Based on what's reported here, dad JOSHUA REED FARREN sounds like a deadbeat, a chronic liar, and a sociopath--in addition to being a violent child abuser. Doesn't sound like he can even fake concern.
http://kxan.com/2015/04/22/affidavit-austin-father-fractured-infant-twins-ribs-sons-leg/
Affidavit: Austin father fractured infant twins’ ribs, son’s leg
By Eric Janzen
Published: April 22, 2015, 5:25 pm | Updated: April 22, 2015, 8:44 pm
AUSTIN (KXAN) — An Austin father is charged with injury to a child after his 5-month-old twins were found to have several fractured ribs, according to an arrest affidavit. Joshua Reed Farren, 34, is being held in the Travis County Jail on $500,000 bond.
The mother noticed bruising on her son’s face after returning from work around midnight on Nov. 30, and she took the boy to Dell Children’s Medical Center on Dec. 1, 2014, at the request of her pediatrician. Medical staff said infant had eight fractured ribs and two fractures in his left leg.
Doctors then examined the girl and found she had four broken ribs, the affidavit said.
She told authorities that, outside of a few hours on two occasions, she and her husband were the only ones who cared for the twins. Police said Farren was surprised when he learned of his son’s injuries the next day.
“Really, that’s a shocker,” Farren said, according to the document. He also couldn’t tell police where the injuries came from. “I honestly don’t know. You know, unless it’s some way we hold him or something.”
When the officer asked why he wasn’t at the hospital with his wife and children, Farren said his wife had asked him to stay home and get some sleep. Farren then told the officer he had just finished watching a movie when police showed up to his home at 2:30 a.m.
A Child Abuse Resources and Education team said there was no medical history that would account for the twins’ injuries and they were not consistent with birth trauma. The injuries to the boy were likely from shaking or throwing the child, the team is reported as saying.
Despite no longer caring for the children and being unemployed, the affidavit said Farren told detectives he would not have time to meet with them for the foreseeable future. He also declined to provide a statement.
A first-degree felony conviction carries a punishment of 5-99 years in prison.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Murdered 3-year-old boy was "scared to leave his mom" and "scared to go home" to custodial dad (Hollywood, Florida)
So sickening, but typical. Mom may not have been perfect--she obviously had some problems with alcohol herself. But she was obviously protective, and tried to get the authorities to intervene when her son was being abused at the home of his custodial dad, NELSON OSCEOLA. Plus, the little boy was obviously bonded to HER, and not Daddy and the gaggle of criminals he hung out with. He felt safe WITH MOM, not with Dad.
But it didn't matter in a fathers rights state like Florida, even though by every rational measure, Daddy, the step, and all her family were much worse. Criminal activity of all kinds--assault, battery, child neglect, physical child abuse, drugs, you name it.
Another child murdered--thanks to fathers rights ideology.
http://www.bradenton.com/2015/04/23/5761147_behind-smiles-a-hollywood-childs.html?rh=1
Behind smiles, a Florida child’s short, troubled life
By CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND CARLI TEPROFF
Miami Herald April 23, 2015
Last December, when a Broward County child welfare investigator visited the Hollywood home where Ahziya Osceola lived with his father — who had been the subject of two recent child abuse allegations — the 3-year-old’s stepmother was viewed as a source of stability, someone who brought “structure” to his chaotic life.
Stepmom Analiz Osceola’s parental report card would prove to be far more complicated.
Ahziya’s 24-year-old stepmother had been under the scrutiny of child protection investigators herself since April 2012, when her own son had been found sleeping on a mattress on the dirty floor of a one-room drug house teeming with cockroaches. As many as 15 other adults were there, too, police said, abusing narcotics. Five months later, the 2-year-old was found wandering alone several blocks from his home. It took his mother almost three hours to report him missing.
Analiz Osceola was charged last month with aggravated manslaughter after police found Ahziya’s 30-pound body stuffed inside two garbage bags in his parents’ laundry room. Hollywood police say the boy was covered “head to toe” with bruises, had suffered a lacerated liver and ruptured pancreas, and had a healing spiral fracture to his foot — a kind of injury that is often associated with child abuse.
The collection of caregivers in the months before Ahziya’s death might have raised some eyebrows. Nelson Osceola had been the subject of two reports of physical abuse, and had a lengthy criminal history; the boy’s stepmom had undergone two neglect investigations. Also in the home at the time Ahziya died was Analiz Osceola’s mother, Anubis Rodezno, who had twice been accused of child abuse. Analiz’s two brothers — described in a court pleading as having “extensive” drug histories — also had moved in, and one had amassed a lengthy rap sheet, with arrests for battery, aggravated assault and weapons possession.
In his sadly abridged life, Ahziya had appeared in the subject line of four abuse or neglect reports, 127 pages of caseworker chronological notes, another 58 pages of child protection narratives and one police report. No one who signed any of the records seemed to comprehend where all the bread crumbs were leading.
The final document was the boy’s autopsy.
“It is alarming to think that someone would allow this child to stay in that household,” Hollywood Police Chief Frank Fernandez told the Miami Herald. “We know today that should have never happened. That child should have been removed.”
Fernandez viewed autopsy photos of Ahziya’s pockmarked body. He’d been crammed inside an eight-inch-wide cardboard box. The makeshift coffin once had held a toddler’s walker, he said. “The condition in which we found this little boy was absolutely horrific,” Fernandez said. “My first thought was anger, that any child would be put through that torture, discarded like a piece of trash.”
An attorney for Nelson Osceola, who was released on $50,000 bail after being charged with child neglect, declined to discuss Ahziya’s death. Analiz Osceola’s attorney could not be reached by a reporter.
Central to any understanding of Ahziya’s death is the unusual patchwork structure of child welfare work in Broward. Child abuse investigations are performed by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, under contract with the Department of Children & Families. Supervision of struggling families, or children in foster care, is overseen by the privately run ChildNet, which also contracts with DCF. The state attorney general’s office represents DCF in court. And the Seminole Tribe has significant authority over children who are members, as was Ahziya.
A spokeswoman for BSO, which had long been involved with Ahziya’s family, declined to discuss the boy with the Herald, citing the Hollywood Police Department’s open investigation of his killing. “Our two cases were handled appropriately and are now closed,” spokeswoman Gina Carter said of BSO child abuse probes in April and December of 2014.
Emilio Benitez, who is the CEO of ChildNet, acknowledged “flaws in the current system, particularly when we have multiple agencies and two nations involved.” He said ChildNet “has been working swiftly and diligently to identify those flaws, and to put measures in place to prevent them from being repeated.”
At a hearing before the state Senate’s Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, DCF Secretary Mike Carroll acknowledged that investigators or caseworkers may have erred by allowing Ahziya to remain in his father’s house despite mounting evidence that something was wrong. “There were signs that this child may have been being physically abused — it wasn't clear [by] who or to what extent,” Carroll told lawmakers.
“We just didn't close the loop and get to a place where we were able to determine ... the nature of these bruises and who” was responsible for them.
Carroll also suggested that federal laws limiting the state’s power to interfere in the lives of Native American families also may have played a role in Ahziya’s death. The toddler did not live on the Hollywood reservation, but he was subject to the tribe’s authority in matters of child welfare.
“While I appreciate the need to respect the sovereignty of the Indian nation in these cases, the best interests, well-being and safety of the children should be of the foremost concern of both parties involved,” Carroll told lawmakers.
Documents obtained by the Herald — including records from DCF, BSO, ChildNet and the attorney general’s office — show that a platoon of social welfare workers were involved with Ahziya’s family, and some of them visited regularly. But records suggest the knowledge they generated was seldom shared, leaving decision-makers with an incomplete picture.
ChildNet, for example, knew as early as July 2014 that Nelson Osceola had married the former Analiz Rodezno, who was giving birth to his baby. Records obtained from DCF show that investigators were aware the couple were living together by at least the following December. Yet there is no record that either agency considered Analiz’s history with her own son to determine whether she was an appropriate caregiver for Ahziya.
Acting on the wishes of the tribe, a Broward judge gave custody of then 3-year-old Ahziya to his father around February 2014, after the child was found wandering unsupervised in a hotel lobby while his mother, 25-year-old Karen Cypress, was passed out drunk in a room upstairs.
Nelson Osceola’s rap sheet contained nine arrests, including charges of weapons possession on a school property, marijuana possession, aggravated assault with a weapon, burglary, fleeing police and battery. A court pleading cites “numerous” other reports from the Seminole police. The most recent case, the battery, remained pending during much of the time Nelson Osceola had custody of his son.
“There were red flags even before they put him in that house,” said the boy’s maternal grandfather, Kenneth Tommie. “If they did their job he wouldn't have been in that house.”
The Jan. 19, 2013, battery arrest was one of the warning signs. Nelson and Analiz Osceola were behind at least two other cars in a Dunkin Donuts drive-through lane. Analiz, using her original surname, Rodezno, began honking her horn at a black Infiniti in front of her. The Infiniti’s driver said that he was stuck behind other cars, which enraged a then-screaming Nelson Osceola. He walked over to the Infiniti. The Infiniti’s driver poked his head out of his window and yelled “let’s just get our food and go on our ways,” a Davie police report said.
Nelson Osceola responded by punching the man in the face, a report said. The battery charge was not disposed of until July 2014, when Osceola pleaded no contest and was placed on six-months of probation.
Analiz Osceola’s dealings with law enforcement and child welfare workers also were unsettling. Police first came in contact with her on April 6, 2012, when a patrolman was sent to investigate drug sales at an apartment building on Dewey Street. Inside, the beige home with awnings had all the earmarks of a drug house: As many as 15 adults were crashing in the one-room apartment.
Empty beer bottles littered the floor, a Hollywood police report said. “There were also other objects on the floor, such as a car battery, sharp knives, and two individuals who appeared to be ‘passed out,’” the report said. Cockroaches skittered across the floor, which was covered by at least three mattresses. Sleeping soundly on one of the mattresses was a 2-year-old boy, Analiz’s son.
“Every person inside the apartment and outside on the balcony had extensive narcotics-related criminal histories, and three of the subjects are currently on probation for narcotics-related offenses,” the officer wrote. Though Analiz was not arrested, DCF’s abuse hotline was called, and BSO verified allegations of child neglect. Analiz was offered parenting services; she declined.
Hollywood police saw the toddler again on Sept. 10, 2012, when he wandered several blocks from his home — right to the campus of Hollywood Park Elementary School, where administrators fetched him. According to a report, Analiz did not report him missing for about three hours. Records show the little boy had been diagnosed with autism, which is often associated with dangerous wandering. That report, too, was verified for child neglect, and, this time, DCF asked a judge to order Analiz to be supervised and visited by case managers, a request that was granted.
Less than two months after he was awarded custody of Ahziya, Nelson Osceola came back on DCF’s radar. Ahziya had been living with his father since the end of February 2014. On April 21 of that year, DCF’s hotline was told that the boy had “multiple bruises on his body,” along with fingertip-shaped bruises on his face. The Child Protection Team, which evaluates children for evidence of abuse, decided most of the bruises were inconclusive.
The fingertip marks, though, were called “positive for physical abuse” — meaning medical experts believed someone had deliberately inflicted them.
Workers at the boy’s preschool, Nob Hill Academy, strongly suspected abuse as well. They told investigators Ahziya had been “observed with several bruises on a weekly basis.” That day, he had “multiple bruises.” He told his teacher that his father had beaten him with a belt.
BSO concluded he was safe. The investigation was not verified as abuse.
Still, BSO asked Nelson Osceola to sign a “safety plan,” in which he promised to “refrain from all illegal activity,” to “ensure that there are no illicit drugs in the home,” to “ensure [Ahziya lived] in a safe and stable home” and to ensure the boy was “supervised at all times by a caregiver that has been previously approved by DCF.” Caseworkers with ChildNet and the Seminole Tribe were to oversee Nelson Osceola’s compliance with the plan.
ChildNet knew by July that at least one of the plan’s provisions had been broken. Notes from a July 31 visit to Osceola’s home quote Nelson Osceola as saying that “his new wife is giving birth today and [he] needed to leave soon.” Analiz Osceola was not an approved caregiver. The notation appears to be the first time her name is mentioned. Nevertheless, ChildNet initiated efforts to terminate their supervision of Ahziya, which was approved by a judge the following September.
It is unclear when Anubis Rodezno moved in with her daughter at the home she shared with Nelson Osceola on Johnson Street. Fernandez, the Hollywood police chief, told the Herald that Charles and Anthony Rodezno, Analiz’s older brothers, arrived around August 2014, though the two remained largely “transient” during the past several months.
Charles’ rap sheet begins in November 2006 with a battery charge. The 25-year-old’s 14 other arrests include burglary, disorderly conduct, aggravated assault with a weapon, marijuana possession, carrying a concealed weapon, and aggravated assault on an officer.
Records suggest that the Sheriff’s Office was not aware of Analiz until December, when Ahziya’s birth mom picked him up for a visit and found him bruised again. He had one bruise on the side of his cheek, which was healing, and he said his bottom was sore. When asked, Ahziya said that his “mommy” had hurt his bottom, referring to his stepmother, Analiz Osceola.
The report said: “There is concern Ahziya is being abused at the father’s house.” It added: “The father always states the child has fallen when he has injuries.”
When interviewed, the boy’s paternal grandmother praised Analiz as “very structured when it comes to food and rules in the home, but she is not abusive.” Nelson Osceola said that his wife provided “a balanced structure in the home.” And Analiz said that she had “been in the child’s life for over two years” — though the investigation appeared to be the first time investigators had seen her.
That case, too, was closed without BSO taking action to protect the boy. “There is no evidence of intentional abuse, no reports of abuse [made] by the child,” a risk assessment concluded — despite Ahziya’s disclosures in April that his father had hit him with a belt, as well as the toddler’s more recent disclosure that his stepmother had hurt “his butt.”
“He did not state how the paramour [Analiz Osceola] hurt him, but stated that she does hit him,” a Feb. 4, 2015, risk assessment said of the investigation that began that December.
For the second time, investigators accepted the Osceola family’s claim that the boy was clumsy, fell often, and may have had an undiagnosed disorder that exacerbated the bruising.
Narratives from ChildNet home visits do not portray a clumsy child. An Aug. 25, 2014, notation, a month before ChildNet ceased supervising the family, described the child this way: “Climbs well. Kicks ball. Runs easily. Pedals a tricycle. Bends over easily without falling.”
Kenneth Tommie told the Herald that Ahziya, his grandson, was an active, happy toddler when he was not in the care of his father. “Clumsy,” he said, was not a word he would have used to describe the boy.
“He was scared to go home” to his father, the maternal grandfather said of Ahziya. “He was scared to leave his mom.”
But it didn't matter in a fathers rights state like Florida, even though by every rational measure, Daddy, the step, and all her family were much worse. Criminal activity of all kinds--assault, battery, child neglect, physical child abuse, drugs, you name it.
Another child murdered--thanks to fathers rights ideology.
http://www.bradenton.com/2015/04/23/5761147_behind-smiles-a-hollywood-childs.html?rh=1
Behind smiles, a Florida child’s short, troubled life
By CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND CARLI TEPROFF
Miami Herald April 23, 2015
Last December, when a Broward County child welfare investigator visited the Hollywood home where Ahziya Osceola lived with his father — who had been the subject of two recent child abuse allegations — the 3-year-old’s stepmother was viewed as a source of stability, someone who brought “structure” to his chaotic life.
Stepmom Analiz Osceola’s parental report card would prove to be far more complicated.
Ahziya’s 24-year-old stepmother had been under the scrutiny of child protection investigators herself since April 2012, when her own son had been found sleeping on a mattress on the dirty floor of a one-room drug house teeming with cockroaches. As many as 15 other adults were there, too, police said, abusing narcotics. Five months later, the 2-year-old was found wandering alone several blocks from his home. It took his mother almost three hours to report him missing.
Analiz Osceola was charged last month with aggravated manslaughter after police found Ahziya’s 30-pound body stuffed inside two garbage bags in his parents’ laundry room. Hollywood police say the boy was covered “head to toe” with bruises, had suffered a lacerated liver and ruptured pancreas, and had a healing spiral fracture to his foot — a kind of injury that is often associated with child abuse.
The collection of caregivers in the months before Ahziya’s death might have raised some eyebrows. Nelson Osceola had been the subject of two reports of physical abuse, and had a lengthy criminal history; the boy’s stepmom had undergone two neglect investigations. Also in the home at the time Ahziya died was Analiz Osceola’s mother, Anubis Rodezno, who had twice been accused of child abuse. Analiz’s two brothers — described in a court pleading as having “extensive” drug histories — also had moved in, and one had amassed a lengthy rap sheet, with arrests for battery, aggravated assault and weapons possession.
In his sadly abridged life, Ahziya had appeared in the subject line of four abuse or neglect reports, 127 pages of caseworker chronological notes, another 58 pages of child protection narratives and one police report. No one who signed any of the records seemed to comprehend where all the bread crumbs were leading.
The final document was the boy’s autopsy.
“It is alarming to think that someone would allow this child to stay in that household,” Hollywood Police Chief Frank Fernandez told the Miami Herald. “We know today that should have never happened. That child should have been removed.”
Fernandez viewed autopsy photos of Ahziya’s pockmarked body. He’d been crammed inside an eight-inch-wide cardboard box. The makeshift coffin once had held a toddler’s walker, he said. “The condition in which we found this little boy was absolutely horrific,” Fernandez said. “My first thought was anger, that any child would be put through that torture, discarded like a piece of trash.”
An attorney for Nelson Osceola, who was released on $50,000 bail after being charged with child neglect, declined to discuss Ahziya’s death. Analiz Osceola’s attorney could not be reached by a reporter.
Central to any understanding of Ahziya’s death is the unusual patchwork structure of child welfare work in Broward. Child abuse investigations are performed by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, under contract with the Department of Children & Families. Supervision of struggling families, or children in foster care, is overseen by the privately run ChildNet, which also contracts with DCF. The state attorney general’s office represents DCF in court. And the Seminole Tribe has significant authority over children who are members, as was Ahziya.
