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21.
Neighbors hearing a small child screaming hysterically in the street called police, and a black and white unit came cruising down the street within three minutes.
Officers found a small boy lying on a grassy sidewalk shoulder, sobbing and incoherent. As officers approached, the child tried to run away in panic. With the assistance of another marked unit, offers were able to apprehend the child several houses down,where he was hiding among bushes.
The child was taken to UCSD Medical Center, where he underwent an emergency examination to determine his general health, possible rape or molestation, trauma of any kind, exposure to HIV, and possible involvement in crimes by adults including parents, relatives, neighbors, or other parties. The child was determined to be in reasonably good health with no signs of abuse, drug or alcohol involvement, HIV, or other compromising factors. The child was taken to Children's Hospital for psychiatric evaluation, which took the rest of the day, and resulted in an ambiguous finding. The child was found to respond normally to standard tests, indicating an absence of standard psychiatric markers for physiological or psychological compromise. However, the child was found to be frightened and hysterical, claiming his parents had been abducted or eaten by large imaginary shapes.
The child's name was determined to be James Mendez, Jr., only child of [BLANK] and [BLANK], residing at [BLANK]. Father is a licensed merchant seaman while mother is a licensed practical nurse. A social worker from Child Protective Services evaluating the case visited the home, accompanied by uniformed police officer, and found it to be in good order. A woman identifying herself as the mother of Jimmy Mendez answered the door and took the social worker inside for an inspection of the house. Seeing no cause for further worry, the social worker dismissed the police officer and proceeded to do a detailed workup, talking with the kid's mom in the livingroom.
When asked where the father is, the mother replied that he is away at sea. When asked why the child claimed his father had been present, the mother said she did not know. The mother said the father was due home any time from a cruise on board a cargo freighter, and she did not know the name of the ship or any other details about it. When asked to show bank statements and pay stubs verifying income and expenditures, the mother produced all the required documents showing incomes considerably above the median for Greater San Diego, and bank statements as well as credit card statements consistent with high incomes and considerable but responsible debt payments—no apparent expenditures for illegal street drugs.
Upon a second examination of the house, social worker found no evidence of violence in terms of broken and repaired furniture, windows, or other property. Bathrooms and other living areas showed no evidence of drug paraphernalia.
Social worker adds this note: "I did not go further in asking about the child's claims about hallucinatory visions. I did, while in the parents bedroom, detect a faint foreign odor that could be described as musty, but the premises were clean and showed evidence of a considerable cleaning as one would expect. The mother mentioned she had the day off, and thus might reasonably be expected to do household chores like cleaning. I did notice that there was a faint, elongated mark on the baseboard near the bed, exactly where the child had said there was a growth of unknown type. I asked the mother about the stain, and she said she had spilled a cup of coffee while getting out of bed, and had used a Teflon scouring pad and dish soap to clean it up. Such a stain could be consistent with a small child's frightened vision of something ordinary made to look like a monster." Social worker concludes: "I asked the mother if she was concerned where her son had been all day, and she said that he was out riding his bicycle and playing with neighbor children. She said he had been in and out all day. When confronted about this lie, she displayed some emotion, including tears, and stated that she was having marital difficulties and was having a hard time focusing on her child care duties, but that she had learned a lesson and would take good care of her son from now on." Recommendation: "Return child to [MOTHER ONLY] immediately."
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