At long last.. The Tiffini Springer Interview

Finally, after about a week long process of typing this out, I am bringing you the Tiffini Springer interview. Please remember that the veiws expressed here are Tiffini's and that we at the CCFHV are not taking sides in this issue one way or another. She simply wanted to tell her side of the story. The interview will be broke down into 2 parts. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow due to the length of the interview.

Tiffini Springer called us in January because she was concerned about the beating she was taking on the blog. She met us at McDonalds on Feb. 16. She appreciated a chance to tell people what happened and answer some questions about the things people are saying about her.


So, here we go with our first question.





Belinda: One of the issues out there is your relationship with J.C. It is believed that you still see him and are friends with him. Is that true?

Tiffini: I have a boyfriend. I have no contact with J.C. I only seen him once in the last 4 years and that was here just two or three months ago at Walmart. You know, I walked in. I didn't see him and the next thing I know he's yelling at me from behind me and you know, it was him and you know I don't have a fear of him, you know. I hate the man, but I don't have a fear of him because he has never threatened me physically to kill me or whatever, you know. I don't have a fear of him and he knows it. I just went on with what I was doing and he kept talking and telling me his whole life story that he is married and Blah! Blah! Blah! and I really don't care. He said something kind of profound to me about sexual advances and that's when I says "I don't have time for you!" and I walked away. But his wife and I had talked on myspace a lot, you know, and emailed back and forth. I told her what he had on, what he's done in the last six months, and what she had on that day.

Belinda: What'd she say?


Tiffini: She deleted her whole profile off myspace. And see, my boyfriend and I have been together for 2 and a half years. He knows everything there is to know about anything, you know, involving this case and he's been the only one actually supporting me trying to find more stuff out, you know.


Belinda: Let's go back to when it first happened. What actually happened to Dalton?


Tiffini: I had left. I had put them both, him and Morgan, both to bed. I left J.C., you know, he was on his drugs and I thought at the time that all he was doing was smoking weed. I didn't know anything about drugs. Never did until I met him and here it turns out he was doing more than that-you know-he was smoking crack and doing coke and something else. I don't even know. I left-he wanted me to go get him some Calzones. Well I called and ordered them at the Italo's in Glenmoor. You know, I knew the people that worked there. My daughter's grandmother worked there, Jane Sweeney. You know she wasn't working that night, but um, I can't remember the kid's name now. . . I went up and ordered two Calzones. I came back and J.C. told me in the time that I was gone Dalton fell out of bed. Well the bedroom has a sliding-it's just a sliding door. It was a two bedroom trailer, you know, they show the bedroom. Well, um, the door was slid open because I always left it open a crack, you know, just so there was a little bit of light going in there and the dog, you know we had a Boston Bull Terrier that slept in the bed with them. Well I went in and got my pajamas on and went out and was watching TV and I heard something in the bedroom. And I thought it was the dog chewing on something, you know. So I slid the door open a little bit more than when I first got home and he said Dalton fell. I didn't think nothing about it because, okay, he falls out of bed. I had a stuffed pillow. I think it was an elephant that he had. It was laying right by the bed. It was a toddler bed. I mean, toddler beds aren't that high. But if, you know, if he'd have fallen out of bed, I had them on both their beds and if he fell out it would be right where their head and shoulders would be. So I went in-got ready for bed-came out in the living room and was watching TV. I heard something like I said in the bedroom. I thought it was the dog chewing something, so I went and slid the door open you know, to get the dog out. And here I could see with the bed-hall light on that Dalton had puke on him. I went in and you know, and yelled at J.C. that he had puked and will admit that he wasn't responsive you know. I got him out of bed, trying to keep Morgan calmed down-took him out in the hallway,you know, trying to get him to respond to me and he wasn't. Rolled him on his side and everything else, thinking he was choking. He wasn't blue, you know, so I don't know if, you know, what exactly the problem was at the time, you know. Told J.C. to call 911. Well he ended up calling my mom. Told my mom to do it. And then my brother came up because my brother brought the ambulance back there and everything else. You know, I was in the fire department for years. A bunch of the guys that came were from Glenmore. I'd been friends with them for years. My friend Gale, it still devastates him to this day. He was one of the first responders. Well, um, the ambulance came and everything and you know, he was still breathing. It wasn't that he wasn't breathing on his own- he just wasn't responsive. And they took him to Liverpool Hospital and I took off. And the cops kept telling me I needed to stay because they needed to talk to me and I told them I says "You're not stopping me." You know, they wouldn't let me ride in the ambulance. They said it was a law or something and I couldn't do it. So I said fine. I followed you know. J.C. and I took off and went down and my Aunt and Uncle was there because they heard it on the scanner and they came up and um we went down to the hospital and I find out afterwards because my Aunt being a nurse down there- he flat lined three times on me at Liverpool Hospital. And then my cousin was in Life Flight and when they life flighted him to Pittsburgh she told me afterwards, she told me only a year ago, that they lost him twice on the way to the hospital. And when they got him up there they put him on these ventilators and everything else. You know I have reports of caseworkers out in Lisbon saying that I would not make any contact with Dalton. I would not touch him. I would not talk to him. I would not hold him. But the Doctors told me I couldn't. Every time I would touch him, you'd watch his brain activity raise. You know, they were trying to get the swelling down on his brain, so every time I would touch him or talk to him or anything you could watch it spike and they told me the best thing for me to do was not touch him. So I didn't. And about a week later that's when they um did a radio active some sorta-