A spokeswoman for BSO, which had long been involved with Ahziya’s family, declined to discuss the boy with the Herald, citing the Hollywood Police Department’s open investigation of his killing. “Our two cases were handled appropriately and are now closed,” spokeswoman Gina Carter said of BSO child abuse probes in April and December of 2014.
Emilio Benitez, who is the CEO of ChildNet, acknowledged “flaws in the current system, particularly when we have multiple agencies and two nations involved.” He said ChildNet “has been working swiftly and diligently to identify those flaws, and to put measures in place to prevent them from being repeated.”
At a hearing before the state Senate’s Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, DCF Secretary Mike Carroll acknowledged that investigators or caseworkers may have erred by allowing Ahziya to remain in his father’s house despite mounting evidence that something was wrong. “There were signs that this child may have been being physically abused — it wasn't clear [by] who or to what extent,” Carroll told lawmakers.
“We just didn't close the loop and get to a place where we were able to determine ... the nature of these bruises and who” was responsible for them.
Carroll also suggested that federal laws limiting the state’s power to interfere in the lives of Native American families also may have played a role in Ahziya’s death. The toddler did not live on the Hollywood reservation, but he was subject to the tribe’s authority in matters of child welfare.
“While I appreciate the need to respect the sovereignty of the Indian nation in these cases, the best interests, well-being and safety of the children should be of the foremost concern of both parties involved,” Carroll told lawmakers.
Documents obtained by the Herald — including records from DCF, BSO, ChildNet and the attorney general’s office — show that a platoon of social welfare workers were involved with Ahziya’s family, and some of them visited regularly. But records suggest the knowledge they generated was seldom shared, leaving decision-makers with an incomplete picture.
ChildNet, for example, knew as early as July 2014 that Nelson Osceola had married the former Analiz Rodezno, who was giving birth to his baby. Records obtained from DCF show that investigators were aware the couple were living together by at least the following December. Yet there is no record that either agency considered Analiz’s history with her own son to determine whether she was an appropriate caregiver for Ahziya.
Acting on the wishes of the tribe, a Broward judge gave custody of then 3-year-old Ahziya to his father around February 2014, after the child was found wandering unsupervised in a hotel lobby while his mother, 25-year-old Karen Cypress, was passed out drunk in a room upstairs.
Nelson Osceola’s rap sheet contained nine arrests, including charges of weapons possession on a school property, marijuana possession, aggravated assault with a weapon, burglary, fleeing police and battery. A court pleading cites “numerous” other reports from the Seminole police. The most recent case, the battery, remained pending during much of the time Nelson Osceola had custody of his son.
“There were red flags even before they put him in that house,” said the boy’s maternal grandfather, Kenneth Tommie. “If they did their job he wouldn't have been in that house.”
The Jan. 19, 2013, battery arrest was one of the warning signs. Nelson and Analiz Osceola were behind at least two other cars in a Dunkin Donuts drive-through lane. Analiz, using her original surname, Rodezno, began honking her horn at a black Infiniti in front of her. The Infiniti’s driver said that he was stuck behind other cars, which enraged a then-screaming Nelson Osceola. He walked over to the Infiniti. The Infiniti’s driver poked his head out of his window and yelled “let’s just get our food and go on our ways,” a Davie police report said.
Nelson Osceola responded by punching the man in the face, a report said. The battery charge was not disposed of until July 2014, when Osceola pleaded no contest and was placed on six-months of probation.
Analiz Osceola’s dealings with law enforcement and child welfare workers also were unsettling. Police first came in contact with her on April 6, 2012, when a patrolman was sent to investigate drug sales at an apartment building on Dewey Street. Inside, the beige home with awnings had all the earmarks of a drug house: As many as 15 adults were crashing in the one-room apartment.
Empty beer bottles littered the floor, a Hollywood police report said. “There were also other objects on the floor, such as a car battery, sharp knives, and two individuals who appeared to be ‘passed out,’” the report said. Cockroaches skittered across the floor, which was covered by at least three mattresses. Sleeping soundly on one of the mattresses was a 2-year-old boy, Analiz’s son.
“Every person inside the apartment and outside on the balcony had extensive narcotics-related criminal histories, and three of the subjects are currently on probation for narcotics-related offenses,” the officer wrote. Though Analiz was not arrested, DCF’s abuse hotline was called, and BSO verified allegations of child neglect. Analiz was offered parenting services; she declined.
Hollywood police saw the toddler again on Sept. 10, 2012, when he wandered several blocks from his home — right to the campus of Hollywood Park Elementary School, where administrators fetched him. According to a report, Analiz did not report him missing for about three hours. Records show the little boy had been diagnosed with autism, which is often associated with dangerous wandering. That report, too, was verified for child neglect, and, this time, DCF asked a judge to order Analiz to be supervised and visited by case managers, a request that was granted.
Less than two months after he was awarded custody of Ahziya, Nelson Osceola came back on DCF’s radar. Ahziya had been living with his father since the end of February 2014. On April 21 of that year, DCF’s hotline was told that the boy had “multiple bruises on his body,” along with fingertip-shaped bruises on his face. The Child Protection Team, which evaluates children for evidence of abuse, decided most of the bruises were inconclusive.
The fingertip marks, though, were called “positive for physical abuse” — meaning medical experts believed someone had deliberately inflicted them.
Workers at the boy’s preschool, Nob Hill Academy, strongly suspected abuse as well. They told investigators Ahziya had been “observed with several bruises on a weekly basis.” That day, he had “multiple bruises.” He told his teacher that his father had beaten him with a belt.
BSO concluded he was safe. The investigation was not verified as abuse.
Still, BSO asked Nelson Osceola to sign a “safety plan,” in which he promised to “refrain from all illegal activity,” to “ensure that there are no illicit drugs in the home,” to “ensure [Ahziya lived] in a safe and stable home” and to ensure the boy was “supervised at all times by a caregiver that has been previously approved by DCF.” Caseworkers with ChildNet and the Seminole Tribe were to oversee Nelson Osceola’s compliance with the plan.
ChildNet knew by July that at least one of the plan’s provisions had been broken. Notes from a July 31 visit to Osceola’s home quote Nelson Osceola as saying that “his new wife is giving birth today and [he] needed to leave soon.” Analiz Osceola was not an approved caregiver. The notation appears to be the first time her name is mentioned. Nevertheless, ChildNet initiated efforts to terminate their supervision of Ahziya, which was approved by a judge the following September.
It is unclear when Anubis Rodezno moved in with her daughter at the home she shared with Nelson Osceola on Johnson Street. Fernandez, the Hollywood police chief, told the Herald that Charles and Anthony Rodezno, Analiz’s older brothers, arrived around August 2014, though the two remained largely “transient” during the past several months.
Charles’ rap sheet begins in November 2006 with a battery charge. The 25-year-old’s 14 other arrests include burglary, disorderly conduct, aggravated assault with a weapon, marijuana possession, carrying a concealed weapon, and aggravated assault on an officer.
Records suggest that the Sheriff’s Office was not aware of Analiz until December, when Ahziya’s birth mom picked him up for a visit and found him bruised again. He had one bruise on the side of his cheek, which was healing, and he said his bottom was sore. When asked, Ahziya said that his “mommy” had hurt his bottom, referring to his stepmother, Analiz Osceola.
The report said: “There is concern Ahziya is being abused at the father’s house.” It added: “The father always states the child has fallen when he has injuries.”
When interviewed, the boy’s paternal grandmother praised Analiz as “very structured when it comes to food and rules in the home, but she is not abusive.” Nelson Osceola said that his wife provided “a balanced structure in the home.” And Analiz said that she had “been in the child’s life for over two years” — though the investigation appeared to be the first time investigators had seen her.
That case, too, was closed without BSO taking action to protect the boy. “There is no evidence of intentional abuse, no reports of abuse [made] by the child,” a risk assessment concluded — despite Ahziya’s disclosures in April that his father had hit him with a belt, as well as the toddler’s more recent disclosure that his stepmother had hurt “his butt.”
“He did not state how the paramour [Analiz Osceola] hurt him, but stated that she does hit him,” a Feb. 4, 2015, risk assessment said of the investigation that began that December.
For the second time, investigators accepted the Osceola family’s claim that the boy was clumsy, fell often, and may have had an undiagnosed disorder that exacerbated the bruising.
Narratives from ChildNet home visits do not portray a clumsy child. An Aug. 25, 2014, notation, a month before ChildNet ceased supervising the family, described the child this way: “Climbs well. Kicks ball. Runs easily. Pedals a tricycle. Bends over easily without falling.”
Kenneth Tommie told the Herald that Ahziya, his grandson, was an active, happy toddler when he was not in the care of his father. “Clumsy,” he said, was not a word he would have used to describe the boy.
“He was scared to go home” to his father, the maternal grandfather said of Ahziya. “He was scared to leave his mom.”
Dad arrested for battering 4-month-old son; baby has fractured skull (Woodstock, Illinois)
Dad is identified as CODY A. PENNINGTON.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/04/27/father-charged-after-doctors-determine-infants-injuries-caused-by-shaking/
Father Charged After Doctors Determine Infant’s Injuries Caused By ‘Shaking’
April 27, 2015 11:57 AM (STMW) — A northwest suburban man who called 911 to report his 4-month-son was in distress ended up behind bars after doctors determined the infant’s injuries were caused by being violently shaken, leading to a fractured skull.
About 4 p.m. Saturday, Woodstock Police and Fire/Rescue District personnel were called to the 1400 block of Commons Drive, after Cody A. Pennington reported a “medical situation” with his son, according to a statement from Woodstock police.
Pennington, 20, told paramedics the baby “appeared to be in distress, was having difficulty breathing and was crying uncontrollably,” according to police.
The infant was taken to Centegra Hospital in Woodstock, but when doctors there discovered “hemorrhaging on its brain as well as a fracture of the skull,” the child was flown by helicopter to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, police said.
Advocate Lutheran staff later contacted police and DCFS when doctors “determined that the injuries sustained were consistent with injuries caused by violently shaking an infant,” Chief Robert Lowen said in the statement.
Detectives went to the hospital, met with doctors and interviewed both parents, and early Sunday, Pennington was arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm to a child under 13, all Class X felonies, police said.
As of Monday morning, Pennington remained in the McHenry County Adult Correctional Facility on a $250,000 bond and is due back in court at 9 a.m. Wednesday in Woodstock, according to police.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/04/27/father-charged-after-doctors-determine-infants-injuries-caused-by-shaking/
Father Charged After Doctors Determine Infant’s Injuries Caused By ‘Shaking’
April 27, 2015 11:57 AM (STMW) — A northwest suburban man who called 911 to report his 4-month-son was in distress ended up behind bars after doctors determined the infant’s injuries were caused by being violently shaken, leading to a fractured skull.
About 4 p.m. Saturday, Woodstock Police and Fire/Rescue District personnel were called to the 1400 block of Commons Drive, after Cody A. Pennington reported a “medical situation” with his son, according to a statement from Woodstock police.
Pennington, 20, told paramedics the baby “appeared to be in distress, was having difficulty breathing and was crying uncontrollably,” according to police.
The infant was taken to Centegra Hospital in Woodstock, but when doctors there discovered “hemorrhaging on its brain as well as a fracture of the skull,” the child was flown by helicopter to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, police said.
Advocate Lutheran staff later contacted police and DCFS when doctors “determined that the injuries sustained were consistent with injuries caused by violently shaking an infant,” Chief Robert Lowen said in the statement.
Detectives went to the hospital, met with doctors and interviewed both parents, and early Sunday, Pennington was arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm to a child under 13, all Class X felonies, police said.
As of Monday morning, Pennington remained in the McHenry County Adult Correctional Facility on a $250,000 bond and is due back in court at 9 a.m. Wednesday in Woodstock, according to police.
Dad gets 20-25 years in prison for assaulting 2-month-old son; baby had fractured skull, broken leg (Saunders County, Nebraska)
Dad is identified as SCOTT NEEMAN.
http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Man-Sentenced-To-20-25-Years-In-Prison-For-Bhild-301439161.html
Father Sentenced To 20-25 Years In Prison For Child Abuse
By: sixonline
A man convicted of child abuse will spend 20-25 years is prison for seriously injuring his two-month old son.
A man convicted of child abuse will spend 20-25 years is prison for seriously injuring his two-month old son.
Scott Neeman, 22, received the sentence in Saunders County District Court Monday.
Ashland police were called to investigate a report of an infant not breathing in June 2014. The baby was taken to Children's Hospital in Omaha where it was later discovered he had skull fractures, a broken leg and other injuries consistent with Shaken Baby Syndrome.
A police report reveals Neemann later demonstrated on a doll how he punched, kicked and shook his son after he became frustrated with the child's crying.
http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Man-Sentenced-To-20-25-Years-In-Prison-For-Bhild-301439161.html
Father Sentenced To 20-25 Years In Prison For Child Abuse
By: sixonline
A man convicted of child abuse will spend 20-25 years is prison for seriously injuring his two-month old son.
A man convicted of child abuse will spend 20-25 years is prison for seriously injuring his two-month old son.
Scott Neeman, 22, received the sentence in Saunders County District Court Monday.
Ashland police were called to investigate a report of an infant not breathing in June 2014. The baby was taken to Children's Hospital in Omaha where it was later discovered he had skull fractures, a broken leg and other injuries consistent with Shaken Baby Syndrome.
A police report reveals Neemann later demonstrated on a doll how he punched, kicked and shook his son after he became frustrated with the child's crying.
Custodial dad on trial for beating death of 4-year-old daughter (United Kingdom)
Notice that this POS dad CARL WHEATLEY couldn't even manage to get through three full months of full custody before he beat his daughter to death. But we must "include" every dirtball sperm donor in the lives of their children, right?
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-32496068
Carl Wheatley 'beat daughter to death' at Hatfield home
28 April 2015
A father beat his four-year-old daughter to death with "hard sustained persistent hitting", a court has heard.
Carl Wheatley, 31, from Hatfield, hit Alexa-Marie Quinn with such force that fat was released into her bloodstream and blocked her lungs.
At St Albans Crown Court, Wheatley denies murder but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
A pathologist found Alexa died from "extreme blunt force trauma".
"Alexa-Marie Quinn died from a severe beating from her father," prosecutor Christopher Donnellan QC said. "He lost his temper with her - she was just four-and-a-half years old.
"It was not just a sudden loss of temper. It was sustained persistent hard hitting."
The little girl had lived with Wheatley since 13 December 2013 after he gained custody. She was found with fatal injuries on 12 March.
Wheatley, a supermarket worker, dialled 999 for the emergency services on the morning of the fatal attack but it was too late.
Mr Donnellan said it was likely Alexa had been dead for a few hours.
The court heard Wheatley had previously tried to keep Alexa out of sight after she had suffered bruising and lost a tooth.
To postpone meetings with social workers he lied to them that he had car trouble, the jury was told. Judge Andrew Bright QC told the jury: "The killing of a child is likely to arouse strong emotions - such a reaction is completely natural and entirely understandable.
"Please put emotions completely to one side."
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-32496068
Carl Wheatley 'beat daughter to death' at Hatfield home
28 April 2015
A father beat his four-year-old daughter to death with "hard sustained persistent hitting", a court has heard.
Carl Wheatley, 31, from Hatfield, hit Alexa-Marie Quinn with such force that fat was released into her bloodstream and blocked her lungs.
At St Albans Crown Court, Wheatley denies murder but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
A pathologist found Alexa died from "extreme blunt force trauma".
"Alexa-Marie Quinn died from a severe beating from her father," prosecutor Christopher Donnellan QC said. "He lost his temper with her - she was just four-and-a-half years old.
"It was not just a sudden loss of temper. It was sustained persistent hard hitting."
The little girl had lived with Wheatley since 13 December 2013 after he gained custody. She was found with fatal injuries on 12 March.
Wheatley, a supermarket worker, dialled 999 for the emergency services on the morning of the fatal attack but it was too late.
Mr Donnellan said it was likely Alexa had been dead for a few hours.
The court heard Wheatley had previously tried to keep Alexa out of sight after she had suffered bruising and lost a tooth.
To postpone meetings with social workers he lied to them that he had car trouble, the jury was told. Judge Andrew Bright QC told the jury: "The killing of a child is likely to arouse strong emotions - such a reaction is completely natural and entirely understandable.
"Please put emotions completely to one side."
Custodial dad out on bond for beating death of 3-year-old son; step charged with manslaughter (Hollywood, Florida)
It is very common for custodial dads like NELSON OSCEOLA to play the "clueless" card when the child in their custody ends up dead. Very convenient to claim ignorance of the step's actions, the one who was (allegedly) doing all the abusing. Custodial moms are very often threatened and beaten by the man who is abusing their kids, but they are still held morally responsibly for the outcomes. Custodial dads are very rarely in similar abusive situations, yet they are seldom held responsible. It's always the Evil Step's fault, while Poor Daddy just had No Idea.
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2015/04/27/new-details-in-hollywood-childs-death/
New Details In Hollywood Child’s Death
April 27, 2015 11:10 PM
Carey Codd
HOLLYWOOD (CBSMiami) – Two weeks ago, Hollywood Police again descended on the home where investigators found the body of 3-year-old Ahizya Osceola in a garbage bag stuffed inside a cardboard box in mid-March.
When detectives returned to the home – about a month after the crime – it appears they were investigating a comment made by Ahizya’s 5-year-old stepbrother.
According to a search warrant, during an interview with the child, “it was discovered that Analiz Osceola used a stick from the bed to hit” a child whose name is blacked out in the document but it is likely that it’s Ahizya Osceola.
Analiz Osceola is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child. The search warrant shows that police recovered three different sticks from the home.
It’s not clear from the document when the hitting is alleged to have occurred.
And there are other details emerging about possible efforts to cover up Ahizya’s death.
Another search warrant in the case reveals more specifics about the box where investigators recovered the boy’s body.
The warrant said, “Two additional plastic bags of clothing were shoved into the opening of the box to further conceal the body.”
