Report: NM mom charged in child’s death was abused

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - An Albuquerque woman charged with kicking her 9-year-old son to death was a victim of abuse herself, a 2009 report said.

According to an application for an Emergency Order of Protection, Synthia Varela-Casaus was hit, choked, bitten and almost thrown off a balcony by Marnyle Barnes, the Albuquerque Journal reports (https://goo.gl/vGiKU8).

The application signed by Albuquerque police and filed in state District Court in March 2009 also said Barnes struck Varela “with a full beer and bit her on the face” and “bit her fingers.”

Barnes later pleaded guilty to aggravated battery against a household member and other charges, online records showed. Barnes and Varela-Casaus have a child together, the document said.

He was sentenced to six months in jail and 30 months of supervised probation and was ordered into counseling for anger management. He apparently violated his probation, which was revoked, and he spent an additional 151 days in jail.

Varela-Casaus, 38, was indicted last month on various charges, including child abuse resulting in death. Her son, Omaree Varela, was found dead in December.

Advocates have said the state’s child welfare agency and Albuquerque police failed the boy by not removing him from his home after receiving reports of abuse and previous calls to his home.

Earlier this month, two officers were placed on administrative leave after it was discovered that they went to the boy’s home in June to respond to a 911 call in which a dispatcher overheard threatening, profane and abusive comments.

Omaree Varela is not mentioned in the 2009 application, and it was not clear if he was in the home at the time of the alleged beatings.

It’s not clear where the other two children of Varela-Casaus are now living, although a spokesman for the state Children, Youth and Families Department has said they were immediately removed from the home and placed in a safe environment after Omaree’s death.

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Information from: Albuquerque Journal, https://www.abqjournal.com