So sickening, but typical. Mom may not have been perfect--she obviously had some problems with alcohol herself. But she was obviously protective, and tried to get the authorities to intervene when her son was being abused at the home of his custodial dad, NELSON OSCEOLA. Plus, the little boy was obviously bonded to HER, and not Daddy and the gaggle of criminals he hung out with. He felt safe WITH MOM, not with Dad.
But it didn't matter in a fathers rights state like Florida, even though by every rational measure, Daddy, the step, and all her family were much worse. Criminal activity of all kinds--assault, battery, child neglect, physical child abuse, drugs, you name it.
Another child murdered--thanks to fathers rights ideology.
http://www.bradenton.com/2015/04/23/5761147_behind-smiles-a-hollywood-childs.html?rh=1
Behind smiles, a Florida child’s short, troubled life
By CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND CARLI TEPROFF
Miami Herald April 23, 2015
Last December, when a Broward County child welfare investigator visited the Hollywood home where Ahziya Osceola lived with his father — who had been the subject of two recent child abuse allegations — the 3-year-old’s stepmother was viewed as a source of stability, someone who brought “structure” to his chaotic life.
Stepmom Analiz Osceola’s parental report card would prove to be far more complicated.
Ahziya’s 24-year-old stepmother had been under the scrutiny of child protection investigators herself since April 2012, when her own son had been found sleeping on a mattress on the dirty floor of a one-room drug house teeming with cockroaches. As many as 15 other adults were there, too, police said, abusing narcotics. Five months later, the 2-year-old was found wandering alone several blocks from his home. It took his mother almost three hours to report him missing.
Analiz Osceola was charged last month with aggravated manslaughter after police found Ahziya’s 30-pound body stuffed inside two garbage bags in his parents’ laundry room. Hollywood police say the boy was covered “head to toe” with bruises, had suffered a lacerated liver and ruptured pancreas, and had a healing spiral fracture to his foot — a kind of injury that is often associated with child abuse.
The collection of caregivers in the months before Ahziya’s death might have raised some eyebrows. Nelson Osceola had been the subject of two reports of physical abuse, and had a lengthy criminal history; the boy’s stepmom had undergone two neglect investigations. Also in the home at the time Ahziya died was Analiz Osceola’s mother, Anubis Rodezno, who had twice been accused of child abuse. Analiz’s two brothers — described in a court pleading as having “extensive” drug histories — also had moved in, and one had amassed a lengthy rap sheet, with arrests for battery, aggravated assault and weapons possession.
In his sadly abridged life, Ahziya had appeared in the subject line of four abuse or neglect reports, 127 pages of caseworker chronological notes, another 58 pages of child protection narratives and one police report. No one who signed any of the records seemed to comprehend where all the bread crumbs were leading.
The final document was the boy’s autopsy.
“It is alarming to think that someone would allow this child to stay in that household,” Hollywood Police Chief Frank Fernandez told the Miami Herald. “We know today that should have never happened. That child should have been removed.”
Fernandez viewed autopsy photos of Ahziya’s pockmarked body. He’d been crammed inside an eight-inch-wide cardboard box. The makeshift coffin once had held a toddler’s walker, he said. “The condition in which we found this little boy was absolutely horrific,” Fernandez said. “My first thought was anger, that any child would be put through that torture, discarded like a piece of trash.”
An attorney for Nelson Osceola, who was released on $50,000 bail after being charged with child neglect, declined to discuss Ahziya’s death. Analiz Osceola’s attorney could not be reached by a reporter.
Central to any understanding of Ahziya’s death is the unusual patchwork structure of child welfare work in Broward. Child abuse investigations are performed by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, under contract with the Department of Children & Families. Supervision of struggling families, or children in foster care, is overseen by the privately run ChildNet, which also contracts with DCF. The state attorney general’s office represents DCF in court. And the Seminole Tribe has significant authority over children who are members, as was Ahziya.
