Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / February 2006

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060215/NEWS06/602150351

Boy's death leads to inquiry
State agency chief promises a review

February 15, 2006

Email this Print this BY JACK KRESNAK

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Ricky Holland
The director of the Michigan Department of Human Services pledged
Tuesday to review every action made by the agency's child welfare
workers involved in the case of Ricky Holland, the 7-year-old
Williamston boy whose skeletal remains were found in an Ingham County
field last month.

Ricky's adoptive parents, Timothy and Lisa Holland, are charged with
open murder in his death. Each accuses the other of killing the boy
last summer, according to the Ingham County Sheriff's Department.

A transcript of a previously suppressed Feb. 7 hearing in 55th District
Court in Mason shows that detectives investigating Ricky's
disappearance learned that several reports had been made to the Child
Protective Services division of the human services department, alleging
that Ricky and his siblings were being maltreated.

"School personnel suspected physical and mental abuse by the parents,
Tim and Lisa Holland," Detective Sgt. Roy Holliday testified at the
hearing.

"Evidence of parental abuse -- both physical and mental -- were
reported to protective services. Evidence of parental interference with
normal development, evidence of food deprivation, evidence of
intentional and continued humiliation of Ricky Holland by his parents
... became evident during the investigation."

The Hollands inappropriately used diapers and restraints on Ricky,
including restraints used on the school bus and a harness or a leash,
Holliday testified.

The detective also said that Lisa Holland sent Ricky to school with
"carrot sandwiches daily, when it was known that he did not like
carrots."

Holliday said that the Hollands, who lived in Jackson County before
moving to Williamston in Ingham County last June, frequently told
authorities that Ricky was emotionally unstable or mentally ill.

School personnel, who are required by Michigan law to report suspected
child maltreatment to Child Protective Services, also noticed frequent
bruises and marks on Ricky, as well as "constant humiliations" of the
boy, according to Holliday.

The transcript was released Monday by 55th District Judge Rosemarie
Aquilina in response to a request by the Lansing State Journal and
WILX-TV, a Lansing television station. The case attracted publicity
because the Hollands initially claimed that Ricky had run away from
home. Dozens of police officers and volunteers searched for him for 10
days in July.

After Lisa Holland was charged with domestic assault in late January,
the couple's story about Ricky's disappearance crumbled. Tim Holland,
who said his wife beat Ricky with a hammer, led police to his body. It
was wrapped in a garbage bag in a field in Leroy Township.

Based on Holliday's Feb. 7 testimony, the Hollands were charged with
murder. They face a Feb. 28 preliminary examination and are jailed in
lieu of $1 million bonds.

The release of the Feb. 7 transcript prompted the director of the human
services department, Marianne Udow, to issue a statement Tuesday that
"We are committed to doing whatever needs to be done to keep children
like Ricky and his siblings safe."

Udow also called news reports about Child Protective Services' actions
"entirely premature and irresponsible."