Judge Varlan is a woman-hating idiot who is either willfully ignorant about domestic violence or just doesn't give a sh**. 'Cause he just knows the mother is lying about the father's alcohol abuse and physical violence, cause, well he just knows. Misogynists always "know" that it's the woman who is lying.
Actually, Mom is very credible. If she wanted to sound more "convincing," she could have said the father abused the boy as well. In reality, it is not uncommon (at least in the early stages) for the father to abuse the mother but not (directly) abuse the children. (Emotionally, however, he is abusing them by diminishing their caregiver.) That the mother was dependent on him for financial assistance is also reality, and that she tried to let the abuser see the boy is also common. Battered moms really do try to be nice and accommodating. They really do. But apparently Mom couldn't take it anymore so she ran. At a terrible sacrifice to herself. This is not a decision that mothers make lightly.
And of course, because abusers are control freaks, he chased her down with the help of the Mexican police AND the U.S. State Department. Gosh, we don't have any drug dealing murderous gangs to worry about anymore? No other international issues of pressing importance? Who knew? Two governments magically cooperate and collaborate to help the batterer track down a battered woman like she was a rabid dog so he reclaim his child/property.
So now, the child is actually at very high risk. Daddy has to take on the responsibility of full-time caregiver, when he is a short-tempered abuser with a traumatized child. And, of course, he wants to punish mom in the worst possible way.
This is partly what happens when you give never married fathers "rights" over women and children. Sickening. And when you turn the Hague Convention into little more than a "slave catching" operation to benefit abusive men.
Dad is identified as EUGENIO GARDUNO GUEVARA.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/crime-courts/judge-orders-boy-5-returned-to-mexico-in-international-custody-battle-30d9edd3-7f6b-1e42-e053-010000-376272141.html
Judge orders boy, 5, returned to Mexico in international custody battle
April 19, 2016
By Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel
In the first ruling of its kind in East Tennessee, a federal judge is ordering the return to Mexico of a 5-year-old boy at the center of an international custody battle.
Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan is siding with Mexican father Eugenio Garduno Guevara in a rare case brought under The Hague Convention of 1980 International Child Abduction Remedies Act in a fight over the boy Guevara fathered out of wedlock with Mexican mother Alma Soto Soto.
Soto spirited the boy away from Mexico and into the U.S. illegally in 2013 after the couple, who had been living together and sharing custody, split up. Guevara spent two years tracking down mother and child, using the Mexican police, The Hague Convention treaty, the U.S. State Department and Facebook, before finding the pair living in Knoxville.
The case ultimately landed in front of Varlan, the first time the federal court system here had been tapped to decide under the treaty which country — Mexico or the U.S. — had authority to decide custody.
In his ruling, Varlan noted the treaty did not authorize him to decide which of the two parents was the fittest but rather was designed to prevent parents from court-shopping among foreign nations.
"One of the main purposes of the ICARA is to prevent parents from removing children from the country of their habitual residence to a more sympathetic court in order to have a 'home court advantage' in custody determinations," Varlan wrote.
It will be up to a Mexican court now to decide the boy's custodial fate.
Guevara and Soto had the boy out of wedlock in Mexico in 2010 but lived together with him until March 2013 when Guevara moved out. A month later, the boy and his mother disappeared. Guevara eventually found mother and son via a photograph posted on Facebook, showing Soto and the boy at the Wichita Falls Park in Wichita Falls, Texas. But she disappeared with the boy again. The pair resurfaced in late May 2015 in Knoxville when she sought custody through Knox County Juvenile Court.
Although Varlan did not weigh in on which of the two was most worthy of custody, the nature of the case did require him to consider allegations typically aired in a domestic courtroom. He first had to decide if Guevara had visited and supported his son after he and Soto split.
"In the three-week period of separation when the child was in Mexico, (the father) visited with the child on four occasions, including one overnight visit," Varlan wrote. "(He) also provided (Soto) and the child with some degree of money and food support."
Varlan also had to sort out conflicting claims between the pair. Soto, via attorney Scott Saidak, claimed Guevara was a mean drunk, and the boy would not be safe in Mexico. He denied that.
Varlan didn't buy it.
"While (Soto) submits that (Guevara) had an alcohol problem and abused her in the past, she does not allege that (the father) abused the child," Varlan wrote. "(She) also allowed (him) to visit with the child multiple times when they were separated, and testified that (he) supported the child with food and money during the period of separation, both of which tend to show that plaintiff would not subject the child to serious abuse or neglect if the child were returned to Mexico."
A second case under the treaty is now pending in U.S. District Court. That one involves a father living in London and a Bangladeshi mother living in Knoxville with the couple's twin babies.
Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts
Friday, April 22, 2016
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Why did CPS grant criminal father custody of two young daughters? (Pocatello, Idaho)
Great editorial from Idaho State Journal.
http://www.idahostatejournal.com/editorials/what-about-the-health-and-welfare-of-zinnia-and-dahlia/article_46a23eeb-fdbf-507b-b5d0-79e5fdaf2e03.html
ISJ opinion editorial: What about the health and welfare of Zinnia and Dahlia?
Updated Nov 24, 2015
The last time we took issue with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, it was back in April when it became apparent that this government agency had essentially destroyed a local business for no good reason.
That business was Seasons of Hope, a mental health services provider with seven locations in Southeast Idaho and about 200 employees.
Health and Welfare accused Seasons of Medicaid fraud and ordered the company to pay $550,000 in fines and restitution. It took Seasons Chief Executive Officer Heath Sommer two years and lots of money in attorney’s fees to prove his business was innocent of the charges, but by that time Seasons was no more.
Fast forward to now and we have Health and Welfare involved in an even more questionable action. Health and Welfare has recommended that two young American-born girls from Southeast Idaho be essentially deported to be with their father in Mexico.
Health and Welfare officials say they’re only resolving a custody dispute.
We call it child endangerment on the part of a government agency.
The children’s father, a Mexican national, was previously deported from the United States. This individual has a criminal record, but it has unfortunately been sealed by the courts.
The children’s mother, Kelly Fink, of Pocatello, is a recovering drug addict who currently lives in a homeless shelter.
But she’s staying clean and clearly wants to put her life back together. Kelly’s mother and stepfather have moved to Southeast Idaho to help her get back on her feet.
Kelly’s two daughters, Zinnia and Dahlia, were being cared for by a foster family in Idaho Falls with regular visitation by their mom.
Rather than see these kids reunited with their mother, Health and Welfare decided to move the girls to Mexico to be with their father — the guy with the sealed criminal record who was deported.
Zinnia and Dahlia were transported by Idaho authorities to Boise for their Monday trip to Mexico. By the time you read this, the girls will likely be in Mexico, where they will spend the rest of their childhoods.
Perhaps if Health and Welfare officials had perused Mexico’s crime statistics, even by doing a quick Internet search, they would have realized what kind of mistake it was to send these two Southeast Idaho girls there.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, “Criminal cartels — which traffic 90 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States — have killed an estimated 60,000 Mexican soldiers, police, politicians and civilians since 2006.” Other sources put the death toll much higher. Mexico’s murder rate is at least three times that of the United States.
During a less than two-year period between late 2012 and May 2014, 8,000 Mexicans simply disappeared. Since 2006, the number of Mexicans who’ve gone missing is nearly 30,000. It’s believed that these individuals who’ve mysteriously vanished were also murdered by Mexican drug cartels.
An incident in September 2014 illustrates the level of violence and lawlessness in Mexico. Members of a drug cartel rounded up over 40 students at a Mexican university. The students were never seen again. Their parents went looking for them and while they did not find any traces of their children, they did find multiple mass graves containing the bodies of 300 other people.
We won’t even delve into Mexico’s well-deserved reputation as a place with rampant sex trafficking, forced prostitution, forced labor, child sexual abuse and rape.
It’s a country known for attracting what are called child sex tourists — people who specifically travel to Mexico from other places because of the abundance of child prostitutes there. It’s not reassuring that Health and Welfare said it has talked to Mexican officials who promise they’re going to keep a close watch on Zinnia and Dahlia and make sure their father is taking good care of them.
Google “child abuse Mexico” and you’ll find out what kind of job Mexican officials are doing to protect Mexican children.
Judge Bryan Murray signed off on Health and Welfare’s plan to send Zinnia and Dahlia south of the border and we are obviously left wondering why.
We wish we could be sure that Zinnia and Dahlia will somehow not become tragic statistics as new residents of Mexico.
If something bad happens, Idaho will have nothing to offer but an apology.
http://www.idahostatejournal.com/editorials/what-about-the-health-and-welfare-of-zinnia-and-dahlia/article_46a23eeb-fdbf-507b-b5d0-79e5fdaf2e03.html
ISJ opinion editorial: What about the health and welfare of Zinnia and Dahlia?
Updated Nov 24, 2015
The last time we took issue with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, it was back in April when it became apparent that this government agency had essentially destroyed a local business for no good reason.
That business was Seasons of Hope, a mental health services provider with seven locations in Southeast Idaho and about 200 employees.
Health and Welfare accused Seasons of Medicaid fraud and ordered the company to pay $550,000 in fines and restitution. It took Seasons Chief Executive Officer Heath Sommer two years and lots of money in attorney’s fees to prove his business was innocent of the charges, but by that time Seasons was no more.
Fast forward to now and we have Health and Welfare involved in an even more questionable action. Health and Welfare has recommended that two young American-born girls from Southeast Idaho be essentially deported to be with their father in Mexico.
Health and Welfare officials say they’re only resolving a custody dispute.
We call it child endangerment on the part of a government agency.
The children’s father, a Mexican national, was previously deported from the United States. This individual has a criminal record, but it has unfortunately been sealed by the courts.
The children’s mother, Kelly Fink, of Pocatello, is a recovering drug addict who currently lives in a homeless shelter.
But she’s staying clean and clearly wants to put her life back together. Kelly’s mother and stepfather have moved to Southeast Idaho to help her get back on her feet.
Kelly’s two daughters, Zinnia and Dahlia, were being cared for by a foster family in Idaho Falls with regular visitation by their mom.
Rather than see these kids reunited with their mother, Health and Welfare decided to move the girls to Mexico to be with their father — the guy with the sealed criminal record who was deported.
Zinnia and Dahlia were transported by Idaho authorities to Boise for their Monday trip to Mexico. By the time you read this, the girls will likely be in Mexico, where they will spend the rest of their childhoods.
Perhaps if Health and Welfare officials had perused Mexico’s crime statistics, even by doing a quick Internet search, they would have realized what kind of mistake it was to send these two Southeast Idaho girls there.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, “Criminal cartels — which traffic 90 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States — have killed an estimated 60,000 Mexican soldiers, police, politicians and civilians since 2006.” Other sources put the death toll much higher. Mexico’s murder rate is at least three times that of the United States.
During a less than two-year period between late 2012 and May 2014, 8,000 Mexicans simply disappeared. Since 2006, the number of Mexicans who’ve gone missing is nearly 30,000. It’s believed that these individuals who’ve mysteriously vanished were also murdered by Mexican drug cartels.
An incident in September 2014 illustrates the level of violence and lawlessness in Mexico. Members of a drug cartel rounded up over 40 students at a Mexican university. The students were never seen again. Their parents went looking for them and while they did not find any traces of their children, they did find multiple mass graves containing the bodies of 300 other people.
We won’t even delve into Mexico’s well-deserved reputation as a place with rampant sex trafficking, forced prostitution, forced labor, child sexual abuse and rape.
It’s a country known for attracting what are called child sex tourists — people who specifically travel to Mexico from other places because of the abundance of child prostitutes there. It’s not reassuring that Health and Welfare said it has talked to Mexican officials who promise they’re going to keep a close watch on Zinnia and Dahlia and make sure their father is taking good care of them.
Google “child abuse Mexico” and you’ll find out what kind of job Mexican officials are doing to protect Mexican children.
Judge Bryan Murray signed off on Health and Welfare’s plan to send Zinnia and Dahlia south of the border and we are obviously left wondering why.
We wish we could be sure that Zinnia and Dahlia will somehow not become tragic statistics as new residents of Mexico.
If something bad happens, Idaho will have nothing to offer but an apology.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Custodial dad stabs mom's new boyfriend, takes off with 1-year-old son; who gave this violent father custody? (San Pedro, California)
Of course the media doesn't even bother to ask why a violent father who stabbed the mother's new boyfriend would have been granted custody of an infant, now just 1-year of age.
Mother is so beaten down by the system that she is swearing not to call the police, if only the kidnapper daddy will call her and let her know the baby is okay.
This is the triumph of fathers rights, folks. Mothers groveling. Abusive, entitled fathers getting worse and worse.
Dad is identified as GIOVANY SANTIAGO-RODRIQUEZ.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/03/09/chp-issues-amber-alert-for-1-year-old-boy-allegedly-taken-from-san-pedro/
CHP Issues Amber Alert For 1-Year-Old Boy Taken From San Pedro
March 9, 2015 6:00 PM
SAN PEDRO (CBSLA.com) — A statewide Amber Alert was issued Monday for a 1-year-old boy who authorities suspect was taken by a 37-year-old man.
The missing child, a Hispanic male, was identified by the California Highway Patrol as Jayden Santiago. Authorities believe Santiago was taken at 1:30 a.m. Monday in San Pedro.
The CHP identified the child abduction suspect as Giovany Santiago-Enriquez, who they say may be driving a 2006 gray Nissan Altima with a California license plate of 5UCF010.
Santiago-Enriquez is the child’s father and has legal custody. However, he is accused of stabbing his former girlfriend’s boyfriend early Monday morning.
“Just bring him back. Just please bring him safe, at least keep him safe. Call me. I won’t even call the cops. Like, I won’t,” Christy Martinez, the child’s mother, said. “I just want to know he’s OK.”
The child weighs 26 pounds and was wearing a brown and green onesie with black and white Nike shoes. Santiago-Enriquez is 5-foot-8 and weighs 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black beanie, black sweater, and gray and black Nike shoes.
Authorities said the man is to be considered armed and dangerous and should be approached with caution. He may be traveling to known contacts in Mexico or the state of Washington, authorities said.
Anyone with information as to their whereabouts was asked to dial 911 to report possible sightings or the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Division at (310) 726-7700.
Mother is so beaten down by the system that she is swearing not to call the police, if only the kidnapper daddy will call her and let her know the baby is okay.
This is the triumph of fathers rights, folks. Mothers groveling. Abusive, entitled fathers getting worse and worse.
Dad is identified as GIOVANY SANTIAGO-RODRIQUEZ.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/03/09/chp-issues-amber-alert-for-1-year-old-boy-allegedly-taken-from-san-pedro/
CHP Issues Amber Alert For 1-Year-Old Boy Taken From San Pedro
March 9, 2015 6:00 PM
SAN PEDRO (CBSLA.com) — A statewide Amber Alert was issued Monday for a 1-year-old boy who authorities suspect was taken by a 37-year-old man.
