January 28, 2025

Racine case tragically exposes gaps in Wisconsin’s protection of kids from abuse

By Naomi Schaefer Riley

In February 2021, residents of Racine learned that 17-year-old Shavale J. Powell was facing homicide charges in the death of his 1-month-old son. The child suffered blunt force trauma to the head, chest and extremities. The Racine Journal Times reported on the case and noted that there was also a “1-year-old child with a bruised, injured eye.”

Powell was arrested and the children’s mother, Javian Clark, was named as a co-defendant in court documents. Perhaps the community could at least rest assured that justice would be done and the other child would remain safe from the hands of these alleged abusers. Sadly, neither was true. Now another one of Clark’s children is dead and the public will probably never know the full truth.

The public record of Clark and Powell’s abuse began in 2020, when their older child was five months old, according to the criminal complaint against Powell. The child was examined in the emergency room where doctors determined he had a severe subconjunctival hemorrhage. Neither parent could explain how a small child had been the victim of such trauma. Powell was charged with child abuse. There was no record of a report to child welfare services. And they were nevertheless sent home with the child.

Then, in 2021, after the child’s death, the Racine County Department of Human Services “found insufficient evidence to substantiate neglect of the infant by the father and insufficient evidence to substantiate physical abuse of the infant by an unknown maltreater.” There was sufficient evidence to charge the father with homicide but not for the agency to conclude the child had been abused?


Reports show cases in Wisconsin closed without thorough investigation

The Racine County Department of Human Services is making disturbing decisions about the safety of very young children. The case records suggest that they don’t seem to be in possession of all the relevant information before the agency is closing cases. One wonders whether they are working with or even aware of the work of law enforcement with these same families. And then, it is taking the department years to release information about what happened and why.

In the case of Clark and Powell, according to public records, “the agency determined the infant’s siblings unsafe and initiated a Protective Plan.” The records are somewhat unclear here on how many siblings were present and what their ages were. But what did that protective plan involve? The agency determined that the mother was “protective” and the siblings all remained with her. The case was closed after the assessment and the agency didn’t even recommend other services for the mother. There is no mention of the mother being charged as a co-defendant in the homicide case.

Wisconsin requires agencies to file an investigation report six months after any child fatality. But in the case of this death, the six-month investigation was withheld because criminal charges were still pending. If the public had learned — as it was supposed to — what the agency actually did in this case, there would have been outrage. As it happened, though, no one knew. In fact, the only reason we know what actions the agency took in 2021 is that another child of Clark’s (but whose paternity is unknown) was killed in 2024. And no criminal charges are pending in that case, apparently.

In the aftermath of the 2021 death, Powell was locked up briefly. In 2021, after being charged with first degree reckless homicide, the court imposed a $25,000 cash bond and non-monetary condition of release that he not commit additional crimes. In 2022 he was charged with felony bail jumping. And the court imposed a $2,500 cash bond and non-monetary condition of release that he not commit additional crimes and he wasn’t allowed to drive. Finally, in 2022 he was arrested for possession with intent to deliver while driving. Only then was he actually locked up. His criminal case is still pending.

In 2022, a report came to child protective services about the family. But there are no details of what that report was or who it came from. All we know is that it was “screened out” — meaning that no one even went to investigate. Imagine ignoring a report of maltreatment from a family where an infant had been killed a year before?

Which brings us to February of 2024, when a 2-month-old was brought to the hospital unresponsive. Once again, the agency determined the infant’s siblings who were living with Clark and a different significant other were unsafe. The agency initiated a “Protective Plan.” Once again, the mother was determined to be “protective,” and the infant’s siblings remained with their mother. The case has now been closed by the agency even though toxicology reports are still pending and law enforcement is still investigating the incident.

It’s clear that the Racine County Department of Human Services is making some awful decisions. But who is paying attention? When there is no transparency around these investigations, it is impossible to understand what’s going wrong and how we can prevent future tragedies.


State reports that are supposed to document egregious abuse lacking

Not only are we missing reports on investigations that are supposed to be released six months after an incident, it seems as if many of them are simply pro-forma. Cases are being closed despite the fact that important information from autopsies and toxicology reports is still missing. Wisconsin is also supposed to file “egregious incident” reports around fatalities and near fatalities but many of those are also missing.

The 2023 incident in Racine of three children found living in a home filled with buckets of human feces, dead animals and no electricity or running water apparently didn’t rise to the level of “egregious” in Racine. Nor did the case of five children found to be starving in the basement of a Racine home last year. There was no report filed on the case of 3-year-old Elijah Vue whose remains were found in the woods earlier this year after his mother and her boyfriend had been charged with felony neglect.

Wisconsin reported only 21 deaths to the federal government in 2022, but searches of reports from the media and the medical examiner completed by a project called Lives Cut Short, that number is actually at least 38. There are clear failures not only in the work of the child protection agencies, but also in courts that are releasing violent felons on cash bonds, and even among medical professionals who may not be raising red flags. If we want to get the full picture and stop future tragedies, information on these cases needs to be released quickly and completely.


Notes & Corrections
  1. Please note that the version above reflects changes requested by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel which issued the following correction: “An opinion article in the Jan. 5 Ideas Labs section, ‘Racine case illustrates gaps in protection of children’, referenced the deaths of two children in a family who died in 2021 and 2024. With respect to the 2024 death, the article did not include the full text of a report submitted by the Racine County Department of Human Services to the Wisconsin Department of Human Services to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families: It states: ‘On February 15, 2024, the agency received a report regarding a 2-month old infant who was unresponsive and taken to the hospital. The infant was later pronounced deceased. Law enforcement initiated a criminal investigation. The Medical Examiner’s Office noted no signs of trauma to the infant; toxicology results are pending. No criminal charges have been filed in this case, and the investigation remains open.” With respect to the 2021 death, Shavale J. Powell, the father of the child, was charged with first degree reckless homicide and two counts of physical abuse of a child. He was jailed in February 2021. He posted bond on Jan. 5, 2022. The criminal case against Powell remains pending. Conditions of his release on bond included having no contact with the victim or co-defendant in the case. Although the mother of the child, Javian Clark, was named as a co-defendant in the case, she has not been charged with a crime.”
  2. Following publication of the correction, the article was removed by the Sentinel with a note that “This content has been removed pending additional reporting.” It is unclear what additional reporting they would like to see.
  3. To date, no information about the child who died in 2021 has been released to the public. The status of the investigation into the child who died in 2024 remains unknown.
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