"When you have multiple reports of abuse, no matter what the child's history, alarms should go off," said former New York State Commissioner of Social Services Barbara Blum, chief of the Research Forum at Columbia University's National Center for Children in Poverty. Gov. Mitt Romney also raised questions about the care.

At a news conference yesterday at DSS headquarters, Commissioner Harry Spence said some of the 16 reports of abuse concerning Haleigh Poutre of Westfield were made at his department's insistence, despite medical opinion that they may not have been necessary.

But multiple DSS investigators, a licensed social worker who saw Haleigh weekly and four psychiatrists all made the nearly fatal error of believing that the girl's injuries were self-inflicted, Spence said. The reason, he said, was that Haleigh had been traumatized by abuse in her prior home, and that her adoptive mother, Holli Strickland, was an effective liar.

Child Should Have Been Monitored

Blum rejected that argument, saying she would have placed Haleigh in a treatment facility where the child could have been monitored around the clock. "Even if you believe these wounds are self- inflicted," she said, "then there's no reason to believe the average adoptive or foster home would be equipped to deal with her."

DSS came to that conclusion last year, even arranging a visit to a facility in the week before Haleigh was pummeled into a coma -- allegedly by Strickland, now deceased, and her husband, Jason, now jailed. But the medical team treating her "objected strenuously," Spence said. "They asked, and urged, that we stop the investigations because they were upsetting her and, they believed, impeding her progress."

Asked about DSS' performance, Romney said, "Clearly, there were mistakes made with respect to the events that occurred prior to Haleigh Poutre's hospitalization."

Phil Coltoff, who headed the Children's Aid Society for 25 years, said: "We have to be willing to risk offending the parents and going against the wishes even of the child, and err on the side of safety. Apologies can be made later. Excuses don't bring back a child."

Showing Some Responses

Haleigh remained in critical but stable condition yesterday at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. On Tuesday, the state's highest court ruled that DSS could remove her from life support. But yesterday, Spence said he had no immediate plans to do so.

Earlier this week, a DSS spokeswoman said Haleigh had shown "some responses that doctors felt warranted further investigation."