A spokeswoman for BSO, which had long been involved with Ahziya’s family, declined to discuss the boy with the Herald, citing the Hollywood Police Department’s open investigation of his killing. “Our two cases were handled appropriately and are now closed,” spokeswoman Gina Carter said of BSO child abuse probes in April and December of 2014.
Emilio Benitez, who is the CEO of ChildNet, acknowledged “flaws in the current system, particularly when we have multiple agencies and two nations involved.” He said ChildNet “has been working swiftly and diligently to identify those flaws, and to put measures in place to prevent them from being repeated.”
At a hearing before the state Senate’s Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, DCF Secretary Mike Carroll acknowledged that investigators or caseworkers may have erred by allowing Ahziya to remain in his father’s house despite mounting evidence that something was wrong. “There were signs that this child may have been being physically abused — it wasn't clear [by] who or to what extent,” Carroll told lawmakers.
“We just didn't close the loop and get to a place where we were able to determine ... the nature of these bruises and who” was responsible for them.
Carroll also suggested that federal laws limiting the state’s power to interfere in the lives of Native American families also may have played a role in Ahziya’s death. The toddler did not live on the Hollywood reservation, but he was subject to the tribe’s authority in matters of child welfare.
“While I appreciate the need to respect the sovereignty of the Indian nation in these cases, the best interests, well-being and safety of the children should be of the foremost concern of both parties involved,” Carroll told lawmakers.
Documents obtained by the Herald — including records from DCF, BSO, ChildNet and the attorney general’s office — show that a platoon of social welfare workers were involved with Ahziya’s family, and some of them visited regularly. But records suggest the knowledge they generated was seldom shared, leaving decision-makers with an incomplete picture.
ChildNet, for example, knew as early as July 2014 that Nelson Osceola had married the former Analiz Rodezno, who was giving birth to his baby. Records obtained from DCF show that investigators were aware the couple were living together by at least the following December. Yet there is no record that either agency considered Analiz’s history with her own son to determine whether she was an appropriate caregiver for Ahziya.
Acting on the wishes of the tribe, a Broward judge gave custody of then 3-year-old Ahziya to his father around February 2014, after the child was found wandering unsupervised in a hotel lobby while his mother, 25-year-old Karen Cypress, was passed out drunk in a room upstairs.
Nelson Osceola’s rap sheet contained nine arrests, including charges of weapons possession on a school property, marijuana possession, aggravated assault with a weapon, burglary, fleeing police and battery. A court pleading cites “numerous” other reports from the Seminole police. The most recent case, the battery, remained pending during much of the time Nelson Osceola had custody of his son.
“There were red flags even before they put him in that house,” said the boy’s maternal grandfather, Kenneth Tommie. “If they did their job he wouldn't have been in that house.”
The Jan. 19, 2013, battery arrest was one of the warning signs. Nelson and Analiz Osceola were behind at least two other cars in a Dunkin Donuts drive-through lane. Analiz, using her original surname, Rodezno, began honking her horn at a black Infiniti in front of her. The Infiniti’s driver said that he was stuck behind other cars, which enraged a then-screaming Nelson Osceola. He walked over to the Infiniti. The Infiniti’s driver poked his head out of his window and yelled “let’s just get our food and go on our ways,” a Davie police report said.
Nelson Osceola responded by punching the man in the face, a report said. The battery charge was not disposed of until July 2014, when Osceola pleaded no contest and was placed on six-months of probation.
Analiz Osceola’s dealings with law enforcement and child welfare workers also were unsettling. Police first came in contact with her on April 6, 2012, when a patrolman was sent to investigate drug sales at an apartment building on Dewey Street. Inside, the beige home with awnings had all the earmarks of a drug house: As many as 15 adults were crashing in the one-room apartment.
Empty beer bottles littered the floor, a Hollywood police report said. “There were also other objects on the floor, such as a car battery, sharp knives, and two individuals who appeared to be ‘passed out,’” the report said. Cockroaches skittered across the floor, which was covered by at least three mattresses. Sleeping soundly on one of the mattresses was a 2-year-old boy, Analiz’s son.