The medical examiner reported that the little boy suffered terrible injuries, finding bruises all over his body, gouge marks on his neck and that blunt impact abdominal trauma killed him.
Investigators said Analiz Osceola performed CPR on the boy on the morning he died and left him in bed even though she knew he was deceased. Detectives said after people in the home left for work, she hid the boy’s body.
Analiz Osceola pleaded not guilty to the charges.
She plans to ask a judge on Wednesday to reduce her bond, which is more than $200,000.
In court records, her attorney argues that Osceola is pregnant, has strong ties to the community and no prior arrests.
Nelson Osceola – Ahizya’s father and Analiz’s husband – is charged with child neglect in the case. He is out of jail on bond.
We reached out to Analiz Osceola’s attorney for comment on the allegations in the search warrant but we could not reach him by phone or email.
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2015/04/27/new-details-in-hollywood-childs-death/
New Details In Hollywood Child’s Death
April 27, 2015 11:10 PM
Carey Codd
HOLLYWOOD (CBSMiami) – Two weeks ago, Hollywood Police again descended on the home where investigators found the body of 3-year-old Ahizya Osceola in a garbage bag stuffed inside a cardboard box in mid-March.
When detectives returned to the home – about a month after the crime – it appears they were investigating a comment made by Ahizya’s 5-year-old stepbrother.
According to a search warrant, during an interview with the child, “it was discovered that Analiz Osceola used a stick from the bed to hit” a child whose name is blacked out in the document but it is likely that it’s Ahizya Osceola.
Analiz Osceola is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child. The search warrant shows that police recovered three different sticks from the home.
It’s not clear from the document when the hitting is alleged to have occurred.
And there are other details emerging about possible efforts to cover up Ahizya’s death.
Another search warrant in the case reveals more specifics about the box where investigators recovered the boy’s body.
The warrant said, “Two additional plastic bags of clothing were shoved into the opening of the box to further conceal the body.”
The medical examiner reported that the little boy suffered terrible injuries, finding bruises all over his body, gouge marks on his neck and that blunt impact abdominal trauma killed him.
Investigators said Analiz Osceola performed CPR on the boy on the morning he died and left him in bed even though she knew he was deceased. Detectives said after people in the home left for work, she hid the boy’s body.
Analiz Osceola pleaded not guilty to the charges.
She plans to ask a judge on Wednesday to reduce her bond, which is more than $200,000.
In court records, her attorney argues that Osceola is pregnant, has strong ties to the community and no prior arrests.
Nelson Osceola – Ahizya’s father and Analiz’s husband – is charged with child neglect in the case. He is out of jail on bond.
We reached out to Analiz Osceola’s attorney for comment on the allegations in the search warrant but we could not reach him by phone or email.
Judge considers bond for dad who admits punching, killing 4-month-old daughter; also harrased dead baby's mom before trial (Sioux City, Iowa)
That violent dad PAUL HILL would be even CONSIDERED for bail just shows how little regard the legal system has for the safety of mothers and children.
http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/father-charged-in-baby-s-death-is-flight-risk-state/article_f6c47574-c9a7-58a9-9806-dabd2f5fd27c.html
Sioux City father charged in baby's death is flight risk, state says
April 27, 2015 4:30 pm • NICK HYTREK SIOUX CITY |
With no family in the area and the knowledge of what prison is like, Paul Hill has no reason to stay in Sioux City and face a new trial for the death of his 4-month-old daughter, the girl's great-aunt said Monday.
"He's had a taste of prison and he's not going to like it, so he's going to run," said Kim Bursell, the grand-aunt of Tryniti Jo Hill, testifying why Hill's bond should be raised from $50,000 to $100,000.
Hill, 25, has pleaded not guilty to child endangerment causing death for Tryniti's Feb. 17, 2009, death and is scheduled to stand trial Aug. 4 in Woodbury County District Court.
Hill was found guilty in June 2010 and sentenced to 50 years in prison, but was granted a new trial in January, when the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that a district court judge should have granted Hill's application for postconviction relief and a new trial.
Hill claimed that police questioning him violated his right to remain silent when he admitted to striking Tryniti in the abdomen while buckling her into a car seat.
Hill is being held in the Woodbury County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bond. Assistant Woodbury County Attorney Jill Esteves has asked that Hill's bond be increased because his parents no longer live here and he harassed Tryniti's mother, Kayla Hegge, and her family while out on bond prior to his first trial. His bond had been $75,000 when he was released before his first trial.
Hill's attorney, Hannah Vellinga, asked Senior Judge Gary Wenell to leave Hill's bond at $50,000. He attended all his hearings prior to his first trial, she said, and the case has essentially started over since the appeals court's decision.
"Our stance is that at this point, Mr. Hill is facing a new trial. He has not been convicted of anything," Vellinga said. Wenell said he would issue a ruling as soon as possible.
http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/father-charged-in-baby-s-death-is-flight-risk-state/article_f6c47574-c9a7-58a9-9806-dabd2f5fd27c.html
Sioux City father charged in baby's death is flight risk, state says
April 27, 2015 4:30 pm • NICK HYTREK SIOUX CITY |
With no family in the area and the knowledge of what prison is like, Paul Hill has no reason to stay in Sioux City and face a new trial for the death of his 4-month-old daughter, the girl's great-aunt said Monday.
"He's had a taste of prison and he's not going to like it, so he's going to run," said Kim Bursell, the grand-aunt of Tryniti Jo Hill, testifying why Hill's bond should be raised from $50,000 to $100,000.
Hill, 25, has pleaded not guilty to child endangerment causing death for Tryniti's Feb. 17, 2009, death and is scheduled to stand trial Aug. 4 in Woodbury County District Court.
Hill was found guilty in June 2010 and sentenced to 50 years in prison, but was granted a new trial in January, when the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that a district court judge should have granted Hill's application for postconviction relief and a new trial.
Hill claimed that police questioning him violated his right to remain silent when he admitted to striking Tryniti in the abdomen while buckling her into a car seat.
Hill is being held in the Woodbury County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bond. Assistant Woodbury County Attorney Jill Esteves has asked that Hill's bond be increased because his parents no longer live here and he harassed Tryniti's mother, Kayla Hegge, and her family while out on bond prior to his first trial. His bond had been $75,000 when he was released before his first trial.
Hill's attorney, Hannah Vellinga, asked Senior Judge Gary Wenell to leave Hill's bond at $50,000. He attended all his hearings prior to his first trial, she said, and the case has essentially started over since the appeals court's decision.
"Our stance is that at this point, Mr. Hill is facing a new trial. He has not been convicted of anything," Vellinga said. Wenell said he would issue a ruling as soon as possible.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Dad convicted of assaulting 7-week-old son (Montgomery County, Pennsylvania)
Dad is identified as STEVE EDWARD THOMPSON.
http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20150428/limerick-father-convicted-of-shaking-injuring-infant-son
Limerick father convicted of shaking, injuring infant son
By Carl Hessler Jr., The Mercury Posted: 04/28/15, 4:46 PM EDT
A Limerick father seriously injured his 7-week-old son when he acted recklessly by shaking the infant, a judge has determined.
“I think basically dad lost it and took his frustrations out, when the baby wouldn’t calm down, on the baby,” Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy said Tuesday as she convicted Steve Edward Thompson of charges of aggravated and simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the May 2014 incident at his home.
“I do think the injuries were caused by violent shaking…and it wasn’t just a one and done,” Demchick-Alloy added. “How long he shook him, I don’t know. But enough to cause the injuries to which the doctors inferred, significant. I do believe there was physical impairment to this baby.”
Thompson, 44, of the 200 block of Troon Court, showed no emotion as the judge rendered her verdict after a two-day, non-jury trial. The judge deferred sentencing so that Thompson can undergo drug, alcohol and mental health evaluations.
Thompson, supported in court by his wife and several relatives, faces a possible maximum sentence of 16 to 32 years in prison.
By convicting Thompson of the aggravated assault charge, the judge found that Thompson attempted to cause or recklessly caused serious bodily injury to the 2-month-old child under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.
The aggravated assault charge can include intentional or reckless conduct.
The child suffered a subdural bleed to the brain, retinal hemorrhages and ligament injuries to his neck, according to testimony. The infant had to wear a neck brace for several weeks after the incident.
“This was a violent shaking of a 7-week-old baby who is completely helpless and reliable on his parents for everything,” argued Assistant District Attorney Laura Adshead, who sought the aggravated assault conviction and alleged Thompson’s conduct was intentional. “The baby didn’t go limp and stop breathing normally until after the defendant shook him.”
Defense lawyer Steven Marino suggested members of the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Team at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia were predisposed to conclude that the child’s injuries were the result of child abuse and that the opinion was “not consistent with the medical evidence.”
Marino further maintained doctors did not investigate alternate sources for the infant’s injuries including cardio pulmonary resuscitation performed on the child or the “traumatic birth that took place” weeks earlier.
“The doctor blames the injury on my client. It’s a huge leap and it causes pause. It causes doubt,” Marino argued. “There is no evidence of prolonged shaking. The evidence doesn’t support an intentional finding.”
The judge, who reviewed “voluminous” medical records, “respectfully disagreed” with Marino, explaining reports indicate doctors did consider the CPR and traumatic birth of the child in reaching an opinion and determined they were not factors in the child’s injuries.
“I do not believe the medical personnel performed in any manner that was less than professional. It was a stellar handling of the situation,” said Demchick-Alloy, adding doctors “methodically” reviewed medical evidence to reach their conclusion that Thompson’s conduct caused the injuries.
An investigation of Thompson began about 7:25 p.m. May 29, when Limerick police and an ambulance crew were dispatched to the Troon Court home for a report of an infant not breathing, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
“On arrival, officers found the baby in the care of his father,” Limerick Detective Ernie Morris wrote in the criminal complaint.
Originally taken to Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, the baby was eventually transported to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit, according to court papers.
The following day, a caseworker with the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth Services and Limerick detectives went to the hospital and spoke with those on the hospital’s Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Team.
“At that time, we were informed that the baby had suffered at least one subdural bleed to the brain,” Morris alleged.
During an interview by the caseworker and police, Thompson allegedly confirmed that he was alone with the child during the time the injury occurred.
Thompson allegedly claimed he “was carrying (the victim) in one arm” and that the victim “got fidgety and jerked his head” and “fell from his arms onto a very soft, plush couch,” according to the arrest affidavit. The victim, Thompson claimed, “went limp and stopped breathing,” according to the criminal complaint.
An ophthalmologist reportedly told police that the baby suffered “bilateral intra-retinal hemorrhages that were too numerous to count” and that it was a “new injury.”
The hospital’s forensic team “listed the injury as ‘consistent with abusive head trauma (shaken baby syndrome)’ from (the victim) being shaken violently to the point of near death,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Thompson also allegedly told a nurse during the baby’s care that he “shook the baby a bit.”
After interviewing Thompson a second time, detectives said he told them he shook the baby but “I don’t remember how many times or how hard,” claiming he did it to “get a response to wake him up” after the baby went limp after the initial drop, according to the arrest affidavit.
Medical personnel told police that going limp was not consistent with an injury sustained from the fall Thompson described.
A doctor allegedly found ligament injuries in the baby’s neck as well as “an old brain bleed injury,” which he indicated were “highly concerning for repeated abuse.” That doctor classified the injuries as being “consistent” with the victim being “violently shaken,” according to detectives.
In another interview June 3 by a Limerick detective and a caseworker, Thompson allegedly admitted, “I think I shook (the victim) harder than I should have,” according to the arrest affidavit. In another interview Thompson allegedly described “vigorously shaking” the baby because “he was upset with himself for dropping” him.
“He admitted to ‘taking out his frustrations’ on (the victim) because he was mad at himself,” Morris alleged in the arrest affidavit.
“Thompson admitted that (the victim) ‘went limp’ after he shook him. He admitted that he noticed (the victim’s) head being ‘tossed back and forth’ as he was shaking him.” Thompson also allegedly told police that he had been depressed since the birth of the child and that “he and his wife did everything together prior to (the victim) being born.”
http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20150428/limerick-father-convicted-of-shaking-injuring-infant-son
Limerick father convicted of shaking, injuring infant son
By Carl Hessler Jr., The Mercury Posted: 04/28/15, 4:46 PM EDT
A Limerick father seriously injured his 7-week-old son when he acted recklessly by shaking the infant, a judge has determined.
“I think basically dad lost it and took his frustrations out, when the baby wouldn’t calm down, on the baby,” Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy said Tuesday as she convicted Steve Edward Thompson of charges of aggravated and simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the May 2014 incident at his home.
“I do think the injuries were caused by violent shaking…and it wasn’t just a one and done,” Demchick-Alloy added. “How long he shook him, I don’t know. But enough to cause the injuries to which the doctors inferred, significant. I do believe there was physical impairment to this baby.”
Thompson, 44, of the 200 block of Troon Court, showed no emotion as the judge rendered her verdict after a two-day, non-jury trial. The judge deferred sentencing so that Thompson can undergo drug, alcohol and mental health evaluations.
Thompson, supported in court by his wife and several relatives, faces a possible maximum sentence of 16 to 32 years in prison.
By convicting Thompson of the aggravated assault charge, the judge found that Thompson attempted to cause or recklessly caused serious bodily injury to the 2-month-old child under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.
The aggravated assault charge can include intentional or reckless conduct.
The child suffered a subdural bleed to the brain, retinal hemorrhages and ligament injuries to his neck, according to testimony. The infant had to wear a neck brace for several weeks after the incident.
“This was a violent shaking of a 7-week-old baby who is completely helpless and reliable on his parents for everything,” argued Assistant District Attorney Laura Adshead, who sought the aggravated assault conviction and alleged Thompson’s conduct was intentional. “The baby didn’t go limp and stop breathing normally until after the defendant shook him.”
Defense lawyer Steven Marino suggested members of the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Team at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia were predisposed to conclude that the child’s injuries were the result of child abuse and that the opinion was “not consistent with the medical evidence.”
Marino further maintained doctors did not investigate alternate sources for the infant’s injuries including cardio pulmonary resuscitation performed on the child or the “traumatic birth that took place” weeks earlier.
“The doctor blames the injury on my client. It’s a huge leap and it causes pause. It causes doubt,” Marino argued. “There is no evidence of prolonged shaking. The evidence doesn’t support an intentional finding.”
The judge, who reviewed “voluminous” medical records, “respectfully disagreed” with Marino, explaining reports indicate doctors did consider the CPR and traumatic birth of the child in reaching an opinion and determined they were not factors in the child’s injuries.
“I do not believe the medical personnel performed in any manner that was less than professional. It was a stellar handling of the situation,” said Demchick-Alloy, adding doctors “methodically” reviewed medical evidence to reach their conclusion that Thompson’s conduct caused the injuries.
An investigation of Thompson began about 7:25 p.m. May 29, when Limerick police and an ambulance crew were dispatched to the Troon Court home for a report of an infant not breathing, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
“On arrival, officers found the baby in the care of his father,” Limerick Detective Ernie Morris wrote in the criminal complaint.
Originally taken to Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, the baby was eventually transported to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit, according to court papers.
The following day, a caseworker with the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth Services and Limerick detectives went to the hospital and spoke with those on the hospital’s Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Team.
“At that time, we were informed that the baby had suffered at least one subdural bleed to the brain,” Morris alleged.
During an interview by the caseworker and police, Thompson allegedly confirmed that he was alone with the child during the time the injury occurred.
Thompson allegedly claimed he “was carrying (the victim) in one arm” and that the victim “got fidgety and jerked his head” and “fell from his arms onto a very soft, plush couch,” according to the arrest affidavit. The victim, Thompson claimed, “went limp and stopped breathing,” according to the criminal complaint.
An ophthalmologist reportedly told police that the baby suffered “bilateral intra-retinal hemorrhages that were too numerous to count” and that it was a “new injury.”
The hospital’s forensic team “listed the injury as ‘consistent with abusive head trauma (shaken baby syndrome)’ from (the victim) being shaken violently to the point of near death,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Thompson also allegedly told a nurse during the baby’s care that he “shook the baby a bit.”
After interviewing Thompson a second time, detectives said he told them he shook the baby but “I don’t remember how many times or how hard,” claiming he did it to “get a response to wake him up” after the baby went limp after the initial drop, according to the arrest affidavit.
Medical personnel told police that going limp was not consistent with an injury sustained from the fall Thompson described.
A doctor allegedly found ligament injuries in the baby’s neck as well as “an old brain bleed injury,” which he indicated were “highly concerning for repeated abuse.” That doctor classified the injuries as being “consistent” with the victim being “violently shaken,” according to detectives.
In another interview June 3 by a Limerick detective and a caseworker, Thompson allegedly admitted, “I think I shook (the victim) harder than I should have,” according to the arrest affidavit. In another interview Thompson allegedly described “vigorously shaking” the baby because “he was upset with himself for dropping” him.
“He admitted to ‘taking out his frustrations’ on (the victim) because he was mad at himself,” Morris alleged in the arrest affidavit.
“Thompson admitted that (the victim) ‘went limp’ after he shook him. He admitted that he noticed (the victim’s) head being ‘tossed back and forth’ as he was shaking him.” Thompson also allegedly told police that he had been depressed since the birth of the child and that “he and his wife did everything together prior to (the victim) being born.”
Son testifies against custodial dad, step in torture trial (Detroit, Michigan)
The defense attorney accuses this boy of wanting to live with his mom. Oh the horror! Why would he want to do that???
The torture daddy is identified as CHARLES BOTHUELL IV. We have poste on this case before.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/28/us-usa-michigan-boy-idUSKBN0NJ2LM20150428
US | Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:18pm EDT
Michigan boy held in basement describes extreme exercise, abuse
DETROIT | By Serena Maria Daniels (Reuters) - A Michigan boy who was found emaciated in his own basement after going missing for 11 days last year told a court on Tuesday that he was forced to exercise for up to two hours every morning and again each night and would suffer abuse if he slacked off.
If he faltered, he was struck by a plastic pipe or wooden stick, or sometimes forced to stand with his arms over his head in a corner, a punishment his father and stepmother called "reaching for excellence," the boy, who was 12 at the time, testified.
