Latest news with #DanielSpencer
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
TPD, Florida DCF refuse to release records involving Missy Mogle abuse investigations
The two public agencies that dismissed allegations 5-year-old Missy Mogle was molested by her stepfather nearly a year before her murder refuse to hand over any documents related to the investigations. In their denials, both the Tallahassee Police Department and the Florida Department of Children and Families cited laws designed in part to protect the rights of their parents or caregivers. In Missy's case, that includes her stepfather and mother, Daniel and Chloe Spencer — both of whom are charged in her murder. However, Florida's child welfare law includes a provision allowing 'any person or organization,' including DCF itself to petition the court for an order that would open DCF's records on Missy Mogle's abuse case to public scrutiny. 'Floridians have the right to expect transparency and accountability from DCF – especially when a child's death or serious injury is linked to abuse or neglect,' said Robin Rosenberg, deputy director of Florida's Children First, a nonprofit based in Boca Raton. INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: 'Destined to fail': 5-year-old's murder exposes cracks in Florida child protection system In July 2024, the Tallahassee Police Department and the Florida Department of Children and Families responded to the apartment where Missy resided after she told loved ones that her stepfather choked her and touched her genitals. TPD, in consultation with the State Attorney's Office, ended its investigation without making an arrest because of a lack of probable cause. DCF closed its investigation the same month it came in. According to confidential DCF documents obtained by the Democrat, the agency did so because Missy's mother had signed a power of attorney agreement for her to live with a close family friend and have no contact with her stepfather. Several months later, Missy went back to live with Daniel and Chloe Spencer at their Southwood residence. She died May 19 after she lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital with signs of severe abuse. After her death, the Democrat requested a TPD police report referenced in court documents pertaining to its sex abuse investigation of Daniel Spencer. TPD declined the public records request in its entirety, citing Marsy's Law, the constitutional amendment that grants privacy and other rights to crime victims and their families, and Florida Statute 119.071(2)(h). That section makes any information that reveals the identity of victims of child abuse or sex offenses confidential. TPD also cited Marsy's Law when it declined to identify Chole and Daniel Spencer in the hours after their arrest on aggravated child abuse and neglect charges in Missy's death. Alicia Hill, a TPD spokeswoman, told the Democrat July 18 that the department considers any case involving the sexual abuse of a child, either living or dead, totally exempt from Florida' public records laws. But Barbara Petersen, executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, said TPD is supposed to redact any exempt information from their reports, like names, and release the rest. 'They're not protecting the rights of the child,' Petersen said. 'The child is dead. They're protecting the parents. And are they protecting themselves? They investigated this. It makes no sense for them to invoke all of these laws that protect the identity of the victim when that victim is a child and she's dead as a result of child abuse.' Miguel Nevarez, DCF press secretary, told the Democrat in a July 16 email about Missy Mogle records that 'information specific to this case is confidential per section 39.202, Florida Statutes.' That statute says that 'in order to protect the rights of the child and the child's parents or other persons responsible for the child's welfare,' all records concerning reports of child abuse are confidential and exempt from public records laws. Rosenberg, a board certified juvenile lawyer, said that in 2014, Florida enacted a statute requiring public disclosure relating to child deaths. It also required DCF to disclose child deaths on its website. 'We hope that DCF will continue its long-standing practice of fully embracing transparency and accountability when children die or are seriously injured and there is an allegation of abuse or neglect,' Rosenberg said. Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@ or 850-599-2180. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: TPD, DCF block release of records involving Missy Mogle investigations
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
'Destined to fail': 5-year-old's murder exposes cracks in Florida child protection system