“Every person inside the apartment and outside on the balcony had extensive narcotics-related criminal histories, and three of the subjects are currently on probation for narcotics-related offenses,” the officer wrote. Though Analiz was not arrested, DCF’s abuse hotline was called, and BSO verified allegations of child neglect. Analiz was offered parenting services; she declined.
Hollywood police saw the toddler again on Sept. 10, 2012, when he wandered several blocks from his home — right to the campus of Hollywood Park Elementary School, where administrators fetched him. According to a report, Analiz did not report him missing for about three hours. Records show the little boy had been diagnosed with autism, which is often associated with dangerous wandering. That report, too, was verified for child neglect, and, this time, DCF asked a judge to order Analiz to be supervised and visited by case managers, a request that was granted.
Less than two months after he was awarded custody of Ahziya, Nelson Osceola came back on DCF’s radar. Ahziya had been living with his father since the end of February 2014. On April 21 of that year, DCF’s hotline was told that the boy had “multiple bruises on his body,” along with fingertip-shaped bruises on his face. The Child Protection Team, which evaluates children for evidence of abuse, decided most of the bruises were inconclusive.
The fingertip marks, though, were called “positive for physical abuse” — meaning medical experts believed someone had deliberately inflicted them.
Workers at the boy’s preschool, Nob Hill Academy, strongly suspected abuse as well. They told investigators Ahziya had been “observed with several bruises on a weekly basis.” That day, he had “multiple bruises.” He told his teacher that his father had beaten him with a belt.
BSO concluded he was safe. The investigation was not verified as abuse.
Still, BSO asked Nelson Osceola to sign a “safety plan,” in which he promised to “refrain from all illegal activity,” to “ensure that there are no illicit drugs in the home,” to “ensure [Ahziya lived] in a safe and stable home” and to ensure the boy was “supervised at all times by a caregiver that has been previously approved by DCF.” Caseworkers with ChildNet and the Seminole Tribe were to oversee Nelson Osceola’s compliance with the plan.
ChildNet knew by July that at least one of the plan’s provisions had been broken. Notes from a July 31 visit to Osceola’s home quote Nelson Osceola as saying that “his new wife is giving birth today and [he] needed to leave soon.” Analiz Osceola was not an approved caregiver. The notation appears to be the first time her name is mentioned. Nevertheless, ChildNet initiated efforts to terminate their supervision of Ahziya, which was approved by a judge the following September.
It is unclear when Anubis Rodezno moved in with her daughter at the home she shared with Nelson Osceola on Johnson Street. Fernandez, the Hollywood police chief, told the Herald that Charles and Anthony Rodezno, Analiz’s older brothers, arrived around August 2014, though the two remained largely “transient” during the past several months.
Charles’ rap sheet begins in November 2006 with a battery charge. The 25-year-old’s 14 other arrests include burglary, disorderly conduct, aggravated assault with a weapon, marijuana possession, carrying a concealed weapon, and aggravated assault on an officer.
Records suggest that the Sheriff’s Office was not aware of Analiz until December, when Ahziya’s birth mom picked him up for a visit and found him bruised again. He had one bruise on the side of his cheek, which was healing, and he said his bottom was sore. When asked, Ahziya said that his “mommy” had hurt his bottom, referring to his stepmother, Analiz Osceola.
The report said: “There is concern Ahziya is being abused at the father’s house.” It added: “The father always states the child has fallen when he has injuries.”
When interviewed, the boy’s paternal grandmother praised Analiz as “very structured when it comes to food and rules in the home, but she is not abusive.” Nelson Osceola said that his wife provided “a balanced structure in the home.” And Analiz said that she had “been in the child’s life for over two years” — though the investigation appeared to be the first time investigators had seen her.
That case, too, was closed without BSO taking action to protect the boy. “There is no evidence of intentional abuse, no reports of abuse [made] by the child,” a risk assessment concluded — despite Ahziya’s disclosures in April that his father had hit him with a belt, as well as the toddler’s more recent disclosure that his stepmother had hurt “his butt.”
“He did not state how the paramour [Analiz Osceola] hurt him, but stated that she does hit him,” a Feb. 4, 2015, risk assessment said of the investigation that began that December.