"I was expected to do everything perfectly. I was never given any leeway. I was never given a chance to make a mistake and learn from it," the boy testified, taking long pauses.
The Wayne County Circuit Court hearing, which has run for days, is to determine whether his father, Charles Bothuell IV, 46, and his stepmother, Monique Dillard-Bothuell, 37, should stand trial on charges of torture and second-degree child abuse.
A conviction on torture carries up to life in prison and second-degree child abuse up to four years.
The boy, who is now 13, said his daily routine rarely wavered from November 2011 until his parents reported him missing in June 2014. Under questioning by Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Carin Goldfarb, the boy said he hit a breaking point last May.
"I basically had gotten so upset and depressed and sad to the point where I had tried to commit suicide," he said, describing cutting his wrist with a knife.
The boy told the court he had no friends, visited his mother every other month and had tried to run away, but police spotted him wandering the neighborhood and took him home.
On one occasion, his father threatened to take him to military school, he said. They made it as far as Ohio before he convinced his father to return home, he said.
Defense attorney Shawn Patrick Smith told reporters after the hearing that the child's testimony seemed coached and "not credible."
"Obviously the reason he's saying anything is he wanted to live with his mom," Smith said.
A widespread search launched on June 14 after his father and step-mother reported him missing came up empty until a Michigan State Police sergeant and an FBI agent found him alive and hungry behind stacked boxes in the basement of his house.
The boy is expected to continue testifying on May 6.
The torture daddy is identified as CHARLES BOTHUELL IV. We have poste on this case before.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/28/us-usa-michigan-boy-idUSKBN0NJ2LM20150428
US | Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:18pm EDT
Michigan boy held in basement describes extreme exercise, abuse
DETROIT | By Serena Maria Daniels (Reuters) - A Michigan boy who was found emaciated in his own basement after going missing for 11 days last year told a court on Tuesday that he was forced to exercise for up to two hours every morning and again each night and would suffer abuse if he slacked off.
If he faltered, he was struck by a plastic pipe or wooden stick, or sometimes forced to stand with his arms over his head in a corner, a punishment his father and stepmother called "reaching for excellence," the boy, who was 12 at the time, testified.
"I was expected to do everything perfectly. I was never given any leeway. I was never given a chance to make a mistake and learn from it," the boy testified, taking long pauses.
The Wayne County Circuit Court hearing, which has run for days, is to determine whether his father, Charles Bothuell IV, 46, and his stepmother, Monique Dillard-Bothuell, 37, should stand trial on charges of torture and second-degree child abuse.
A conviction on torture carries up to life in prison and second-degree child abuse up to four years.
The boy, who is now 13, said his daily routine rarely wavered from November 2011 until his parents reported him missing in June 2014. Under questioning by Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Carin Goldfarb, the boy said he hit a breaking point last May.
"I basically had gotten so upset and depressed and sad to the point where I had tried to commit suicide," he said, describing cutting his wrist with a knife.
The boy told the court he had no friends, visited his mother every other month and had tried to run away, but police spotted him wandering the neighborhood and took him home.
On one occasion, his father threatened to take him to military school, he said. They made it as far as Ohio before he convinced his father to return home, he said.
Defense attorney Shawn Patrick Smith told reporters after the hearing that the child's testimony seemed coached and "not credible."
"Obviously the reason he's saying anything is he wanted to live with his mom," Smith said.
A widespread search launched on June 14 after his father and step-mother reported him missing came up empty until a Michigan State Police sergeant and an FBI agent found him alive and hungry behind stacked boxes in the basement of his house.
The boy is expected to continue testifying on May 6.
Custodial dad, step blame each other for murder of 6-year-old daughter (Alberta, Canada)
We have an axiom here at Dastardly Dads: The media always forgets about a killer dad's custodial status by the time he goes to trial. That way, nobody in authority looks responsible, you know.
This is a perfect example of that. According to this previous article, dad SPENCER JORDAN had PRIMARY CUSTODY. Also see the Killer Dads and Custody list for Canada.
http://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/accused-couple-points-at-each-other-in-closing-arguments-of-trial-for-childs-death
Father, stepmother point fingers at each other in death of six-year-old Meika Jordan
Daryl Slade, Calgary Herald
Published on: April 28, 2015 Last Updated: April 29, 2015 6:53 AM MDT
There is no evidence that Spencer Jordan inflicted injuries that led to his six-year-old daughter Meika’s death nearly 3½ years ago, his lawyer said in his final argument on Tuesday.
Mitch Stephensen said Jordan, 28, admitted he pushed the girl down at their Temple Drive N.E. home on the evening of Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011, and punched her in the stomach the following morning, but neither of those injuries were life-threatening.
Instead, Stephensen told Justice Rosemary Nation that Jordan’s common-law spouse Marie Magoon, 25, admitted to inflicting several other injuries, including holding a lighter under the girl’s hand for possibly two minutes and pushing the girl downstairs several times.
Both co-accused are on trial for first-degree murder. “The real issue in the trial, talking about the elements (of murder), is identity,” said Stephensen. “It’s not whether the accused were there, but who did what and when — if anything — and is death a reasonable likelihood. This is what the Crown has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
“This is a sad story of the tragic loss of a beautiful girl and nothing will bring her back. But you decide on the law, not whether her abusers or tormentors unleashed their rage.”
Earlier, Magoon’s lawyer Allan Fay argued for an acquittal, saying his client could not be convicted of any homicide — first-degree or second-degree murder or manslaughter — as she did not cause any of the fatal wounds.
He said the judge could have convicted Magoon of aggravated assault for inflicting third-degree burns on the girl’s hand with a lighter, but she is not facing that charge.
Both suspects admitted to hurting the girl that long weekend, but neither party admitted to causing injuries serious enough to cause her death and both said they were not acting together in any of the assaults.
Crown prosecutor Susan Pepper told the judge that the couple was unemployed and financially stressed-out, angry and fighting, and took out their frustrations cruelly and violently on Meika.
Pepper said both suspects should be convicted as charged of first-degree murder as they killed the girl while committing the indictable offence of unlawfully confining her.
She said parents have certain rights to confine children in their home for her protection, but in this case, the assaults went far beyond that.
The prosecutor said the motive for their actions was that Meika was not running up and down the stairs as her father told her to do as punishment for not obeying him.
Court heard that Meika was crying, pleading and begging for mercy as she was being assaulted. Meika suffered five significant blows to the head, as well as abdominal injuries and cuts and bruises throughout her body.
She died at Alberta Children’s Hospital on Nov. 13, 2011, of blunt force trauma.
The judge will deliver her verdict on June 3.
This is a perfect example of that. According to this previous article, dad SPENCER JORDAN had PRIMARY CUSTODY. Also see the Killer Dads and Custody list for Canada.
http://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/accused-couple-points-at-each-other-in-closing-arguments-of-trial-for-childs-death
Father, stepmother point fingers at each other in death of six-year-old Meika Jordan
Daryl Slade, Calgary Herald
Published on: April 28, 2015 Last Updated: April 29, 2015 6:53 AM MDT
There is no evidence that Spencer Jordan inflicted injuries that led to his six-year-old daughter Meika’s death nearly 3½ years ago, his lawyer said in his final argument on Tuesday.
Mitch Stephensen said Jordan, 28, admitted he pushed the girl down at their Temple Drive N.E. home on the evening of Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011, and punched her in the stomach the following morning, but neither of those injuries were life-threatening.
Instead, Stephensen told Justice Rosemary Nation that Jordan’s common-law spouse Marie Magoon, 25, admitted to inflicting several other injuries, including holding a lighter under the girl’s hand for possibly two minutes and pushing the girl downstairs several times.
Both co-accused are on trial for first-degree murder. “The real issue in the trial, talking about the elements (of murder), is identity,” said Stephensen. “It’s not whether the accused were there, but who did what and when — if anything — and is death a reasonable likelihood. This is what the Crown has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
“This is a sad story of the tragic loss of a beautiful girl and nothing will bring her back. But you decide on the law, not whether her abusers or tormentors unleashed their rage.”
Earlier, Magoon’s lawyer Allan Fay argued for an acquittal, saying his client could not be convicted of any homicide — first-degree or second-degree murder or manslaughter — as she did not cause any of the fatal wounds.
He said the judge could have convicted Magoon of aggravated assault for inflicting third-degree burns on the girl’s hand with a lighter, but she is not facing that charge.
Both suspects admitted to hurting the girl that long weekend, but neither party admitted to causing injuries serious enough to cause her death and both said they were not acting together in any of the assaults.
Crown prosecutor Susan Pepper told the judge that the couple was unemployed and financially stressed-out, angry and fighting, and took out their frustrations cruelly and violently on Meika.
Pepper said both suspects should be convicted as charged of first-degree murder as they killed the girl while committing the indictable offence of unlawfully confining her.
She said parents have certain rights to confine children in their home for her protection, but in this case, the assaults went far beyond that.
The prosecutor said the motive for their actions was that Meika was not running up and down the stairs as her father told her to do as punishment for not obeying him.
Court heard that Meika was crying, pleading and begging for mercy as she was being assaulted. Meika suffered five significant blows to the head, as well as abdominal injuries and cuts and bruises throughout her body.
She died at Alberta Children’s Hospital on Nov. 13, 2011, of blunt force trauma.
The judge will deliver her verdict on June 3.
Dad charged with fracturing skull of 2-year-old child, starving animal to death (Jonesville, North Carolina)
Dad is identified as BRADLEY SCOTT KENNEDY.
http://www.wbtv.com/story/28921752/report-father-arrested-after-2-year-olds-skull-fractured-animal-starves-to-death
Report: Father arrested after 2-year-old's skull fractured, animal starves to death
Posted: Apr 28, 2015 4:13 PM EDT Updated: Apr 28, 2015 4:13 PM EDT
By WBTV Web Staff
YADKINVILLE, NC (WBTV) - A Jonesville father was arrested Saturday after deputies say his 2-year-old child showed up at a medical facility with a fractured skull.
Bradley Scott Kennedy, 36, was charged with one count of felony negligent child abuse with serious bodily injury. He was also charged with one felony count of killing an animal by starvation.
On March 7, the Yadkin County Sheriff's Office received a report in reference to possible child abuse. The 2-year-old child was seen at medical facilities where it was determined that the infant had sustained a skull fracture.
Officials say the child with both parents.
During the investigation, detectives said they discovered other pending criminal charges associated with Kennedy.
Officials have not released any details about the animal abuse charge.
After posting a $150,000 bond, Kennedy was released.
His next court date is scheduled for May 19.
http://www.wbtv.com/story/28921752/report-father-arrested-after-2-year-olds-skull-fractured-animal-starves-to-death
Report: Father arrested after 2-year-old's skull fractured, animal starves to death
Posted: Apr 28, 2015 4:13 PM EDT Updated: Apr 28, 2015 4:13 PM EDT
By WBTV Web Staff
YADKINVILLE, NC (WBTV) - A Jonesville father was arrested Saturday after deputies say his 2-year-old child showed up at a medical facility with a fractured skull.
Bradley Scott Kennedy, 36, was charged with one count of felony negligent child abuse with serious bodily injury. He was also charged with one felony count of killing an animal by starvation.
On March 7, the Yadkin County Sheriff's Office received a report in reference to possible child abuse. The 2-year-old child was seen at medical facilities where it was determined that the infant had sustained a skull fracture.
Officials say the child with both parents.
During the investigation, detectives said they discovered other pending criminal charges associated with Kennedy.
Officials have not released any details about the animal abuse charge.
After posting a $150,000 bond, Kennedy was released.
His next court date is scheduled for May 19.
Dad pleads not guilty to murdering 7-month-old son (Las Vegas, Nevada)
Dad is identified as CORNELIO RODRIQUEZ-GONZALEZ.
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/28919857/fussy-baby-death-ruled-homicide-father-pleads-not-guilty
'Fussy' baby death ruled homicide, father pleads not guilty
Posted: Apr 28, 2015 1:00 PM EDT
Updated: Apr 28, 2015 1:01 PM EDT
By Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- The father accused of murder has pleaded not guilty in the homicide of a Las Vegas infant in November.
The Clark County Coroner's office said Tuesday that 7-month-old Raymond Rodriguez-Gonzalez died on Nov. 18 of blunt force trauma to his chest and abdomen. His death was ruled a homicide.
The baby's father, Cornelio Rodriguez-Gonzalez pleaded not guilty to murder on April 15 and a jury trial is expected to start in September. Las Vegas police said the 255-pound man knelt on the infant's chest because he was angry the boy was being "fussy" even after being fed.
He initially claimed the baby had fallen but authorities found bruises on the child's face and hip, scrapes on the back of his head, partially healed rib injuries and a lacerated liver.
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/28919857/fussy-baby-death-ruled-homicide-father-pleads-not-guilty
'Fussy' baby death ruled homicide, father pleads not guilty
Posted: Apr 28, 2015 1:00 PM EDT
Updated: Apr 28, 2015 1:01 PM EDT
By Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- The father accused of murder has pleaded not guilty in the homicide of a Las Vegas infant in November.
The Clark County Coroner's office said Tuesday that 7-month-old Raymond Rodriguez-Gonzalez died on Nov. 18 of blunt force trauma to his chest and abdomen. His death was ruled a homicide.
The baby's father, Cornelio Rodriguez-Gonzalez pleaded not guilty to murder on April 15 and a jury trial is expected to start in September. Las Vegas police said the 255-pound man knelt on the infant's chest because he was angry the boy was being "fussy" even after being fed.
He initially claimed the baby had fallen but authorities found bruises on the child's face and hip, scrapes on the back of his head, partially healed rib injuries and a lacerated liver.
Dad accused of torturing, raping, and killing 19-day-old daughter (Los Angeles County, California)
What a repulsive piece of sh**.
Dad is identified as MATTHEW BRENDAN WARNER.
http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/136230/
Newhall father makes court appearance in infant daughter’s death
Posted: April 28, 2015 4:58 p.m. Updated: April 28, 2015 4:58 p.m.
By Jim Holt
Signal Senior Staff Writer
A Newhall man accused of torturing and killing his 19-day-old daughter appeared briefly in court Tuesday as lawyers tried to set a date for his preliminary hearing, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said Tuesday.
Matthew Brendan Warner, charged in January with torturing, sexually assaulting and murdering his 19-day-old daughter Ellorah Rose Warner, appeared in San Fernando Superior Court Tuesday, District Attorney spokesman Ricardo Santiago said.
Warner, 30, was ordered to appear back in court next month. Once a date has been set for a preliminary hearing, prosecutors present evidence in the case, after which the judge would be expected to decide if the case should go to trial.
Last week, investigators with the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Department revealed the results of forensic tests that showed Ellorah Rose Warner died as a result of blunt force trauma.
Warner remains in custody charged with murder, assault of a child causing death, torture, oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child under 10 years old, and aggravated sexual assault of a child.
According to the criminal complaint, each of the crimes occurred on Jan. 23 — the day mother Tawni Wallis left baby Ellorah with her husband.
That evening, Warner and Wallis went to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station to report their daughter missing.
On the morning of Jan. 24, Warner led deputies to an area where the infant’s body was found in the cab of a pickup truck at a Newhall park-and-ride lot.
Warner pleaded not guilty to the charges against him March 12 in San Fernando Superior Court.
He faces a maximum penalty of life in state prison if convicted of all charges.
Dad is identified as MATTHEW BRENDAN WARNER.
http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/136230/
Newhall father makes court appearance in infant daughter’s death
Posted: April 28, 2015 4:58 p.m. Updated: April 28, 2015 4:58 p.m.
By Jim Holt
Signal Senior Staff Writer
A Newhall man accused of torturing and killing his 19-day-old daughter appeared briefly in court Tuesday as lawyers tried to set a date for his preliminary hearing, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said Tuesday.
Matthew Brendan Warner, charged in January with torturing, sexually assaulting and murdering his 19-day-old daughter Ellorah Rose Warner, appeared in San Fernando Superior Court Tuesday, District Attorney spokesman Ricardo Santiago said.
Warner, 30, was ordered to appear back in court next month. Once a date has been set for a preliminary hearing, prosecutors present evidence in the case, after which the judge would be expected to decide if the case should go to trial.
Last week, investigators with the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Department revealed the results of forensic tests that showed Ellorah Rose Warner died as a result of blunt force trauma.
Warner remains in custody charged with murder, assault of a child causing death, torture, oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child under 10 years old, and aggravated sexual assault of a child.
According to the criminal complaint, each of the crimes occurred on Jan. 23 — the day mother Tawni Wallis left baby Ellorah with her husband.
That evening, Warner and Wallis went to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station to report their daughter missing.
On the morning of Jan. 24, Warner led deputies to an area where the infant’s body was found in the cab of a pickup truck at a Newhall park-and-ride lot.
Warner pleaded not guilty to the charges against him March 12 in San Fernando Superior Court.
He faces a maximum penalty of life in state prison if convicted of all charges.
Dad gains custody of 4-year-old daughter so he could claim more benefits, kills her two months later (United Kingdom)
The reason custodial dad CARL WHEATLEY was able to murder his 4-year-old daughter: Fathers rights politics. In reality, he was nothing but an anonymous sperm donor who apparently didn't even know the mother was pregnant much less provide for her or the child in any way. He seemingly had no relationship with this girl. But because sperm trumps the needs of a child for safety and security, Daddy got his way along with all the financial benefits he craved. Didn't matter one whit that this girl had already be been wrested from her mum (for reason that are not explained, but very likely minor--at least compared to Daddy's crimes). She was then wrested from the next family she knew, the foster parents. None of her needs or wishes mattered. Only Daddy's ego, laziness, entitlement, and need for control mattered. Notice that he also wanted possession of a little boy he had apparently never had anything to with either. That's the FR movement, folks. Enabling lazy dole-seeking child abusers and killers.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dad-killed-four-year-old-daughter-after-5598046?ICID=FB_mirror_main
Dad 'killed four-year-old daughter after winning custody of her to claim more benefits'
17:23, 28 April 2015
By Catherine Varney
Carl Wheatley caused several of his daughter's teeth to fall out and made internet searches for 'how to reduce swelling' and 'what glue can I use to put teeth back in', the court heard
A dad who won custody of his four year-old daughter so he could claim more benefits beat her to death just two months later, a court heard.
