COLORADO SPRINGS – A foster parent has been arrested in connection with the child-abuse death of a 2-year-old girl who suffered severe head injuries after she was thrown against a coffee table.
Jules Lynn Cuneo, 34, is being held without bail in connection with the death Wednesday of Alize Vick.
El Paso County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jeanette Whitney said Cuneo called 911 at 6:50 p.m. Tuesday and told a dispatcher a child was unconscious and breathing.
Later, in interviews with detectives, Cuneo said she was bouncing Alize on her lap when the child fell and struck her head and neck on the table, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Cuneo told detectives she “saw the child’s eyes go back into her head but she did not realize it was a bad injury,” the affidavit says.
Cuneo said she took Alize to the shower and sprayed water on her.
A detective challenged Cuneo about her story, saying he did not believe it. Then, Cuneo admitted that she “pushed the victim to the ground. Cuneo then explained that she had gotten angry with the victim when the victim would not talk to her,” the affidavit says.
She indicated that Alize fell from her lap and “that she also threw the victim and she struck the table a second time,” the affidavit says.
Alize Vick and her 9-month-old brother, Anthony, had been placed with Cuneo in early spring. Cuneo is a foster parent for Kid’s Crossing, a child-placement agency that contracts with the El Paso County Department of Human Services.
Asked when the last time a case worker visited the children in the home, Barbara Drake, director of DHS, said: “My understanding is it was fairly recently.”
A caseworker is required to visit the children at least once a month.
Drake said the child’s death is a “terrible, terrible tragedy” and that she intends to “turn over every stone” to prevent it from happening again.
The state will also conduct a review.
Drake said the department has turned over any complaint received about Cuneo’s home to sheriff’s investigators.
The Sheriff’s Office said a neighbor called the El Paso County Department of Human Services on May 8. The neighbor had picked up, on a baby monitor, the sound of a child screaming for someone to get off of her, that she couldn’t breathe.
“We have investigated all reports that we felt were credible,” Drake said.
Cuneo has twin daughters who are 7. The three children who remained in the home have been taken into protective custody.
Lee Oesterle, executive director of Kid’s Crossing, declined comment Thursday.
Erin Emery: 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com