For the second time, investigators accepted the Osceola family’s claim that the boy was clumsy, fell often, and may have had an undiagnosed disorder that exacerbated the bruising.
Narratives from ChildNet home visits do not portray a clumsy child. An Aug. 25, 2014, notation, a month before ChildNet ceased supervising the family, described the child this way: “Climbs well. Kicks ball. Runs easily. Pedals a tricycle. Bends over easily without falling.”
Kenneth Tommie told the Herald that Ahziya, his grandson, was an active, happy toddler when he was not in the care of his father. “Clumsy,” he said, was not a word he would have used to describe the boy.
“He was scared to go home” to his father, the maternal grandfather said of Ahziya. “He was scared to leave his mom.”
Showing posts with label Native American. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Native American. Show all posts
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Protective mom fights abusive custodial dad over disabled sons (Plymouth County, Iowa)
Since this is being covered in the Native American press, the issue is being framed as a Native mother being crushed by a white father. That angle obviously plays into it, no doubt about it.
But we have seen similar situations played out where ethnic/racial differences are not apparent. To a very large extent, this is testimony to how much power the fathers rights movement has been able to wield over the family courts and child "protection" system. And that also needs to be brought out.
The fact that 17-year-old boys are being silenced by the courts is very much a fathers rights thing. SHAME ON JUDGE EDWARD JACOBSON for engaging in heavy-handed FR tactics.
See our previous post here. For some reason, the father has not been identified in the media.
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/11/20/sioux-mother-return-court-latest-fight-her-abused-sons-157916
Sioux Mother to Return to Court in Latest Fight for Her Abused Sons
Suzette Brewer 11/20/14
On Friday, November 21 another hearing is scheduled in the Iowa District Court in Plymouth County in an interstate custody showdown that has sparked national outrage among tribes and Indian child welfare advocates over the return of disabled twin brothers to the custody of their non-Indian father, who has six founded cases of child abuse on his record. One of the boys is wheelchair bound with cerebral palsy, while the other is blind and has autism.
Last June, Audre’y Eby, the twins’ Rosebud Sioux mother who resides in Nebraska, was jailed for a week in Iowa on kidnapping charges for refusing to return the boys back to their father after officials in Nebraska threatened her with child endangerment charges when they found evidence of abuse during an emergency room visit, in which blood and bruises were found on one of the boys’ groin area. The boys testified to officials in both states that their father’s girlfriend had kicked one of them after she caught him masturbating and that the father had threatened to “cut his privates off.”
Trapped between competing interstate jurisdictions, Eby said she had no choice but to keep her children, even though she subsequently went to jail in Iowa for trying to protect them from their abusers.
Eby kept the boys in Nebraska for a time, but subsequently moved them to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota in order to protect them from their father and his live-in girlfriend, both of whom have been placed on the Iowa Central Abuse Registry for physical abuse, denial of critical care and failure to provide proper supervision to the twins. In early October, the boys, who are now 17, were ordered to appear before Judge Edward Jacobson for testimony at a hearing, with which Eby complied. But rather than allowing the boys to testify as ordered, Jacobson instead ordered half a dozen police officers to physically remove the boys from their mother’s custody in the hallway of the courthouse in front of at least a dozen bystanders, who were shocked that the incident took place in such a public manner with no plan for a peaceful transfer, as usually is required under these circumstances. Eby said both boys were struggling and screaming to stay with her as they were being led away by law enforcement.
“Judge Jacobson said ‘I don’t allow children to testify in my court,’” said Eby. “The order was a ruse to get me to bring them [to Iowa] so they could take them from me.”
Subsequently, in a one-page ruling issued by Judge Edward Jacobson that only vaguely refers to the evidence that was presented, the boys were immediately ordered back to their father that day. Jacobson only mentioned that Eby had “absconded” with the children, in spite of the fact that the State of Nebraska had threatened her with child endangerment if she returned them to their father. Judge Jacobson also ordered that “Mr. Courtright shall have full care, custody, and control of both children. Visistation [sic] shall be at Mr. Courtright's discretion,” in spite of six founded charges of abuse on father’s record.
