very true gonefishin because what he/she said has nothing to do with this article or your comment period

The mother should have not gotten one dime and the father should have been sentenced to life. The mother did not loose her child she only saw 3 or 4 times, the foster mother lost her child she loved and cared for. This woman is not grieving about this child she is trying to make money off of him. She was in jail when he was born, Israel was born a addict his father basically got away with murder. He claimed he fed him around noon but did not realize he was dead until 9pm how many children do you know sleep all day long without food and don't make a sound. These people should not have children.

Maybe the father of the child who is now in prison should sue RCHS too. After all, RCHS was warned that he was a drug addict and they still allowed visits with him. He may have a case that because of his "condition" and the fact that they were warned about him, they(the professionals)should have known better. I am extremely unhappy, as a taxpayer,that the county settled this thing in this way. The county is opening itself up to any person who stubs his/her toe on a sidewalk, trips on a curb, slips on an ice patch can sue. I want my tax dollars protected in the future.

The woman we are talkng about was not present when her child died, and I am merely saying that none of us can say that she is to blame for his death. If this woman was abusive to her child, then there is definately an argument against her. I'm only saying that we can't pretend to be experts on her particular situation based on the few facts that we have available to us. And let's not forget, the child was in the Father's care when he died. That is the one that I would hold 100 percent accountable for this terrible tragedy.
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that's right she was not in his life and she should not be rewarded for not being able to take care of her own child and i am not saying the father is not to blame everyone who was suppose to be here for this child is to blame they all failed him. You can't convince me she is not to blame because maybe has she provided him the type of life he deserved he would not have died. I just can't understand at all why she would deserve to be paid for a child she did not even have in her life. If anything she should pay the state for taking over her responsibility

I am the father of four beautiful children, as well as a human services worker by profession. I see addiction, homelessness, unemployment and mental illness every day, and at an alarmingly growing rate. I have a stable home life and my wife of ten years and I love our children with all our heart and soul. Gonefishin, I didn't say that the addiction wasn't her fault, I said that the addiction tells me that there is PROBABLY an illness or some underlying condition that isn't her fault. I'm not excusing her choices, nor do I condone anything but the best for our kids. But what if your child ends up suffering from a mental illness and makes some bad choices, would you want the world to judge them in such a harsh light? I surely would not. The woman we are talkng about was not present when her child died, and I am merely saying that none of us can say that she is to blame for his death. If this woman was abusive to her child, then there is definately an argument against her. I'm only saying that we can't pretend to be experts on her particular situation based on the few facts that we have available to us. And let's not forget, the child was in the Father's care when he died. That is the one that I would hold 100 percent accountable for this terrible tragedy.

thank you gonefishin, i will never as a mother ever ever ever understand how anyone can harm a child, it does not make sense to me at all no matter what the reason and it is sad because every day children are dying at the hands of their parents, it is not even strangers anymore it is the very people who have brought them into this world that selfishly take them out without even giving it a second thought. People need to think long and hard before they take on the responsibility of being a parent because it really is the best hardest job that you will ever do in your life and the greatest reward is watching your child grow up and all these poor babies are not getting that chance. so again if anyone has problem with what is being said on here i really don't give a rat's rear end just like these parents did not give a crap about this little boy at least not enough to keep him safe from their dirty lives

she is grieving for that i feel sorry for but as a mother of two small children i don't have sympathy for anyone who will not do whatever it takes to take care of their children. addiction or not, that is really not an excuse in my books. if she chose drugs knowing what the possible outcome of it could be over her child than i really don't feel all that bad for any comments that have been made. and if you are not a mother or father of a child then you don't have a right to bash people who are and feel heart broken over the loss of this baby and think that what this child had to endure at the hands of his own parents is horrible

i agree with browntown. and as far as the county they should have told the birth mother to go scratch. she was obviously not in the childs life. what reason other than " to go away " did she deserve any settlement. if she had any principles or scruples she would not have walked away with 15 grand, not that she deserved a cent.

