Custodial dad pleads guilty to "felony neglect" in torture murder of 13-year-old son (Crown Point, Indiana)

WHAT!!!

This piece of sh** is only guilty of "felony neglect"??? A child who was subjected to torture and was finally murdered by his custodial father RILEY CHOATE? A man who gained (and maintained) custody under very suspicious circumstances?

This is a total outrage. Let's review the past history. See here, here, and here for additional background information.

Here are the FACTS about RILEY CHOATE, the dad that therapist Angie Cleveland found "supportive" and "kind" and "patient." The father who received FULL CUSTODY based on Cleveland's delusional evaluation:

* Interviews with the children WHO ACTUALLY LIVED IN THE HOUSE said that Daddy and the step were abusive and dangerous. In fact, abuse claims were SUBSTANTIATED the YEAR BEFORE Daddy got custody. But Daddy got custody anyway! Thanks to clueless morons like Cleveland who gave more weight to spin and illusion than the parent's actual track record.

* Evidence strongly suggests at this point that this "kind" daddy kept this boy locked in a cage, cut him off from his mother or contact with any other human beings outside Daddy's hellhole of a home, beat him, tortured him, starved him, and finally murdered him.

*  Choate had a criminal record of charges including battery, auto theft and harassment--a record that was either ignored, "missed," or dismissed as unimportant.

* In 2008, DCS officials investigated allegations that there was a 12-year-old boy in the Choate home who was "on house arrest." The abuse never was substantiated, DCS records state. According to a neighbor, the investigator didn't even enter into the home. She just talked to the step outside.


http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local/indiana&id=8920596

Christian Choate father pleads guilty in child's death

Updated at 01:46 PM today

Investigators have charged Riley Choate with moving a body from a death scene, altering a body and failure to report a body. He has not been charged with murder.

December 13, 2012

(CROWN POINT, Ind.) -- A Hammond man has pleaded guilty to felony neglect of a dependent in the death of his 13-year-old son, whose body was found in a shallow grave two years after authorities say he died.

The Times of Munster reports Riley Choate showed no emotion Friday as he pleaded guilty to multiple charges.

Investigators said in court documents his son, Christian, was beaten for years and kept in a cage before his 2009 death. His body was found in May 2011 buried at a mobile home park in Gary.

Choate also pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent for depriving his daughter of an education and removal of a body from a death scene. He faces an agreed term of 80 years in prison.