Eby has had no contact with her children since that time and that the boys’ father has threatened her that she will “never see them again” if she continues with the case.
“One can say that these young men fell through the cracks,” says Frank LaMere, the director of the Four Directions Community Center in Sioux City, Iowa. “The people over in Plymouth County absolutely knew what was happening to these boys and they turned a blind eye. The DHS and the officers of the court are very aware of the abuse charges against their father, but they feel no responsibility whatsoever in spite of the fact that these allegations have been confirmed and are on the record.”
LaMere says that he intends to be at the hearing on Friday, along with other members of the Native community to show their support for the twins and their mother, who they feel is victim of the racist policies toward Native parents in courtrooms across the country.
“If a Native man had six allegations of abuse on his record, he would be serving five to 10 years in prison,” said LaMere, who is a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. “But we have a white father and a white girlfriend with six founded charges and what does Judge Jacobson do? He gives the abused children back to their perpetrators and throws the Indian mother in jail. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years of Indian child welfare experience.”
Next week, Eby and LaMere are scheduled to attend the 12th Annual March to Honor Lost Children in Sioux City. For 12 years, says LaMere, it has been necessary to organize these marches and events to raise awareness of the challenges faced by Native community members who find themselves locked in a never-ending battle with child welfare systems across the country.
“We have worked hard to build a good relationship with officials here in Woodbury County,” said LaMere. “But there are countless counties across the country that ignore the Indian Child Welfare Act. Sadly, they forget that ICWA is not a ‘defense’ strategy – it is federal law. And we want to ensure that they are attentive to the requirements of the law.”
But we have seen similar situations played out where ethnic/racial differences are not apparent. To a very large extent, this is testimony to how much power the fathers rights movement has been able to wield over the family courts and child "protection" system. And that also needs to be brought out.
The fact that 17-year-old boys are being silenced by the courts is very much a fathers rights thing. SHAME ON JUDGE EDWARD JACOBSON for engaging in heavy-handed FR tactics.
See our previous post here. For some reason, the father has not been identified in the media.
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/11/20/sioux-mother-return-court-latest-fight-her-abused-sons-157916
Sioux Mother to Return to Court in Latest Fight for Her Abused Sons
Suzette Brewer 11/20/14
On Friday, November 21 another hearing is scheduled in the Iowa District Court in Plymouth County in an interstate custody showdown that has sparked national outrage among tribes and Indian child welfare advocates over the return of disabled twin brothers to the custody of their non-Indian father, who has six founded cases of child abuse on his record. One of the boys is wheelchair bound with cerebral palsy, while the other is blind and has autism.
Last June, Audre’y Eby, the twins’ Rosebud Sioux mother who resides in Nebraska, was jailed for a week in Iowa on kidnapping charges for refusing to return the boys back to their father after officials in Nebraska threatened her with child endangerment charges when they found evidence of abuse during an emergency room visit, in which blood and bruises were found on one of the boys’ groin area. The boys testified to officials in both states that their father’s girlfriend had kicked one of them after she caught him masturbating and that the father had threatened to “cut his privates off.”
Trapped between competing interstate jurisdictions, Eby said she had no choice but to keep her children, even though she subsequently went to jail in Iowa for trying to protect them from their abusers.
Eby kept the boys in Nebraska for a time, but subsequently moved them to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota in order to protect them from their father and his live-in girlfriend, both of whom have been placed on the Iowa Central Abuse Registry for physical abuse, denial of critical care and failure to provide proper supervision to the twins. In early October, the boys, who are now 17, were ordered to appear before Judge Edward Jacobson for testimony at a hearing, with which Eby complied. But rather than allowing the boys to testify as ordered, Jacobson instead ordered half a dozen police officers to physically remove the boys from their mother’s custody in the hallway of the courthouse in front of at least a dozen bystanders, who were shocked that the incident took place in such a public manner with no plan for a peaceful transfer, as usually is required under these circumstances. Eby said both boys were struggling and screaming to stay with her as they were being led away by law enforcement.