Nicole is the birth mother, not the one who took care of her.
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okay so this birth mother not even the one who took care of him does not deserve a reward for his life being taken since when he was here she could not take care of him

What I would like to know is how many of you judgemental people know ANYTHING about addiction? I don't know the mother or anything about her, but if you people are right and she SUFFERS from an addiction (which probably means that she has an illness that isn't her fault), it doesn't mean that she doesn't love her child and it certainly doesn't mean that she is to blame for his death. What qualifies any of you to judge her, a mother grieving over the death of her young innocent child? I really don't think I've ever heard anything more evil or cruel. If you have anything intelligent to say, try responding to this with an honest answer instead of a judgmental comment. I will be truly amazed if that actually happens...

him...sorry

I wouldn't call it a "reward". What about the foster mother? She was the one taking care of him and it was the states call to let Charles see the baby not hers. Nicole is the birth mother, not the one who took care of her.

none of the people in this childs life should be rewarded with anything because none of them have done this child right. i know the mom did not cause the death but what was the child doing in rock county's custody in the first place. now they have rewarded a mother who could not take care of her own child and she wants to blame it on the state when it is the father's fault mainly and the mother is too blame i feel as well since she did not provide him with a safe enough home as well

"Why are we paying her for wrongful death when she is committing crimes against children herself?"
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Because part of the point of a negligence lawsuit is to prevent future negligence by the same parties. In any case, the one has no legal bearing upon the other. Able kills Baker, so Mrs. Baker can sue for wrongful death. Mrs. Baker also kills Mrs. Able. That just means Able can countersue Mrs. Baker, not that the two wrongs cancel each other out of existence.

IMO-In a negligence case, that amount of money aint s**t. They just paid her so she would take the money and go away. If it was anyone else, they would have paid out ALOT more. They knew she would settle.

nikkiz242001 - What about negligence of the mother? Why was someone else raising the child? THAT is negligence. If it's bad enought that your child is taken away from you, you deserve NOTHING but a Hysterectomy.

no one said anything about $$ replacing a child.

I'm with you on your comment. The more I think about this, the madder I get. There are people who weren't able to have childred and never would've laid a finger on them, and then there are people who abuse theirs and reap the rewards. I can't believe the county was so damn stupid.

i dont care what anyone says any amount of money cannot replace your child due to the negligence of others!

This amount of money given away - and I do mean "given"- by Rock County is particularly disturbing right now because of the hard working and suffering parents who do not abuse their children, need financial assistance and can't get it. They can't get assistance BECAUSE they are hard working and don't abuse their children. We have a crazy system for entitlements. Why aren't we helping those who deserve it, not those who repeatedly demonstrate a disregard for society's rules.

She was just charged in December with felony child abuse. Nice. Who the heck is she to point a finger?

Looks to me that she was taken to court at least twice for child support. IMO-I think the foster mother is entitled to the $$$. She is the one who lost the child.

To me, it seems like the pot calling the kettle black (mom accusations against the father). Her first obligation was to her son, not to drugs. If she had been home and in control over her child's life (and ditched the loser), no CPS would've been needed. She shouldn't have been given a dime.

According to court records the mother was arrested for child abuse in December 2008 ( 3 months ago)in Madison.Why are we paying her for wrongful death when she is committing crimes against children herself? It doesn't seem very logical.

Here is another example of how the worthless human beings in our society get rewarded for being disfunctional. The mother, the father, and the father's girlfriend should all be permanately fixed so they cannot procreate and ruin the lives of any more children. Accident or not, none of them were capable or responsible enough to be left alone with a child.

browntown96 you took the thoughts right out of my head .

Well maybe this will give the CPS awake up call as to sending innocent babies back to the drug addicts without supervision. River tried to place blame on the foster home in his denial of the whole thing And I still don't believe what he claims happened is the true story IMO, He lied from the very begginning and had time to come up with an acceptable lie IMO. CPS knew of the situation and the fears of the biological mom and left him in the hands of rivers. The mom at least went to get help for her problem he (rivers) went to get dope for his with a dying child and did not care one way or the other about that helpless little boy and the sentence he got will never be enough IMO. An eye for an eye as he caused this death due to neglect and not seeking medical help for him and you can't say anything to change what he did the ruthless act of covering his actions and trying to hide what he did by trying to blame the foster mom and IMO showing no remorse for his actions but to save face for what he did to a child that will never see life in away that he could have due to it being taken by the likes of rivers..

Jeez, I blew it again. Tot was a little boy.

Normally not this ditsy, honest. This story brought to mind a personal experience and that's all I'm thinking about right now. Sorry.

Earth calling Purr ol' girl. Thanks Reilly 202! (The huge headline "baby death" should have clued me in.) ;) Maybe it was just wishful thinking the little one was still with us to get some good out of life. If the mother had any sense of fairness, decency and respect for her daughter's memory, she should donate the money to an abused children's counseling center.