Carl Wheatley admits killing young Alexa-Marie Quinn in March last year - just two months after the local authority granted him custody from foster parents - but denies it was murder.
The "frustrated" supermarket worker lost his temper and delivered a "sustained period of hard beating" to the youngester, his trial heard.
Wheatley, 30, claims to have called 999 two minutes after Alexa-Marie stopped breathing, but the prosecution say she could have been dead for hours.
He made several internet searches for 'how to reduce swelling' and 'what glue can I use to put teeth back in'.
Prosecutor Christopher Donnellan QC said Wheatley fought for custody of Alexa-Marie and his three year-old son so he could claim more benefits.
He said: "He was of the view that having one or both children with him would enhance his benefits and could result in better accommodation."
The court heard Wheatley called emergency services just after 9am on March 12, 2014 after a "period of sustained beating."
He claimed Alexa-Marie had stopped breathing two minutes beforehand but the CPS claimed he waited "some time" before calling emergency services.
When he eventually made the call he said she was drowning because he believed she had fluid on her lungs.
Wheatley, who has ADHD, cried in the dock as the first 999 call he made to emergency services was played in court.
He told the operator: "She's drowned. She's drowned in fluid, she might have internal fluid on her lungs. She needs an ambulance right away.
"I've had her for a few months, I got a bit frustrated with her and I harmed the poor child.
"I'm being honest with you I need to think about my child."
The prosecution said despite Wheatley knowing he had killed his daughter, he phoned emergency services and carried out a "charade" and performed CPR on the child.
Mr Donnellan said: "He lost his temper with her, she was just four-and-a-half years old.
"This wasn't just a single blow, this was a sustained period of hard beating of her."
A pathologist said Alexa-Marie's injuries were caused by "blunt force trauma to the skin".
The court heard in the early hours of the morning that Alexa-Marie died Wheatley made internet searches for 'what effects can internal bleeding cause' and 'can lots of bruising get infected'.
Mr Donnellan added: "In the weeks before she died when he hit her he hit her hard and he hit her more and more.
"He went to considerable lengths to avoid Alexa-Marie being seen by anyone.
"He knew at the time what he was doing and that he was causing her harm. Harm that was visible to the paramedics who witnessed the level of bruising to her lower body.
"That is why we say the charge in this case is murder."
When Alexa-Marie was due to go back to nursery school after half-term in February, Wheatley lied and told staff he was in Leeds and his car had broken down.
Alexa-Marie had been living with Wheatley in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, since January 2014 when he won a long battle with Bedford Borough Council.
She had been in the care of foster parents after being taken from her mother Victoria Quinn several years earlier.
At the time it was unclear who her father was but in 2012 a paternity test proved Wheatley to be the father and he was granted supervised access to the little girl. After a number of visits and meetings social services granted him full custody and the case was then passed to Hertfordshire County Council.
Mr Donnellan told the jury: "You will hear from a number of agencies over why Mr Wheatley was given custody of Alexa in the first place and why there wasn't more supervision.
"It will be suggested that this could have prevented Alexa's death. But the defendant made his own choices. He chose to not contact anyone for help."
Wheatley was also fighting for custody for another three year-old son, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who he had with another woman.
Wheatley denies murder but admits manslaughter by reasons of diminished responsibility.
The trial continues.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dad-killed-four-year-old-daughter-after-5598046?ICID=FB_mirror_main
Dad 'killed four-year-old daughter after winning custody of her to claim more benefits'
17:23, 28 April 2015
By Catherine Varney
Carl Wheatley caused several of his daughter's teeth to fall out and made internet searches for 'how to reduce swelling' and 'what glue can I use to put teeth back in', the court heard
A dad who won custody of his four year-old daughter so he could claim more benefits beat her to death just two months later, a court heard.
Carl Wheatley admits killing young Alexa-Marie Quinn in March last year - just two months after the local authority granted him custody from foster parents - but denies it was murder.
The "frustrated" supermarket worker lost his temper and delivered a "sustained period of hard beating" to the youngester, his trial heard.
Wheatley, 30, claims to have called 999 two minutes after Alexa-Marie stopped breathing, but the prosecution say she could have been dead for hours.
He made several internet searches for 'how to reduce swelling' and 'what glue can I use to put teeth back in'.
Prosecutor Christopher Donnellan QC said Wheatley fought for custody of Alexa-Marie and his three year-old son so he could claim more benefits.
He said: "He was of the view that having one or both children with him would enhance his benefits and could result in better accommodation."
The court heard Wheatley called emergency services just after 9am on March 12, 2014 after a "period of sustained beating."
He claimed Alexa-Marie had stopped breathing two minutes beforehand but the CPS claimed he waited "some time" before calling emergency services.
When he eventually made the call he said she was drowning because he believed she had fluid on her lungs.
Wheatley, who has ADHD, cried in the dock as the first 999 call he made to emergency services was played in court.
He told the operator: "She's drowned. She's drowned in fluid, she might have internal fluid on her lungs. She needs an ambulance right away.
"I've had her for a few months, I got a bit frustrated with her and I harmed the poor child.
"I'm being honest with you I need to think about my child."
The prosecution said despite Wheatley knowing he had killed his daughter, he phoned emergency services and carried out a "charade" and performed CPR on the child.
Mr Donnellan said: "He lost his temper with her, she was just four-and-a-half years old.
"This wasn't just a single blow, this was a sustained period of hard beating of her."
A pathologist said Alexa-Marie's injuries were caused by "blunt force trauma to the skin".
The court heard in the early hours of the morning that Alexa-Marie died Wheatley made internet searches for 'what effects can internal bleeding cause' and 'can lots of bruising get infected'.
Mr Donnellan added: "In the weeks before she died when he hit her he hit her hard and he hit her more and more.
"He went to considerable lengths to avoid Alexa-Marie being seen by anyone.
"He knew at the time what he was doing and that he was causing her harm. Harm that was visible to the paramedics who witnessed the level of bruising to her lower body.
"That is why we say the charge in this case is murder."
When Alexa-Marie was due to go back to nursery school after half-term in February, Wheatley lied and told staff he was in Leeds and his car had broken down.
Alexa-Marie had been living with Wheatley in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, since January 2014 when he won a long battle with Bedford Borough Council.
She had been in the care of foster parents after being taken from her mother Victoria Quinn several years earlier.
At the time it was unclear who her father was but in 2012 a paternity test proved Wheatley to be the father and he was granted supervised access to the little girl. After a number of visits and meetings social services granted him full custody and the case was then passed to Hertfordshire County Council.
Mr Donnellan told the jury: "You will hear from a number of agencies over why Mr Wheatley was given custody of Alexa in the first place and why there wasn't more supervision.
"It will be suggested that this could have prevented Alexa's death. But the defendant made his own choices. He chose to not contact anyone for help."
Wheatley was also fighting for custody for another three year-old son, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who he had with another woman.
Wheatley denies murder but admits manslaughter by reasons of diminished responsibility.
The trial continues.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Dad punches out car window to hit mom, driving glass into eye of 4-year-old son (Fargo, North Dakota)
Dad is identified as TYLER JACOB LEITCH.
http://www.inforum.com/news/crime/3729687-fargo-father-accused-child-abuse-after-punching-window-injuring-boy
Fargo father accused of child abuse after punching window, injuring boy
By Forum staff reports on Apr 23, 2015 at 5:38 p.m.
FARGO - A Fargo father is accused of felony child abuse after allegedly punching a car window near his partner’s head, shattering it and driving glass into the eye of their 4-year-old son nearby.
Tyler Jacob Leitch, 34, was charged Wednesday in Cass County District Court with one count of Class B felony abuse or neglect of a child, and one count each of criminal mischief and domestic assault, both Class B misdemeanors.
Court documents say police were called to the scene of a domestic dispute Feb. 26 in the 300 block of 16th Street South, where a witness told them she picked up her friend, Leitch’s girlfriend, and the couple’s two children.
The girlfriend told police Leitch had been walking in the area, and after an argument between the couple, he punched the window where his girlfriend was sitting, shattering it, and then hitting her on the cheek with his hand.
A piece of glass went into their son’s eye, which was cut and bleeding, the girlfriend said.
A warrant was issued for Leitch on Wednesday.
http://www.inforum.com/news/crime/3729687-fargo-father-accused-child-abuse-after-punching-window-injuring-boy
Fargo father accused of child abuse after punching window, injuring boy
By Forum staff reports on Apr 23, 2015 at 5:38 p.m.
FARGO - A Fargo father is accused of felony child abuse after allegedly punching a car window near his partner’s head, shattering it and driving glass into the eye of their 4-year-old son nearby.
Tyler Jacob Leitch, 34, was charged Wednesday in Cass County District Court with one count of Class B felony abuse or neglect of a child, and one count each of criminal mischief and domestic assault, both Class B misdemeanors.
Court documents say police were called to the scene of a domestic dispute Feb. 26 in the 300 block of 16th Street South, where a witness told them she picked up her friend, Leitch’s girlfriend, and the couple’s two children.
The girlfriend told police Leitch had been walking in the area, and after an argument between the couple, he punched the window where his girlfriend was sitting, shattering it, and then hitting her on the cheek with his hand.
A piece of glass went into their son’s eye, which was cut and bleeding, the girlfriend said.
A warrant was issued for Leitch on Wednesday.
Drunk dad charged with manslaughter for abandoning 2-year-old son in hot car (Phoenix, Arizona)
Dad is identified as JAMES KORYOR.
http://uptownmagazine.com/2015/04/father-charged-abandoning-toddler-hot-car/
Father Charged In Death of Toddler Abandoned in Hot Car
Posted by Angela Wilson on Apr 23, 2015
UPTOWN
A Phoenix, Arizona father was arrested for manslaughter and child abuse when he abandoned his 2-year-old son in a hot car where the toddler later died.
James Koryor, 41, was taken into custody Tuesday when officials discovered he ran to the liquor store with his toddler, bought a bottle of gin, drank it on the way home and fell asleep inside his house.
The child, identified as Alpha Koryor, was left behind in the car. Detectives found signs that he had desperately struggled to escape the vehicle, which didn’t have any car seats, before dying in 90 degree temperatures.
Koryor was supposed to take his 2-year-old boy, along with his 5-year-old son, to get haircuts. The older son either got out of the vehicle by himself or was taken inside by his father, police spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump said. Family members asked where his little brother was, and he said the child was asleep, Crump said.
The mother was inside the home, studying, before finding her son’s body around 4 p.m., when she went to drive to class. Neighbors said they heard weeping and wailing from the family’s driveway.
Koryor sobbed uncontrollably in court when bond was set at $50,000. Prosecutors requested an increased bail, considering Koryor a flight risk, due to Koryor’s strong ties to the Ivory Coast, Liberia and Ghana.
http://uptownmagazine.com/2015/04/father-charged-abandoning-toddler-hot-car/
Father Charged In Death of Toddler Abandoned in Hot Car
Posted by Angela Wilson on Apr 23, 2015
UPTOWN
A Phoenix, Arizona father was arrested for manslaughter and child abuse when he abandoned his 2-year-old son in a hot car where the toddler later died.
James Koryor, 41, was taken into custody Tuesday when officials discovered he ran to the liquor store with his toddler, bought a bottle of gin, drank it on the way home and fell asleep inside his house.
The child, identified as Alpha Koryor, was left behind in the car. Detectives found signs that he had desperately struggled to escape the vehicle, which didn’t have any car seats, before dying in 90 degree temperatures.
Koryor was supposed to take his 2-year-old boy, along with his 5-year-old son, to get haircuts. The older son either got out of the vehicle by himself or was taken inside by his father, police spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump said. Family members asked where his little brother was, and he said the child was asleep, Crump said.
The mother was inside the home, studying, before finding her son’s body around 4 p.m., when she went to drive to class. Neighbors said they heard weeping and wailing from the family’s driveway.
Koryor sobbed uncontrollably in court when bond was set at $50,000. Prosecutors requested an increased bail, considering Koryor a flight risk, due to Koryor’s strong ties to the Ivory Coast, Liberia and Ghana.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Dad kills 9-year-old son, 6-year-old daughter despite order of protection, supervised visitation (New Zealand)
Lots of crocodile tears here by moronic officials who refused to act on any number of red flag, refused to look at all the evidence, ignored the mother's concerns, and thus allowed two kids be viciously murdered by their father.
Dad is identified as EDWARD LIVINGSTONE.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/68011537/killer-dad-edward-livingstone-high-risk
Killer dad Edward Livingstone 'high risk'
A Dunedin inquest into the deaths of the Livingstone children has ended with top officials fighting back tears.
Bradley, 9, and his sister Ellen, 6, were shot dead by Livingstone at their home in the Dunedin suburb of St Leonards, shortly before 10pm on January 15 last year.
Livingstone, 51, was later found dead in the front bedroom of the house at 9 Kiwi St. A shotgun lay next to him.
He left a final note at his flat before the killings.
Katharine Webb, Livingstone's former wife and the mother of Bradley and Ellen, was the first of 18 witnesses called to give evidence at an inquest into the three deaths, which began on Tuesday in Dunedin.
She escaped the shooting unharmed.
OFFICIALS EMOTIONAL AS INQUEST CLOSES
Chief Coroner Deborah Marshall on Friday closed the inquest and reserved her decision.
She thanked Katharine Webb for her quiet dignity.
It reminded everyone "how much you have suffered", Marshall said, voice breaking.
Shortly before, Southern District Commander Andrew Coster underlined the emotional weight of the inquiry by also fighting back tears as he defended the police performance under a grilling from Webb's lawyer Anne Stevens. Police were "totally committed" to do better but "we can't change what happened", he said.
Coster said he had moved to close the cracks the Livingstone case had highlighted and more resources had been allocated to family violence in the district.
Police received 2000 family violence reports per year just in its Dunedin office.
Coster said if Livingstone's convictions in Australia from 1988 (arson and assault) had been known to the court dealing with his protection order breach, it was still questionable whether it would have made a difference.
At the time of the hearing, police still needed to know more about the convictions and the circumstances.
He said the information had come from a cell interview for intelligence purposes and entered into the police intelligence system..
If the officer he had known more detail about the case, it might have been an error not to have taken further action. In a best case scenario, a family violence meeting co-ordinator would have noticed the new information and followed it up.
The police prosecutor who opposed a discharge without conviction for Livingstone's second breach of his protection order could have sought an adjournment to investigate further his convictions in Australia.
"It's most likely it would have been granted."
Two constables who attended an incident at Livingstone's house on August 7 and were handed empty bullet shells which Livingstone had given his children, should have recorded it.
"It was a very significant matter and staff did not attach sufficient weight to it."
The fact police did not investigate a rape allegation by Webb was a failure and too much reliance was placed on Webb's desire not to take it further.
Police and other agencies did have a level of awareness of risk factors in the case and "there were a lot of things in place that led this group to believe the case was well managed."
Nothing of great significance suggested an major escalation of risk, he said.
"But if the police had taken ownership of the rape there is a distinct possibility we would not be here?" Stevens said.
Police would have needed a reliable confession from Livingstone to proceed with a prosecution if his wife did not want to pursue charges.
"I accept if convicted he would be in custody."
He agreed complainants could change their mind. Webb had engaged with Women's Refuge, she had a protection order, Livingstone had engaged with Emergency Psychiatric Services and the children were in a programme.
He was not sure much more could have been done.
"You can't make the right call in every instance."
Even if Livingstone had not received a discharge without conviction, he would almost certainly not have gone to prison, Coster said.
But each little step made here ultimately affected the outcome, Stevens said. Coster said it was unfair to assume outcomes would have been different if the case was handled better.
In other evidence, Mel Foot, who lived next door to the Livingstone house, remained adamant she had telephoned police in August to tell them about a threat Livingstone made to kill his family with an axe.
She had also told two constables who attended an incident at the Livingstone house on August 7.
"I'd warned everybody but nobody listened."
Coster said police were unable to verify Foot's claim.
LIVINGSTONE WAS 'HIGH RISK'
On Friday, former Dunedin probation officer Liqueshia Dougherty told the inquest she was briefed about Livingstone at an inter-agency family violence meeting about a week after he had breached a protection order on August 6, 2013, preventing him from contacting Webb.
The meeting was attended by several agencies including Police, Corrections, Child, Youth and Family and Women's Refuge. Dougherty noted on a document that she was told Livingstone was considered "high risk" and had narcissistic personality disorder, a high sense of entitlement and refused to accept his relationship with Webb was over.
She also noted that he had given his children bullet casings at a supervised visit as a "message for her [Webb]".
It was brought to her attention that Livingstone worked at Otago Correctional Facility and she made a note so she could pass it on to management at the prison.
"At the time it seemed like I was the only person in the room that wasn't aware of the information.
"Everybody seemed quite concerned. People felt there was more underneath it."
Dougherty said the reference to the bullet casings made her particularly concerned.
She did not recall knowing anything about an allegation that Livingstone had raped Webb.
Minutes of the meeting noted there had been two family violence incidents involving Livingstone and Webb, most recently on May 27.
They also noted that Livingstone had mental health issues and Women's Refuge was working closely with Webb who had written about wanting to end her relationship.
Livingstone's name was added to a high risk register.
People on that register were "kept a closer eye on", Dougherty said.
It indicated an issue that needed more intervention.
There were 31 new family violence related matters discussed at the meeting.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY ONE
* Katharine Webb said Edward Livingstone raped her in May 2013 shortly before they separated. She did not pursue charges because she wanted to focus on getting out of the house and keeping her children safe. She knew where to go for help if needed.
* In 2013, Livingstone twice (August 6-7 and September 14) breached a protection order preventing him from contacting Webb in the months before the shooting. He obtained police diversion on one charge and a discharge without conviction on the other.
