A former Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) supervisor arrested on a tampering with evidence charge in connection with a highly publicized 2012 Abilene child dehydration and starvation death case will be going to trial soon, as reported by KTXS 12 News in Abilene. The local station reported that she appeared in Taylor County, Texas, court for a pre-trial hearing.
Breitbart Texas reported in July of 2014 that Whitaker had been arrested and was out on bond after being charged with a third degree felony.
Whitaker faces a possible sentence of two to ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The stepfather of the child spoke exclusively to KTXS in Abilene. Scott Romano told the station that he blamed CPS for not preventing the infant’s death because so many referrals had been made to the agency.
KTXS reported that Whitaker was the CPS supervisor when the 22-month-old child, Tamryn Klapheke, died from abuse in August of 2012. The young child’s mother, Tiffany Klapheke, was convicted of causing injury to a child and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The mother had been accused of failing to feed her three daughters. Tamryn Klapheke was her youngest daughter. The family was living on Dyess Airforce Base at the time.
According to KTXS, the CPS investigation of the Klapheke family was closed just six weeks before the death of Tamryn Klapheke.
Whitaker retired in 2013.
In 2012, Texas Watchdog reported that the commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services at the time, Howard Baldwin, resigned amid an investigation, just two months after the infant’s death.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and an associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2
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