Paying her 15 grand is like the courts are rewarding the mother for not saving her own child. Unfortunately, this isn't an isolated case of injustice. It is happening elsewhere...giving people with no nurturing or parental skills whatsoever, chance after chance to trial-and-error their way through raising children when they obviously have no interest in doing so.

that actually is a good idea, make her pay child support to the state

Check ccap for Nicole Gordon- Dane county. Poor Nicole appears to have issues of her own, and fairly recently. I agree that the state should charge her back for child care and take the money out of her settlement check.

Purrmaid-why would you set a trust fund up for a deceased person?

The settlement should have gone into a trust fund for the child, the REAL victim in this ridiculously sad situation.

This is a sad story. It's my opinion that CPS should shoulder the blame here. Speaking from my own personal experience with CPS, the agency is a joke. My stepson was living with his mother, abused with choke marks on his neck, hand prints on his face and bruises on his arms...CPH took him from her, put him in my home for his safety and well being, only to tell us that they were going to put him back with his mentally ill mother, after they sent her to parenting classes. So thousands of dollars later in attorney fees, we finally have custody and placement of this child. If CPS would have had their way, this child would have been back with his crazy abusive mother because she did a few classes. Go figure, since then she's been in the mental hospital twice, sees aliens, chases fire trucks and has two more kids with an alcoholic non working abusive loser, and still has her kids. Sad how the system lets these types of things fall thru the cracks.

Nevermind the part where you had a child with a heroin addict, nah, you have no culpability here. Maybe she should sue the school system because her health teacher didn't properly teach her about birth control.

$3000 per visit that she actually had with the child. Not bad. We miss you Israel!!

curtaincall- 95% of parents involved with CPS say that the other parent is abusive. I can only think of a couple cases- ever- where that has NOT occurred. Obviously, they spoke with the gentleman. There was no evidence of abuse. Period. What is more- This child wasn't abused.... From what court records say, the child fell in the bathtub and the father was sued because before taking the child to the hospital, he purchased drugs. That is why he has a minimal sentence- he didn't INFLICT the abuse. His reaction to the injury was awful, and, buying drugs is illegal, so, he was prosecuted. And, I agree it is pretty pathetic for this woman to want to profit from the death of her child.

Looks like everything here has been swept under the carpet once again.... What a MESS!!!

She did warn them, and voice her concerns about the baby being left with him. They let him take the baby anyway. I don't think that can be ignored.

latinmami2, that's what a lawsuit settlement is. Since there is no decision by a judge or jury, there is no legal fault entered into the record. The lawsuit just stops and goes into a file.
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Previous story about the mother:
http://gazettextra.com/news/2007/dec/13/...

Since the mother NEVER had custody and the child was in the care of the state for 18 months, the state should bill the mother for the childs care. I'd say 15,000 for 18 months of care is about right.

Great job, mom!
She wasn't taking control of her own child, but she sure is going to profit from his death.
Pathetic.

This is simply a minimal payment to avoid trial. A trial, even if the county won, would cost more than that.

In any out of court settlement, part of the agreement involves "no admitted fault" this is not unusual or strange.

From a cost to the taxpayers perspective, it was probably a good move.

This child was in the custody of the state, the mother NEVER had custody, and was in a rehab herself, hopefully regaining control over her life. This is not for us to judge, period. It is sad, but we have to have faith that the 'law' knows what they are doing. And if this indeed exposes wrong doing on the state or county's part, then by all means lets hope that a lesson was learned. Obviously at the loss of a little angel's life, but who knows what that poor peanuts future would have held. Now at least he is in the arms of someone who is a safe and loving being. :) Where there is a negative, there is ALWAYS a positive way to look at things!

this whole story is a little nuts. so rock county pays a woman 15,000 but they are not admitting fault. makes sense to me

Not to throw stones,but i think the mother was on drugs too,or in a drug house in mad. Either way what i've heard neither parent should've had custody,i could be wrong ,what does some one else know??? But my opinion is,15K most likely will go up in smoke!

Oops I should have said the mother Ms. Gordon was not living with the father, Mr. Rivers.

NO the mother was not living with Mr. Gordon. Ms. Peabody was. And the foster mother was being investigated.

Ok, she lived with him, knew he was doing drugs and abusing her child. So she reported him & instead of investigating him the county investigated her so she sues the county for his death. That's what I got from this story. If that's incorrect, please let us know because it certainly doesn't seem as if the county should be paying out for a situation like this. There must be more to the story.

I never knew a baby's life was only worth $15,000.00....interesting!

I'm sure it was heartbreaking for Ms. Gordon but was she attempting to gain custody of the child before his death? I'm just concerned why she wasn't in the picture and why this child was allowed unsupervised visits with a heroin addict.