The missing child, a Hispanic male, was identified by the California Highway Patrol as Jayden Santiago. Authorities believe Santiago was taken at 1:30 a.m. Monday in San Pedro.
The CHP identified the child abduction suspect as Giovany Santiago-Enriquez, who they say may be driving a 2006 gray Nissan Altima with a California license plate of 5UCF010.
Santiago-Enriquez is the child’s father and has legal custody. However, he is accused of stabbing his former girlfriend’s boyfriend early Monday morning.
“Just bring him back. Just please bring him safe, at least keep him safe. Call me. I won’t even call the cops. Like, I won’t,” Christy Martinez, the child’s mother, said. “I just want to know he’s OK.”
The child weighs 26 pounds and was wearing a brown and green onesie with black and white Nike shoes. Santiago-Enriquez is 5-foot-8 and weighs 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black beanie, black sweater, and gray and black Nike shoes.
Authorities said the man is to be considered armed and dangerous and should be approached with caution. He may be traveling to known contacts in Mexico or the state of Washington, authorities said.
Anyone with information as to their whereabouts was asked to dial 911 to report possible sightings or the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Division at (310) 726-7700.
Friday, December 12, 2014
SWAT team rescues kids from Dad's freeway standoff drama (San Diego, California)
It appears that dad DANIEL PEREZ murdered the mother of his sons before taking off with them.
Notice the typical misleading language. We're told the "marriage" was "unstable" and "marred by domestic violence." A marriage is a relationship between entities. It isn't a "thing" per se. This is just the typical way we avoid saying DAD was "unstable" and violent. After all, HE was the one who killed a woman and abducted the kids. Not the "marriage." In other words, just away of confusing the issue of agency and who did what to whom.
http://www.cbs8.com/story/27603760/swat-team-rescues-boys-in-freeway-standoff-drama
SWAT team rescues boys in freeway standoff drama
Posted: Dec 11, 2014 9:04 AM EST Updated: Dec 11, 2014 8:45 PM EST
SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - Four L.A.-area boys are safe Thursday after their father was taken into custody following a tense standoff along a Santee highway.
Daniel Perez, 43, of Montebello stopped the black 2014 Toyota Camry he was driving in the middle of the eastbound state Route 52 connector road to state Route 67 about 8:30 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. A standoff ensued until around 9:50 a.m., when two SWAT vehicles pulled up to the front and the back of the Camry and officers in full tactical gear approached the suspect and took him into custody.
Montebello police earlier named Perez a person of interest in the disappearance of his 39-year-old wife, Erica. On Thursday, the L.A. County Coroner's Office confirmed the body found in the trunk of the family car on Wednesday was Erica Perez.
The Perez family was last seen Friday, police said, adding that extended family members described the couple's marriage as unstable and marred by domestic violence. An Amber Alert was issued early Thursday morning for four of the couple's five children.
Sometime around 8 a.m. Thursday, officers pursued Perez from the downtown El Cajon area to state Route 125 to the highway ramp where he stopped. A CHP spokesman said that officers located Perez in the downtown El Cajon area earlier Thursday using the LoJack technology installed on the Camry.
Just before 9 a.m., two of the four young boys got out safely and ran to nearby authorities, but two others remained in the vehicle along with their father until he was taken into custody.
Before the SWAT vehicles pulled up, about a dozen law enforcement cruisers and SUVs stopped behind the black Toyota Camry, which was on an elevated transition roadway. Officers with weapons drawn were just yards from the car.
Perez was talking to law enforcement via cell phone, the CHP said. The CHP reports that during the hour long standoff, Perez was calm and then just suddenly snapped. Also during the standoff, family members in the San Diego area were feeding negotiators information.
Once the suspect's car was blocked in by SWAT vehicles, the standoff quickly came to an end.
"The suspect attempted to jump over the guard rail, was shot with one bean bag nonlethal. Immediately taken to the ground and is in custody. All four boys I saw and talk to them. Seem to be okay physically no injuries. Mentally we don't know how this has affected them,” said Kevin Pearlstein with the CHP. #Officers believe Perez was headed to Mexico.
Perez and his children were transported separately Thursday afternoon to Montebello. The fifth child -- who was not involved in the standoff -- was being cared for by his grandparents.
Notice the typical misleading language. We're told the "marriage" was "unstable" and "marred by domestic violence." A marriage is a relationship between entities. It isn't a "thing" per se. This is just the typical way we avoid saying DAD was "unstable" and violent. After all, HE was the one who killed a woman and abducted the kids. Not the "marriage." In other words, just away of confusing the issue of agency and who did what to whom.
http://www.cbs8.com/story/27603760/swat-team-rescues-boys-in-freeway-standoff-drama
SWAT team rescues boys in freeway standoff drama
Posted: Dec 11, 2014 9:04 AM EST Updated: Dec 11, 2014 8:45 PM EST
SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - Four L.A.-area boys are safe Thursday after their father was taken into custody following a tense standoff along a Santee highway.
Daniel Perez, 43, of Montebello stopped the black 2014 Toyota Camry he was driving in the middle of the eastbound state Route 52 connector road to state Route 67 about 8:30 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. A standoff ensued until around 9:50 a.m., when two SWAT vehicles pulled up to the front and the back of the Camry and officers in full tactical gear approached the suspect and took him into custody.
Montebello police earlier named Perez a person of interest in the disappearance of his 39-year-old wife, Erica. On Thursday, the L.A. County Coroner's Office confirmed the body found in the trunk of the family car on Wednesday was Erica Perez.
The Perez family was last seen Friday, police said, adding that extended family members described the couple's marriage as unstable and marred by domestic violence. An Amber Alert was issued early Thursday morning for four of the couple's five children.
Sometime around 8 a.m. Thursday, officers pursued Perez from the downtown El Cajon area to state Route 125 to the highway ramp where he stopped. A CHP spokesman said that officers located Perez in the downtown El Cajon area earlier Thursday using the LoJack technology installed on the Camry.
Just before 9 a.m., two of the four young boys got out safely and ran to nearby authorities, but two others remained in the vehicle along with their father until he was taken into custody.
Before the SWAT vehicles pulled up, about a dozen law enforcement cruisers and SUVs stopped behind the black Toyota Camry, which was on an elevated transition roadway. Officers with weapons drawn were just yards from the car.
Perez was talking to law enforcement via cell phone, the CHP said. The CHP reports that during the hour long standoff, Perez was calm and then just suddenly snapped. Also during the standoff, family members in the San Diego area were feeding negotiators information.
Once the suspect's car was blocked in by SWAT vehicles, the standoff quickly came to an end.
"The suspect attempted to jump over the guard rail, was shot with one bean bag nonlethal. Immediately taken to the ground and is in custody. All four boys I saw and talk to them. Seem to be okay physically no injuries. Mentally we don't know how this has affected them,” said Kevin Pearlstein with the CHP. #Officers believe Perez was headed to Mexico.
Perez and his children were transported separately Thursday afternoon to Montebello. The fifth child -- who was not involved in the standoff -- was being cared for by his grandparents.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Dad arrested for swimming naked with 1-year-old daughter in public and resisting arrest; "took" baby from mother two weeks ago (Acoma, New Mexico)
What do you mean that dad MICHAEL LEE "took" the 1-year-old girl from her mother two weeks ago? Did he abduct her? Then say so. So then Daddy is caught acting perv-y, and it turns out he stole a truck, and he resists arrest?
Lots of weird sh** going on here. Somehow I think there is lot more here than meets the surface.
http://krqe.com/2014/10/27/father-accused-of-swimming-naked-with-baby-in-public/
Father accused of swimming naked with baby in public
By KRQE Staff Published: October 27, 2014, 11:14 am | Updated: October 27, 2014, 11:39 am
ACOMA, N.M. (KRQE) – A man accused of swimming naked in a hotel pool with his 1-year-old daughter has been arrested.
New Mexico State Police officers say they responded to a call at the Sky Casino in Acoma, and upon arrival made contact with Michale Lee, 35, of La Palma Calif., who had allegedly taken the girl from her mother in Mexico two weeks prior.
Police say Lee fled to California and stole a semi-truck in Oceanside, then drove to New Mexico.
Lee did not cooperate with officers at the hotel, police say, but he was eventually taken into custody. His child taken by the Children, Youth and Families Department.
Police say Lee has been charged with child abuse, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle, resisting an officer and indecent exposure.
Lots of weird sh** going on here. Somehow I think there is lot more here than meets the surface.
http://krqe.com/2014/10/27/father-accused-of-swimming-naked-with-baby-in-public/
Father accused of swimming naked with baby in public
By KRQE Staff Published: October 27, 2014, 11:14 am | Updated: October 27, 2014, 11:39 am
ACOMA, N.M. (KRQE) – A man accused of swimming naked in a hotel pool with his 1-year-old daughter has been arrested.
New Mexico State Police officers say they responded to a call at the Sky Casino in Acoma, and upon arrival made contact with Michale Lee, 35, of La Palma Calif., who had allegedly taken the girl from her mother in Mexico two weeks prior.
Police say Lee fled to California and stole a semi-truck in Oceanside, then drove to New Mexico.
Lee did not cooperate with officers at the hotel, police say, but he was eventually taken into custody. His child taken by the Children, Youth and Families Department.
Police say Lee has been charged with child abuse, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle, resisting an officer and indecent exposure.
Monday, July 28, 2014
Sentencing for dad who abducted two kids during his court-ordered visitation; kids went four years with no school, medical care (Winnipeg, Canada)
These guys are not motivated out of love or a desire to spend time with their kids. It's all about punishing Mom. Notice that dad KEVIN MARYK seriously neglected these kids. Other accounts have mentioned rampant drug abuse and trafficking.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Sentencing-in-child-abduction-trial-could-be-broadcast-268920961.html
Sentencing in child-abduction trial could be broadcast
By: Mike McIntyre
Posted: 1:15 PM
The sentencing hearing for a Winnipeg man who abducted his two children and hid them in Mexico for four years may have a much larger audience when it concludes next month.
Kevin Maryk will return to court on Aug. 22 to learn his fate after pleading guilty to one of the province's most notorious missing-persons case.
An application has been made for a live broadcast of the proceedings under a new judicial pilot project. If granted by the judge, the resolution can be seen by anyone with computer access.
Crown and defence lawyers spent a full day making submissions last month, but adjourned the case after being unable to agree on certain factual points.
The Crown is expected to call a further witness to testify before provincial court Judge Ted Lismer gives his decision.
The Crown is seeking a five-year prison sentence, which is half the 10-year maximum for abduction. Maryk is asking for 25 months of time served in custody and an immediate return to the community.
Dominic Maryk, 13, and Abby Maryk, 11, vanished while on a court-authorized visitation with their father in August 2008.
They weren't located until May 2012 in Guadalajara.
The children were kept in what the Crown has called "deplorable" conditions, which included having no access to schools, medical care or even friends.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Sentencing-in-child-abduction-trial-could-be-broadcast-268920961.html
Sentencing in child-abduction trial could be broadcast
By: Mike McIntyre
Posted: 1:15 PM
The sentencing hearing for a Winnipeg man who abducted his two children and hid them in Mexico for four years may have a much larger audience when it concludes next month.
Kevin Maryk will return to court on Aug. 22 to learn his fate after pleading guilty to one of the province's most notorious missing-persons case.
An application has been made for a live broadcast of the proceedings under a new judicial pilot project. If granted by the judge, the resolution can be seen by anyone with computer access.
Crown and defence lawyers spent a full day making submissions last month, but adjourned the case after being unable to agree on certain factual points.
The Crown is expected to call a further witness to testify before provincial court Judge Ted Lismer gives his decision.
The Crown is seeking a five-year prison sentence, which is half the 10-year maximum for abduction. Maryk is asking for 25 months of time served in custody and an immediate return to the community.
Dominic Maryk, 13, and Abby Maryk, 11, vanished while on a court-authorized visitation with their father in August 2008.
They weren't located until May 2012 in Guadalajara.
The children were kept in what the Crown has called "deplorable" conditions, which included having no access to schools, medical care or even friends.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Neglectful dad convicted of abducting two children during court-ordered visitation and taking them to Mexico (Winnipeg, Canada)
Mothers who are accused of abducting their kids often due so in order to protect them from abuse and neglect.
Dad KEVIN MARYK abducted the kids, then proceeded to abuse and neglect them. Exposed to a life of booze, drugs, prostitution, stolen cars, guns, no schooling for four years....
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2014/06/20140630-115444.html
Dad who abducted kids faces sentencing Monday
11:54 am, June 30th, 2014 QMI AGENCY
WINNIPEG -- Two Winnipeg children abducted by their father and kept in Mexico for years spoke about hookers, guns and drinking alcohol, according to their mother. An emotional impact statement by Emily Cablek was played in court Monday at the sentencing hearing for her ex-husband, Kevin Maryk.
Maryk pleaded guilty last week to two counts of child abduction in a case that attracted international headlines. Maryk had three additional charges stayed by the Crown on Thursday, including charges stemming from his attempts to make contact with his children while incarcerated.
Dominic and Abby were seven and five, respectively, when they went missing following a court-ordered visit with their father in August 2008.
Police tracked Maryk down in May 2012 when a tip from a neighbour led Mexican police to a heavily fortified home in Guadalajara where the kids were found. Cops raided the home and arrested Maryk and co-accused Robert Groen, then reunited the kids with their mother shortly thereafter.
Groen was sentenced earlier this month to one year in jail for his role. A third suspect, Cody John McKay -- Maryk's nephew -- has yet to be apprehended.
Cablek said Monday her now 13-year-old son is terrified when people come to the door unannounced, is withdrawn and has had difficulty making friends since his return to Winnipeg.
Her now 11-year-old daughter, who the court heard curled up into a ball when asked to make an impact statement, has blocked out some of the details of her time in Mexico and has "put it behind her instead of dealing with it," she said.
The Crown told the court, according to statements by Cablek, the children make references to stolen cars and hookers. Her son has referenced shooting guns. Both children, who did not attend school during those four years, said they had tried tequila.
The Crown also read two letters sent by Maryk while in prison.
The first, sent to the family of McKay, asked them to find McKay and help Maryk get back to Mexico.
"You need to do this because there is no better life than Mexico. The fun, the sun, the girls," he wrote.
He also wrote that McKay traffics cocaine and crystal meth across the border and is worth $2 million, last he heard. "Help me and you will live debt-free for many years," he wrote.
The second letter was to his adult daughter and detailed his time in a Mexican prison, where he said he was tortured, shocked with a Taser and beaten.
Last week, the Crown said they would be seeking five years' jail for Maryk, while the defence would ask for two years with credit for time already served.
Maryk spent five months in a Mexican jail and 20 months in jail in Canada.
The case against McKay's parents, Darlene and Bradley, remains before the courts. The couple were charged months after the kids' safe return with abduction by concealment and obstructing justice in connection with the case.
The judge was prepared to make his decision over Maryk, but a dispute over evidence led to adornment until July 7.
