Tameria Greene Murder: Semeria Greene, Mother, Appears In Detroit Court:
DETROIT — A Detroit woman charged with fatally stabbing her daughter three days before the child's ninth birthday pleaded not guilty to a murder charge Thursday as authorities scrambled to determine why the girl and four siblings were not removed from their home weeks ago.
Police responding to a call from neighbors found Tameria Greene bleeding from the chest Sunday on the floor of her family's apartment. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The Michigan Department of Human Services said it tried to remove Tameria and her siblings from the home as far back as 2010, but its requests were denied. The most recent petition was filed the day after Thanksgiving, alleging Semeria Greene, 26, had abused her daughter, who had bites on her hand, forearm and face.
"DHS continued to provide court-ordered counseling services to the family as well as conducting in-home visits, the last of which occurred only two days before Tameria's death. We share the grief felt by her loved ones and her community," director Maura Corrigan said in a statement.
Richard Smart III, a referee in the Family Division of Wayne County court, held a hearing on Nov. 23 that lasted just minutes. He recommended no removal and noted that the father of some of Tameria's siblings had moved into the home "to provide protection and supervision," according to records. Judge Lisa Neilson signed the order.
Five days later, another referee, Leslie Graves, held a pretrial hearing. She set a trial on the state's petition and noted the children remained at home. Judge Frank Szymanski signed that order.
Szymanski told The Associated Press that he had no direct role in the Greene case but was deeply troubled by the girl's death.
"I just looked at the file. ... I want to get to the bottom of this. I'm concerned, absolutely," he said. "I need to see the transcript. We remove kids all the time."
Referees preside over hearings in Michigan's local Juvenile Courts and make recommendations in abuse and neglect cases. Like full-fledged judges, they are attorneys. Judges, however, retain the right to intervene.
Graves declined to comment, as did Thomasine Jefferson, an attorney who represented Greene in the child-welfare matter. Messages seeking comment were left with Smart and Neilson.
Greene remains in jail without bail on the felony murder charge, which is the equivalent of first-degree murder. She faces life in prison without parole if convicted. She also is charged with first-degree child abuse.
Defense attorney Cornelius Pitts suggested Greene should undergo a mental-health exam. Magistrate Steve Lockhart said the issue could be raised at the next hearing, on Jan. 16.
"It would appear there is a serious question to the emotional and mental state," Pitts told reporters.
Tameria's brothers, ages 1 to 7, now are in foster care.
Her death came at the end of a particularly brutal year in Detroit. By Thanksgiving, the city had surpassed the 344 criminal homicides reported in all of 2011. Mayor Dave Bing said there were 386 slayings in 2012.
"We've lost respect for each other. We've lost respect for life," Bing said Thursday.
Detroit 2012 Murder Rate Has Already Passed 2011 Homicide Rate:
It's a grim statistic, but murder is on the rise again in the Motor City. The figures for 2012 have already outpaced those for the whole of last year.
354 homicides have taken place in Detroit this year as of Nov. 25, according the city's website.
That compares to 344 murders for the entire year of 2011 -- a number that prompted local funeral home directors to hold a hearse parade through several high-crime Detroit neighborhoods last January.
309 homicides were reported by the city of Detroit in 2010; 364 in 2009; and 327 in 2008, WXYZ reports, citing the Michigan State Police Uniform Crime Report.
Overall, crime appears to be down for this year -- though robberies have seen a bit of a spike. 4,920 robberies have occured as of Nov. 11 this year, compared to 4,774 last year, according to statistics made available on the city's website.
Budget issues have had a serious impact on Detroit's policing in the last year. In January, the Detroit Police Department implemented a program known as virtual precincts which closed precincts during late-night hours in order to put more officers on the street. Under the new system, citizens must phone in complaints at these times through a call center.
Concerns about reduced staff, a 10-percent pay cut and 12-hour shifts among police officers prompted some sworn officers to hold a "enter Detroit at your own risk" rallyat a downtown baseball game back in October.
A poll released by the Detroit News that month found that 40 percent of city residents planned to leave Detroit within the next five years, and cited crime as the biggest challenge they faced in the city.
Murder Detroit: Mayor Dave Bing Releases 2012 Crime, Homicide Statistics
Detroit's Mayor Dave Bing called on city residents to help confront a significant increase in the city's homicides at a press conference to report 2012 crime statistics on Thursday morning.
"It's not a situation myself, [Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager] Roy [Roberts] or the chief can fix by ourselves," he said. "We've got to reach out to our entire community."
Detroit police officials put the total number of homicide deaths in 2012 at 411 -- an increase of more than nine percent over 2011. Of that number police classified 386 as criminal homicides and 25 as justifiable.
Detroit recorded 377 total homicides in 2011 and 327 in 2010, according to police statistics.
A Detroit News analysis comparing statistics of U.S. cities with more than 200,000 residents -- released on Dec. 31 before the latest figures --- estimated the city's murder rate for the last year at 53 per 100,000 residents. It placed Detroit second for the city with the highest murder rates, just under New Orleans' rate of 54.2.
Through Dec. 28, New York City had only recorded 414 homicides, despite having a population more than 11 times the size of the city of Detroit's. If NYC had the same murder rate as Detroit, they would have recorded nearly 4,400 homicides this year, according to a release issued by the city.
Although murder was definitely on the rise in the Motor City over 2012, overall crime actually fell by 2.63 percent. Aggravated assault decreased by 1.86 percent, burglary by 12.85 percent and rape by 5.82 percent. Robbery, however, rose slightly -- increasing by 1.92 percent over the previous year.
Despite some good news about general crime statistics, however, city officials focused on the troubling murder rate.
"America has a problem with guns, but the epicenter seems to be here in Detroit," Detroit's interim Police Chief Chester Logan said during the briefing. He added that he didn't think that the increase in violence was a problem that could be solved by restricting the public's access to guns or putting more officers on the streets.
"If I had a thousand more police officers in the City of Detroit -- the way things are right now -- I don't know what kind of impact that would have. So I'm not asking for police officers. I am asking this community to be aware of some of the problems we're facing."
Logan noted that the increase in Detroit's homicides over the last year generally occurred between acquaintances -- usually between people involved in criminal activity or in domestic situations. He drew attention to the case of Tameria Greene, an eight-year-old girl stabbed to death by her mother on Sunday, saying it was typical of the crime that characterized 2012.
"The first two of this particular year were the same types of occurrences. Those were the increases that we've seen all year long," he said. "They have been domestic anger, argument, something that has caused some kind of conflict and the way that they've resolved that conflict is using some type of deadly force."
Logan also announced a program called "Cop Logic" that will allow citizens to report crimes over their personal computers and smartphones. It is scheduled to launch in the next 30 days.
Mayor Bing said he plans to sit down with DPS Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts to initiate a discussion on violence prevention and conflict resolution in the city's schools. The mayor stressed that education and community involvement would be paramount in addressing the city's recent upsurge in violence.
"There are things that are happening in homes and families in the communities and in the neighborhoods that whether a cop is there or not, it's not going to stop the crime," he said. "We've got to get it into the heads and the minds and hearts of our young people and it's going to take all of us to do that."
Thursday's press conference will be the first of a regular series of briefings on public safety in the city of Detroit, according to the mayor.
"We've just lost respect for each other -- for life," said Bing. "It's a terrible problem we're confronted with right now. It's going to take all of us to solve that problem."
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