Custodial dad, step on trial for abusing 20-month-old son (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

Another classic case where the media has totally erased the mother with nary a word of explanation. This baby is less than 20 months of age, and Daddy has already married somebody other than the baby's mother. Just what is it that happened here? How or why did he get custody? Is the mother still alive? We don't know. Utter silence. An abusive father gaining custody apparently doesn't even require an explanation anymore, does it? That's how common it has become. 

But we hear that the baby is now in the custody of the maternal grandmother. Maternal grandmother as in the mother of the mother? Or do we mean mother of the step? Even at this point, we don't clarify what happened to the mother and why she doesn't have custody. 

We just walk around that big old elephant in the room as if it wasn't there, don't we?

Daddy is identified as STEVEN STAGGS. 

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Child-abuse-suspects-get-separate-trials-3911696.php

Child abuse suspects get separate trials

Updated 8:19 a.m., Tuesday, October 2, 2012

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A state judge has ruled that a Baton Rouge couple accused of abusing their 20-month-old son in 2009, including allegedly leaving a burn mark from a fork on his body, will be tried separately, over a prosecutor's objections.

The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/QJUVZe) Steven Staggs, 29, the boy's father, and Charlotte Staggs, 25, the child's stepmother, are scheduled to stand trial Oct. 22 on one count each of second-degree cruelty to a juvenile, which carries up to 40 years in prison.

Prosecutor Charles Grey said he is inclined to try Charlotte Staggs first, on Oct. 22. Steven Staggs would be tried at a later date that has not been set.

Grey argued at a hearing Monday that Steven and Charlotte Staggs do not have "antagonistic defenses" and should be tried together.

"Severance is not warranted," he told state District Judge Mike Erwin.

Charlotte Staggs' attorney, Stephen Sterling, countered that antagonistic defenses are anticipated, which he said warrants the couple being tried separately.

"It would prejudice both (defendants) if they try this case together," Sterling argued in support of his motion to sever the prosecution of the couple.

"I'd rather err on the side of severance," Erwin said. "One of them's going to blame the other for sure."

Steven and Charlotte Staggs previously rejected the state's offer to plead guilty in exchange for 25-year prison terms, East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III has said.

East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies arrested the couple Aug. 28, 2009, after deputies were called to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center to investigate a suspected child abuse case, an affidavit of probable cause said.

Grey has said the boy is in the custody of his maternal grandmother.