TIMELINE: AUGUST 2008: Kevin Maryk fails to return his two children, Dominic and Abby, to their mother, Emily Cablek, following a court-approved two-week vacation.
SEPTEMBER 2008: Cablek speaks publicly about her kids -- of whom she has full custody -- going missing following a court-approved two-week visit they had with Kevin Maryk, her former common-law husband. "I have no idea where they are. I wish I had even a clue where they'd be," Cablek says. "I just hope that they are safe and they will be returned or found."
OCTOBER 2008: Winnipeg police reveal that they had, in late September, recovered a car that Kevin Maryk had rented. The car was found in a Winnipeg parking lot. A Canada-wide warrant has been issued for Maryk, while the Canada Border Services Agency keeps watch for him. Meanwhile, Child Find Manitoba hopes that a public appeal it has issued will bring the kids home.
APRIL 2009: Cablek says she's growing more worried about her children after still no sign of them or her ex-husband. "It doesn't get any easier," Cablek says. "If anything, it gets harder. Some weeks I can get through the week pretty well, and other weeks I am a basket-case."
AUGUST 2009: Police say they suspect that Maryk might be with his nephew, Cody McKay, who could have helped him abduct the children. Around the same time, popular U.S. television show America's Most Wanted adds the case of the Winnipeg brother and sister to its website -- but does not include it on its actual program.
SEPTEMBER 2011: Police publicly name a third suspect, Robert Groen, and issue a Canada-wide warrant for him after long having issued such a warrant for McKay. Officers describe Groen as an associate of Maryk, and say he's suspected to have fled the country. Also, Crime Stoppers releases a video in hopes of generating tips on the children's whereabouts. "I miss them so much. I've been trying so hard to find them," Cablek said. "I miss seeing their smiles, I miss taking them to school, I miss not knowing if they're going to enjoy what I put in their lunches. I miss hearing them argue, (because) to hear their voices even arguing would be a blessing right now."
DECEMBER 2011: Det.-Sgt. Shaunna Neufeld of the Winnipeg police missing-persons unit says the case is "extreme," and adds that "the stakes are even higher as we have very real concerns for the safety of Abby and Dominic."
MAY 2012: Police in Guadalajara, Mexico, acting on a tip, raid a home in that city and remove Dominic and Abby Maryk, aged 11 and nine, while arresting Kevin Maryk and Robert Groen. Cody John McKay, Maryk's nephew and alleged accomplice, remains on the loose.
SEPTEMBER 2012: Darlene and Bradley McKay, Cody's parents, are charged with abduction by concealment and obstructing justice in connection with the case.
NOVEMBER 2012: Maryk is chargd with five sex-related offences involving a Winnipeg woman, alleged to have occurred between January 2004 and May 2006.
JANUARY 2013: Maryk is charged with one count of criminal harassment, with court documents alleging he tried to enlist a female family member to watch his ex-wife's Winnipeg home. The woman did not carry out his alleged wishes, documents stated.
JUNE 2014: Maryk pleads guilty to two counts of child abduction. Sentencing is set for Monday.
Dad KEVIN MARYK abducted the kids, then proceeded to abuse and neglect them. Exposed to a life of booze, drugs, prostitution, stolen cars, guns, no schooling for four years....
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2014/06/20140630-115444.html
Dad who abducted kids faces sentencing Monday
11:54 am, June 30th, 2014 QMI AGENCY
WINNIPEG -- Two Winnipeg children abducted by their father and kept in Mexico for years spoke about hookers, guns and drinking alcohol, according to their mother. An emotional impact statement by Emily Cablek was played in court Monday at the sentencing hearing for her ex-husband, Kevin Maryk.
Maryk pleaded guilty last week to two counts of child abduction in a case that attracted international headlines. Maryk had three additional charges stayed by the Crown on Thursday, including charges stemming from his attempts to make contact with his children while incarcerated.
Dominic and Abby were seven and five, respectively, when they went missing following a court-ordered visit with their father in August 2008.
Police tracked Maryk down in May 2012 when a tip from a neighbour led Mexican police to a heavily fortified home in Guadalajara where the kids were found. Cops raided the home and arrested Maryk and co-accused Robert Groen, then reunited the kids with their mother shortly thereafter.
Groen was sentenced earlier this month to one year in jail for his role. A third suspect, Cody John McKay -- Maryk's nephew -- has yet to be apprehended.
Cablek said Monday her now 13-year-old son is terrified when people come to the door unannounced, is withdrawn and has had difficulty making friends since his return to Winnipeg.
Her now 11-year-old daughter, who the court heard curled up into a ball when asked to make an impact statement, has blocked out some of the details of her time in Mexico and has "put it behind her instead of dealing with it," she said.
The Crown told the court, according to statements by Cablek, the children make references to stolen cars and hookers. Her son has referenced shooting guns. Both children, who did not attend school during those four years, said they had tried tequila.
The Crown also read two letters sent by Maryk while in prison.
The first, sent to the family of McKay, asked them to find McKay and help Maryk get back to Mexico.
"You need to do this because there is no better life than Mexico. The fun, the sun, the girls," he wrote.
He also wrote that McKay traffics cocaine and crystal meth across the border and is worth $2 million, last he heard. "Help me and you will live debt-free for many years," he wrote.
The second letter was to his adult daughter and detailed his time in a Mexican prison, where he said he was tortured, shocked with a Taser and beaten.
Last week, the Crown said they would be seeking five years' jail for Maryk, while the defence would ask for two years with credit for time already served.
Maryk spent five months in a Mexican jail and 20 months in jail in Canada.
The case against McKay's parents, Darlene and Bradley, remains before the courts. The couple were charged months after the kids' safe return with abduction by concealment and obstructing justice in connection with the case.
The judge was prepared to make his decision over Maryk, but a dispute over evidence led to adornment until July 7.
TIMELINE: AUGUST 2008: Kevin Maryk fails to return his two children, Dominic and Abby, to their mother, Emily Cablek, following a court-approved two-week vacation.
SEPTEMBER 2008: Cablek speaks publicly about her kids -- of whom she has full custody -- going missing following a court-approved two-week visit they had with Kevin Maryk, her former common-law husband. "I have no idea where they are. I wish I had even a clue where they'd be," Cablek says. "I just hope that they are safe and they will be returned or found."
OCTOBER 2008: Winnipeg police reveal that they had, in late September, recovered a car that Kevin Maryk had rented. The car was found in a Winnipeg parking lot. A Canada-wide warrant has been issued for Maryk, while the Canada Border Services Agency keeps watch for him. Meanwhile, Child Find Manitoba hopes that a public appeal it has issued will bring the kids home.
APRIL 2009: Cablek says she's growing more worried about her children after still no sign of them or her ex-husband. "It doesn't get any easier," Cablek says. "If anything, it gets harder. Some weeks I can get through the week pretty well, and other weeks I am a basket-case."
AUGUST 2009: Police say they suspect that Maryk might be with his nephew, Cody McKay, who could have helped him abduct the children. Around the same time, popular U.S. television show America's Most Wanted adds the case of the Winnipeg brother and sister to its website -- but does not include it on its actual program.
SEPTEMBER 2011: Police publicly name a third suspect, Robert Groen, and issue a Canada-wide warrant for him after long having issued such a warrant for McKay. Officers describe Groen as an associate of Maryk, and say he's suspected to have fled the country. Also, Crime Stoppers releases a video in hopes of generating tips on the children's whereabouts. "I miss them so much. I've been trying so hard to find them," Cablek said. "I miss seeing their smiles, I miss taking them to school, I miss not knowing if they're going to enjoy what I put in their lunches. I miss hearing them argue, (because) to hear their voices even arguing would be a blessing right now."
DECEMBER 2011: Det.-Sgt. Shaunna Neufeld of the Winnipeg police missing-persons unit says the case is "extreme," and adds that "the stakes are even higher as we have very real concerns for the safety of Abby and Dominic."
MAY 2012: Police in Guadalajara, Mexico, acting on a tip, raid a home in that city and remove Dominic and Abby Maryk, aged 11 and nine, while arresting Kevin Maryk and Robert Groen. Cody John McKay, Maryk's nephew and alleged accomplice, remains on the loose.
SEPTEMBER 2012: Darlene and Bradley McKay, Cody's parents, are charged with abduction by concealment and obstructing justice in connection with the case.
NOVEMBER 2012: Maryk is chargd with five sex-related offences involving a Winnipeg woman, alleged to have occurred between January 2004 and May 2006.
JANUARY 2013: Maryk is charged with one count of criminal harassment, with court documents alleging he tried to enlist a female family member to watch his ex-wife's Winnipeg home. The woman did not carry out his alleged wishes, documents stated.
JUNE 2014: Maryk pleads guilty to two counts of child abduction. Sentencing is set for Monday.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Dad indicted for murders of 1- and 3-year-old daughters, their mother (New York, New York)
We've posted on family annihilator dad MIGUEL MEJIAS-RAMOS before. Still, this little piece of sh** never ceases to take my breath away. He slaughtered his baby girls because he didn't have car seats. Words just fail....
http://nypost.com/2014/03/20/man-who-butchered-family-then-fled-to-mexico-indicted-for-murder/
Man who ‘butchered family,’ fled to Mexico indicted
By Christina Carrega-Woodby
March 20, 2014 | 1:03pm
The madman who tried to escape to his native Mexico after butchering his wife and young daughters in their Queens apartment in January was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder Thursday morning as his still-grieving in-laws faced him down in court.
Miguel Mejias-Ramos, 28, wearing a gray sweatshirt and matching sweatpants, stared downward and said nothing as his lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in Queens Criminal Court.
Luz Amarado, the mother of the sicko’s late wife — and grandmother of his children — fixed the accused killer with an icy stare throughout the proceeding.
Mejias-Ramos fatally knifed his wife, Deisy Garcia, 21, on Jan. 18 because he was suspicious of photos he found on her Facebook page and phone, cops said.
The accused killer then stabbed to death 3-year-old Daniella and 1-year-old Yoselin — because he didn’t have a car seat to take them with him before fleeing, cops said.
Outside court, Amarado bitterly lashed out at her son-in-law.
“He used to be a part of my family. He was my daughter’s husband, and the father of my grandkids. Now he’s the person who took them away,” she said, speaking in Spanish.
The family’s lawyer, Roger Asmar, called her a lost soul since the killings last Jan. 18. “She feels horrible.
She told me that she walks around the streets not knowing what to do or where to go. She’s simply lost without her daughter and grandkids,” Asmar said.
In court, prosecutor Denise Tirino said cops who brought the suspect back to New York after he was busted in Texas asked him what he was thinking about. “God and jail,” he replied, she said.
The defendant’s lawyer, Michael Anastasiou, asked Justice Kenneth C. Holder to place his client in protective custody and on suicide watch, and that he continue to receive medical treatment, though he did not specify for what.
Anastasiou did not request bail, and Mejias-Ramos will be returned to Rikers until his next court date on May 21.
Mejias-Ramos confessed to detectives that he used five knives to viciously stab Garcia, who had gone to cops last May 30 and made a report in Spanish saying she feared her husband would kill her and her daughters.
A complaint Deisy Garcia filed against her husband that the NYPD failed to immediately translate.
Cops never translated the report, and her prediction later came true, prompting the NYPD to order last month that reports of domestic violence written in foreign languages must be immediately translated to protect potential victims.
The family is planning to file a civil suit against the NYPD next week, Asmar said.
Mejias-Ramos is facing life in prison without a possibility of parole if convicted of the first-degree murder charges.
http://nypost.com/2014/03/20/man-who-butchered-family-then-fled-to-mexico-indicted-for-murder/
Man who ‘butchered family,’ fled to Mexico indicted
By Christina Carrega-Woodby
March 20, 2014 | 1:03pm
The madman who tried to escape to his native Mexico after butchering his wife and young daughters in their Queens apartment in January was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder Thursday morning as his still-grieving in-laws faced him down in court.
Miguel Mejias-Ramos, 28, wearing a gray sweatshirt and matching sweatpants, stared downward and said nothing as his lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in Queens Criminal Court.
Luz Amarado, the mother of the sicko’s late wife — and grandmother of his children — fixed the accused killer with an icy stare throughout the proceeding.
Mejias-Ramos fatally knifed his wife, Deisy Garcia, 21, on Jan. 18 because he was suspicious of photos he found on her Facebook page and phone, cops said.
The accused killer then stabbed to death 3-year-old Daniella and 1-year-old Yoselin — because he didn’t have a car seat to take them with him before fleeing, cops said.
Outside court, Amarado bitterly lashed out at her son-in-law.
“He used to be a part of my family. He was my daughter’s husband, and the father of my grandkids. Now he’s the person who took them away,” she said, speaking in Spanish.
The family’s lawyer, Roger Asmar, called her a lost soul since the killings last Jan. 18. “She feels horrible.
She told me that she walks around the streets not knowing what to do or where to go. She’s simply lost without her daughter and grandkids,” Asmar said.
In court, prosecutor Denise Tirino said cops who brought the suspect back to New York after he was busted in Texas asked him what he was thinking about. “God and jail,” he replied, she said.
The defendant’s lawyer, Michael Anastasiou, asked Justice Kenneth C. Holder to place his client in protective custody and on suicide watch, and that he continue to receive medical treatment, though he did not specify for what.
Anastasiou did not request bail, and Mejias-Ramos will be returned to Rikers until his next court date on May 21.
Mejias-Ramos confessed to detectives that he used five knives to viciously stab Garcia, who had gone to cops last May 30 and made a report in Spanish saying she feared her husband would kill her and her daughters.
A complaint Deisy Garcia filed against her husband that the NYPD failed to immediately translate.
Cops never translated the report, and her prediction later came true, prompting the NYPD to order last month that reports of domestic violence written in foreign languages must be immediately translated to protect potential victims.
The family is planning to file a civil suit against the NYPD next week, Asmar said.
Mejias-Ramos is facing life in prison without a possibility of parole if convicted of the first-degree murder charges.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Protective mom failed by police as abuser dad kills her, two daughters (New York, New York)
We've reported on killer dad MIGUEL MAJIA-RAMOS. Now we find out how the police failed the mother--not to mention the US's oppressive immigration policies that discourage women from reporting domestic violence.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2561242/My-sister-alive-theyd-job-NYPD-failed-translate-moms-warning-ahead-fatal-stabbing-two-young-daughters.html
'My sister might still be alive if they'd done their job': NYPD failed to translate mom's warning in Spanish ahead of fatal stabbing of her and her two young daughters
Deisy Garcia, 21, and her daughters, aged one and two, were found dead in their Queens, New York, home in January
Husband Miguel Mejia-Ramos, 29, was caught by police as he tried to flee to Mexico
He told prosecutors that he found a photo of Garcia with another man that sent him into a rage
Now it has emerged that Garcia had reported her fears about her husband's temper to police last May
The report was compiled in Garcia's native Spanish and was only translated to English after her tragic death
Her husband told prosecutors he'd only killed his children when he realized he didn't have car seats to take them with him
By David Mccormack
PUBLISHED: 07:56 EST, 17 February 2014 | UPDATED: 08:03 EST, 17 February 2014
A New York woman brutally stabbed to death last month along with her two young daughters had warned police months before that she feared for their safety, but her warning went unheeded - because it was in Spanish and never translated.
