor balcony and entered the home through an unlocked door. Police found the boys asleep with the gas fireplace lit.

When awakened, the boys told officers that their parents wouldn't be back for several days and they'd been eating cereal and frozen Healthy Choice meals -- including Salisbury steak and chicken with rice -- warmed in a microwave.

Only later did authorities learn that the younger boy, Jason Calero, who is described by relatives as mildly autistic, was heard earlier Saturday screaming "Help me, help me" from the home while his brother was playing at a friend's house, Kalinowski said. A neighbor retrieved Jason and watched him until Joshua returned home an hour later, the sergeant said.

Police said Calero and De La Vega found someone to care for the puppies -- Popo the pug and Pumpkin the Maltese mix -- that they'd given to one another on Christmas.

"It makes me feel unloved, put it that way," Joshua told The Chronicle.

"When we asked, 'Where are the puppies?' Joshua said they're too small to leave home alone, so they were left with an adult," Stoker said. "That's appalling to me. It's absolutely ludicrous.

"Maybe they'll wake up and realize that children are human and important. Things happen to children when parents are there watching them. How could you go on a plane and fly to Las Vegas, knowing that your two children are home alone? It's wrong."

Police said they believe the couple had left the boys home alone on previous occasions. Stoker said she asked the older boy how many times they'd been left alone, and he said " 'too many times to count,' and he's very bright."

The two boys are "absolutely the most entertaining, adorable, loving children that you'd ever want to know," Stoker said. "I have four children of my own, and these children I consider to be my own."

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

Sister of accused dad seeks answers

SHE DESCRIBES BROTHER AS GOOD PERSON, BUT IRRESPONSIBLE

By Lisa Fernandez
Mercury News
6th January 2006

The sister of a San Ramon man arrested for leaving his two sons home alone says that while her brother has admitted he ``screwed up,'' he insists the children's maternal grandmother was supposed to care for them.
Patsy Black told the Mercury News on Thursday that in phone conversations with Jacob Calero, he acknowledged he made a mistake in leaving sons Joshua, 10, and Jason, 5, sleeping in their beds as he and his newlywed wife left for their Las Vegas vacation at 5 a.m. Dec. 30. They brought their three dogs -- Popo, Pumpkin and Snow White -- to his wife's mother, who took the couple to the airport.
Calero told his sister that Liberata Holden of Manteca -- the boys' maternal grandmother and mother of Calero's deceased first wife -- had agreed to come over later in the morning to watch his sons.
But Calero said Holden left a voicemail message on his cell phone the night of Dec. 29 saying she could not babysit the boys, according to Black. By that time, he said he had his voicemail forwarded to his brother-in-law in Santa Clara and never heard Holden's message.
Black then called Holden to get her side of the story. She said Holden said she never agreed to babysit in the first place because she had to work.
Holden could not be reached for comment Wednesday. She is trying to get custody of the boys, or at least see if other relatives might take care of them instead of their father, Black said.
``I don't know who to believe here,'' Black said in an interview from North Carolina. ``My brother is a good person, but he's irresponsible. He's a newlywed. He had more on his plate than he could handle.''
Black said she asked her brother a lot of questions: Why would he leave his sons before Holden arrived, why didn't he do anything when, after a phone call home Saturday, he realized Joshua and Jason were by themselves, and why didn't he return calls from police and Child Protective Services?
Calero, 39, had the same answer to each question: ``I screwed up.''
Calero and his second wife, 32-year-old Michelle De La Vega -- the boys' stepmother -- were arrested Wednesday after returning home from Las Vegas. San Ramon police say the two should be arraigned on two counts of felony child endangerment by this afternoon.
It's been a tough few years for Calero, according to Black. Maria ``Christina'' Calero, the boys' mother, developed breast cancer and died in 2003. Her brother works full-time as a plumber in the South Bay and tries his best with his sons, but has often left them in the care of a nanny or with relatives.
Things began to look up when he fell in love with De La Vega, who was his new dentist. They married in April. Before Christmas, Calero called his mother in North Carolina to say he and De La Vega were going to Las Vegas.
San Ramon Police Sgt. Brian Kalinowski said that police are ``unaware of any confirmed child care plans'' the couple had made.
Jacob Calero, one of six siblings who stem from a prominent Filipino family, grew up in the South Bay and in Fremont, where he attended Washington High School and began working in the plumbing department of an Orchard Supply Hardware store. He's made a good income in his plumbing career.
Last year, he built a three-story, $700,000 dream home in San Ramon, his sister said. His family often traveled back and forth to the Philippines. That's where he met his first wife, marrying her when he was 27.
But when she was diagnosed with cancer, Jacob had to find help to take care of his sons. For a time, a couple lived with the family and looked after Joshua and Jason.
It became more difficult after she died and Calero remarried. The family moved from Tracy to San Ramon and left their friends and nannies behind.
They hired one nanny who quit this fall after she decided she couldn't handle the younger son because of his autism.
``I told my brother, you have to take off work to find child care for those boys,'' Black said. ``There were some red flags with me when it came to the children.''


Source: Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryne...563254.htm

"Calero told his sister that Liberata Holden of Manteca -- the boys' maternal grandmother and mother of Calero's deceased first wife -- had agreed to come over later in the morning to watch his sons."

So they admit leaving the children alone in the early morning whilst still asleep, and at the most later in the morning someone would turn up.
That in itself was wrong.
Another obvious point, wouldn't most parents phone that evening to check on the children, and that they were ok and being supervised?
When they phoned the child would have told them that no-one had come to watch them.

The key word is the Sister's comment on the boy's father;  "Irresponsible".  Ok, granted he was stressed, coming off a bad time, getting remarried, etc, etc.  And I agree with the thought that they may have been dumping on the Grandma.  But, he still should have put the welfare of the kids "top priority" on the list!!  A ten year old boy should not be a caretaker for a younger sibling (autistic or not!) for a prolonged length of time.  An hour, even two, I could see, but, not several days!!

Common sense is not very common, is it! :?:  :?

Peace

Thanks for mentioning that, Alison!  It's obvious that this was not a "poor" man, especially building the expensive house he did!  It just boggles my mind.!

Peace

"These are not my client's children," Morton said. He declined to comment further on the case.


They are her stepchildren though, and deserve kind treatment.
:evil:

So they will most likely have home detention for 3-6 months or so.

I can't see a valid reeason to blame the grandmother, the 10 year old and 5 year old should not have been left alone at all, even while waiting for someone else to come and look after them.
Also when the parents phoned to check on them the kids would have answered and the parents then would know that they were on their own.

The most obvious point is that the parents pleade no contest, basically the same as pleading guilty, if they had been tricked by the grandmother that would have put them in the clear and made a defence.
Records of phonecalls made could have put them in the clear.