Prosecutor outline's toddler's horrific life with custodial dad (Hamilton County, Ohio)

I am perfectly willing to concede that this little boy's mother was probably not prepared to take care of him, given her mental health issues. However, I do question the pro-daddy bias that assumes that a young recreational sperm donor like JAMES LYONS is necessarily a good infant caregiver, and that the sperm donor should necessarily be next in line for custody. Why? Why not the grandmother or an aunt? Why not somebody who has experience in taking care of babies and has a proven track record of nurturing children? The new social assumption that young thugs, or rather Single Dads, should be or can be full-time infant caregivers is not borne out by research--whether it's biological, sociological, historical, or whatever. This is a false line that's been perpetuated by the fathers rights movement, and we're now seeing the carnage that has resulted from this horrific social policy.

But this is just one of those "tragic" isolated cases, you say? Not even in Hamilton County, my friend. At present, another custodial dad in the same county, CHRIS DANGERFIELD, is in jail for murdering his toddler son as well. Child protective services gave HIM custody too--despite a criminal history that included an assault on a police officer.

Are we seeing a pattern yet?

http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2011/01/judge-gives-criminal-father-custody-of.html
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2011/01/custodial-dad-son-both-face-death.html
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2011/02/dad-faces-death-penalty-for-beating.html

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110207/NEWS010702/102080321/Prosecutor-outlines-tot-s-horrific-life

Prosecutor outlines tot's horrific life
By Kimball Perry • kperry@enquirer.com • February 7, 2011

Jaden Jenkins was born to a mentally ill mother and a father with a potentially fatal disease. Then, his life got worse.

That was the opinion of Hamilton County prosecutors Monday as they seek to convict Jaden's father - James Lyons - of capital murder and impose the death penalty.

"What happened then was a life of abuse," Assistant Prosecutor Anne Flanagan told the three-judge panel hearing the case instead of a jury.

Lyons, 28, of North Avondale, is accused of beating his 19-month-old son to death Sept. 12 and then waiting 45 minutes - so he could clean up the mess the alleged killing caused - before taking the lifeless body to the hospital.

Jaden "was subjected to repeated beating, repeated abuse," said Flanagan.

Jaden was born, Flanagan said, to a mother who had issues herself.

When the mother checked herself in for mental health treatment, Flanagan said, Jaden began living with his father who suffers from sickle cell, a painful blood disorder that can be fatal.

Hamilton County's Department of Jobs & Family Services offered Lyons help with the child but, Flanagan said, he refused.

One of Lyon's attorneys, Dan Burke, admitted his client almost surely would be convicted in the guilt/innocence phase of the trial. "We aren't denying that James Lyons ... caused the injuries that caused Jaden's death," he said.

His goal, Burke admitted, is trying to save Lyon's life.

Prosecutors, though, will call several witnesses they expect will lay out a life of pain and suffering for the toddler.

A bone expert will testify, Flanagan said, that at least 11 of Jaden's ribs were broken during his life, some of them multiple times. The child had more than 45 fractures on his body when he died, she said.

"The little skull fractured in two places, consistent with being stomped," Flanagan said. "This little child's body had suffered."

When police asked Lyons how his son received such substantial injuries, Flanagan said Lyons gave several stories, all differing to fit the each new piece of evidence with which police confronted him.

Finally, she said, Lyons admitted beating the life out of his child so brutally that he knocked out two of his 19-month-old son's teeth.

Lyons admitted he punched his son four or five times to discipline him, Flanagan said.

When police asked him what Jaden did to deserve a deadly beating, Lyons responded "He was just playing with his toys," Flanagan said.

Lyons, who almost died last year from sickle cell while in custody, appeared in court in a wheelchair.

Common Pleas Court Judge Pat DeWine is presiding over the three-judge panel because the case initially was assigned to him.

When Lyons asked for the three-judge panel, Common Pleas Court Judges Melba Marsh and Jerome Metz were added.

The trial is expected to last much of the week.