Deisy Garcia, an immigrant from Guatemala, filled out the state-mandated domestic-incident report in her native language after calling officers to her Jamaica apartment on May 30 to say her husband, Miguel Mejia-Ramos, 29, had assaulted her, according to police sources.
In the report, Garcia, 21, wrote that she was afraid Mejia-Ramos, 29, was going to kill her as well as their kids because she loved them so much.
She called 911 on Mejia-Ramos again on November 28 and filed a second report, although she didn’t repeat her concerns about being killed.
Neither report was translated into English by either the patrol officers or the Domestic Violence Unit, until after Garcia and her daughters - Daniela, 2, and Yoselin, 1 - were fatally stabbed on January 18, reports the New York Post.
The victim’s family have hit out at the NYPD over their lax approach to processing Deisy Garcia’s complaint.
‘My sister and her kids might still be alive if they had done their jobs,’ said Garcia’s brother José Garcia, 19. Husband Miguel Mejia-Ramos was captured at a vehicle roadblock in Schulenburg, Texas, as he was attempting to flee to Mexico
‘When someone comes to them with a problem but only speaks Spanish, find someone who speaks Spanish.’
‘I’m in so much pain,’ mom, Luzmina Alvarado told the Post.
‘I know she contacted them and told them he kicked her and abused her, but the police told her they needed to see proof of the abuse.
‘I told the cops, "Now that my daughter is dead, you’re hunting for this man like dogs, but if you did more earlier - if you had listened to my daughter - she might be alive today.'"
In the wake of the tragedy, NYPD has said it is carrying out a review of procedure and officers have been reminded that reports made in other languages must also be translated into English.
The NYPD is also considering using computer software to automatically translate the reports. Miguel Mejia-Ramos told New York City prosecutors that was rifling through his wife's phone and Facebook page on Sunday night and snapped when he saw an image of her with another man
Mejia-Ramos was placed on suicide watch after being arraigned late last month. Prosecutors say he told investigators he killed his children because he didn't have car seats to take them on the lam.
An illegal immigrant, he was arrested in Texas en route to Mexico after authorities tracked his cellphone.
Authorities say detectives recovered five knives with what appeared to be blood on them.
The suspect told police he tried to kill himself after slaying his family 'but couldn't do it.'
After his arrest, Miguel Mejia-Ramos told New York City prosecutors that was rifling through his wife's phone and Facebook page and snapped when he saw an image of her with another man.
He then grabbed a knife and stabbed 21-year-old Deisy Garcia, before hugging and kissing his two young daughters - two-year-old Daniela and one-year-old Yoselin - before brutally killing them too.
Mejia-Ramos faces first-degree murder charges.
The victims were found dead in their apartment after friends noticed they hadn't attended church.
Garcia's uncle stumbled upon the gruesome scene. All three had suffered multiple stab wounds and sources said that two bloody knives were left in the two rooms where the bodies were found.
A friend, Diana Villa, told the New York Post that Garcia had been petrified of Ramos and had even asked their local pastor for help - but that she was scared of calling police because she was an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.
Villa said she had witnessed a violent fight between the couple at a recent baby shower after Ramos blamed her for having no beer at the party, which was at the church.
Police officers had visited the residence for domestic violence complaints against Ramos last November and May, but he was not arrested on either occasion.
Garcia’s uncle Ramon Chuc, 37, recalled discovering the bodies with his two sons, ages 12 and 10, after they returned to the home after playing football outside.
'My 12-year-old son, Rene, went inside the room and saw my niece on the floor,' Chuc sobbed. 'After that, I... saw the two babies are covered with a blanket. I take it off and see them.'
All three were pronounced dead at the scene with stab wounds to the chest.
The apartment, which is above a drug store, was cordoned off by police.
‘She was a quiet but happy person. She always had a smile on her face. She was a good mom,’ Mario Sanchez, 16, told the Daily News.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2561242/My-sister-alive-theyd-job-NYPD-failed-translate-moms-warning-ahead-fatal-stabbing-two-young-daughters.html
'My sister might still be alive if they'd done their job': NYPD failed to translate mom's warning in Spanish ahead of fatal stabbing of her and her two young daughters
Deisy Garcia, 21, and her daughters, aged one and two, were found dead in their Queens, New York, home in January
Husband Miguel Mejia-Ramos, 29, was caught by police as he tried to flee to Mexico
He told prosecutors that he found a photo of Garcia with another man that sent him into a rage
Now it has emerged that Garcia had reported her fears about her husband's temper to police last May
The report was compiled in Garcia's native Spanish and was only translated to English after her tragic death
Her husband told prosecutors he'd only killed his children when he realized he didn't have car seats to take them with him
By David Mccormack
PUBLISHED: 07:56 EST, 17 February 2014 | UPDATED: 08:03 EST, 17 February 2014
A New York woman brutally stabbed to death last month along with her two young daughters had warned police months before that she feared for their safety, but her warning went unheeded - because it was in Spanish and never translated.
Deisy Garcia, an immigrant from Guatemala, filled out the state-mandated domestic-incident report in her native language after calling officers to her Jamaica apartment on May 30 to say her husband, Miguel Mejia-Ramos, 29, had assaulted her, according to police sources.
In the report, Garcia, 21, wrote that she was afraid Mejia-Ramos, 29, was going to kill her as well as their kids because she loved them so much.
She called 911 on Mejia-Ramos again on November 28 and filed a second report, although she didn’t repeat her concerns about being killed.
Neither report was translated into English by either the patrol officers or the Domestic Violence Unit, until after Garcia and her daughters - Daniela, 2, and Yoselin, 1 - were fatally stabbed on January 18, reports the New York Post.
The victim’s family have hit out at the NYPD over their lax approach to processing Deisy Garcia’s complaint.
‘My sister and her kids might still be alive if they had done their jobs,’ said Garcia’s brother José Garcia, 19. Husband Miguel Mejia-Ramos was captured at a vehicle roadblock in Schulenburg, Texas, as he was attempting to flee to Mexico
‘When someone comes to them with a problem but only speaks Spanish, find someone who speaks Spanish.’
‘I’m in so much pain,’ mom, Luzmina Alvarado told the Post.
‘I know she contacted them and told them he kicked her and abused her, but the police told her they needed to see proof of the abuse.
‘I told the cops, "Now that my daughter is dead, you’re hunting for this man like dogs, but if you did more earlier - if you had listened to my daughter - she might be alive today.'"
In the wake of the tragedy, NYPD has said it is carrying out a review of procedure and officers have been reminded that reports made in other languages must also be translated into English.
The NYPD is also considering using computer software to automatically translate the reports. Miguel Mejia-Ramos told New York City prosecutors that was rifling through his wife's phone and Facebook page on Sunday night and snapped when he saw an image of her with another man
Mejia-Ramos was placed on suicide watch after being arraigned late last month. Prosecutors say he told investigators he killed his children because he didn't have car seats to take them on the lam.
An illegal immigrant, he was arrested in Texas en route to Mexico after authorities tracked his cellphone.
Authorities say detectives recovered five knives with what appeared to be blood on them.
The suspect told police he tried to kill himself after slaying his family 'but couldn't do it.'
After his arrest, Miguel Mejia-Ramos told New York City prosecutors that was rifling through his wife's phone and Facebook page and snapped when he saw an image of her with another man.
He then grabbed a knife and stabbed 21-year-old Deisy Garcia, before hugging and kissing his two young daughters - two-year-old Daniela and one-year-old Yoselin - before brutally killing them too.
Mejia-Ramos faces first-degree murder charges.
The victims were found dead in their apartment after friends noticed they hadn't attended church.
Garcia's uncle stumbled upon the gruesome scene. All three had suffered multiple stab wounds and sources said that two bloody knives were left in the two rooms where the bodies were found.
A friend, Diana Villa, told the New York Post that Garcia had been petrified of Ramos and had even asked their local pastor for help - but that she was scared of calling police because she was an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.
Villa said she had witnessed a violent fight between the couple at a recent baby shower after Ramos blamed her for having no beer at the party, which was at the church.
Police officers had visited the residence for domestic violence complaints against Ramos last November and May, but he was not arrested on either occasion.
Garcia’s uncle Ramon Chuc, 37, recalled discovering the bodies with his two sons, ages 12 and 10, after they returned to the home after playing football outside.
'My 12-year-old son, Rene, went inside the room and saw my niece on the floor,' Chuc sobbed. 'After that, I... saw the two babies are covered with a blanket. I take it off and see them.'
All three were pronounced dead at the scene with stab wounds to the chest.
The apartment, which is above a drug store, was cordoned off by police.
‘She was a quiet but happy person. She always had a smile on her face. She was a good mom,’ Mario Sanchez, 16, told the Daily News.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Dad killed kids, wife "because he didn't have car seats" (Queens, New York)
JUST TWO incidences of domestic violence? More like just two that were reported to the police that they can now find record of.
This is scummy excuse for a father is identified as MIGUEL MEJIA-RAMOS.
http://nypost.com/2014/01/24/dad-killed-kids-after-slaying-wife-because-he-didnt-have-car-seats-for-mexico-trip/
Dad killed kids, wife ‘because he didn’t have car seats’
By Kathryn Cusma
January 24, 2014 | 1:55pm .
He said he slashed his two baby girls to death because he’d just killed their mother — and he didn’t have car seats to take them with him to Mexico, outraged officials revealed as craven Queens dad Miguel Mejia-Ramos was arraigned on murder charges Friday.
Hauled back to New York from the Mexican border, Mejia-Ramos, 28, was expressionless as a judge ordered him held with no bail for allegedly slaughtering his wife, Deisy, 21, and daughters Daniela, 3, and Yoselin, 1, during a jealousy-fueled, five-knife rampage.
“I was going to take them with me, but I didn’t have car seats,” the monster told cops, according to a confession released Friday.
Mejia-Ramos admitted that he killed Deisy and then the girls in their Jamaica bedroom after searching his wife’s phone and finding pictures of her with another man, officials said.
He grabbed several knives from a butcher block and stood over Deisy as she slept with one daughter on either side, according to the confession.
“Deisy wakes up and screams. He drops one knife on the bed. He stabs her, she runs to the front of the bedroom, and he stabs her with another knife which he says he twists in her side and it breaks,” the confession reads.
“He goes back to the girls. He sees Daniela is awake. He picks her up, give[s] her a hug and kiss, asks for forgiveness, then puts her down on the bed and stabs her approximately three times,” the confession said.
“He then picks up Yoselin, gives her a hug and kiss, places her on the bed and stabs her multiple times. He goes over to Deisy’s body and asks her for forgiveness, too.”
“I’ve been to many crime scenes,” Queens DA Richard Brown said. “But this one “was very disturbing … my heart goes out to the family.”
Additional new details of the horrific bedroom bloodbath were revealed by prosecutors during Friday’s brief court proceeding.
Mejia-Ramos told cops he’d made a brief feint at killing himself in the Sutphin Avenue apartment— first stabbing himself in the chest, then trying to hang himself with a cord, prosecutor Michelle Kaszuba said, referring to Mejia-Ramos’ confession.
But having failed, he decided to make a run for it, washing his bloody hands with the dead girls’ diaper wipes before showering and hitting the road, Kaszuba said.
The illegal immigrant was caught Monday, driving through Texas on I-85 during a non-stop dash for the border of Mexico, his country of citizenship. Three hours more, and he’d have made it, officials said.
The prosecutor also revealed that Mejia-Ramos told authorities he took $240 as a “getaway fund” from his wife’s diaper bag because he didn’t want to get tracked by using credit cards.
He said he had seen the TV show “I Almost Got Away With It,” and knew he needed to avoid plastic, officials said.
Mejia-Ramos would instead be tracked by US Marshals via phone calls he made to family members in Mexico. The prosecutor said Mejia-Ramos had originally claimed to cops that he’d come home to find that his wife had killed the two little girls and that he then stabbed her in self-defense.
He came clean with the whole story as he was being flown back to the city by Queens detectives, the prosecutor said.
Mejia-Ramos has no known criminal history other than two domestic-violence incidents, Brown said.
This is scummy excuse for a father is identified as MIGUEL MEJIA-RAMOS.
http://nypost.com/2014/01/24/dad-killed-kids-after-slaying-wife-because-he-didnt-have-car-seats-for-mexico-trip/
Dad killed kids, wife ‘because he didn’t have car seats’
By Kathryn Cusma
January 24, 2014 | 1:55pm .
He said he slashed his two baby girls to death because he’d just killed their mother — and he didn’t have car seats to take them with him to Mexico, outraged officials revealed as craven Queens dad Miguel Mejia-Ramos was arraigned on murder charges Friday.
Hauled back to New York from the Mexican border, Mejia-Ramos, 28, was expressionless as a judge ordered him held with no bail for allegedly slaughtering his wife, Deisy, 21, and daughters Daniela, 3, and Yoselin, 1, during a jealousy-fueled, five-knife rampage.
“I was going to take them with me, but I didn’t have car seats,” the monster told cops, according to a confession released Friday.
Mejia-Ramos admitted that he killed Deisy and then the girls in their Jamaica bedroom after searching his wife’s phone and finding pictures of her with another man, officials said.
He grabbed several knives from a butcher block and stood over Deisy as she slept with one daughter on either side, according to the confession.
“Deisy wakes up and screams. He drops one knife on the bed. He stabs her, she runs to the front of the bedroom, and he stabs her with another knife which he says he twists in her side and it breaks,” the confession reads.
“He goes back to the girls. He sees Daniela is awake. He picks her up, give[s] her a hug and kiss, asks for forgiveness, then puts her down on the bed and stabs her approximately three times,” the confession said.
“He then picks up Yoselin, gives her a hug and kiss, places her on the bed and stabs her multiple times. He goes over to Deisy’s body and asks her for forgiveness, too.”
“I’ve been to many crime scenes,” Queens DA Richard Brown said. “But this one “was very disturbing … my heart goes out to the family.”
Additional new details of the horrific bedroom bloodbath were revealed by prosecutors during Friday’s brief court proceeding.
Mejia-Ramos told cops he’d made a brief feint at killing himself in the Sutphin Avenue apartment— first stabbing himself in the chest, then trying to hang himself with a cord, prosecutor Michelle Kaszuba said, referring to Mejia-Ramos’ confession.
But having failed, he decided to make a run for it, washing his bloody hands with the dead girls’ diaper wipes before showering and hitting the road, Kaszuba said.
The illegal immigrant was caught Monday, driving through Texas on I-85 during a non-stop dash for the border of Mexico, his country of citizenship. Three hours more, and he’d have made it, officials said.
