Adoption of Larry

A judge in the Boston Juvenile Court awarded temporary custody of three and one-half month old Larry to the Department of Social Services (department) on its care and protection petition, filed in December, 1997, after the department substantiated a report filed pursuant to G. L. c. 119, § 51A, by health care providers at Children’s Hospital in Boston that Larry was suffering from shaken baby syndrome and that Larry’s parents were his sole caretakers at the time the abuse was inflicted. In April, 1999, the department obtained leave to amend its petition to add a prayer for termination of…