* Livingstone had an historic conviction for arson in Australia dating back to 1988. The court heard he set fire to his former fiance's home after coming home to find her in bed with another man.
* Livingstone gave bullet casings to his children during a supervised visit after he separated from Webb.
* Livingstone told associates he had thoughts about killing his family and himself in the months before the shooting. Livingstone's neighbour Mel Foot said she contacted police in August 2013 and told them that Livingstone had talked about killing his family. Foot alleged the complaint was never followed up by police.
* Psychiatrist Christopher Wisely was unaware of Livingstone's historic conviction for arson or the incident involving the bullet casings. If Wisely had known it may have altered the risk assessment he gave to a judge at a sentencing hearing at Dunedin District Court on November 15, 2013, in relation to the second breach of the protection order. Livingstone was discharged without conviction.
* Police prosecutor Sergeant Kate Saxton said she was not fully aware of Livingstone's criminal offending in Australia at the time of the hearing. She could have sought an adjournment on the matter until she was sent all the information, but decided not to. Interpol sent her a copy of Livingstone's Australian criminal history on December 9. Saxton conceded that the information could have altered the outcome of the sentencing.
* Saxton also told the court that Livingstone should not have received diversion for the first breach of the protection order. Diversion was not available for breaching a court order, she said.
* Wisely said Edward Livingstone sourced the shotgun used in the shooting from a former flatmate's home. The flatmate did not know Livingstone had taken the gun until police came to his home after the shooting.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY TWO
* Southern District Commander Andrew Coster said police had failed to pick up red flags in the case and the Criminal Investigation Branch should have investigated an allegation, admitted by Livingstone, that he had brutally raped his wife Katharine in May, 2013. The police effort was well intentioned but inadequate and too much weight had been given to Katharine Webb's wishes. Livingstone should not have been considered eligible for diversion and police should have pursued the allegation despite the victim's desire not to pursue the allegation. Steps had been taken to address the failures, he said, with a specialist investigation unit set up.
* Detective Senior Sergeant Kallum Croudis, of the Dunedin police, admitted a series of significant failings by police staff who dealt with Livingstone and his family in the months before the shooting. Police had failed to follow-up in a timely way information Livingstone had an arson conviction in Australia. Bullet casings Livingstone gave to his children at a supervised visit and then handed to police should have been investigated.
* Livingstone drove to the Kiwi St property with a red fuel container full of petrol, a shotgun stolen from his former flatmate and ammunition. There were beers in the car, but blood tests would later show he was not over the legal limit. Livingstone entered the house through a side door using a key before shooting his children in their bedrooms.
* Police investigations showed Livingstone claimed he was abused at a boys' school in Sydney and had a violent father. His mother left the family when he was very young. He has a younger sister called Suzanne.
* Police received information, probably on August 8 last year, that Livingstone was harassing his former wife's neighbour by phone calls and text messages mainly wanting to know if his wife was still wearing her wedding ring. Police were also told Livingstone was sneaking around his former family home when his wife was at work. The informant (name suppressed) told police Livingstone was, "f...... nuts".
* The general practitioner treating Livingstone says she doubts the drugs she prescribed on May 16, 2013 (zyban and escitalopram) could have caused a psychotic episode leading him to rape his wife. He had not reported problems with past use of zyban. Livingstone's psychiatrist Chris Wisely believes Livingstone had an adverse reaction to the drugs that led to the rape his wife. The couple separated after the rape.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY THREE
* Livingstone deceived his psychotherapist by not telling her fully about his past or the full details of the incidents relating to his first breach of a protection order. The psychotherapist, whose name is suppressed, did not seek details of the police case and provided a letter, which was later produced in court, saying she did not believe Livingstone was a violent man, despite knowing he had raped Webb. Livingstone once told the psychotherapist he was a "sex addict".
* Barnardos employee Rebecca Cadogan, who supervised five of Livingstone's six arranged visits with Bradley and Ellen, said she was not surprised to learn he had killed his children. Cadogan said she had seen Livingstone become very aggressive and dominating during one of the sessions and instinctively thought of him when she heard about the shooting.
* Former flatmate Philip Mans said Livingstone's drinking increased while they lived together to a point, in the months before the shooting, where he could hardly stand some evenings and went to bed very depressed. Livingstone stole the gun used in the shooting from Mans' locked gun safe. Mans said he felt Livingstone had deceived and manipulated him.
* Forensic psychiatrist Dr David Chaplow said a clinical review identified that elements of Livingstone's care were inadequate. The review's main finding was that information held by various clinicians about Livingstone could have been shared better. Collectively they failed to ascertain Livingstone's danger to Webb. He had deceived them. However, while Livingstone's care could have been better, the review found there was nothing clinicians could have done to change the end result.
* Mark Godwin, from the Department of Corrections, said during Livingstone's recruitment for a job at Otago Correctional Facility checks indicated he had no criminal convictions, nor did he declare any. If the department had been aware Livingstone had an historic conviction for arson in Australia he may not have been hired. In December 2013, Livingstone received a final warning from Corrections after he was was discharged without conviction for breaching a protection order. If Livingstone had been convicted he may have lost his job, Godwin said.
Coster said Mel Foot's claim she told the police on August 8, 2013, about Livingstone wanting to kill his family with an axe emerged through the media.
Police investigated the claim thoroughly but nothing was available to verify the claim.
Police had gone through the calls made by Foot from her telephone and she had accepted no call had been made to convey the information.
She now maintained she had told police in person when officers called at the address on August 7, Coster said..
However the officers had no recollection of that information and believed they would have recorded such a significant thing.
Coster said Mel Foot's claim she told the police on August 8, 2013, about Livingstone wanting to kill his family with an axe emerged through the media.
Police investigated the claim thoroughly but nothing was available to verify the claim.
Police had gone through the calls made by Foot from her telephone and she had accepted no call had been made to convey the information.
She now maintained she had told police in person when officers called at the address on August 7, Coster said..
However the officers had no recollection of that information and believed they would have recorded such a significant thing.
Dad is identified as EDWARD LIVINGSTONE.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/68011537/killer-dad-edward-livingstone-high-risk
Killer dad Edward Livingstone 'high risk'
A Dunedin inquest into the deaths of the Livingstone children has ended with top officials fighting back tears.
Bradley, 9, and his sister Ellen, 6, were shot dead by Livingstone at their home in the Dunedin suburb of St Leonards, shortly before 10pm on January 15 last year.
Livingstone, 51, was later found dead in the front bedroom of the house at 9 Kiwi St. A shotgun lay next to him.
He left a final note at his flat before the killings.
Katharine Webb, Livingstone's former wife and the mother of Bradley and Ellen, was the first of 18 witnesses called to give evidence at an inquest into the three deaths, which began on Tuesday in Dunedin.
She escaped the shooting unharmed.
OFFICIALS EMOTIONAL AS INQUEST CLOSES
Chief Coroner Deborah Marshall on Friday closed the inquest and reserved her decision.
She thanked Katharine Webb for her quiet dignity.
It reminded everyone "how much you have suffered", Marshall said, voice breaking.
Shortly before, Southern District Commander Andrew Coster underlined the emotional weight of the inquiry by also fighting back tears as he defended the police performance under a grilling from Webb's lawyer Anne Stevens. Police were "totally committed" to do better but "we can't change what happened", he said.
Coster said he had moved to close the cracks the Livingstone case had highlighted and more resources had been allocated to family violence in the district.
Police received 2000 family violence reports per year just in its Dunedin office.
Coster said if Livingstone's convictions in Australia from 1988 (arson and assault) had been known to the court dealing with his protection order breach, it was still questionable whether it would have made a difference.
At the time of the hearing, police still needed to know more about the convictions and the circumstances.
He said the information had come from a cell interview for intelligence purposes and entered into the police intelligence system..
If the officer he had known more detail about the case, it might have been an error not to have taken further action. In a best case scenario, a family violence meeting co-ordinator would have noticed the new information and followed it up.
The police prosecutor who opposed a discharge without conviction for Livingstone's second breach of his protection order could have sought an adjournment to investigate further his convictions in Australia.
"It's most likely it would have been granted."
Two constables who attended an incident at Livingstone's house on August 7 and were handed empty bullet shells which Livingstone had given his children, should have recorded it.
"It was a very significant matter and staff did not attach sufficient weight to it."
The fact police did not investigate a rape allegation by Webb was a failure and too much reliance was placed on Webb's desire not to take it further.
Police and other agencies did have a level of awareness of risk factors in the case and "there were a lot of things in place that led this group to believe the case was well managed."
Nothing of great significance suggested an major escalation of risk, he said.
"But if the police had taken ownership of the rape there is a distinct possibility we would not be here?" Stevens said.
Police would have needed a reliable confession from Livingstone to proceed with a prosecution if his wife did not want to pursue charges.
"I accept if convicted he would be in custody."
He agreed complainants could change their mind. Webb had engaged with Women's Refuge, she had a protection order, Livingstone had engaged with Emergency Psychiatric Services and the children were in a programme.
He was not sure much more could have been done.
"You can't make the right call in every instance."
Even if Livingstone had not received a discharge without conviction, he would almost certainly not have gone to prison, Coster said.
But each little step made here ultimately affected the outcome, Stevens said. Coster said it was unfair to assume outcomes would have been different if the case was handled better.
In other evidence, Mel Foot, who lived next door to the Livingstone house, remained adamant she had telephoned police in August to tell them about a threat Livingstone made to kill his family with an axe.
She had also told two constables who attended an incident at the Livingstone house on August 7.
"I'd warned everybody but nobody listened."
Coster said police were unable to verify Foot's claim.
LIVINGSTONE WAS 'HIGH RISK'
On Friday, former Dunedin probation officer Liqueshia Dougherty told the inquest she was briefed about Livingstone at an inter-agency family violence meeting about a week after he had breached a protection order on August 6, 2013, preventing him from contacting Webb.
The meeting was attended by several agencies including Police, Corrections, Child, Youth and Family and Women's Refuge. Dougherty noted on a document that she was told Livingstone was considered "high risk" and had narcissistic personality disorder, a high sense of entitlement and refused to accept his relationship with Webb was over.
She also noted that he had given his children bullet casings at a supervised visit as a "message for her [Webb]".
It was brought to her attention that Livingstone worked at Otago Correctional Facility and she made a note so she could pass it on to management at the prison.
"At the time it seemed like I was the only person in the room that wasn't aware of the information.
"Everybody seemed quite concerned. People felt there was more underneath it."
Dougherty said the reference to the bullet casings made her particularly concerned.
She did not recall knowing anything about an allegation that Livingstone had raped Webb.
Minutes of the meeting noted there had been two family violence incidents involving Livingstone and Webb, most recently on May 27.
They also noted that Livingstone had mental health issues and Women's Refuge was working closely with Webb who had written about wanting to end her relationship.
Livingstone's name was added to a high risk register.
People on that register were "kept a closer eye on", Dougherty said.
It indicated an issue that needed more intervention.
There were 31 new family violence related matters discussed at the meeting.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY ONE
* Katharine Webb said Edward Livingstone raped her in May 2013 shortly before they separated. She did not pursue charges because she wanted to focus on getting out of the house and keeping her children safe. She knew where to go for help if needed.
* In 2013, Livingstone twice (August 6-7 and September 14) breached a protection order preventing him from contacting Webb in the months before the shooting. He obtained police diversion on one charge and a discharge without conviction on the other.
* Livingstone had an historic conviction for arson in Australia dating back to 1988. The court heard he set fire to his former fiance's home after coming home to find her in bed with another man.
* Livingstone gave bullet casings to his children during a supervised visit after he separated from Webb.
* Livingstone told associates he had thoughts about killing his family and himself in the months before the shooting. Livingstone's neighbour Mel Foot said she contacted police in August 2013 and told them that Livingstone had talked about killing his family. Foot alleged the complaint was never followed up by police.
* Psychiatrist Christopher Wisely was unaware of Livingstone's historic conviction for arson or the incident involving the bullet casings. If Wisely had known it may have altered the risk assessment he gave to a judge at a sentencing hearing at Dunedin District Court on November 15, 2013, in relation to the second breach of the protection order. Livingstone was discharged without conviction.
* Police prosecutor Sergeant Kate Saxton said she was not fully aware of Livingstone's criminal offending in Australia at the time of the hearing. She could have sought an adjournment on the matter until she was sent all the information, but decided not to. Interpol sent her a copy of Livingstone's Australian criminal history on December 9. Saxton conceded that the information could have altered the outcome of the sentencing.
* Saxton also told the court that Livingstone should not have received diversion for the first breach of the protection order. Diversion was not available for breaching a court order, she said.
* Wisely said Edward Livingstone sourced the shotgun used in the shooting from a former flatmate's home. The flatmate did not know Livingstone had taken the gun until police came to his home after the shooting.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY TWO
* Southern District Commander Andrew Coster said police had failed to pick up red flags in the case and the Criminal Investigation Branch should have investigated an allegation, admitted by Livingstone, that he had brutally raped his wife Katharine in May, 2013. The police effort was well intentioned but inadequate and too much weight had been given to Katharine Webb's wishes. Livingstone should not have been considered eligible for diversion and police should have pursued the allegation despite the victim's desire not to pursue the allegation. Steps had been taken to address the failures, he said, with a specialist investigation unit set up.
* Detective Senior Sergeant Kallum Croudis, of the Dunedin police, admitted a series of significant failings by police staff who dealt with Livingstone and his family in the months before the shooting. Police had failed to follow-up in a timely way information Livingstone had an arson conviction in Australia. Bullet casings Livingstone gave to his children at a supervised visit and then handed to police should have been investigated.
* Livingstone drove to the Kiwi St property with a red fuel container full of petrol, a shotgun stolen from his former flatmate and ammunition. There were beers in the car, but blood tests would later show he was not over the legal limit. Livingstone entered the house through a side door using a key before shooting his children in their bedrooms.
* Police investigations showed Livingstone claimed he was abused at a boys' school in Sydney and had a violent father. His mother left the family when he was very young. He has a younger sister called Suzanne.
* Police received information, probably on August 8 last year, that Livingstone was harassing his former wife's neighbour by phone calls and text messages mainly wanting to know if his wife was still wearing her wedding ring. Police were also told Livingstone was sneaking around his former family home when his wife was at work. The informant (name suppressed) told police Livingstone was, "f...... nuts".
* The general practitioner treating Livingstone says she doubts the drugs she prescribed on May 16, 2013 (zyban and escitalopram) could have caused a psychotic episode leading him to rape his wife. He had not reported problems with past use of zyban. Livingstone's psychiatrist Chris Wisely believes Livingstone had an adverse reaction to the drugs that led to the rape his wife. The couple separated after the rape.
KEY POINTS FROM DAY THREE
* Livingstone deceived his psychotherapist by not telling her fully about his past or the full details of the incidents relating to his first breach of a protection order. The psychotherapist, whose name is suppressed, did not seek details of the police case and provided a letter, which was later produced in court, saying she did not believe Livingstone was a violent man, despite knowing he had raped Webb. Livingstone once told the psychotherapist he was a "sex addict".
* Barnardos employee Rebecca Cadogan, who supervised five of Livingstone's six arranged visits with Bradley and Ellen, said she was not surprised to learn he had killed his children. Cadogan said she had seen Livingstone become very aggressive and dominating during one of the sessions and instinctively thought of him when she heard about the shooting.
* Former flatmate Philip Mans said Livingstone's drinking increased while they lived together to a point, in the months before the shooting, where he could hardly stand some evenings and went to bed very depressed. Livingstone stole the gun used in the shooting from Mans' locked gun safe. Mans said he felt Livingstone had deceived and manipulated him.
* Forensic psychiatrist Dr David Chaplow said a clinical review identified that elements of Livingstone's care were inadequate. The review's main finding was that information held by various clinicians about Livingstone could have been shared better. Collectively they failed to ascertain Livingstone's danger to Webb. He had deceived them. However, while Livingstone's care could have been better, the review found there was nothing clinicians could have done to change the end result.
* Mark Godwin, from the Department of Corrections, said during Livingstone's recruitment for a job at Otago Correctional Facility checks indicated he had no criminal convictions, nor did he declare any. If the department had been aware Livingstone had an historic conviction for arson in Australia he may not have been hired. In December 2013, Livingstone received a final warning from Corrections after he was was discharged without conviction for breaching a protection order. If Livingstone had been convicted he may have lost his job, Godwin said.
Coster said Mel Foot's claim she told the police on August 8, 2013, about Livingstone wanting to kill his family with an axe emerged through the media.
Police investigated the claim thoroughly but nothing was available to verify the claim.
Police had gone through the calls made by Foot from her telephone and she had accepted no call had been made to convey the information.
She now maintained she had told police in person when officers called at the address on August 7, Coster said..
However the officers had no recollection of that information and believed they would have recorded such a significant thing.
Coster said Mel Foot's claim she told the police on August 8, 2013, about Livingstone wanting to kill his family with an axe emerged through the media.
Police investigated the claim thoroughly but nothing was available to verify the claim.
Police had gone through the calls made by Foot from her telephone and she had accepted no call had been made to convey the information.
She now maintained she had told police in person when officers called at the address on August 7, Coster said..
However the officers had no recollection of that information and believed they would have recorded such a significant thing.
Monday, April 20, 2015
Dad charged with attempted 2nd-degree murder for attack on 6-week-old baby; mom loses custody though she was not at home (Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana)
Notice that even though the mother was not at home when Dad assaulted the baby, she has still lost custody. This is very typical. Mothers are very often held responsible for the crimes of others, even when they are not present or otherwise unable to intervene. However, the reverse is seldom true. A father can willingly and deliberately desert an abusive mother with a child, and he is virtually never held responsible for the consequences, either legally or morally.
Somewhat unusual touch here for a mainstream media article. We have pointed out before that shaking babies is a mostly male crime, mostly committed by fathers. All the studies on the matter have substantiated this. But that fact is usually swept under the rug with pleas to "parents" not to shake the baby. In fact, mothers are the LEAST likely shakers, while fathers are the MOST likely shakers.