The prosecutor also revealed that Mejia-Ramos told authorities he took $240 as a “getaway fund” from his wife’s diaper bag because he didn’t want to get tracked by using credit cards.
He said he had seen the TV show “I Almost Got Away With It,” and knew he needed to avoid plastic, officials said.
Mejia-Ramos would instead be tracked by US Marshals via phone calls he made to family members in Mexico. The prosecutor said Mejia-Ramos had originally claimed to cops that he’d come home to find that his wife had killed the two little girls and that he then stabbed her in self-defense.
He came clean with the whole story as he was being flown back to the city by Queens detectives, the prosecutor said.
Mejia-Ramos has no known criminal history other than two domestic-violence incidents, Brown said.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Dad arrested in stabbing deaths of 1- and 2-year-old daughters, their mother (Queens, New York)
Yet another family annihilator dad who slaughtered his two little daughters and their mother. This one is identified as MIGUEL MEIJIA-RAMOS. Notice that there were earlier incidences of domestic violence that were basically ignored by the authorities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/nyregion/man-arrested-in-connection-with-queens-stabbing-deaths.html?_r=0
Man Arrested in the Killings of His Wife and Children
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
JAN. 21, 2014
A man wanted in the stabbing deaths of his wife and two young daughters over the weekend has been arrested in Texas, the New York Police Department said on Tuesday.
The man, identified as Miguel Mejia-Ramos, 28, was apprehended on Monday night on Interstate 10 in Schulenburg, midway between Houston and San Antonio, the police said. He was in a 2001 Chevrolet van with New York commercial license plates, the police said.
Mr. Mejia-Ramos was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for stab wounds that did not appear life-threatening, the police said. It was not clear how he was injured nor was it clear when he would be brought back to New York to face charges.
After the killings, the United States Marshals Service learned that Mr. Mejia-Ramos might be headed toward Mexico and sent messages and descriptions of him and his vehicle to law enforcement agencies along his possible routes, Kevin R. Kamrowski, a spokesman for the Marshals Service, said.
A Texas state trooper spotted Mr. Mejia-Ramos’s van and was aided by members of the Schulenburg Police Department, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and the Marshals Service in making the arrest. As of Tuesday evening, he was being held in the Fayette County Jail.
“It was a pretty quick little grab,” Alfredo Perez, another spokesman for the Marshals Service, said. “There was no drama.”
The police had been searching for Mr. Mejia-Ramos since his wife, Deisy Garcia, 21, and their two daughters, a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old, were found dead in the bedroom of their home in Jamaica, Queens, on Sunday evening. All were stabbed multiple times, the police said. The children were found in their beds, and Ms. Garcia on the floor in a separate bedroom.
The police have given no indication of a possible motive in the killings. Mabel Henriquez, a friend of Ms. Garcia, said she complained last fall that she had been abused, without providing details. And the police said that last year they responded to two domestic-violence calls at the family’s home on Sutphin Boulevard, though no arrests were made.
Ms. Garcia, who danced with her church group and, according to her Facebook page, was a student at York College in Queens, and met Mr. Mejia-Ramos in the United States after she moved from Totonicapán, Guatemala. The family shared an apartment with her uncle and aunt and their two children, one of whom discovered the bodies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/nyregion/man-arrested-in-connection-with-queens-stabbing-deaths.html?_r=0
Man Arrested in the Killings of His Wife and Children
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
JAN. 21, 2014
A man wanted in the stabbing deaths of his wife and two young daughters over the weekend has been arrested in Texas, the New York Police Department said on Tuesday.
The man, identified as Miguel Mejia-Ramos, 28, was apprehended on Monday night on Interstate 10 in Schulenburg, midway between Houston and San Antonio, the police said. He was in a 2001 Chevrolet van with New York commercial license plates, the police said.
Mr. Mejia-Ramos was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for stab wounds that did not appear life-threatening, the police said. It was not clear how he was injured nor was it clear when he would be brought back to New York to face charges.
After the killings, the United States Marshals Service learned that Mr. Mejia-Ramos might be headed toward Mexico and sent messages and descriptions of him and his vehicle to law enforcement agencies along his possible routes, Kevin R. Kamrowski, a spokesman for the Marshals Service, said.
A Texas state trooper spotted Mr. Mejia-Ramos’s van and was aided by members of the Schulenburg Police Department, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and the Marshals Service in making the arrest. As of Tuesday evening, he was being held in the Fayette County Jail.
“It was a pretty quick little grab,” Alfredo Perez, another spokesman for the Marshals Service, said. “There was no drama.”
The police had been searching for Mr. Mejia-Ramos since his wife, Deisy Garcia, 21, and their two daughters, a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old, were found dead in the bedroom of their home in Jamaica, Queens, on Sunday evening. All were stabbed multiple times, the police said. The children were found in their beds, and Ms. Garcia on the floor in a separate bedroom.
The police have given no indication of a possible motive in the killings. Mabel Henriquez, a friend of Ms. Garcia, said she complained last fall that she had been abused, without providing details. And the police said that last year they responded to two domestic-violence calls at the family’s home on Sutphin Boulevard, though no arrests were made.
Ms. Garcia, who danced with her church group and, according to her Facebook page, was a student at York College in Queens, and met Mr. Mejia-Ramos in the United States after she moved from Totonicapán, Guatemala. The family shared an apartment with her uncle and aunt and their two children, one of whom discovered the bodies.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Abusive dad kidnapped 2-year-old son, dumped him with relatives in Mexico; mom doesn't find him til 30 years later (Eau Claire, Wisconsin)
This is actually a very typical father abductor story. It's all motivated out of the UNNAMED DAD's wish to abuse/control the mother and punish her for leaving his sorry @$$. The tell-tale signs:
1) Dad had history of domestic violence against the mother
2) Lies to boy, tells him mother abandoned him
3) Abandons the child with relatives (i.e. no desire to actually raise the child himself; just want to keep child away from his mother).
The motives are typically very different for mothers, who more often than not are trying to protect a child from an abusive father. They are far less likely to abandon the kids with somebody else.
Very similar to the recent "Baby Hope" story in New York City, where the abducting dad also dumped the children with relatives and then took off for Mexico. Unfortunately, one of the children was murdered.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2502991/Mom-reconnects-son-30-years-ex-husband-abducted-Mexico--longer-speaks-English.html?ico=ushome%5Eheadlines
Mom reconnects with her son 30 years after her ex-husband abducted him to Mexico - but he no longer speaks English
David Amaya Barrick thought his mother had abandoned him
Kathy Amaya has spent the last 30 years looking for her son after her husband abducted him as a toddler
The pair have still not been reunited but did have an emotional phone call
Raising the funds to go and see his mom in Wisconsin
By Rachel Quigley
PUBLISHED: 09:07 EST, 12 November 2013 | UPDATED: 09:07 EST, 12 November 2013
A Chicago-born man kidnapped as a toddler and taken to Mexico by his father more than three decades ago is hoping to be reunited with his mother after he was was caught sneaking back across the border last month.
Mother Kathy Amaya, who lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, said today she has been waiting to see her son, David Amaya Barrick, 37, since learning on October 31 that border agents had picked him up but released him after they discovered he was a U.S. citizen trying to get home.
She said she has been looking for her child ever since her estranged husband abducted him and though she knew he was in Mexico, she did not have the money to hire a private investigator.
David was raised by his grandparents and does not speak any English.
He had no idea his mother had been looking for him. He told NBC7 through an interpreter: 'My father told me my mother had left me abandoned and orphaned. I don’t know my mother, and I find out she’s been looking for me for 30 years, and I have the longing to meet her for the first time.'
Barrick was rounded up with a group of illegal border crossers on October 30 in a canyon about a mile from a San Diego beach, but he explained that he was born in the US and had a right to be there.
Though they did not believe him at first, border agents later verified his story.
They then contacted Kathy Amaya to let her know that her son had turned up and wanted to return to her. 'They told me he was beaten and robbed before he crossed the border and the thieves took his money and his cell (phone),' Amaya said. 'They said he seemed like a really good guy, and that he only speaks Spanish and I don't.'
Barrick was born in Chicago in 1977 while Amaya was married to his father, but she said her spouse became abusive and the couple split when the boy was one-years-old.
After some time had passed, Amaya began letting the father visit his son and 'then one day (the child) was just gone', she said.
'I reported his abduction, but when police found out he was with his dad, they weren't worried about it.'
Amaya said the boy's father told her that he had taken the toddler, then two years of age, to Mexico and left him there with family members.
His father and aunt took David to Mexico under a one-month permit to visit his grandparents. However, he told NBC7 his father left him there and he has only seen him a few times in the last 30 years.
Iglesia de Cristo Ministerios Llamada Final Inc de San Diego, based in Point Loma, is providing food and shelter for David as the ministry tries to raise the funds to get him to Wisconsin so he can see his mother and half siblings.
Kathy Amaya told NBC7 that David has four siblings, and she’s excited to have the family reunited.
'He just told me that he doesn't hold anything against me,' she added. 'So that makes me happy.'
David finished high school in Mexico and studied music in Monterrey, Mexico. He plays drums and went on tour with a band.
He is focusing on learning English and continuing his career as a musician - as soon as he meets his mother of course.
1) Dad had history of domestic violence against the mother
2) Lies to boy, tells him mother abandoned him
3) Abandons the child with relatives (i.e. no desire to actually raise the child himself; just want to keep child away from his mother).
The motives are typically very different for mothers, who more often than not are trying to protect a child from an abusive father. They are far less likely to abandon the kids with somebody else.
Very similar to the recent "Baby Hope" story in New York City, where the abducting dad also dumped the children with relatives and then took off for Mexico. Unfortunately, one of the children was murdered.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2502991/Mom-reconnects-son-30-years-ex-husband-abducted-Mexico--longer-speaks-English.html?ico=ushome%5Eheadlines
Mom reconnects with her son 30 years after her ex-husband abducted him to Mexico - but he no longer speaks English
David Amaya Barrick thought his mother had abandoned him
Kathy Amaya has spent the last 30 years looking for her son after her husband abducted him as a toddler
The pair have still not been reunited but did have an emotional phone call
Raising the funds to go and see his mom in Wisconsin
By Rachel Quigley
PUBLISHED: 09:07 EST, 12 November 2013 | UPDATED: 09:07 EST, 12 November 2013
A Chicago-born man kidnapped as a toddler and taken to Mexico by his father more than three decades ago is hoping to be reunited with his mother after he was was caught sneaking back across the border last month.
Mother Kathy Amaya, who lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, said today she has been waiting to see her son, David Amaya Barrick, 37, since learning on October 31 that border agents had picked him up but released him after they discovered he was a U.S. citizen trying to get home.
She said she has been looking for her child ever since her estranged husband abducted him and though she knew he was in Mexico, she did not have the money to hire a private investigator.
David was raised by his grandparents and does not speak any English.
He had no idea his mother had been looking for him. He told NBC7 through an interpreter: 'My father told me my mother had left me abandoned and orphaned. I don’t know my mother, and I find out she’s been looking for me for 30 years, and I have the longing to meet her for the first time.'
Barrick was rounded up with a group of illegal border crossers on October 30 in a canyon about a mile from a San Diego beach, but he explained that he was born in the US and had a right to be there.
Though they did not believe him at first, border agents later verified his story.
They then contacted Kathy Amaya to let her know that her son had turned up and wanted to return to her. 'They told me he was beaten and robbed before he crossed the border and the thieves took his money and his cell (phone),' Amaya said. 'They said he seemed like a really good guy, and that he only speaks Spanish and I don't.'
Barrick was born in Chicago in 1977 while Amaya was married to his father, but she said her spouse became abusive and the couple split when the boy was one-years-old.
After some time had passed, Amaya began letting the father visit his son and 'then one day (the child) was just gone', she said.
'I reported his abduction, but when police found out he was with his dad, they weren't worried about it.'
Amaya said the boy's father told her that he had taken the toddler, then two years of age, to Mexico and left him there with family members.
His father and aunt took David to Mexico under a one-month permit to visit his grandparents. However, he told NBC7 his father left him there and he has only seen him a few times in the last 30 years.
Iglesia de Cristo Ministerios Llamada Final Inc de San Diego, based in Point Loma, is providing food and shelter for David as the ministry tries to raise the funds to get him to Wisconsin so he can see his mother and half siblings.
Kathy Amaya told NBC7 that David has four siblings, and she’s excited to have the family reunited.
'He just told me that he doesn't hold anything against me,' she added. 'So that makes me happy.'
David finished high school in Mexico and studied music in Monterrey, Mexico. He plays drums and went on tour with a band.
He is focusing on learning English and continuing his career as a musician - as soon as he meets his mother of course.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Dad charged in murder of 2-year-old daughter (Lawrenceville, Georgia)
Dad is identified as CHRISTIAN VASQUEZ.
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-01-18/man-charged-daughters-death-extradited-lawrenceville
Man charged in daughter's death extradited to Lawrenceville
ASSOCIATED PRESS – updated Friday, January 18, 2013 - 8:57pm
LAWRENCEVILLE — Authorities say a fugitive has been returned from Mexico to metro Atlanta to face charges in the death of his 2-year-old daughter.
The FBI says 28-year-old Christian Vasquez was extradited to Gwinnett County from Mexico City Thursday. He had been arrested in July by Mexican law enforcement officers in the town of Puebla.
Authorities say Vasquez’s daughter died after he hit her with something, and he then hid her body in the attic of their Lawrenceville home.
Investigators seeking to arrest him learned that he had likely fled to Mexico.
A Gwinnett County grand jury indicted him in August 2008 on charges of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and cruelty to children.
Vasquez was being held in the Gwinnett County Jail. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-01-18/man-charged-daughters-death-extradited-lawrenceville
Man charged in daughter's death extradited to Lawrenceville
ASSOCIATED PRESS – updated Friday, January 18, 2013 - 8:57pm
LAWRENCEVILLE — Authorities say a fugitive has been returned from Mexico to metro Atlanta to face charges in the death of his 2-year-old daughter.
The FBI says 28-year-old Christian Vasquez was extradited to Gwinnett County from Mexico City Thursday. He had been arrested in July by Mexican law enforcement officers in the town of Puebla.
Authorities say Vasquez’s daughter died after he hit her with something, and he then hid her body in the attic of their Lawrenceville home.
Investigators seeking to arrest him learned that he had likely fled to Mexico.
A Gwinnett County grand jury indicted him in August 2008 on charges of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and cruelty to children.
Vasquez was being held in the Gwinnett County Jail. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
New documentary tackles flawed family court system (Boston, Massachusetts)
Sounds like a must-see movie.
http://buquad.com/2011/12/05/no-way-out-but-one-bu-professor-presents-a-documentary-highlighting-americas-flawed-family-court-system/
New Documentary by BU Professor Tackles Flawed Family Court System
By Lauren Michael | Dec 5th, 2011
In 1992, Holly Collins went to a Minnesota family court intending to secure full custody of her two children, Zackary and Jennifer. She had believed that if she told the truth–that her ex-husband had repeatedly abused her and their children–everything would be okay. But her evidence of abuse, including several medical records and the children’s statements that they always feared visiting their dad, were repeatedly rejected by the court. Her husband claimed she was lying and trying to alienate their children from him. Then, like thousands of battered women each year, Holly lost full custody of her children to their abusive father.