Pepper Mogle saw her granddaughter Missy for the last time at the Leon County Courthouse, where the 5-year-old's allegedly abusive stepfather was on trial after his arrest in an undercover child sex sting. Mogle's daughter, Chloe Spencer, who is Missy's mom, called April 15 to say the little girl was hungry. Mogle showed up with a Happy Meal from McDonald's — and a message of hope that she whispered into Missy's ear. 'I told her that I loved her,' she said. 'I kept giving her kisses and told her that I was trying everything I could to get her home.' But Missy never made it back to her grandparents' house in Wakulla County, where she was showered with love and attention for years before Chloe Spencer, 23, and her husband, 35-year-old Daniel Spencer, got custody of her. Just weeks later, on May 19, after police said she suffered severe abuse at Daniel and Chloe Spencer's home in an affluent Tallahassee neighborhood, Missy lost consciousness, was rushed to the hospital and died. Her mother and stepfather were arrested the same day and indicted July 21 on first-degree murder charges. The pair could face the death penalty, prosecutors say. Her death sparked an outpouring of grief in Florida's capital city and raised mounting questions about how the state's child welfare system, the courts, police and others might have failed to protect her. A judge's decision not to jail Daniel Spencer after he was found guilty in the earlier sex sting — which left him free on bond just before the murder — led to harsh criticism from State Attorney Jack Campbell and prompted Attorney General James Uthmeier to propose a new law in Missy's honor. Missy's demise coincided with a big drop in Florida in the number of kids placed in foster care because of abuse, abandonment or neglect — a statistic Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration has touted but that troubles some in the child protection field. It also overlapped with a decline in Leon County of child protective investigators, who play a crucial role on the front lines of abuse cases, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families' Office of Child Welfare dashboard. Missy's loved ones, including Pepper Mogle and her husband, Andy Mogle, blame police and DCF for not doing more after getting complaints last year that Daniel Spencer molested her. The state agency could have taken the allegations to a dependency judge — a routine step in sex abuse cases — but instead signed off on a questionable solution that was designed to keep Missy away from her stepfather but wound up sending her right back to him. According to confidential DCF documents obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat and the USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida, the agency OK'd an arrangement in which Chloe Spencer gave Missy to a family friend with a simple power-of-attorney agreement that Chloe could revoke at any time. 'It was destined to fail,' said Robert Latham, an attorney, child welfare expert and associate director of the Children & Youth Law Clinic at the University of Miami. 'Something bad is going to happen' At the time of her death, Missy was living with her mother and stepfather, their three other young children and a retired doctor who owned the home in Tallahassee and was like an adoptive father to Daniel Spencer, according to court records. But Missy grew up mostly in Wakulla County with Pepper and Andy Mogle. They got temporary custody of her before her first birthday after they said their daughter, a rebellious 17-year-old, showed no interest in raising her. In 2023, when Missy was 3, Chloe Spencer filed to regain custody in the courts, which operate under the long-standing presumption that children should be raised by their parents. General Magistrate Dina Foster, who heard the case in Wakulla County, found Chloe Spencer was 'no longer unfit' and that there were no issues then related to DCF, safety plans or injunctions. Foster wrote that Daniel Spencer, who worked at Publix, demonstrated 'stability' and didn't abuse alcohol or drugs. She noted, however, worries expressed by the grandparents. 'The petitioners testify they are concerned about the mother becoming unstable again and a proper transition plan,' she wrote. 'The petitioners expressed concern that Mr. Spencer has been abusive to mother in the past.' After a July 10, 2023, hearing, Foster ruled in favor of Chloe Spencer, writing that she and her parents agreed a transition plan was in Missy's "best interests." Circuit Judge J. Layne Smith approved the recommended order. Pepper Mogle said the rulings came despite warnings from her in open court. 'I said, 'I give you six months of Chloe having that baby that something bad is going to happen,' ' she said. No recording of that hearing exists because of a technical problem, which necessitated another hearing a week later in which all parties stipulated they didn't want to rehear the case. During that hearing, Pepper Mogle asked the court to allow her to keep custody of Missy and only allow visitations until "the bond is there" between Missy and her mother. But Chloe Spencer got Missy back on Feb. 3, 2024, the Mogles said in a court filing. A couple days after that, Chloe Spencer gave Missy to Paig Carnahan, a friend who served with Andy Mogle, a retired Army mechanic, in the second Persian Gulf War. She also signed a power of attorney so Carnahan, described as a "maternal aunt" in DCF records, could take Missy to a doctor if needed. Less than two weeks later, on Feb. 16, 2024, Daniel Spencer got arrested after traveling to meet who he thought was a 15-year-old girl but was actually a cop. That prompted Chloe Spencer to modify the power of attorney specifying Missy wouldn't have contact with her stepfather, Pepper Mogle said. Days after Daniel Spencer's arrest, Missy's grandparents filed a petition in their family court case for emergency custody of Missy. Judge Smith denied it because the custody case was already closed. "The petitioners may want to report their concerns to the Florida Department of Children and Families," Smith wrote in a Feb. 21, 2024, order. "The petitioners may institute a case by filing a new petition that seeks temporary custody of their grandchild." Pepper and Andy Mogle heeded Smith's order and filed a new petition several months later ― after hearing disturbing new allegations about Daniel Spencer. Missy said she was abused, but it wasn't enough as investigators scrutinized her story In July 2024, the Mogles got a phone call from Carnahan saying they needed to get to her place right away. On the ride up, they got another call from someone saying Daniel Spencer molested Missy. 