Suspect focused on getting her kids
back
November 18, 2006
By CARRI GEER THEVENOT
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Melanie Ochs may stand accused of
murdering her foster child, but on Friday her focus was on reuniting
with her two surviving children.
"I love my children, and I would do
anything to get them back," Ochs said during a brief interview.
Moments earlier, Ochs entered a
no-contest plea in Family Court to a petition alleging child abuse
and neglect. The petition specifically involved allegations that she
physically abused or improperly supervised the infant known as "Baby
Boy Charles," her 7-month-old foster child, who died Aug. 4, and
that she neglected all her children by having a messy house.
Ochs, 38, entered the plea during a
closed hearing before Juvenile Hearing Master Frank Sullivan. She
was joined by her mother, Ann, and her husband, Laurence Tokarski.
Defense attorney Robert Langford
said Ochs decided to enter the no-contest plea, rather than proceed
with a trial, "because it was the quickest way of beginning the
process of getting the kids back." Abuse and neglect trials in
Family Court are civil proceedings in which government attorneys
need only prove their case by a preponderance of the evidence.
Ochs' own children, a 2-year-old
daughter and a 3-year-old adopted son, were taken from her custody
when Child Protective Services began investigating the infant's
death.
Langford said the children are
considered wards of the court, but Tokarski has had physical custody
of them since early October.
Ochs said she has not seen her
children since her Oct. 5 arrest on a charge of first-degree murder,
although she talks to them daily by telephone.
"We just told them that I had to go
on a business trip," she said. "They don't understand."
Her murder trial is scheduled to
begin May 14 in District Court.
Langford said Ochs, who is on house
arrest, was released on bail about a month ago. She has rented an
apartment and is looking for a job. Meanwhile, her mother is living
with Tokarski and helping care for the children.
Ochs hopes she soon will be granted
supervised visits with her children, Langford said.
The attorney said Sullivan
appointed a psychiatrist Friday to evaluate the children. Ochs must
return to Family Court on Dec. 7.
"The children are currently being
seen by another psychiatrist dealing with separation anxiety,"
Langford said.
He said the children will continue
seeing that psychiatrist, who is being paid by Ochs and her husband.
When asked how she and her husband
are coping with the ordeal, which has led to a forced separation of
their family, Ochs said, "It's strengthening our marriage, but it's
destroying our children."
Authorities determined that the
infant's death was caused by blunt force trauma to the head that was
not accidental.
According to her arrest report,
Ochs called 911 on Aug. 2 after she found the infant not breathing
in his crib at her home on Dune Cove Road, near Sahara Avenue and
Fort Apache Road. He died two days later in the hospital.
Langford has said his client is
innocent but has declined to explain his defense.
"This is a person who's never had a
traffic ticket," the attorney said.
Ochs said she studied child
development in college and taught preschool for 16 years in San
Diego and Las Vegas. She also worked for the Clark County School
District as a substitute teacher for two years.
"There were schools that requested
me constantly," she said. "I was always booked."
Ochs said she and her husband, who
have been married for seven years, moved to Las Vegas in the summer
of 2000. She said they cared for 13 foster children, including the
one they adopted, over a three-year period.
"Typically, we had newborn drug
babies," she said.
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