After two years with limited supervised visitation, in which the children weren’t permitted to discuss the ongoing abuse, Holly decided to do something. One day, she asked her kids to meet her at a video store near their dad’s house. They got into a car and started driving. They tried going to Canada, Mexico and Guatemala. Knowing the FBI was searching for them because Holly had in fact kidnapped her kids, she decided to try escaping to Australia or New Zealand. They managed to sneak through airport security without passports and got onto a flight to Amsterdam. There, they were detained and sent to a refugee camp. Years later upon finding a lawyer willing to take her case, Holly became the first U.S. citizen to be granted asylum by the Netherlands on the grounds of domestic violence.
For COM Professor Garland Waller, Holly Collins’ story was the perfect outlet for her to make a documentary on the shortcomings of the American family court system. “My first documentary was about three women who all lost custody of their kids to men who had battered them and sexually abused them,” she said to me when I interviewed her last Thursday. The documentary was never aired for the public, however, because people considered it way too controversial.
“I thought, I know this is an issue that is going on in the family courts, every single day,” Professor Waller explicated. “How can we do a story on this issue of domestic violence and child abuse that people will want to see; that will have a story that has a beginning, middle, and end; that has a hero; and that doesn’t make them feel suicidal at the end?” That’s why she decided to center her film around Holly’s story. ”Holly is one of the few women who has been able to save her children from years of being abused,” she affirmed.
On December 2 at 7pm in COM 101, Professor Waller and her production team screened the film No Way Out But One for a packed lecture hall of students and faculty. The hour-and-a-half long documentary, which was followed by a Q;A session, follows Holly’s story and also outlines the grievous problems 0f the American family court system. Made for under $40,000, the not-for-profit film was a way for Professor Waller and her husband Barry Nolan (who also produced and narrated the film) to make a difference.
“This is what I do to give back,” she explained. “Some people work for charity, some people give to the United Way, but this is what I do.”
As the documentary cites, each year 58,000 children are placed in contact with an abuse parent after divorce, and batterers win custody in 70% of family court cases where abuse is involved.
Professor Waller also cited the lingering gender bias in the family courts. “Courts do not have to consider domestic violence in their rulings, ” she said. “Now that is anti-woman, because it’s usually the women who get beaten up.” Money, she says, is also involved. “The men who want custody are the ones who can afford to have the kids, and you have to be able to pay the court costs,” she explained. “This is something that doesn’t happen in poor families…it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay all these people.” If the father is paying for the court evaluator, she says, often they’ll skew the evidence in his favor.
But even in ugly divorces, she says, usually the parents still want to do what’s best for their children. “When there are cases that involve domestic violence and child abuse, that is not the case,” she explained. “Women often get custody when there’s not domestic violence. But oddly, a batterer is more likely to go after custody than a non-batterer. So its a very complicated issue.”
Since the release of No Way Out But One, Professor Waller and her husband deal with angry father’s rights groups every day. These groups, like Fathers and Families, make an impassioned–if not entirely factual–argument for why they believe the Holly Collins case is a hoax. “After a nice review in a Boston Magazine blog, many pro-father’s rights men were highly critical,” she explained, but “none of them had seen the film and none of them had access to all the thousands of pages of legal documents and medical records and correspondence from experts and FBI documents that we had.” Many of these documents are shown and quoted in the film.
In their writings against Holly Collins, father’s rights groups cite Parental Alienation Syndrome, which means that a mother is trying to alienate her children from their father. Though it is not accepted as a legitimate diagnosis by the American Medical Association or the American Psychological Association (the psychologist who first wrote about PAS had conducted no actual studies), in family court it is often used to legitimize giving custody to an abusive parent.
As Nolan puts it, “these are people who do not and will not respond to evidence, or facts, or medical records, or court transcripts, or expert testimony if it does not fit their preconceived notions.” The groups say that Holly fabricated the evidence of her husband’s abuse, but in reality false allegations of abuse are very rare.
“Holly may not be perfect, but she was clearly a battered woman who only wanted to protect her children from abuse,” Professor Waller affirmed.
Still, this is an issue that has mainly been ignored by the mainstream media. “The mainstream media is terrified of getting sued, and this is a subject where everybody sues everyone all the time,” she explained. “It’s all he said/she said…so the mainstream media says, this is a mess and we’re not going to get into it. Just as the mainstream media did not cover pedophile priests abusing children, just as for years they did not cover the things that were going on at Penn State, it is the same thing only worse by thousands in terms of the children who are being abused.”
Many years after their mother kidnapped them, the Collins kids, now adults, are healthy and grateful for everything their mother has done for them. Jennifer Collins, Holly’s oldest daughter, is the executive director of Courageous Kids, an organization for young adults who suffered from court injustice as children to speak out and share their stories.
“I guess for me, the most important thing is that I would like people to realize that this is a national issue that is not going away until people begin to understand that in a family court, if you beat your wife and abuse your child, and go after custody, most of the time you will get it,” Professor Waller concluded. “I want to live in an America that protects the children.”
For more information about the film, go to http://www.nowayoutbutone.com/index.html.
http://buquad.com/2011/12/05/no-way-out-but-one-bu-professor-presents-a-documentary-highlighting-americas-flawed-family-court-system/
New Documentary by BU Professor Tackles Flawed Family Court System
By Lauren Michael | Dec 5th, 2011
In 1992, Holly Collins went to a Minnesota family court intending to secure full custody of her two children, Zackary and Jennifer. She had believed that if she told the truth–that her ex-husband had repeatedly abused her and their children–everything would be okay. But her evidence of abuse, including several medical records and the children’s statements that they always feared visiting their dad, were repeatedly rejected by the court. Her husband claimed she was lying and trying to alienate their children from him. Then, like thousands of battered women each year, Holly lost full custody of her children to their abusive father.
After two years with limited supervised visitation, in which the children weren’t permitted to discuss the ongoing abuse, Holly decided to do something. One day, she asked her kids to meet her at a video store near their dad’s house. They got into a car and started driving. They tried going to Canada, Mexico and Guatemala. Knowing the FBI was searching for them because Holly had in fact kidnapped her kids, she decided to try escaping to Australia or New Zealand. They managed to sneak through airport security without passports and got onto a flight to Amsterdam. There, they were detained and sent to a refugee camp. Years later upon finding a lawyer willing to take her case, Holly became the first U.S. citizen to be granted asylum by the Netherlands on the grounds of domestic violence.
For COM Professor Garland Waller, Holly Collins’ story was the perfect outlet for her to make a documentary on the shortcomings of the American family court system. “My first documentary was about three women who all lost custody of their kids to men who had battered them and sexually abused them,” she said to me when I interviewed her last Thursday. The documentary was never aired for the public, however, because people considered it way too controversial.
“I thought, I know this is an issue that is going on in the family courts, every single day,” Professor Waller explicated. “How can we do a story on this issue of domestic violence and child abuse that people will want to see; that will have a story that has a beginning, middle, and end; that has a hero; and that doesn’t make them feel suicidal at the end?” That’s why she decided to center her film around Holly’s story. ”Holly is one of the few women who has been able to save her children from years of being abused,” she affirmed.
On December 2 at 7pm in COM 101, Professor Waller and her production team screened the film No Way Out But One for a packed lecture hall of students and faculty. The hour-and-a-half long documentary, which was followed by a Q;A session, follows Holly’s story and also outlines the grievous problems 0f the American family court system. Made for under $40,000, the not-for-profit film was a way for Professor Waller and her husband Barry Nolan (who also produced and narrated the film) to make a difference.
“This is what I do to give back,” she explained. “Some people work for charity, some people give to the United Way, but this is what I do.”
As the documentary cites, each year 58,000 children are placed in contact with an abuse parent after divorce, and batterers win custody in 70% of family court cases where abuse is involved.
Professor Waller also cited the lingering gender bias in the family courts. “Courts do not have to consider domestic violence in their rulings, ” she said. “Now that is anti-woman, because it’s usually the women who get beaten up.” Money, she says, is also involved. “The men who want custody are the ones who can afford to have the kids, and you have to be able to pay the court costs,” she explained. “This is something that doesn’t happen in poor families…it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay all these people.” If the father is paying for the court evaluator, she says, often they’ll skew the evidence in his favor.
But even in ugly divorces, she says, usually the parents still want to do what’s best for their children. “When there are cases that involve domestic violence and child abuse, that is not the case,” she explained. “Women often get custody when there’s not domestic violence. But oddly, a batterer is more likely to go after custody than a non-batterer. So its a very complicated issue.”
Since the release of No Way Out But One, Professor Waller and her husband deal with angry father’s rights groups every day. These groups, like Fathers and Families, make an impassioned–if not entirely factual–argument for why they believe the Holly Collins case is a hoax. “After a nice review in a Boston Magazine blog, many pro-father’s rights men were highly critical,” she explained, but “none of them had seen the film and none of them had access to all the thousands of pages of legal documents and medical records and correspondence from experts and FBI documents that we had.” Many of these documents are shown and quoted in the film.
In their writings against Holly Collins, father’s rights groups cite Parental Alienation Syndrome, which means that a mother is trying to alienate her children from their father. Though it is not accepted as a legitimate diagnosis by the American Medical Association or the American Psychological Association (the psychologist who first wrote about PAS had conducted no actual studies), in family court it is often used to legitimize giving custody to an abusive parent.
As Nolan puts it, “these are people who do not and will not respond to evidence, or facts, or medical records, or court transcripts, or expert testimony if it does not fit their preconceived notions.” The groups say that Holly fabricated the evidence of her husband’s abuse, but in reality false allegations of abuse are very rare.
“Holly may not be perfect, but she was clearly a battered woman who only wanted to protect her children from abuse,” Professor Waller affirmed.
Still, this is an issue that has mainly been ignored by the mainstream media. “The mainstream media is terrified of getting sued, and this is a subject where everybody sues everyone all the time,” she explained. “It’s all he said/she said…so the mainstream media says, this is a mess and we’re not going to get into it. Just as the mainstream media did not cover pedophile priests abusing children, just as for years they did not cover the things that were going on at Penn State, it is the same thing only worse by thousands in terms of the children who are being abused.”
Many years after their mother kidnapped them, the Collins kids, now adults, are healthy and grateful for everything their mother has done for them. Jennifer Collins, Holly’s oldest daughter, is the executive director of Courageous Kids, an organization for young adults who suffered from court injustice as children to speak out and share their stories.
“I guess for me, the most important thing is that I would like people to realize that this is a national issue that is not going away until people begin to understand that in a family court, if you beat your wife and abuse your child, and go after custody, most of the time you will get it,” Professor Waller concluded. “I want to live in an America that protects the children.”
For more information about the film, go to http://www.nowayoutbutone.com/index.html.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Dad released, arrested as flight, kidnap threat (Brevard County, Florida)
We posted on this case extensively back in 2009. And what we found then was that there was a lot more here than a little ride on a sail boat. What we uncovered was very probable collusion between the custody supervisor (who was a personal friend of the father) and the father, PAUL MARTIKAINEN. And incompetence/corruption on the part of Florida DCF and the family court. This was a father with a history of domestic violence and child abuse. And a father with no sailing experience who put this child at extraordinary risk.
In addition, as a friend of mine pointed out, GPS monitoring of a father like this does not provide safety for children. It either subjects the mother and child to ALSO being monitored (in order to assure that the stalker is not in their vicinity), or else it fails when they are at locations other than home, work, or school.
Here are the points we raised back in 2009:
1) We still have no idea how Dad "dodged" the court-appointed visitation supervisor who was presumably supposed to stop the initial abduction. Are we supposed to believe that this person (who was a friend of the father!) was just a dimwit, and that it's just an amazing coincidence that Dad's "alleged" abuse was "verified" just days before by the Florida Department of Children and Families, and yet there was no stepped-up attention at all? At this point, why was visitation even continued? Clearly, Dad was pretty confident he could pull this stunt, since he had his sailboat all ready to go and waiting--and now repainted a battleship gray with all identifying numbers removed, so as to make detection more difficult. Why was Dad so confident? This "monitor" needs to be thoroughly investigated for any role he may have played in this fiasco. And subjected to any and all appropriate disciplinary actions including jail. But the authorities have refused to follow up.
2) In a move that the Florida Department of Children and Families is now famous for--deftly passing the buck and absolving itself of responsibility--DCF basically said "not my problem, man" because the mother had primary custody (so?) and "the child was under the supervision of the judge." And also, you know, the investigation was closed the day before Thanskgiving and our part was done. Well then. Maybe the judge needs to be fired along with most of the DCF staff. (As it turns out, the judge was CHARLIE ROBERTS, well known as a fathers rights judge.)
3) For the moronic enablers who still insist that Dad is not abusive or neglectful, consider the following points:
* Dad was taking a 3-year-old child out on a sailboat when Dad had little to no sailing experience, on a boat that was difficult to identify from the air because of the gray paint job. This made it difficult to catch, yes, but also difficult to locate in case of distress. Do you wonder if Dad even thought of that, or if he even cared?
* The boat had no EPIRB, a devise that helps rescuers locate boats in distress, and the boat had no child life vests. Though it's possible that Dad went out and bought a child vest, it sure didn't look like this was a priority given the context of his other actions. How do these actions rate in terms of Dad's overall concern for the boy's safety and well being, folks?
* Given that Dad appeared to be sailing alone, how did he, an inexperienced sailor, plan to supervise an active preschooler on a 32-foot sailboat? Is he going to devote himself totally to child care under the rather demanding circumstances? (I'd hate to be supervising a preschooler on a boat this size even if I had no other responsibilities.) Yea, sure he is. And embark on a crash course in sailing at the same time. How's that for multi-tasking? Actually it's just pure freaking stupidity. He's going to be ignoring the kid, that's what. He has no choice if he's going to keep the boat afloat.
* A bad storm was expected to move across the Gulf from Texas. But did a bad weather forecast put a crimp in Dad's plans? Did it make him reconsider his son's well-being in this nutty scheme for even a second? Apparently not.
4) Why are these guy's "rights" even under consideration at this point? We now find out that Dad gave up his parental rights after the initial divorce in 2005, when the baby hadn't even been born yet! The couple then makes an effort to reconcile, so Dad changes his mind and wants joint custody because he's "developed a bond" with the child. Yea, right. Work out the timeline. Basically as soon as Dad enters the picture, he's abusing the child. And not "alleged" abuse as initially reported in error. We're talking "verified" abuse. So you want to tell me about bonding? My @$$.