'I said I want DCF and the police department waiting for me when I get there,' Andy Mogle said. The Mogles found out that Missy, then 4, told one of Carnahan's roommates, and later others, that Daniel Spencer put his hands around her throat while touching her private parts. She recounted the story herself to her grandparents, who said the abuse allegedly happened during overnight visitations. 'She said he's touching me down below and choking me,' Andy Mogle said. Andy Mogle said he called police, who arrived soon after, followed by a DCF investigator. Officers spoke with Carnahan and Missy but not the Mogles, the couple said. Later, Missy met with police a few times, but they expressed doubts about the allegation. 'They kept saying Missy was all over the place with what she was saying,' Pepper Mogle said. 'They (said) she was coached into saying it.' Both DCF and the Tallahassee Police Department ended their investigations without taking any apparent further action. Campbell, whose office consulted with TPD, said the only evidence was testimony from someone too young to know the truth from lies – not enough for probable cause. TPD refused to release any record pertaining to its molestation investigation, citing Marsy's Law. DCF also refused to release records, citing Florida statutes. Pepper Mogle said she, her husband and others made numerous calls to DCF's abuse hotline. According to DCF's confidential court filing, the agency ended its investigation the same month it came in. 'The Department's investigation closed because the mother had signed a power of attorney for the child to live with her maternal aunt and agreed that (Daniel Spencer) should not have any contact with her child,' DCF said in the court filing. Missy goes back to her mother and stepfather in Tallahassee Pepper Mogle said Chloe Spencer tore that agreement up shortly after the investigations closed. In September, Carnahan returned Missy to the Spencers because she was leaving the state. And while Carnahan said she and others pleaded with DCF to take action, Missy wound up in the same Southwood neighborhood home in Tallahassee where prosecutors said Daniel and Chloe Spencer suffocated and tortured her. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges. In July 2024, Pepper and Andy Mogle filed a new petition in Wakulla County seeking custody of Missy. A hearing was set for January 2025 but got canceled. Over the ensuing weeks and months, Pepper Mogle called and texted her lawyer, William Stephen Black II of Tallahassee, repeatedly about the need to set a new court date. Black did not return a phone call or email from the Democrat. "Have you heard anything?" she asked her lawyer at one point. "I'm trying to touch base with you," she said another time. On April 15, 2025, the same day Pepper Mogle last saw her granddaughter Missy at the courthouse, Daniel Spencer was found guilty for traveling to a meet a minor. At the end of his one-day trial, Assistant State Attorney Jasmine Mattear asked Leon Circuit Judge Tiffany Baker-Carper to jail Daniel Spencer while he awaited sentencing. The prosecutor didn't mention the earlier molestation allegation against Spencer, though it's unclear whether she was aware of it. Baker-Carper announced she wasn't going to incarcerate him because he had been out of jail on bond for a year without any violations and had no violent criminal history. "You're free to enlighten the court if I've missed something," the judge told the prosecutor before Spencer left the courthouse a free man. A week before Daniel Spencer's trial, a hearing date for Pepper and Andy Mogle's petition to get Missy back was set for June 3, 2025, nearly a year after they filed it. By then, Missy was dead. The problem with 'power of attorney' Latham, the University of Miami professor, said DCF agreed to an 'out of home, non-judicial" placement for Missy, meaning she was allowed to live with someone else without the oversight of a judge. He said such an arrangement might work in certain situations, like a parent who is on drugs but getting help. 'I can imagine a scenario where it makes sense – just not for a sex abuse case,' he said. 'That's the part that I find the most offensive. They should have gone ahead with a judicial case.' Latham said a DCF safety plan, which prescribes a course of action to keep a child from harm, shouldn't have relied on a power of attorney involving an 'aunt,' who in Missy's case was not a blood relative. Instead, DCF could have helped the family file what's known as a Chapter 751 case to officially give custody to a relative. 'That way the people involved could not unilaterally return the child,' he said. 