Derek Cooper was just 2 years old when his father, Brandon Fraley, put his hands over the crying toddler’s mouth “until the child was silent,” according to a state file on the case. “The love and laughter that once surrounded our family has disappeared and in its place a heavy fog of despair has settled,” Jessica Wall, the boy’s mother, wrote in a victim impact statement when Fraley was sentenced to 10 years in prison. According to the social services case file on Derek, which the Lexington Herald-Leader obtained through a court order, there was a previous allegation of domestic violence by Fraley in 2006 that was unsubstantiated by social workers. There also were other previous reports involving Fraley when he was a child.  READ MORE HERE