Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on Friday was demanding answers over why a mother with a violent history that includes child abduction was given a supervised visit with one of her children.
"This is a woman who's having all of her parental rights taken away on all of her other children, for God knows what reasons. She has active warrants out for her arrest. She tries to run over a case worker. The possibilities were limitless on how horrible this thing could have turned out," the furious sheriff said Friday of 32-year-old Taneil Curtis.
Curtis was arrested Friday morning in Memphis, Tenn. and her 21-month-old son found safe.
Police say she kidnapped the boy in early November during a supervised visit with a Department of Children and Protective Services caseworker in South Holland. Police said that during that visit, she jumped into a U-Haul and drove off.
That truck was rented to Curtis’ boyfriend, Kirk Alexander, 35, who was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender and remains at the Cook County Jail, according to the release.
DCFS, however, failed to report the child missing for two weeks, said Dart. Further more, he said it was a visit that never should have happened.
The agency, in a statement, said the visitation was supervised by a "veteran staffer of one of our nonprofit partners," adding that the staffer immediately called 911 and that police arrived within minutes.
The case, a DCFS spokesman said, is still under administrative review.
Curtis has lost parental rights for three other children, and authorities say it was the second time she's abducted her son. Shortly after giving birth to him, she left the hospital with the child without notifying DCFS, which had already taken custody of her three other children, citing a "substantial risk of physical harm."
After the first abduction, Curtis and the boy were found about a year later in Hammond, Ind., sheriff’s police said. The child had been in DCFS custody since.
Dart said Curtis tried to run over a DCFS caseworker in 2008.
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| Kirk Alexander |