'They would have to go to court and have the judge approve the return. That would have been an extra level of safety. But in a sex abuse case where the mother lives with the perpetrator ... I think even that would have been a stretch.' Robin Rosenberg, deputy director of Florida's Children First, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group, said DCF's safety plan is supposed to go through various reviews at set intervals. She agreed it isn't appropriate to use a power of attorney in a case involving a sexual abuse allegation. 'A power of attorney gives the caregiver the authority to obtain services for a child, but does not preclude a parent from having custody of a child," Rosenberg said. DCF itself recognized the inherent dangers of relying on a power of attorney in abuse cases. In a 2010 memo, Alan Abramowitz, state director of DCF's Family Safety Program Office, said child protective staff should not use power of attorney as a safety action. 'If during a protective investigation, the non-custodial caregiver has a power of attorney and the return of the child to the parent does not place a child at risk, this is a lawful use of a power of attorney,' he wrote. 'However, child protective staff should not consider this decision in their overall safety action determination and shall proceed as if there is no power of attorney where the safety of the child is of concern.' DCF issued a short statement about Missy's death in a July 16 email to the Tallahassee Democrat and USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida but said it couldn't go into details about the case. 'The Florida Department of Children and Families investigates all child deaths related to allegations of abuse, neglect, or abandonment in close coordination with law enforcement,' the agency said. 'Information specific to this case is confidential per section 39.202, Florida Statutes.' DCF's Child Fatality Prevention Program website showed 257 child fatalities so far this year in Florida but only three from "inflicted trauma," not including Missy's case. The leading causes were drowning, at 27%, sleep-related, at 9%, and natural, at 7%. 'It could have been prevented' On the morning Missy died, Robert Frable, the retired doctor who lived with the Spencers, heard a loud crash in her bedroom. Daniel Spencer claimed a camera had fallen over, but Frable doubted that because the noise was so loud. About a half hour later, Spencer came to him carrying Missy's limp body, according to police reports. Frable was performing CPR when first responders arrived. Investigators said it appeared Daniel Spencer was on 'illicit narcotics' when he spoke to them. Her loved ones said he was a meth user. Missy had injuries 'from head to toe,' including bruises in various stages of healing, cuts on her face, ligature marks around her wrists and burns on all of her fingers, according to police and DCF reports. Investigators also found surveillance video from Missy's bedroom. 'Evidence reviewed ... depicts hours of Daniel physically abusing Melissa by hitting her, violently pulling her arms, shoving her face into a bed, binding her feet and hands together, and covering her with pillows and comforters,' an arrest report says. DCF's website says a "special review" of Missy's case is in progress and that "causal factors" are under investigation. In the days following her death, State Attorney Campbell blasted Baker-Carper's decision, saying if Daniel Spencer had been in jail after his conviction of a child sex crime, "I'd have a 5-year-old who had a lot more life to live." In June, Attorney General Uthmeier proposed 'Missy's Law,' which would prohibit the release of defendants after they have been convicted of a sex crime. He said Missy's case was so tragic because 'it could have been prevented.' The Mogles also believe Missy's murder was avoidable if someone had listened to them. Pepper Mogle said after DCF closed its molestation investigation, the agency never checked up on Missy again. But it wasn't the last time DCF heard about the Spencers or their kids. On Oct. 31, 2024, Chloe Spencer called police alleging Daniel Spencer shoved her into a wall the night before during an argument. Although no arrest was made, TPD filed an online report with DCF as required because children were home during the incident. All the Mogles have left now are their photographs and memories of Missy, who loved ballet, playing with her dog Daisy and doting on children smaller than herself. 'DCF should have followed up,' Pepper Mogle said, 'and done the right thing by staying in touch and keeping my baby safe.' On July 11, Pepper Mogle called the Leon County Detention Facility to get word to her daughter about a different death in the family. To her surprise, Chloe Spencer was allowed to call back. Mogle put her on speaker phone. "I told her we do love her and that we wish that she would have reached out to us and let us have the baby back," Pepper Mogle said. "And she started crying, and she says, 'I know Mama, I'm sorry.'" Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@ or 850-599-2180. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Missy Mogle murder and abuse case: A Florida system failure
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Mother and stepfather of girl who died after alleged abuse charged with murder