Dad is identified as MARTY MICHAEL MARCEL.
http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20150418/articles/150419622?p=1&tc=pg
Shaken baby off life support
By Maki Somosot Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, April 18, 2015 at 8:15 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, April 18, 2015 at 12:04 a.m.
An infant who the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office said was violently shaken by his father over a month ago has been removed from life support.
"He remains hospitalized in the recovery stage," sheriff's Maj. Malcolm Wolfe said.
Legal custody of the baby, who remains at the Children's Hospital in New Orleans, has been granted to the state Department of Child and Family Services instead of family members at this point, Wolfe added.
After initially being treated for severe brain damage at the Terrebonne General Medical Center in mid-March, the infant was transported to the Children's Hospital for additional treatment.
Medical officials in New Orleans filed a complaint with the Sheriff's Office when they determined the baby, who was 6 weeks old, suffered from brain bleeding and other injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome, Wolfe said.
The baby's father, Marty Michael Marcel, 26, of 1855 Bayou Blue Road, was arrested Mar. 19 on an attempted second-degree murder charge.
Marcel remains at the Terrebonne Parish jail on a $75,000 bond. Inflicting cruelty on a juvenile and the perceived severity of injury resulted in the charge, Wolfe said.
If convicted, Marcel faces up to 50 years in prison. Family members interviewed by detectives called Marcel "inexperienced" in caring for his newborn son while his wife was not home, Wolfe said.
According to a 1995 American Academy of Pediatrics paper, 37 percent of those who cause shaken baby syndrome are the biological father, 21 percent involve the mother's boyfriend. 17 percent are women caregivers, 13 percent are the biological mothers and 12 percent are classified as "other."
Dr. Randell Alexander, chief of the Child Protection and Forensic Pediatrics Division at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville, said the majority of survivors often have impaired cognitive, visual and motor functions for the rest of their lives.
No information about the baby's long-term prognosis is available, officials said.
A representative from the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services declined to provide specifics about the case, but said the department is looking into suitable guardians for the child.
Assistant District Attorney Jason Dagate is reviewing Marcel's case before setting a date for his trial.
Somewhat unusual touch here for a mainstream media article. We have pointed out before that shaking babies is a mostly male crime, mostly committed by fathers. All the studies on the matter have substantiated this. But that fact is usually swept under the rug with pleas to "parents" not to shake the baby. In fact, mothers are the LEAST likely shakers, while fathers are the MOST likely shakers.
Dad is identified as MARTY MICHAEL MARCEL.
http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20150418/articles/150419622?p=1&tc=pg
Shaken baby off life support
By Maki Somosot Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, April 18, 2015 at 8:15 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, April 18, 2015 at 12:04 a.m.
An infant who the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office said was violently shaken by his father over a month ago has been removed from life support.
"He remains hospitalized in the recovery stage," sheriff's Maj. Malcolm Wolfe said.
Legal custody of the baby, who remains at the Children's Hospital in New Orleans, has been granted to the state Department of Child and Family Services instead of family members at this point, Wolfe added.
After initially being treated for severe brain damage at the Terrebonne General Medical Center in mid-March, the infant was transported to the Children's Hospital for additional treatment.
Medical officials in New Orleans filed a complaint with the Sheriff's Office when they determined the baby, who was 6 weeks old, suffered from brain bleeding and other injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome, Wolfe said.
The baby's father, Marty Michael Marcel, 26, of 1855 Bayou Blue Road, was arrested Mar. 19 on an attempted second-degree murder charge.
Marcel remains at the Terrebonne Parish jail on a $75,000 bond. Inflicting cruelty on a juvenile and the perceived severity of injury resulted in the charge, Wolfe said.
If convicted, Marcel faces up to 50 years in prison. Family members interviewed by detectives called Marcel "inexperienced" in caring for his newborn son while his wife was not home, Wolfe said.
According to a 1995 American Academy of Pediatrics paper, 37 percent of those who cause shaken baby syndrome are the biological father, 21 percent involve the mother's boyfriend. 17 percent are women caregivers, 13 percent are the biological mothers and 12 percent are classified as "other."
Dr. Randell Alexander, chief of the Child Protection and Forensic Pediatrics Division at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville, said the majority of survivors often have impaired cognitive, visual and motor functions for the rest of their lives.
No information about the baby's long-term prognosis is available, officials said.
A representative from the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services declined to provide specifics about the case, but said the department is looking into suitable guardians for the child.
Assistant District Attorney Jason Dagate is reviewing Marcel's case before setting a date for his trial.
After being in dad's custody, 6-year-old boy tests positive for meth (Alamogordo, New Mexico)
Another one of those news articles that omits more than it includes. Just what was this little boy's "living situation"? Of course, they refuse to say. What do you mean by just "after being in the custody of his father"? That there was a court-ordered custody agreement here? An informal agreement? That Daddy was merely babysitting while Mom was at work? What?
Of course by refusing to clarify these points, you raise other points. If in fact the father had court-ordered custody/visitation rights, then why was a man on probation for DWI given any unsupervised custody/visitation rights at all? And given that he has a meth addiction issue as well, we can only assume that this fact was ignored as well? What else was ignored? If this was court-ordered custody/visitation, who ordered it and who supported the decision?
If the mother had been living in the home, I suspect she would have been charged with failure to protect. The fact that she isn't--in fact she's not mentioned at all--speaks volumes.
Dad is identified as FREDDY PADILLA.
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3770237.shtml#.VTUUQNFFCbB
New Mexico dad charged after son tests positive for meth
Created: 04/18/2015 12:50 PM By: APNews Now
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP) — An Alamogordo father is facing a felony child abuse charge after his 6-year-old son tested positive for methamphetamine exposure.
Court documents say the boy tested positive after being in the custody of his father, 37-year-old Freddy Padilla. It wasn't immediately clear if Padilla had an attorney.
The Alamogordo Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/1yBVJqX) Padilla was already jailed at the Otero County Detention Center for probation violation in an unrelated DWI case.
Police Detective Lt. Roger Schoolcraft says the department began investing possible abuse after receiving a report from state child welfare workers on the boy's living situation.
A sample of the boy's hair was tested. Police say the concentration of meth in the child's hair was consistent with a level that would be found in a recreational drug user's system.
Of course by refusing to clarify these points, you raise other points. If in fact the father had court-ordered custody/visitation rights, then why was a man on probation for DWI given any unsupervised custody/visitation rights at all? And given that he has a meth addiction issue as well, we can only assume that this fact was ignored as well? What else was ignored? If this was court-ordered custody/visitation, who ordered it and who supported the decision?
If the mother had been living in the home, I suspect she would have been charged with failure to protect. The fact that she isn't--in fact she's not mentioned at all--speaks volumes.
Dad is identified as FREDDY PADILLA.
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3770237.shtml#.VTUUQNFFCbB
New Mexico dad charged after son tests positive for meth
Created: 04/18/2015 12:50 PM By: APNews Now
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP) — An Alamogordo father is facing a felony child abuse charge after his 6-year-old son tested positive for methamphetamine exposure.
Court documents say the boy tested positive after being in the custody of his father, 37-year-old Freddy Padilla. It wasn't immediately clear if Padilla had an attorney.
The Alamogordo Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/1yBVJqX) Padilla was already jailed at the Otero County Detention Center for probation violation in an unrelated DWI case.
Police Detective Lt. Roger Schoolcraft says the department began investing possible abuse after receiving a report from state child welfare workers on the boy's living situation.
A sample of the boy's hair was tested. Police say the concentration of meth in the child's hair was consistent with a level that would be found in a recreational drug user's system.
Dad pleads guilty to 2nd-degree murder in death of 6-month-old son; sentenced to 15 years in prison (Vicksburg, Mississippi)
Dad is identified as JAMARO SMITH.
http://www.sunherald.com/2015/04/18/6182611_father-sentenced-to-15-years-in.html?rh=1
Father sentenced to 15 years in infant son's death
The Associated Press April 18, 2015
VICKSBURG, Miss. — A Vicksburg father has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for the shaking death of his infant son.
Circuit Judge Isadore Patrick sentenced 25-year-old Jamaro South during a hearing on Thursday. The Vicksburg Post reports (http://bit.ly/1cHWHs2 ) that the victim was 6-month-old Jamaro Carter Jr., who died in 2013.
South pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder. State law requires that a sentence of at least 20 years be given for second-degree murder, but also allows a judge to suspend a portion of the sentence.
Patrick told South during the hearing that he does not believe South intended to kill the child.
South made no statements during the hearing.
Defense Attorney Chris Green asked Patrick to consider the death as manslaughter rather than a murder while considering sentencing. "We think the facts of this crime fit the constraints of manslaughter, but it also fits the confines of second-degree murder," Green said.
District Attorney Ricky Smith disagreed. "This child had two detached retinas. This child had subdural hematomas," Smith said. "This was not a brief loss of thought process by the defendant. This is in no way in nature manslaughter."
Smith and police have said South was alone with his infant son Dec. 14, 2013, when the boy was injured and later died of head injuries.
The child's mother has not made any statements in the case. Patrick said during the sentencing that he received a letter from her supporting South but the letter was not read publicly.
http://www.sunherald.com/2015/04/18/6182611_father-sentenced-to-15-years-in.html?rh=1
Father sentenced to 15 years in infant son's death
The Associated Press April 18, 2015
VICKSBURG, Miss. — A Vicksburg father has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for the shaking death of his infant son.
Circuit Judge Isadore Patrick sentenced 25-year-old Jamaro South during a hearing on Thursday. The Vicksburg Post reports (http://bit.ly/1cHWHs2 ) that the victim was 6-month-old Jamaro Carter Jr., who died in 2013.
South pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder. State law requires that a sentence of at least 20 years be given for second-degree murder, but also allows a judge to suspend a portion of the sentence.
Patrick told South during the hearing that he does not believe South intended to kill the child.
South made no statements during the hearing.
Defense Attorney Chris Green asked Patrick to consider the death as manslaughter rather than a murder while considering sentencing. "We think the facts of this crime fit the constraints of manslaughter, but it also fits the confines of second-degree murder," Green said.
District Attorney Ricky Smith disagreed. "This child had two detached retinas. This child had subdural hematomas," Smith said. "This was not a brief loss of thought process by the defendant. This is in no way in nature manslaughter."
Smith and police have said South was alone with his infant son Dec. 14, 2013, when the boy was injured and later died of head injuries.
The child's mother has not made any statements in the case. Patrick said during the sentencing that he received a letter from her supporting South but the letter was not read publicly.
Friday, April 17, 2015
Custodial dad on trial for murder of 1-year-old son (Tarrant County, Texas)
Take notice of how many paragraphs have to be slogged through before it is revealed that abusive father WILLIE LOUIS JACKSON was CUSTODIAL.
Yes, the mother had committed a property crime (burglary), and her arrest made it impossible for her to care for her children. But by all accounts, the maternal grandmother was doing a fine job as a caretaker.
Yet as we know, Texas is a big fathers rights state, so of course Daddy's rights take precedence over everything else. And notice that Dad assumed custody of the child without any advance warning to the grandmother or her approval.
This murder is absolutely linked to the ascendance of fathers rights ideology, and the idea that any father--no matter how violent or demented--has "rights" that trump everyone else's, The opinions and wishes of mothers and grandmothers--the traditional and time-honored caregivers--mean nothing. The well-being of children means nothing. The fact that a baby boy who had already been traumatized by the loss of his mother was being forcibly shuffled off to yet another home--when he was doing well with his grandmother--means nothing.
The end result: Daddy's custodial "rights" directly result in the means and opportunity to fracture the skull of this baby and end his life.
For similar crimes in the Lone Star state, see the Killer Dads and Custody list for the state of Texas.
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/courier/news/doctors-detail-injuries-in-conroe-child-abuse-case/article_b5ce6ace-33cb-5b1d-b541-a0aa00dcb00d.html?mode=story
Doctors detail injuries in Conroe child abuse case
Mother testifies at Conroe fatal child abuse trial
Posted: Wednesday, April 15, 2015 10:34 pm
By Brandon K. Scott
Medical examiners who performed the autopsy of a 1-year-old boy who died from traumatic brain injuries while in his father’s custody detailed the child’s injuries in a Montgomery County courtroom Wednesday.
Medical examiners ruled LaMarcus Green’s death a homicide due to a recent skull fracture from blunt-force trauma.
His father, 24-year-old Willie Louis Jackson, is on trial this week on a first-degree felony injury to a child charge. Jackson faces up to 99 years in prison, if convicted.
Dr. Sara N. Doyle, a Harris County pathologist who performed the autopsy, said there were two separate incidents of blunt-force trauma in the child’s brain. The most recent injury, examiners testified, occurred shortly before LaMarcus died Oct. 23, 2013, when he was in Jackson’s care at a Conroe apartment. The injury is on the right side toward the top of his head, multiple medical examiners testified.
Another serious injury doctors noted was a skull fracture around the right eye, which showed signs of healing. Doctors estimated that fracture occurred two to eight weeks prior to LaMarcus’ death.
The issue is pertinent to both the prosecution and defense cases, since the dispute between them is whether the child suffered serious injuries before Jackson picked him up from the Dallas-Fort Worth area Sept. 21, 2013.
Assistant District Attorney Jim Prewitt told jurors Tuesday that evidence will show Jackson was responsible for LaMarcus when both skull fractures occurred.
Defense attorney E. Tay Bond, however, argues LaMarcus arrived to Conroe unhealthy and “he was already on his way out.”
Bond concedes LaMarcus’ second skull fracture was suffered around the time of the incident that led to his death, but argues the cause was an accidental injury exacerbated by his previous ailments.
Jackson told Conroe police he fed LaMarcus oatmeal, placed him on a pallet in the bedroom, then returned to the kitchen area to play video games before hearing him scream 15 minutes later.
Jackson said he checked on LaMarcus to find him gasping for air and whimpering.
Jackson later told police he took LaMarcus out of his high chair after feeding him and placed him on the floor, when the child fell forward and struck his forehead on the corner of the kitchen counter.
Jackson administered ointment on his head, placed him on the pallet then returned to playing video games.
Jackson said when he saw LaMarcus gasping for air, he began shaking the child to get a response from him.
In an audio interview with Conroe Detective Eddie Davis, Jackson said LaMarcus was clumsy and fell all the time.
Other witnesses testified the child was quiet and struggled maintaining his balance.
Dr. Glenn D. Sandberg, a Harris County forensic neuropathologist who noted hemorrhages through most of LaMarcus’s spinal cord and brain injuries, said it is unlikely the injuries were accidental.
Dr. Deborrah Pinto, a Harris County forensic anthropologist who examined LaMarcus, said the two skull fractures, while located in the same general area on the right side of the brain, never intersected. Doyle estimated the fractures were separated by about ¾-inch from the closest point, and almost 1½ inches from the farthest point.
Co-defense attorney Jerald Crow questioned whether LaMarcus already was compromised due to the initial fracture, but Doyle said she could not give an opinion having not examined LaMarcus prior to the second fracture.
Doyle said it is possible a new fracture could aggravate an older one, but that the injuries LaMarcus suffered were not likely to occur by falling from a standing height.
Police and EMS were dispatched to 231 Interstate 45 S. about 7 p.m. Oct. 22, 2013, after a call from Jackson stating his son was not breathing.
Jackson’s girlfriend Da’Zhane Shird and her mother Brenda Shird, who both testified Tuesday, tried to resuscitate Green with directions from 911 dispatchers until emergency personnel arrived.
“He is doing nothing,” Brenda Shird said in the 911 call. “He is laying here lifeless.”
Green was taken to Conroe Regional Medical Center with severe internal trauma and injuries to his forehead, then airlifted to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Green was pronounced dead the next morning.
A doctor noted in a physical exam that Green had bruises to the forehead, shoulder, back, right eye and buttocks.
The child’s mother, Lauren Green, is in custody at the Tarrant County jail facing burglary charges. Child Protective Services previously placed Lauren Green’s three children into her mother’s custody due to the 2012 criminal charge, according to Tuesday’s testimony.
The grandmother, Belinda Green, was influential in Jackson learning he fathered a child with her daughter but did not approve of the decision to allow LaMarcus to live with Jackson and Da’Zhane Shird.
Jackson traveled to Dallas alone Sept. 21, 2013, to pick up LaMarcus — without Belinda Green’s knowledge, she said.
Prosecutors sought to highlight that despite Lauren’s legal troubles, her children were being cared for by their grandmother, who paid for day care and arranged doctor visits. Bond, however, questioned whether LaMarcus Green could have suffered a serious head injury without his grandmother’s knowledge or recollection. Even though daycare and medical records never documented a head injury for LaMarcus Green, there were day care records showing one of the older children suffered a head injury from the same day care. Belinda Green said she did not remember the incident, but that she would have taken the child to a doctor if it appeared to be serious enough. Her testimony allowed attorneys from both sides to illustrate for the jury how LaMarcus was cared for before Jackson brought him to Conroe.
Lauren Green is expected to be transferred from the Tarrant County jail to testify for the state today.
Yes, the mother had committed a property crime (burglary), and her arrest made it impossible for her to care for her children. But by all accounts, the maternal grandmother was doing a fine job as a caretaker.
Yet as we know, Texas is a big fathers rights state, so of course Daddy's rights take precedence over everything else. And notice that Dad assumed custody of the child without any advance warning to the grandmother or her approval.
This murder is absolutely linked to the ascendance of fathers rights ideology, and the idea that any father--no matter how violent or demented--has "rights" that trump everyone else's, The opinions and wishes of mothers and grandmothers--the traditional and time-honored caregivers--mean nothing. The well-being of children means nothing. The fact that a baby boy who had already been traumatized by the loss of his mother was being forcibly shuffled off to yet another home--when he was doing well with his grandmother--means nothing.
The end result: Daddy's custodial "rights" directly result in the means and opportunity to fracture the skull of this baby and end his life.
For similar crimes in the Lone Star state, see the Killer Dads and Custody list for the state of Texas.