Belinda: Where they put dye-

Tiffini: I think. Like I said, I have everything in files and folders and all that. But they put some sort of stuff on him to see if he had any brain activity and they said he didn't have any brain activity. I donated all of Dalton's organs that were usable. I think there was a five year old that got his heart. An Elderly guy and this woman got his liver. I felt better about that, you know, even though he's not here, he still lives on in somebody else.

Kim: That's news to us. We hadn't heard about that.

Tiffini: And that's what I am saying. People didn't know. J.C. would go home every day, but I only went home once. That was to go home and get clothes. It was the same day the state came in to take Morgan and Jordan. That was the only time I left. I came and was up there and I got a phone call and it was Tim, Dalton's biological father. And I, you know, was devastated I heard from him because I hadn't heard from him since the day I found out I was pregnant. Told him and he was gone. But um, he said he was going to come up and he came up. The following day they said "You know, Dalton's dad is here." and J.C. said "I'm Dalton's dad." and I was like "No you're not." Tim was there every day. J.C. came up to Tim and I in the lounge on either the 15th or 16th of November and told us that he was leaving. He told everyone, he told me he says "I'm leaving. Dad told me I need to com and speak to an attorney." "Why?" "I don't know." And that's the last time I seen him until the day of Dalton's funeral. He had the audacity to walk into the funeral home. And actually, I only seen his feet. He looked at Tim and told Tim "Take care of her. She needs your support." He disappeared.

Belinda: So he shows up at the funeral. Is he asked to leave?

Tiffini: I was told I could not keep him from the funeral. Dawson's down there told me it's a public place and they can't keep anybody out unless there's a restraining order. I didn't have a restraining order. So he was there, you know, all of his family members came in. His sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and his mom's boyfriend at the time all spoke to me, but no one in his immediate family even spoke to me. I told him I didn't really care. He showed up with his dad and his one cousin and when he showed up my Aunt and my best friend Paula stood there and wouldn't let me out of the chair cause I had jumped up to go after him and they kept me- were trying to keep me away from him. And a couple of the other guys that was there-Tim was there and a couple other friends of mine, they told him very politely to leave or they were going to throw him out, so he left shortly after that.

Belinda: And how did he act? Did you ever get reports from people?

Tiffini: No. Cause I really didn't want to know. I had nothing to do with him and you know, eventually, uh, him and I did try to, you know, it was mostly just because of the kids and we started getting visitation with Morgan and Jordan and him and I actually started talking again. And one thing lead to another and yes I did get-and I know Emma said on one of the blogs and she said it on myspace too that I felt it was a mistake. No, it was a mistake that I went back to him and did what I did, but it was never a mistake that I had Sammy. You know, but I had the courts telling me, or I had Children's Services telling me that there was a good possibility that I'd be able to keep Sammy because of the fact that they hadn't been able to find anything out with Dalton and they couldn't prove anything. The day I had him they came in and served me with papers saying they were taking him into protective custody. I didn't leave the hospital. J.C. went to the courts and told them he thought they'd be better off in foster care and not to be with any of their family members.

Belinda: And because he was the actual biological father, they listened to him? And because you were already being investigated by children's services.

Tiffini: You know he tried telling me that I said it was what I wanted. No. I was out there seeing if my family-my sister and her x-husband were willing to take all my kids on top of my nephew that they have, too. Just so they'd be with family members and not put in the system.

Kim: Didn't they end up with a relative of his?

Tiffini: Ya. His 3rd or 4th cousin. And I read in the paper where she, you know, put her husband on charges of domestic violence charges, and she wrecked one of her vehicles while she was out drinking one night.

Belinda: You told me once before that you didn't want to believe that J.C. had anything to do with this. What do you think happened? What do you really think happened?

Tiffini: Now I believe he did. I mean, at the time, I never wanted to believe- I mean he was the man I was married to that I loved that I thought could never hurt my kids. I did tell them that I personally seen him with them. He was good with them. But, you know, then I got to thinking about it more and more afterwards, you know, every time I would leave, they would not want me to leave, you know. My cousin stopped one day and they threw a fit because Ashley and Jenna were leaving the house you know, and I never thought nothing about it. Here it turns out he was being mean with them and you know, stuff like that. I never seen it. I never seen it and that's why I told them at the court house that I never seen him hit them, you know. Ya, verbally correcting them is one thing. I never seen him hit them.

Kim: Were you a truck driver before you met him?