“Judge Jacobson said ‘I don’t allow children to testify in my court,’” said Eby. “The order was a ruse to get me to bring them [to Iowa] so they could take them from me.”
Subsequently, in a one-page ruling issued by Judge Edward Jacobson that only vaguely refers to the evidence that was presented, the boys were immediately ordered back to their father that day. Jacobson only mentioned that Eby had “absconded” with the children, in spite of the fact that the State of Nebraska had threatened her with child endangerment if she returned them to their father. Judge Jacobson also ordered that “Mr. Courtright shall have full care, custody, and control of both children. Visistation [sic] shall be at Mr. Courtright's discretion,” in spite of six founded charges of abuse on father’s record.
Eby has had no contact with her children since that time and that the boys’ father has threatened her that she will “never see them again” if she continues with the case.
“One can say that these young men fell through the cracks,” says Frank LaMere, the director of the Four Directions Community Center in Sioux City, Iowa. “The people over in Plymouth County absolutely knew what was happening to these boys and they turned a blind eye. The DHS and the officers of the court are very aware of the abuse charges against their father, but they feel no responsibility whatsoever in spite of the fact that these allegations have been confirmed and are on the record.”
LaMere says that he intends to be at the hearing on Friday, along with other members of the Native community to show their support for the twins and their mother, who they feel is victim of the racist policies toward Native parents in courtrooms across the country.
“If a Native man had six allegations of abuse on his record, he would be serving five to 10 years in prison,” said LaMere, who is a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. “But we have a white father and a white girlfriend with six founded charges and what does Judge Jacobson do? He gives the abused children back to their perpetrators and throws the Indian mother in jail. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years of Indian child welfare experience.”
Next week, Eby and LaMere are scheduled to attend the 12th Annual March to Honor Lost Children in Sioux City. For 12 years, says LaMere, it has been necessary to organize these marches and events to raise awareness of the challenges faced by Native community members who find themselves locked in a never-ending battle with child welfare systems across the country.
“We have worked hard to build a good relationship with officials here in Woodbury County,” said LaMere. “But there are countless counties across the country that ignore the Indian Child Welfare Act. Sadly, they forget that ICWA is not a ‘defense’ strategy – it is federal law. And we want to ensure that they are attentive to the requirements of the law.”
Monday, January 6, 2014
Non-custodial mom arrested for not returning teen sons to abusive custodial father (Sioux City, Iowa)
UNNAMED DAD. Since this piece appears in a Native American publication, it emphasizes the discrimination against the Sioux mother. Not explored is the systematic discrimination against all mothers alleging abuse against a father, especially a custodial father.
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/01/06/sioux-mother-rescues-abused-children-faces-arrest-152971
Sioux Mother Rescues Abused Children, Faces Arrest
Stephanie Woodard 1/6/14
The emergency room doctor was furious at what he had seen, recalled Audre’y Eby, who is Rosebud Sioux and the mother of disabled 16-year-old twins. One of her sons, who is blind and autistic, squirmed on the examination-room table, screaming, “Ow, ow, it hurts!” The doctor had found livid red and purple bruises covering his penis and scrotum, according to the Nebraska hospital’s records. Those injuries would soon lead to an arrest warrant for the mother—not because she had caused the harm, but because she did not return her son, along with his wheelchair-bound twin, to their abusers.
Indian child welfare expert Frank LaMere called the twins’ situation more extreme than any he’d seen in his many years of work in the field. “These boys are suffering,” said LaMere, who is Winnebago and the director of Four Directions Community Center, in Sioux City, Iowa.
The day before the ER visit, Eby, who is 45, drove from the Nebraska farm where she lives with her husband, Faron, to pick up her boys from their father in Iowa. It was early August of 2013, and she was going to have them for the once-a-month weekend visit the courts allow her. The boys’ father is Eby’s ex-husband; he has physical custody of the kids, and his live-in girlfriend is their primary caretaker. Eby and the boys are Native, and the father and his girlfriend are white—facts that LaMere says overshadow decisions that social-services professionals and the courts make on the children’s behalf.
