FORT MYERS, FL – A police officer in Fort Myers, Florida has been arrested and is facing a felony charge after a mom who was high crashed and killed her little girl.
You read that right.
Officer Tyler Williams is currently on unpaid administrative leave.
Here’s the back story.
Fort Myers Police Chief Derrick Diggs said Officer Williams failed to contact the Department of Children and Families in regards to the young child’s safety.
The department started an internal investigation after a complaint. Then the State Attorney’s Office reviewed the case, and a warrant was issued for Williams’ arrest.
Now he’s facing a third-degree felony charge for failure to report child abuse and neglect and could face internal charges with the department for violations.
It all comes after a traffic stop on January 18, 2020 at Colonial and Solomon Boulevards.
Officer Williams pulled over a car for speeding at 4:50 a.m. It was driven by the mother, Leslie Zeagler.
According to Zeagler’s friend, Kelly Schwartz, Zeagler got off and Williams did not report the fact that Serenity was not in a car seat during that traffic stop in January.
It’s worth noting that Kelly Schwartz is also Randy Robinson’s girlfriend. Robinson is Serenity’s father.
Chief Diggs said that during this stop, it was ‘the officer’s duty to report information about a young child’s safety, which put the child’s welfare in jeopardy’.
Now it’s also worth noting that nothing happened to the child that night.
Court records that Zeagler’s license was suspended in January 2019 due to failure to pay a traffic fine – although it’s not clear whether that was before or after she was pulled over.
Then in February, 3-year-old Serenity Robinson was killed after her mother, Leslie Zeagler, crashed her car near MLK Boulevard and Rockfill Road.
Police said Zeagler was high at the time of the crash, with meth, fentanyl, methadone, benzoylecgonine, diazepam, and nordiazepam in her system, according to her arrest report.
Serenity was not in a car seat when her mother crashed the vehicle.
Officer Tyler Williams has not commented on the current investigation.
It’s the second horrific case of child abuse that we’re reporting today.
The first was in Flagstaff, Arizona and left a little boy, 6, dead.
An autopsy found the boy, who was locked in a closet for a month, was deprived of food and weighed only 18 pounds when he died in March.
The New York Post reports that Deshaun Martinez’s parents, Elizabeth Archibeque and Anthony Martinez, admitted to police that they kept Deshaun and his 7-year-old brother in a closet in their Flagstaff, Arizona, apartment for 16 hours a day for a month.
The allegedly reported that they gave the boys little to eat.
According to the autopsy report, Deshaun died of starvation.
They listed the manner of death as a homicide and charged his parents and his grandmother, Ann Martinez, with first-degree murder, kidnapping and child abuse shortly after the boy was found unresponsive in early March.
They have all pleaded not guilty.
Does this kids life matter? Apparently not. I dont see riots or funerals being paid for by celebs or videos apologizing for bad parenting. We are a disgusting society. Pathetic at besthttps://t.co/Ehv08enWdG
— CLOCKWORK ANGELS (@waaf86) June 13, 2020
Now prosecutors have until late July to determine if they will seek capital punishment in the case.
According to police, the boys were punished because they stole food while their parents slept.
Originally, Archibeque and Anthony Martinez attributed Deshaun’s malnourished state to a medical condition and said he was taking diet or caffeine pills.
But according to his medical history, he had trouble gaining weight. This, after he was hospitalized at 2 weeks old due to sepsis and a urinary tract infection that resulted in fevers and vomiting at every feed.
After the hospital discharged him, his parents were advised on how to keep him at a healthy weight.
The report shows that Deshaun weighed 34 pounds at age 4 but dropped to 27 pounds a year later.
When he died, he was just 18 pounds — the same weight he was at age 1.
According to the autopsy report, he had brittle hair, sunken eyes and almost no body fat.
The medical examiner said he also had abrasions and bruises on his body that were not life-threatening.
According to the boys father, the family was on a budget and was awaiting food stamps to buy more food for Deshaun.
According to AZ Central, the boy’s surviving siblings, ages 2, 4 and 7, were taken into custody by the Arizona Department of Child Safety.
In Dallas last month, we reported on another horrific case of child abuse.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has confirmed that two illegal immigrants living in Dallas were arrested this week in connection with child abuse of a six-year old.
Esmeralda Lira, 53, and her boyfriend Jose Balderas, 66, both Mexican nationals, were allegedly holding Lira’s six-year old grandson in their shed. More specifically, the young boy was living tied up in the shed, which was filled with rats and insects.
Texas grandma Esmeralda Lira locks 6-year-old boy in shed for weeks for stealing food during ‘this corona thing’ ?https://t.co/3Wnz8oyteb pic.twitter.com/AMuODAXLpz
— Jayden j (@jaydenj_j) May 12, 2020
When police first contacted her on a welfare check after receiving a tip, Lira told them that the boy was with his mother. When they said they would break down the door to the shed, Lira finally opened the door for them.
Police found him with his hands tied behind his back.
Dallas Police arrests 53 year old Esmeralda Lira and her boyfriend 64 year old Jose Balderas after discovering 6 year old grandson tied up in a shed. https://t.co/Bq1X5Udzqg
— The Tornado News (@TheTornadoNews) May 12, 2020
The child had allegedly been living in the shed for at least two weeks. Lira first said that the boy was only in the shed once as a punishment, but Balderas said that he had been their for two weeks because he stole food.
Balderas said the abuse started after the boy “got out of school for the corona thing.”
Police in Dallas received a tip that a young boy was being abused. Officers arrived at the home of 53-yr-old Esmeralda Lira and her boyfriend on Sunday night to conduct a welfare check. The grandmother (Lira) told police the boy was with his mother https://t.co/ORHMJ7HbB0
— Beth (@Boytbab) May 13, 2020
Breitbart News reported the following:
“The boy told police that when Lira left the residence, she would tie him up, tell him he had been bad, and put him in the outdoor shed. The boy also said he was never allowed indoors, being locked up at night and released in the morning.”
The boy allegedly used a plastic bag for a bathroom and a hose for a bath. The boy also said that Lira kicked him and grabbed him by the ears.
The two are facing charges of child endangerment. ICE has said that they placed detainers on both Lira and Balderas so that they can place them into custody should they be released from jail on their $100,000 bail.
The whereabouts of the boy’s mother has not been reported.