5) Note that in addition to the "verified" (not "alleged") child abuse charges, this guy has a general criminal record that includes drug trafficking. Oh yes, great dad this one.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110831/NEWS01/108310321/Father-released-arrested-flight-kidnap-threat
Father released, arrested as flight, kidnap threat
1:11 AM, Aug. 31, 2011
After Paul Martikainen took his son from a Cocoa park during a supervised visit in 2009, local police officers wanted to arrest him for interfering with child custody.
But the 35-year-old father's ensuing attempt to flee the country by sailing across the Gulf of Mexico elevated a kidnapping charge against him, and he went on to serve part of a 22-month sentence in a federal prison.
Martikainen was freed Monday, but the Cocoa Police Department's warrant still stood: He was promptly re-arrested and returned to the Brevard County Detention Center.
But with the chance that the former Palm Bay man could post bond, prosecutors and the 5-year-old boy's mother feared the same kidnapping scenario could recur.
Martikainen, a native of Finland, often had expressed plans to leave the country with his son, they said.
"He is a flight risk," Assistant State Attorney Gary Beatty said as Martikainen made an initial court appearance Tuesday. "The mother . . . is very concerned that there is going to be a repeat of this, of him attempting to get the child away."
Martikainen took his son, Luke Finch, from Cocoa Riverfront Park when a court-appointed monitor stepped away in November 2009. He traveled across the state and boarded a sailboat in Fort Myers in an attempt to reach Mexico.
Three days later and about 140 miles southwest of Fort Myers Beach, the Coast Guard caught up with the boat. The boy was unharmed and returned to Martikainen's estranged wife, Christa Finch.
Because he crossed into international waters, Martikainen was sentenced to time ina federal prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping.
Standing before a judge on the original charge Tuesday, Martikainen was ordered to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet if he posts the $20,000 bond. The judge also told him not to go within one mile of his son and former wife.
"There is concern and likelihood that he may try to take his son back to Finland, where much of his family lives," an arrest warrant states.
Late Tuesday, Martikainen remained in jail. If convicted on the charge, he faces a maximum of five years in a state prison.
In addition, as a friend of mine pointed out, GPS monitoring of a father like this does not provide safety for children. It either subjects the mother and child to ALSO being monitored (in order to assure that the stalker is not in their vicinity), or else it fails when they are at locations other than home, work, or school.
Here are the points we raised back in 2009:
1) We still have no idea how Dad "dodged" the court-appointed visitation supervisor who was presumably supposed to stop the initial abduction. Are we supposed to believe that this person (who was a friend of the father!) was just a dimwit, and that it's just an amazing coincidence that Dad's "alleged" abuse was "verified" just days before by the Florida Department of Children and Families, and yet there was no stepped-up attention at all? At this point, why was visitation even continued? Clearly, Dad was pretty confident he could pull this stunt, since he had his sailboat all ready to go and waiting--and now repainted a battleship gray with all identifying numbers removed, so as to make detection more difficult. Why was Dad so confident? This "monitor" needs to be thoroughly investigated for any role he may have played in this fiasco. And subjected to any and all appropriate disciplinary actions including jail. But the authorities have refused to follow up.
2) In a move that the Florida Department of Children and Families is now famous for--deftly passing the buck and absolving itself of responsibility--DCF basically said "not my problem, man" because the mother had primary custody (so?) and "the child was under the supervision of the judge." And also, you know, the investigation was closed the day before Thanskgiving and our part was done. Well then. Maybe the judge needs to be fired along with most of the DCF staff. (As it turns out, the judge was CHARLIE ROBERTS, well known as a fathers rights judge.)
3) For the moronic enablers who still insist that Dad is not abusive or neglectful, consider the following points:
* Dad was taking a 3-year-old child out on a sailboat when Dad had little to no sailing experience, on a boat that was difficult to identify from the air because of the gray paint job. This made it difficult to catch, yes, but also difficult to locate in case of distress. Do you wonder if Dad even thought of that, or if he even cared?
* The boat had no EPIRB, a devise that helps rescuers locate boats in distress, and the boat had no child life vests. Though it's possible that Dad went out and bought a child vest, it sure didn't look like this was a priority given the context of his other actions. How do these actions rate in terms of Dad's overall concern for the boy's safety and well being, folks?
* Given that Dad appeared to be sailing alone, how did he, an inexperienced sailor, plan to supervise an active preschooler on a 32-foot sailboat? Is he going to devote himself totally to child care under the rather demanding circumstances? (I'd hate to be supervising a preschooler on a boat this size even if I had no other responsibilities.) Yea, sure he is. And embark on a crash course in sailing at the same time. How's that for multi-tasking? Actually it's just pure freaking stupidity. He's going to be ignoring the kid, that's what. He has no choice if he's going to keep the boat afloat.
* A bad storm was expected to move across the Gulf from Texas. But did a bad weather forecast put a crimp in Dad's plans? Did it make him reconsider his son's well-being in this nutty scheme for even a second? Apparently not.
4) Why are these guy's "rights" even under consideration at this point? We now find out that Dad gave up his parental rights after the initial divorce in 2005, when the baby hadn't even been born yet! The couple then makes an effort to reconcile, so Dad changes his mind and wants joint custody because he's "developed a bond" with the child. Yea, right. Work out the timeline. Basically as soon as Dad enters the picture, he's abusing the child. And not "alleged" abuse as initially reported in error. We're talking "verified" abuse. So you want to tell me about bonding? My @$$.
5) Note that in addition to the "verified" (not "alleged") child abuse charges, this guy has a general criminal record that includes drug trafficking. Oh yes, great dad this one.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110831/NEWS01/108310321/Father-released-arrested-flight-kidnap-threat
Father released, arrested as flight, kidnap threat
1:11 AM, Aug. 31, 2011
After Paul Martikainen took his son from a Cocoa park during a supervised visit in 2009, local police officers wanted to arrest him for interfering with child custody.
But the 35-year-old father's ensuing attempt to flee the country by sailing across the Gulf of Mexico elevated a kidnapping charge against him, and he went on to serve part of a 22-month sentence in a federal prison.
Martikainen was freed Monday, but the Cocoa Police Department's warrant still stood: He was promptly re-arrested and returned to the Brevard County Detention Center.
But with the chance that the former Palm Bay man could post bond, prosecutors and the 5-year-old boy's mother feared the same kidnapping scenario could recur.
Martikainen, a native of Finland, often had expressed plans to leave the country with his son, they said.
"He is a flight risk," Assistant State Attorney Gary Beatty said as Martikainen made an initial court appearance Tuesday. "The mother . . . is very concerned that there is going to be a repeat of this, of him attempting to get the child away."
Martikainen took his son, Luke Finch, from Cocoa Riverfront Park when a court-appointed monitor stepped away in November 2009. He traveled across the state and boarded a sailboat in Fort Myers in an attempt to reach Mexico.
Three days later and about 140 miles southwest of Fort Myers Beach, the Coast Guard caught up with the boat. The boy was unharmed and returned to Martikainen's estranged wife, Christa Finch.
Because he crossed into international waters, Martikainen was sentenced to time ina federal prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping.
Standing before a judge on the original charge Tuesday, Martikainen was ordered to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet if he posts the $20,000 bond. The judge also told him not to go within one mile of his son and former wife.
"There is concern and likelihood that he may try to take his son back to Finland, where much of his family lives," an arrest warrant states.
Late Tuesday, Martikainen remained in jail. If convicted on the charge, he faces a maximum of five years in a state prison.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Daughter to testify against father in 1990 murder of 12-year-old son, mom, nephew (Monterrey, California)
After 21 years, dad RAMON ESPARZA RIOS will soon be on trial for the murder of his 12-year-old son, the boy's mother, and a nephew....
http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_18375295
Daughter to testify against father in slaying of mother, brother, relative
Father could face life
By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureau
Posted: 06/29/2011 01:32:49 AM PDT
Updated: 06/29/2011 08:30:35 AM PDT
The daughter of a former South County ranch foreman is expected to testify this week against her father, who is accused of killing her mother, brother and a relative before fleeing to Mexico in 1990.
Ramon Esparza Rios, 61, faces life in prison without possibility of parole if convicted of the murders of his son Luis, 12; his wife, Concepcion Esparza, 23; and her nephew, Jose Luis Parra Hernandez, 23.
Jury selection began Monday in a trial that is expected to last two weeks.
The star witness will be "Jane Doe 18," Esparza Rios' oldest daughter, who was in the home when the shooting occurred and, with her 17-year-old brother, was left to raise four younger siblings.
The defendant allegedly fled to Mexico and lived under an assumed name until last year when he was arrested on unrelated charges in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.
Police there compared his prints to an arrest warrant the U.S. Department of Justice secured in Mexico and notified U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Yuma, Ariz., that their suspect was in jail across the border.
Mexico extradited Esparza Rios to California with the assurance of the Monterey County District Attorney's Office it would not seek the death penalty.
According to testimony at his preliminary hearing, Esparza Rios and his large family lived in a mobile home on the Silva Ranch outside King City, where he was the irrigation foreman.
On Jan. 6, 1990, he got home to find his wife drinking with her nephew. His daughter told investigators her father joined them for a beer, but within 20 minutes an argument broke out.
The girl heard her father hitting her mother, ran into the living room and found him with a gun. She told him to put the gun away and went back to her room, then heard gunshots.
From the hallway, the girl saw her younger brother had been hit in the head by a bullet that passed through his bedroom wall. She screamed, prompting her father to enter the room. Her father cried that he had killed his son, she told investigators, and ran off and left in his truck.
She went into the living room where she found her mother's and Parra Hernandez's bodies. According to testimony, Concepcion Rios was shot several times and her nephew was shot twice in the back. The boy died at Mee Memorial Hospital.
Esparza Rios initially told investigators that his gun went off by accident as he passed it to the nephew, who he was suspicious of because he had not initially recognized him. Distraught that he had killed his son, he said, he ran into the kitchen, where his wife came at him with "something shiny." Thinking it was a knife, he shot her in self-defense, he said. Then he shot the nephew in a fit of rage as he ran out the door, he told investigators.
Klopfenstein, prosecutor Steve Somers and Judge Pamela Butler used a jury questionnaire Monday to weed out potential jurors who had cause to balk at serving on a jury for two weeks. The remaining pool returned to the courtroom for questioning early Tuesday.
http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_18375295
Daughter to testify against father in slaying of mother, brother, relative
Father could face life
By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureau
Posted: 06/29/2011 01:32:49 AM PDT
Updated: 06/29/2011 08:30:35 AM PDT
The daughter of a former South County ranch foreman is expected to testify this week against her father, who is accused of killing her mother, brother and a relative before fleeing to Mexico in 1990.
Ramon Esparza Rios, 61, faces life in prison without possibility of parole if convicted of the murders of his son Luis, 12; his wife, Concepcion Esparza, 23; and her nephew, Jose Luis Parra Hernandez, 23.
Jury selection began Monday in a trial that is expected to last two weeks.
The star witness will be "Jane Doe 18," Esparza Rios' oldest daughter, who was in the home when the shooting occurred and, with her 17-year-old brother, was left to raise four younger siblings.
The defendant allegedly fled to Mexico and lived under an assumed name until last year when he was arrested on unrelated charges in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.
Police there compared his prints to an arrest warrant the U.S. Department of Justice secured in Mexico and notified U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Yuma, Ariz., that their suspect was in jail across the border.
Mexico extradited Esparza Rios to California with the assurance of the Monterey County District Attorney's Office it would not seek the death penalty.
According to testimony at his preliminary hearing, Esparza Rios and his large family lived in a mobile home on the Silva Ranch outside King City, where he was the irrigation foreman.
On Jan. 6, 1990, he got home to find his wife drinking with her nephew. His daughter told investigators her father joined them for a beer, but within 20 minutes an argument broke out.
The girl heard her father hitting her mother, ran into the living room and found him with a gun. She told him to put the gun away and went back to her room, then heard gunshots.
From the hallway, the girl saw her younger brother had been hit in the head by a bullet that passed through his bedroom wall. She screamed, prompting her father to enter the room. Her father cried that he had killed his son, she told investigators, and ran off and left in his truck.
She went into the living room where she found her mother's and Parra Hernandez's bodies. According to testimony, Concepcion Rios was shot several times and her nephew was shot twice in the back. The boy died at Mee Memorial Hospital.
Esparza Rios initially told investigators that his gun went off by accident as he passed it to the nephew, who he was suspicious of because he had not initially recognized him. Distraught that he had killed his son, he said, he ran into the kitchen, where his wife came at him with "something shiny." Thinking it was a knife, he shot her in self-defense, he said. Then he shot the nephew in a fit of rage as he ran out the door, he told investigators.
Klopfenstein, prosecutor Steve Somers and Judge Pamela Butler used a jury questionnaire Monday to weed out potential jurors who had cause to balk at serving on a jury for two weeks. The remaining pool returned to the courtroom for questioning early Tuesday.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Another babysitting dad on trial for killing 5-month-old daughter (DuPage County, Illinois)
JOEL CHAVEZ: But the latest in a long series of unemployed (deadbeat) babysitting daddies on trial for killing an infant. Mom had been gone only a half hour when this baby was beaten to death. Notice we still have a defense attorney call this goon a "good, caring father"--even though it appears that the final, fatal attack was not the first time this daddy had abused the baby.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chibrknews-aurora-man-on-trial-in-baby-daughters-death-20110308,0,5013100.story
Aurora man on trial in baby daughter's death
By Art Barnum
Tribune reporter
5:37 p.m. CST, March 8, 2011
A DuPage County judge is being asked to decide if the death of a 5-month-old baby girl was due to being battered by her father, who prosecutors say wanted out of his marriage and to return to Mexico, or was due to that same father crudely trying to resuscitate the child when she became limp.
The week-long murder trial of Joel Chavez, 28, of Aurora, for the Jan. 13, 2009 death of his daughter, Julyssa, began with Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Lindt saying in his opening statements that the child died of blunt force trauma and traumatic brain injury and that she suffered numerous bruises all over her body; fractured ribs and arms; multiple skull fractures; and lacerated spleen. He said the abuse injuries were both old and new.
Lindt told Bakalis, who is presiding over a bench trial, that Chavez on Jan. 12, 2009, initially told police that he had no idea what happened and that “she just became limp.” But he later told police that he dropped that child on a bed and that her head may have hit a wall.
“Joel Chavez was unemployed, he wanted out of his marriage and he wanted to return to Mexico, but the child held him back,” said Lindt. “Instead of loving hands, her life ended at the hands of the man who should have protected her.”
Steven Muslin, defense attorney, said in his opening statement, that Chavez was a “good, caring father.” He said that Chavez was watching the child when his wife was out on an errand. The child was crying and wouldn't take bottle, and “he threw her on a thick mattress that could not have caused the injuries.”
“When a child is injured, the first person they look at is the caregiver,” Muslin said.
Muslin claims that many of the victim's injuries occurred “during his attempt to help her. He didn't know the proper technique for CPR to a child, causing rib and internal injuries.”