The mother and stepfather of a 5-year-old girl who died after they allegedly subjected her to horrendous abuse have been charged with murder. Daniel Spencer, 35, and Chloe Spencer, 23, were arrested on aggravated battery of a child and other charges on the day of Missy Mogle's death. They pleaded not guilty and were ordered held in the Leon County Detention Facility without bond. On Monday, May 27, Assistant State Attorney Adrian Mood filed an information upgrading their charges to second-degree murder. "The autopsy hasn't been completed yet, but we've discussed with law enforcement and the medical examiner, and based on what we've received, the cause of death is homicide," Mood told the Tallahassee Democrat. Tallahassee police were called to the Spencers' home in Southwood on the morning of May 19 after Missy Mogle stopped breathing, according to arrest reports. She was taken to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, where she was pronounced dead. Missy was found with injuries 'from head to toe,' including ligature marks around her wrists and burns on her fingers, according to a confidential Florida Department of Children and Families report obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat. Officers seized memory cards from in-home surveillance cameras showing Daniel Spencer hitting Missy and binding her hands and feet together, according to arrest reports. Missy's loved ones said she was raised by her grandparents in Wakulla County for most of her life before a judge granted custody to Chloe Spencer. The Spencers were residing at a house owned by a retired Tallahassee physician, who alerted investigators to the surveillance cameras. Both Chloe Spencer and Daniel Spencer are scheduled to have pretrial detention hearings, though on different dates and before different judges. Chloe Spencer will appear May 30 before Leon Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh; Daniel Spencer will appear June 6 before Leon Circuit Judge Tiffany Carper-Baker. Check back with for more on this developing new story. Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@ or 850-599-2180. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee stepfather, mom charged with murder in girl's abuse death
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Yahoo
NYC man, his dad kill mom's new boyfriend — and she helped, prosecutors say
A Manhattan man teamed up with his father to shoot his mother's new fiancé to death — and the mother helped cover up the murder, prosecutors said Monday. Khaeir Spencer, 20, and Daniel Spencer, 47, pleaded not guilty to murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon, while Tetikwa Horace, 42, pleaded not guilty to charges of hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence in Manhattan Supreme Criminal Court, according to court records. David Brown, 43, was fatally shot in the torso and leg on Dec. 14 by two masked men in the apartment he shared with Horace in NYCHA's Polo Grounds Towers in Harlem. Medics rushed him to Harlem Hospital but he could not be saved. Investigators later retrieved video footage from the building on Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 155th St. just before the fatal shooting, showing Horace going into the apartment with her mother and stepfather just minutes before two masked men enter the unit, according to a criminal complaint. Horace then left with the older couple, removing something from the door frame as she went, according to court papers. Video showed the masked men remained inside for about two minutes before running from the building, while Brown emerged from the apartment 'appearing to be injured and asking for help,' according to a criminal complaint. Prosecutors said images of the men taken before they put on masks were recognized to be Daniel Spencer and Khaeir Spencer. 'As alleged, this father-son duo murdered David Brown in his own home,' said District Attorney Bragg. 'Disturbingly, Mr. Brown's girlfriend – the mother of one of the accused – allegedly helped by tampering with evidence and hindering the prosecution of this case. We will seek full accountability for this terrible act of gun violence,' Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Monday. When Horace was interviewed by detectives the night of Brown's murder, she said there had been a Ring camera attached to the door frame, but it had not been there that day and she did not take it, according to court papers. Cops arrested Daniel Spencer in Manhattan on Jan. 16. He pleaded not guilty to charges the following month. After fleeing Manhattan, Khaeir Spencer was arrested March 4 in Sullivan County. Cellphone records revealed Horace's phone had gone from New York City to Sullivan County the day after Daniel Spencer was arrested, said court papers. During a police interview in March, Horace maintained she did not let her ex and her son into the apartment, did not take the Ring camera the night of the murder and did not travel to Sullivan County. Horace was arrested March 17. A tenant on the same floor where the murder took place told the Daily News after the shooting that she returned from Christmas shopping with her mother to see a group of police officers and crime scene tape blocking off part of their hallway. 'We never had something like that happen on our floor, so finding that out, it actually scared us and shocked us because we didn't know who it was,' the tenant said. Daniel Spencer and Khaeir Spencer are being held without bail on Rikers Island while Horace was released. With Emma Seiwell