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/courier/news/doctors-detail-injuries-in-conroe-child-abuse-case/article_b5ce6ace-33cb-5b1d-b541-a0aa00dcb00d.html?mode=story
Doctors detail injuries in Conroe child abuse case
Mother testifies at Conroe fatal child abuse trial
Posted: Wednesday, April 15, 2015 10:34 pm
By Brandon K. Scott
Medical examiners who performed the autopsy of a 1-year-old boy who died from traumatic brain injuries while in his father’s custody detailed the child’s injuries in a Montgomery County courtroom Wednesday.
Medical examiners ruled LaMarcus Green’s death a homicide due to a recent skull fracture from blunt-force trauma.
His father, 24-year-old Willie Louis Jackson, is on trial this week on a first-degree felony injury to a child charge. Jackson faces up to 99 years in prison, if convicted.
Dr. Sara N. Doyle, a Harris County pathologist who performed the autopsy, said there were two separate incidents of blunt-force trauma in the child’s brain. The most recent injury, examiners testified, occurred shortly before LaMarcus died Oct. 23, 2013, when he was in Jackson’s care at a Conroe apartment. The injury is on the right side toward the top of his head, multiple medical examiners testified.
Another serious injury doctors noted was a skull fracture around the right eye, which showed signs of healing. Doctors estimated that fracture occurred two to eight weeks prior to LaMarcus’ death.
The issue is pertinent to both the prosecution and defense cases, since the dispute between them is whether the child suffered serious injuries before Jackson picked him up from the Dallas-Fort Worth area Sept. 21, 2013.
Assistant District Attorney Jim Prewitt told jurors Tuesday that evidence will show Jackson was responsible for LaMarcus when both skull fractures occurred.
Defense attorney E. Tay Bond, however, argues LaMarcus arrived to Conroe unhealthy and “he was already on his way out.”
Bond concedes LaMarcus’ second skull fracture was suffered around the time of the incident that led to his death, but argues the cause was an accidental injury exacerbated by his previous ailments.
Jackson told Conroe police he fed LaMarcus oatmeal, placed him on a pallet in the bedroom, then returned to the kitchen area to play video games before hearing him scream 15 minutes later.
Jackson said he checked on LaMarcus to find him gasping for air and whimpering.
Jackson later told police he took LaMarcus out of his high chair after feeding him and placed him on the floor, when the child fell forward and struck his forehead on the corner of the kitchen counter.
Jackson administered ointment on his head, placed him on the pallet then returned to playing video games.
Jackson said when he saw LaMarcus gasping for air, he began shaking the child to get a response from him.
In an audio interview with Conroe Detective Eddie Davis, Jackson said LaMarcus was clumsy and fell all the time.
Other witnesses testified the child was quiet and struggled maintaining his balance.
Dr. Glenn D. Sandberg, a Harris County forensic neuropathologist who noted hemorrhages through most of LaMarcus’s spinal cord and brain injuries, said it is unlikely the injuries were accidental.
Dr. Deborrah Pinto, a Harris County forensic anthropologist who examined LaMarcus, said the two skull fractures, while located in the same general area on the right side of the brain, never intersected. Doyle estimated the fractures were separated by about ¾-inch from the closest point, and almost 1½ inches from the farthest point.
Co-defense attorney Jerald Crow questioned whether LaMarcus already was compromised due to the initial fracture, but Doyle said she could not give an opinion having not examined LaMarcus prior to the second fracture.
Doyle said it is possible a new fracture could aggravate an older one, but that the injuries LaMarcus suffered were not likely to occur by falling from a standing height.
Police and EMS were dispatched to 231 Interstate 45 S. about 7 p.m. Oct. 22, 2013, after a call from Jackson stating his son was not breathing.
Jackson’s girlfriend Da’Zhane Shird and her mother Brenda Shird, who both testified Tuesday, tried to resuscitate Green with directions from 911 dispatchers until emergency personnel arrived.
“He is doing nothing,” Brenda Shird said in the 911 call. “He is laying here lifeless.”
Green was taken to Conroe Regional Medical Center with severe internal trauma and injuries to his forehead, then airlifted to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Green was pronounced dead the next morning.
A doctor noted in a physical exam that Green had bruises to the forehead, shoulder, back, right eye and buttocks.
The child’s mother, Lauren Green, is in custody at the Tarrant County jail facing burglary charges. Child Protective Services previously placed Lauren Green’s three children into her mother’s custody due to the 2012 criminal charge, according to Tuesday’s testimony.
The grandmother, Belinda Green, was influential in Jackson learning he fathered a child with her daughter but did not approve of the decision to allow LaMarcus to live with Jackson and Da’Zhane Shird.
Jackson traveled to Dallas alone Sept. 21, 2013, to pick up LaMarcus — without Belinda Green’s knowledge, she said.
Prosecutors sought to highlight that despite Lauren’s legal troubles, her children were being cared for by their grandmother, who paid for day care and arranged doctor visits. Bond, however, questioned whether LaMarcus Green could have suffered a serious head injury without his grandmother’s knowledge or recollection. Even though daycare and medical records never documented a head injury for LaMarcus Green, there were day care records showing one of the older children suffered a head injury from the same day care. Belinda Green said she did not remember the incident, but that she would have taken the child to a doctor if it appeared to be serious enough. Her testimony allowed attorneys from both sides to illustrate for the jury how LaMarcus was cared for before Jackson brought him to Conroe.
Lauren Green is expected to be transferred from the Tarrant County jail to testify for the state today.
Dad accused of abusing daughter for over twenty years (Northern Ireland)
Notice there is no mention of a mother in the home. Was UNNAMED DAD a single or custodial father? Of course, there is no clarification here, which is typical.
http://www.u.tv/News/2015/04/14/Father-accused-of-abusing-daughter-for-over-20-years-35432
Father accused of abusing daughter for over 20 years
14 Apr 2015
A Belfast man has gone on trial, accused of subjecting his daughter to a "life of inappropriate sexual activity" which spanned over two decades.
The 64-year old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, has been charged with multiple counts of gross indecency, indecent assault and rape.
A jury at Belfast Crown Court heard allegations that the sexual offending against his daughter began when she was 11 and continued until she was aged 32, when she moved away from Northern Ireland.
Crown prosecutor Philip Mateer QC said the accused's behaviour towards his daughter was "exemplified by his domination and control over her ... and continued even after she became an adult."
The accused has been charged with a total of 16 offences which the Crown say were committed over a period from January 1987 to December 2007.
Mr Mateer QC told the jury that the abuse began during the girl's formative years, and that this abuse by her dominant father became a way of life for her.
The prosecutor said that even when she moved into her own home and had a child, her father would still have sex with her.
Telling the jury "she never consented to any of this behaviour", Mr Mateer said that when she said no to intercourse it "made no difference" and that the accused "carried on ... he wanted sex and that was it."
The court heard the woman, who is now 40, made a complaint to police on 13 July and that she referred to her the abuse as being a "vicious circle" and "normal" to her until she was able to "make the break" and leave Northern Ireland.
The jury heard that when the allegations made by his daughter were put to the accused, he claimed none of the incidents happened.
He subsequently pleaded not guilty to all the offences levelled against him and is currently standing trial at Belfast Crown Court.
http://www.u.tv/News/2015/04/14/Father-accused-of-abusing-daughter-for-over-20-years-35432
Father accused of abusing daughter for over 20 years
14 Apr 2015
A Belfast man has gone on trial, accused of subjecting his daughter to a "life of inappropriate sexual activity" which spanned over two decades.
The 64-year old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, has been charged with multiple counts of gross indecency, indecent assault and rape.
A jury at Belfast Crown Court heard allegations that the sexual offending against his daughter began when she was 11 and continued until she was aged 32, when she moved away from Northern Ireland.
Crown prosecutor Philip Mateer QC said the accused's behaviour towards his daughter was "exemplified by his domination and control over her ... and continued even after she became an adult."
The accused has been charged with a total of 16 offences which the Crown say were committed over a period from January 1987 to December 2007.
Mr Mateer QC told the jury that the abuse began during the girl's formative years, and that this abuse by her dominant father became a way of life for her.
The prosecutor said that even when she moved into her own home and had a child, her father would still have sex with her.
Telling the jury "she never consented to any of this behaviour", Mr Mateer said that when she said no to intercourse it "made no difference" and that the accused "carried on ... he wanted sex and that was it."
The court heard the woman, who is now 40, made a complaint to police on 13 July and that she referred to her the abuse as being a "vicious circle" and "normal" to her until she was able to "make the break" and leave Northern Ireland.
The jury heard that when the allegations made by his daughter were put to the accused, he claimed none of the incidents happened.
He subsequently pleaded not guilty to all the offences levelled against him and is currently standing trial at Belfast Crown Court.
DCF fails to find evidence of child abuse, even though doctor did; funny how that happens when the abusive dad is rich and famous and wants sole custody (Atlanta, Georgia)
Dad is DWIGHT HOWARD--one of a long list of rich abusive fathers who are going after sole custody these days.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/dwight-howard-will-not-face-charges-in-atlanta-child-abuse-investigation-195510253.html
Dwight Howard will not face charges in Atlanta child abuse investigation
By Dan Devine
April 13, 2015 3:55 PM
Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard will not face charges of child abuse in connection with an investigation into alleged physical disciplining of his then-6-year-old son, Braylon.
Royce Reed, Braylon's mother, filed a complaint against Howard in August alleging that Howard had whipped their son with a belt. A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Children and Families told TMZ in November that the investigation was "being closed with no substantiated findings of physical injuries." A subsequent TMZ report, however, indicated that the doctor who examined Braylon's injuries reported them as being consistent with a history "of being struck with a belt numerous times by his father."
While the allegation were reported in Florida, the alleged abuse in question was said to have taken place in Georgia. Following the TMZ reports, authorities in Georgia re-opened their investigation into child abuse claims against Howard. The 29-year-old center was not arrested or charged with any crime as authorities investigated the claims.
On Monday, nearly five months after the resumption of investigation, Atlanta police announced that they will not press charges against the eight-time All-Star, according to Mark Berman of KRIV-TV FOX 26 in Houston:
"I can confirm we are not moving forward with charges in this case," said Sgt. Gregory Lyon, in an email to FOX 26 Sports.
Howard's attorney, David Oscar Markus, is pleased with the decision.
"We are gratified that the Atlanta Police Department, after fully examining the frivolous allegations against Dwight Howard, has closed the case and decided not to proceed with charges," said Markus in a statement to FOX 26 Sports.
"Dwight Howard will continue to act in the best interest of his children and do whatever is necessary to protect their welfare."
Howard filed a motion in November seeking sole custody of Braylon that continues to wend its way through the courts, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
Howard has struggled with injuries this season, missing 37 games with an ailing right knee. Since returning to action 2 1/2 weeks ago, Howard has seen limited floor time, averaging just 21.6 minutes per game in eight appearances.
He's performed well in that curbed action, though, averaging 13.8 points on 66.2 percent shooting to go with nine rebounds and just under two combined blocks and steals per contest, including three sraight double-doubles. Along with the consistently strong play of MVP candidate James Harden, Howard's recent uptick in form has given a Rockets club that continues to fight tooth-and-nail in a battle for the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference playoff hierarchy hope that, despite the other damaging injuries they've sustained of late, they've still got a real chance of advancing past the opening round of the playoffs for the first time since 2009, and past the conference semifinals for the first time since 1997.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/dwight-howard-will-not-face-charges-in-atlanta-child-abuse-investigation-195510253.html
Dwight Howard will not face charges in Atlanta child abuse investigation
By Dan Devine
April 13, 2015 3:55 PM
Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard will not face charges of child abuse in connection with an investigation into alleged physical disciplining of his then-6-year-old son, Braylon.
Royce Reed, Braylon's mother, filed a complaint against Howard in August alleging that Howard had whipped their son with a belt. A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Children and Families told TMZ in November that the investigation was "being closed with no substantiated findings of physical injuries." A subsequent TMZ report, however, indicated that the doctor who examined Braylon's injuries reported them as being consistent with a history "of being struck with a belt numerous times by his father."
While the allegation were reported in Florida, the alleged abuse in question was said to have taken place in Georgia. Following the TMZ reports, authorities in Georgia re-opened their investigation into child abuse claims against Howard. The 29-year-old center was not arrested or charged with any crime as authorities investigated the claims.
On Monday, nearly five months after the resumption of investigation, Atlanta police announced that they will not press charges against the eight-time All-Star, according to Mark Berman of KRIV-TV FOX 26 in Houston:
"I can confirm we are not moving forward with charges in this case," said Sgt. Gregory Lyon, in an email to FOX 26 Sports.
Howard's attorney, David Oscar Markus, is pleased with the decision.
"We are gratified that the Atlanta Police Department, after fully examining the frivolous allegations against Dwight Howard, has closed the case and decided not to proceed with charges," said Markus in a statement to FOX 26 Sports.
"Dwight Howard will continue to act in the best interest of his children and do whatever is necessary to protect their welfare."
Howard filed a motion in November seeking sole custody of Braylon that continues to wend its way through the courts, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
Howard has struggled with injuries this season, missing 37 games with an ailing right knee. Since returning to action 2 1/2 weeks ago, Howard has seen limited floor time, averaging just 21.6 minutes per game in eight appearances.
He's performed well in that curbed action, though, averaging 13.8 points on 66.2 percent shooting to go with nine rebounds and just under two combined blocks and steals per contest, including three sraight double-doubles. Along with the consistently strong play of MVP candidate James Harden, Howard's recent uptick in form has given a Rockets club that continues to fight tooth-and-nail in a battle for the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference playoff hierarchy hope that, despite the other damaging injuries they've sustained of late, they've still got a real chance of advancing past the opening round of the playoffs for the first time since 2009, and past the conference semifinals for the first time since 1997.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Deadbeat dad with history of domestic assault murders 2-year-old daughter, 8-year-old son, and their mother (Eastpointe, Michigan)
Dad is identified as TIMOTHY FRADENECK.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/macomb-county/eastpointe-father-charged-with-3-counts-of-felony-murder-following-deaths-of-wife-2-children
Eastpointe father charged with 3 counts of felony murder following deaths of wife, 2 children Posted: 1:25 PM, Apr 15, 2015 Updated: 5:11 PM, Apr 15, 2015
EASTPOINTE, Mich. (WXYZ) - An Eastpointe man has been charged with 3 counts of felony murder following the deaths of his wife and two children.
Timothy Fradeneck appeared in court to face the charges Wednesday afternoon. Loved ones on both sides of the family were in the courtroom. Fradeneck was also charged with four counts of child abuse.
He's accused of strangling his 37-year-old wife Christie Fradeneck, 2-year-old daughter Celest and 8-year-old son Timothy. According to police, Fradeneck told police he used a USB cable to strangle his family as they slept. Investigators say he told them he'd been planning the murders since August of 2014, but carried it out late Sunday night because "the opportunity presented itself". They say they still don't know the motive for the murders.
The wife and two children were found dead in their home on Monday, April 13 in the 22000 block of Cushing Avenue.
The judge entered a plea of not guilty on Fradeneck's behalf. When the judge asked him if he had anything say, he muttered that he would like to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. The judge advised him that he would need to take that up with an attorney.
Christie's husband, and the father of the two kids, was arrested at the house without a fight. Police had responded do a welfare check. Timothy Fradeneck answered and told police his family was sleeping. The police officers said they needed to see them. After a few moments, police say Timothy Fradeneck confessed. He is now being held without bond.
"We've got families trying to prepare for funerals of a 2 year-old and an 8 year-old. No one should ever have to do that. No family should ever have to do that .. That's outside of my area of expertise, but what is in my area of experties .. is ensuring this defendant pays for what he did .. and we will ensure that," says Eric Smith, Macomb County Prosecutor.
Court records show the husband and wife had a chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2011. Christie was a part owner of a salon and had a Michigan Cosmetology license. The records show her husband was unemployed for a couple of years.
A family friend says his parents owned the home in which they lived.
Court records also show the husband had a domestic assault case in 2009 involving his own brother. It was pleaded down to a fine and one year probation.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/macomb-county/eastpointe-father-charged-with-3-counts-of-felony-murder-following-deaths-of-wife-2-children
Eastpointe father charged with 3 counts of felony murder following deaths of wife, 2 children Posted: 1:25 PM, Apr 15, 2015 Updated: 5:11 PM, Apr 15, 2015
EASTPOINTE, Mich. (WXYZ) - An Eastpointe man has been charged with 3 counts of felony murder following the deaths of his wife and two children.
Timothy Fradeneck appeared in court to face the charges Wednesday afternoon. Loved ones on both sides of the family were in the courtroom. Fradeneck was also charged with four counts of child abuse.
He's accused of strangling his 37-year-old wife Christie Fradeneck, 2-year-old daughter Celest and 8-year-old son Timothy. According to police, Fradeneck told police he used a USB cable to strangle his family as they slept. Investigators say he told them he'd been planning the murders since August of 2014, but carried it out late Sunday night because "the opportunity presented itself". They say they still don't know the motive for the murders.
The wife and two children were found dead in their home on Monday, April 13 in the 22000 block of Cushing Avenue.
The judge entered a plea of not guilty on Fradeneck's behalf. When the judge asked him if he had anything say, he muttered that he would like to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. The judge advised him that he would need to take that up with an attorney.
Christie's husband, and the father of the two kids, was arrested at the house without a fight. Police had responded do a welfare check. Timothy Fradeneck answered and told police his family was sleeping. The police officers said they needed to see them. After a few moments, police say Timothy Fradeneck confessed. He is now being held without bond.
"We've got families trying to prepare for funerals of a 2 year-old and an 8 year-old. No one should ever have to do that. No family should ever have to do that .. That's outside of my area of expertise, but what is in my area of experties .. is ensuring this defendant pays for what he did .. and we will ensure that," says Eric Smith, Macomb County Prosecutor.
Court records show the husband and wife had a chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2011. Christie was a part owner of a salon and had a Michigan Cosmetology license. The records show her husband was unemployed for a couple of years.
A family friend says his parents owned the home in which they lived.
Court records also show the husband had a domestic assault case in 2009 involving his own brother. It was pleaded down to a fine and one year probation.
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