Lupe Chavez, the mother of the victim, testified she was gone from the home about a half-hour when her husband called and said something was wrong with the child. She called 911 and the infant was initially taken to Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora before being taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
The mother became very emotional on the stand, stating that when she left her young daughter with her father, “she had a big smile the last time I saw her. She was always happy.”
Chavez, in the county jail with bond set at $2 million, faces 20 to 60 years in prison if convicted.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chibrknews-aurora-man-on-trial-in-baby-daughters-death-20110308,0,5013100.story
Aurora man on trial in baby daughter's death
By Art Barnum
Tribune reporter
5:37 p.m. CST, March 8, 2011
A DuPage County judge is being asked to decide if the death of a 5-month-old baby girl was due to being battered by her father, who prosecutors say wanted out of his marriage and to return to Mexico, or was due to that same father crudely trying to resuscitate the child when she became limp.
The week-long murder trial of Joel Chavez, 28, of Aurora, for the Jan. 13, 2009 death of his daughter, Julyssa, began with Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Lindt saying in his opening statements that the child died of blunt force trauma and traumatic brain injury and that she suffered numerous bruises all over her body; fractured ribs and arms; multiple skull fractures; and lacerated spleen. He said the abuse injuries were both old and new.
Lindt told Bakalis, who is presiding over a bench trial, that Chavez on Jan. 12, 2009, initially told police that he had no idea what happened and that “she just became limp.” But he later told police that he dropped that child on a bed and that her head may have hit a wall.
“Joel Chavez was unemployed, he wanted out of his marriage and he wanted to return to Mexico, but the child held him back,” said Lindt. “Instead of loving hands, her life ended at the hands of the man who should have protected her.”
Steven Muslin, defense attorney, said in his opening statement, that Chavez was a “good, caring father.” He said that Chavez was watching the child when his wife was out on an errand. The child was crying and wouldn't take bottle, and “he threw her on a thick mattress that could not have caused the injuries.”
“When a child is injured, the first person they look at is the caregiver,” Muslin said.
Muslin claims that many of the victim's injuries occurred “during his attempt to help her. He didn't know the proper technique for CPR to a child, causing rib and internal injuries.”
Lupe Chavez, the mother of the victim, testified she was gone from the home about a half-hour when her husband called and said something was wrong with the child. She called 911 and the infant was initially taken to Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora before being taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
The mother became very emotional on the stand, stating that when she left her young daughter with her father, “she had a big smile the last time I saw her. She was always happy.”
Chavez, in the county jail with bond set at $2 million, faces 20 to 60 years in prison if convicted.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Dad to be arraigned in beating death of 9-month-old daughter (South Gate, California)
Hah! When I first reported on this case, I castigated the press for referring to this obvious assault of the baby's mother as a "fight" between the two parents. Notice that the press is now referring to this clearcut assault as, well, an assault. If it were a mere "fight," than the 9-month-old baby wouldn't have been beaten to death in the middle of it, would she?
And notice that this "fight" involved binding the victim at knife point and sodomizing her. I'd say that is definitely an assault by any definition. It is only the media's weird obsession with false balance that lead them to minimize this as just a "fight." And their (sometimes) unconscious contempt for the female victims of domestic violence. Had this POS broken into the home of a stranger and committed this heinous crime, nobody would be labeling the incident as a "fight."
And now we hear that dad JOSE TULIO DERAS has been arrested in Mexico and is to be arraigned on murder charges.
http://www.presstelegram.com/breakingnews/ci_17146997
South Gate father to be arraigned in 9-month-old's death
From wire service reports
Posted: 01/20/2011 06:45:08 AM PST Updated: 01/20/2011 11:39:08 AM PST
DOWNEY - A South Gate man arrested in Mexico, where he fled after allegedly beating his 9-month-old daughter to death and assaulting his wife, was scheduled to be arraigned today on murder and other charges.
Jose Tulio Deras, 20, was set to appear in Downey Superior Court on one count each of murder and assault on a child causing death for the Jan. 15 slaying of his daughter, Valerie.
In connection with his alleged assault on his wife, Deras is charged with one count of sodomy by use of force, with allegations that he used a knife and tied and bound the victim.
The Salvadoran national was detained Monday in Mexico City, said Lt. Dave Coleman of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau.
On Wednesday, Mexican authorities flew Deras from Mexico City to Los Angeles International Airport, where he was turned over to Customs and Border Protection officers, U.S. Marshals and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies.
Deras was being held in lieu of $5 million bail, according to inmate records.
If convicted, he could face up to 50 years to life in state prison, according to the District Attorney's Office.
And notice that this "fight" involved binding the victim at knife point and sodomizing her. I'd say that is definitely an assault by any definition. It is only the media's weird obsession with false balance that lead them to minimize this as just a "fight." And their (sometimes) unconscious contempt for the female victims of domestic violence. Had this POS broken into the home of a stranger and committed this heinous crime, nobody would be labeling the incident as a "fight."
And now we hear that dad JOSE TULIO DERAS has been arrested in Mexico and is to be arraigned on murder charges.
http://www.presstelegram.com/breakingnews/ci_17146997
South Gate father to be arraigned in 9-month-old's death
From wire service reports
Posted: 01/20/2011 06:45:08 AM PST Updated: 01/20/2011 11:39:08 AM PST
DOWNEY - A South Gate man arrested in Mexico, where he fled after allegedly beating his 9-month-old daughter to death and assaulting his wife, was scheduled to be arraigned today on murder and other charges.
Jose Tulio Deras, 20, was set to appear in Downey Superior Court on one count each of murder and assault on a child causing death for the Jan. 15 slaying of his daughter, Valerie.
In connection with his alleged assault on his wife, Deras is charged with one count of sodomy by use of force, with allegations that he used a knife and tied and bound the victim.
The Salvadoran national was detained Monday in Mexico City, said Lt. Dave Coleman of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau.
On Wednesday, Mexican authorities flew Deras from Mexico City to Los Angeles International Airport, where he was turned over to Customs and Border Protection officers, U.S. Marshals and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies.
Deras was being held in lieu of $5 million bail, according to inmate records.
If convicted, he could face up to 50 years to life in state prison, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
U.S. Supreme court rejects case of U.S. baby sent to Mexico with father (Texas)
Notice that the news link to this case is from Taiwan--not the U.S. Interesting, eh? After hearing fathers like MARK GOLDMAN dominate the airwaves, it's quite a contrast to see how a U.S. mother is treated and ignored.
http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1483292&lang=eng_news
Court rejects case of US baby sent to Mexico
Associated Press
2011-01-10 10:14 PM
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a Texas woman who wants to sue the federal government for sending her U.S. citizen baby to Mexico with the child's illegal immigrant father.
Monica Castro's daughter was a day from her first birthday when federal agents deported the father to Mexico and sent her with him. Three years would pass before Castro and the girl, both U.S. citizens who were born in Texas, were reunited.
Castro sued the federal government over the actions of the Border Patrol agents who refused to take the girl from her father and knowingly sent a U.S. citizen to Mexico. But a divided federal appeals court blocked the lawsuit.
The Supreme Court did not comment Monday in turning down Castro's appeal.
http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1483292&lang=eng_news
Court rejects case of US baby sent to Mexico
Associated Press
2011-01-10 10:14 PM
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a Texas woman who wants to sue the federal government for sending her U.S. citizen baby to Mexico with the child's illegal immigrant father.
Monica Castro's daughter was a day from her first birthday when federal agents deported the father to Mexico and sent her with him. Three years would pass before Castro and the girl, both U.S. citizens who were born in Texas, were reunited.
Castro sued the federal government over the actions of the Border Patrol agents who refused to take the girl from her father and knowingly sent a U.S. citizen to Mexico. But a divided federal appeals court blocked the lawsuit.
The Supreme Court did not comment Monday in turning down Castro's appeal.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Jean Paul custody case gets new hearing (San Antonio, Texas)
Dad JEAN PHILIPPE LACOMBE embodies the kind of abuser dad who uses child custody as a way to terrorize his ex-wife and child. Scamming the police to abduct your kid for you at gunpoint is not something a loving or protective parent does. Period.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/jean_paul_says_hell_never_go_back_as_judge_orders_new_hearing_104989904.html?showFullArticle=y
Jean Paul custody case gets new hearing
By Craig Kapitan - Express-News
Web Posted: 10/15/2010 12:00 AM CDT
A state district judge chastised the father of Jean Paul Lacombe on Thursday for making “a mockery” of the Texas court system, but also gave the father's attorneys a new chance to argue their case in the international custody dispute.
The legal team for Jean Philippe Lacombe, a dual citizen of Mexico and France wanted in the United States on kidnapping and perjury charges, had argued the father wasn't properly notified of a court hearing this summer.
In that hearing in August, Judge Larry Noll ruled that Mexican court documents gave mother Berenice Diaz rightful custody of the boy, 11.
Neither Jean Philippe Lacombe nor his attorneys appeared in court for that hearing. A week later, a French tribunal issued a similar decision.
Noll agreed to put his earlier ruling on hold after the father's attorneys argued that notice of the hearing was delivered to the wrong attorney.
No date has been set for the new hearing.
Neither parent — nor the boy — showed up in Noll's courtroom for the ruling Thursday.
Jean Paul Lacombe, however, waited on another floor of the Bexar courthouse. He wanted to meet with the judge in private, without lawyers for either side present, his mother's attorneys told the judge.
“No matter what my father pays his lawyers, I'll never go back with him,” Jean Paul Lacombe said outside the courthouse as his mother and her attorneys stood nearby. “I don't feel safe with him.”
Noll declined to immediately meet with the child, but the request is pending.
Jean Paul Lacombe mentioned last October, when deputy constables pulled him off his school bus as he cried for help, as a reason he feels unsafe with his father.
A day earlier, his father had convinced state District Judge Sol Casseb III to give him emergency custody of the boy until a hearing could be held days later to determine which parent had been granted custody by the Mexican court system.
After retrieving the boy, however, the father left the country instead of appearing in court.
The judge also angrily mentioned the bus incident and the father's disappearance throughout the hearing, which began Oct. 4.
Failure to appear “was an abuse of court systems of this state that cannot be overlooked or condoned,” Noll said as he read his ruling. “He will not be allowed to engage in a snatch-and-run episode without consequences.”
Jean Philippe Lacombe's attorneys also asked the judge to rule that Mexico — not Bexar County — had the proper jurisdiction for such a hearing. The judge denied the request, saying the father is the one who initiated the legal process in Texas.
Outside the courtroom, both sides said they were satisfied with the judge's ruling.
“Judges haven't yet heard both sides of the story,” said former state District Judge Lori Massey, who represents the father.
The French tribunal used Noll's ruling in part to reach its decision, she said. Noll's final ruling, she added, “is going to have ripple effects in France and Mexico.”
Massey said it hasn't been decided if Jean Philippe Lacombe will return to the United States for the next hearing. But attorneys can try the case without him and given his legal situation, his appearance seems unlikely, she has indicated.
Attorneys Miguel Ortiz and Steve Cichowski, who represent Diaz, said Noll will have the same facts the French tribunal did and should reach the same conclusion.
Giving the father “one more chance to come into the court and tell his side of the story ... is the best thing that could happen for both parties,” Cichowski said. “If he is serious about the best interest of this child, I would definitely think he would show up.”
Regardless, Jean Paul Lacombe said Thursday that he hopes the ordeal can end soon, and that he can stay in San Antonio.
“I just want to live peacefully like a normal kid in America,” he said.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/jean_paul_says_hell_never_go_back_as_judge_orders_new_hearing_104989904.html?showFullArticle=y
Jean Paul custody case gets new hearing
By Craig Kapitan - Express-News
Web Posted: 10/15/2010 12:00 AM CDT
A state district judge chastised the father of Jean Paul Lacombe on Thursday for making “a mockery” of the Texas court system, but also gave the father's attorneys a new chance to argue their case in the international custody dispute.
The legal team for Jean Philippe Lacombe, a dual citizen of Mexico and France wanted in the United States on kidnapping and perjury charges, had argued the father wasn't properly notified of a court hearing this summer.
In that hearing in August, Judge Larry Noll ruled that Mexican court documents gave mother Berenice Diaz rightful custody of the boy, 11.
Neither Jean Philippe Lacombe nor his attorneys appeared in court for that hearing. A week later, a French tribunal issued a similar decision.
Noll agreed to put his earlier ruling on hold after the father's attorneys argued that notice of the hearing was delivered to the wrong attorney.
No date has been set for the new hearing.
Neither parent — nor the boy — showed up in Noll's courtroom for the ruling Thursday.
Jean Paul Lacombe, however, waited on another floor of the Bexar courthouse. He wanted to meet with the judge in private, without lawyers for either side present, his mother's attorneys told the judge.
“No matter what my father pays his lawyers, I'll never go back with him,” Jean Paul Lacombe said outside the courthouse as his mother and her attorneys stood nearby. “I don't feel safe with him.”
Noll declined to immediately meet with the child, but the request is pending.
Jean Paul Lacombe mentioned last October, when deputy constables pulled him off his school bus as he cried for help, as a reason he feels unsafe with his father.
A day earlier, his father had convinced state District Judge Sol Casseb III to give him emergency custody of the boy until a hearing could be held days later to determine which parent had been granted custody by the Mexican court system.
After retrieving the boy, however, the father left the country instead of appearing in court.
The judge also angrily mentioned the bus incident and the father's disappearance throughout the hearing, which began Oct. 4.
Failure to appear “was an abuse of court systems of this state that cannot be overlooked or condoned,” Noll said as he read his ruling. “He will not be allowed to engage in a snatch-and-run episode without consequences.”
Jean Philippe Lacombe's attorneys also asked the judge to rule that Mexico — not Bexar County — had the proper jurisdiction for such a hearing. The judge denied the request, saying the father is the one who initiated the legal process in Texas.
Outside the courtroom, both sides said they were satisfied with the judge's ruling.
“Judges haven't yet heard both sides of the story,” said former state District Judge Lori Massey, who represents the father.
The French tribunal used Noll's ruling in part to reach its decision, she said. Noll's final ruling, she added, “is going to have ripple effects in France and Mexico.”
Massey said it hasn't been decided if Jean Philippe Lacombe will return to the United States for the next hearing. But attorneys can try the case without him and given his legal situation, his appearance seems unlikely, she has indicated.
Attorneys Miguel Ortiz and Steve Cichowski, who represent Diaz, said Noll will have the same facts the French tribunal did and should reach the same conclusion.
Giving the father “one more chance to come into the court and tell his side of the story ... is the best thing that could happen for both parties,” Cichowski said. “If he is serious about the best interest of this child, I would definitely think he would show up.”
Regardless, Jean Paul Lacombe said Thursday that he hopes the ordeal can end soon, and that he can stay in San Antonio.
“I just want to live peacefully like a normal kid in America,” he said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)