A Queens woman who did jail time for shaking her infant son in 1986 was questioned by detectives last night – after the medical examiner ruled the boy’s death last month stemmed from old injuries.
Prosecutors and police had not decided whether to pursue a homicide case against Mitzi Slaughter, 38, who was released from the 103rd Precinct station house without charges.
Her family was angry she might be blamed for the death of 14-year-old Josh – who developed cerebral palsy from the shaking and was living in a group home when he died.
“How could it be her fault?” said Mitzi’s mother, Valerie Slaughter. “He’s been in the care of the state for 14 years. He was taken away from her when he was a baby.”
She said she didn’t understand how the authorities could contemplate new charges when her daughter has already paid her debt to society.
“She was arrested, and she served her time,” she said. “I can’t believe this.”
Slaughter was arrested in 1986 for violently shaking Josh when he was 3 months old. She pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and served four months.
Child-welfare authorities took custody of Josh and he was kept at the New York Foundling Hospital until 1997, when he was transferred to a United Cerebral Palsy group home.
The wheelchair-bound youngster was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital on April 11 with breathing problems and died the following morning, the medical examiner’s office said.
An autopsy determined his neurological problems contributed to the bronchial pneumonia and blood infection that killed him, and the ME classified his death as a homicide.
Valerie Slaughter said her daughter – who works at a gas station and has two other kids – visited Josh frequently and was distraught when she found out he was in the hospital.
“When she went over there, he was on life-support and she was completely destroyed,” she said. “When he died, I thought I was going to have to call in a doctor for her.”
She also claimed her grandson was doing well while he was at the New York Foundling Hospital, but started to deteriorate when he was moved to UCP’s Jamaica facility.
“Someone is trying to get off the hook and they’re using my daughter …” she charged. “This child died under mysterious circumstances.”
UCP officials refused to comment.
“This has nothing to do with us,” a spokesman for the organization said. “It happened a very long time ago.”
Sources said investigators obtained subpoenas for Josh’s hospital records, and they may subpoena records from the group home where he was living.
They are also awaiting the ME’s written report and looking into whether new charges would violate the double-jeopardy rule, which says a defendant cannot be tried twice for the same crime.
Valerie Slaughter said her daughter lives with the consequences of what she did, day in and day out.
“She thought about Josh every day and she said time and time again, ‘I wish I could bring him home.’ She was remorseful – no doubt,” she said.
And her grandson, she said, had spirit that shone through his crippling disability.
“He was the type of little guy who, when I went to hug him, he wouldn’t let go. He had such a firm grip. He’d give a big smile when you’d talk to him,” she said.
“He was a special little guy.”