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SF Child's Identity Remains A Mystery
Court Hampers Media Coverage Efforts
(ABC7)
Jan. 19 (ABC7) — Plans by San Francisco officials to publicize information on
a three-year-old with no identity were quashed today by a judge. The boy
doesn't speak, and for months police and social services have been trying to
find his mother or other relatives with little success. Now media coverage is
no longer an option.
It was October 22nd when police found the boy in a North Beach playground with
a woman who claimed to be his mother. Police detained her for acting
erratically. After a psychological evaluation, she never went back to court to
claim the boy.
Since mid-November, the county has tried to get this story to the media for
help, but has been turned down by the courts. And it happened again today.
We've asked before, and will do so again. Who is this little boy? Do you know
his mother?
San Francisco police inspector Alex Bini has been baffled for much too long.
Inspector Alex Bini, SFPD: "I've been here for three years as a child abuse
inspector, and this is the first case I've had like this."
Last November, a San Francisco juvenile court allowed police and county
authorities to post the boy's image on a national Web site and to distribute
flyers. But that order did not include the news media which has remained
off-limits, which makes absolutely no sense to Marc Klaas, a well known
children's advocate.
Mark Klaas, Klaas Foundation for Children: "You can't effectively give them to
the public until you give them to the media first because the media is the
delivery mechanism for all graphic information. And a picture of a little boy
is very pertinent graphic information."
If San Francisco's child protective agents could talk on camera, they would.
But officially, this is a closed matter - legally, one that protects the child
by looking after his mother's parental rights, if in fact, she is his mother.
San Francisco attorney Ruth Edelstein represents that woman, though she has
never met her. Today in a juvenile courtroom, Edelstein did her job and argued
against releasing more information about the case to the media, based on the
possibility that someday, the woman might reappear.
Klaas: "I mean, if they don't know who the woman is, how can the woman's lawyer
request anything? Come on."
Meantime, the little boy remains in a county foster home, not speaking his name
or uttering a word. And the mother? Who knows?
"Maybe the mom feels he's in a better place, and let's leave him there. Or
maybe something happened to the mom? She might have problems that need to be
addressed as well."
The county had hoped to release a new video of the boy today, but the court,
apparently, had it's reasons. Juvenile hearings are closed, so we don't know
why.
Child Protection Services has set up a 24-hour hotline at (415) 558-2650 for
anyone with information that could lead to determining the boy's identity.
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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
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