During the five-hour drive to Nebraska, both twins complained. Eby put the grumbling down to the road trip—a long one for such special-needs kids. The sighted twin has cerebral palsy and can suffer painful muscle spasms, and his brother has residual discomfort from a vehicle accident he was in with his father a few years ago. “We stop for breaks, but it’s a lot of sitting still,” Eby said.
The next day, the blind twin began complaining again, and Eby saw blood in his overnight diaper. Alarmed, she and Faron loaded both boys into their car and headed for the ER. After the exam, at a moment when only health-care personnel were present, the doctor took the opportunity to ask his patient, “Who did this to you?” The child named his father’s girlfriend. The doctor questioned the sighted twin, who confirmed his brother’s story.
The doctor told Eby that the injuries were consistent with being kicked in the groin. He immediately called Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services to report alleged child abuse, hospital records show. Eby says the physician also warned her that if she didn’t keep the boys until their wellbeing could be guaranteed in Iowa, he’d have to report her for exposing children to an unsafe situation: “He said Nebraska law required him to do that.”
Eby’s fateful decision to keep her kids in Nebraska soon led to an Iowa judge issuing a warrant for her arrest. She is trapped between the laws of two states and fearful for her sons’ safety.
The Nebraska doctor’s report launched an extensive investigation by Iowa’s Child Protective Services (CPS). The investigation included another physical exam and interviews of social workers, teachers and others who’d interacted with the twins. The boys participated in a Telemed closed-circuit TV interview observed by social-services and law-enforcement personnel in Iowa and Nebraska. (The twins’ names, and that of their father, whose last name they bear, are being withheld to protect the children’s privacy. All official documents quoted here were obtained under Iowa law.)
Both children claimed the kicking occurred after the blind twin was discovered masturbating. He tells the interviewer that his dad had once threatened that “he’s gonna cut my privates off” for doing that. At one point, the boy begs, “Please help me. I’m scared.”
The investigation led to a determination that the father’s girlfriend caused the groin injuries, which means the abuse was “founded.” The father and girlfriend already had several abuse and neglect determinations between them. CPS gave the twins its highest score for risk of abuse and recommended a criminal investigation.
The girlfriend has appealed the most recent abuse finding, according to Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) documents. No charges appear to have been filed against her. She claimed the boy did the damage to himself and told CPS, “I love the boys and would never do anything to hurt either one of them.”
The father told ICTMN that whatever happened didn’t happen in Iowa and that the couple would appeal more of the abuse and neglect rulings. Over the years, 14 additional allegations have been investigated and dismissed, he noted.
Iowa DHS documents record a startling list of incidents at the father’s home: Among many, the father recently pressed on the wheelchair-bound twin’s nose until it bled, resulting in one of the founded-abuse determinations. On another occasion, the dad poured hot sauce down that boy’s throat while the girlfriend pressed her elbow into his neck to ensure he swallowed it. A social worker recounts watching the father smash a sandwich onto the blind boy’s forehead, purportedly to get him to eat his lunch. The girlfriend has stuffed a cloth down one boy’s throat to silence him. Punishments include cold showers.
Social workers describe quasi-military discipline. “I’m a veteran, and I'm trying to instill values like honor, loyalty and courage in my children,” the father said. “If that’s wrong, then a lot of parents are wrong.”
Judy Yellowbank, who is Winnebago and the program director at Four Directions Community Center, likened the twins’ treatment to torture. She charged that there’s a double standard in child welfare. “Native parents would be behind bars if they had committed the child abuse and neglect that these two white caregivers have,” Yellowbank said.
Following the recent kicking incident and subsequent abuse finding, Iowa DHS recommended returning the twins to their father’s home, with the caveat that the live-in girlfriend no longer be primary caregiver. When asked how that set-up would work from a practical point of view, the father refused to answer.
One of Eby’s attorneys, Judy Freking, of LeMars, Iowa, asked, “What is the purpose of a child-abuse investigation if, upon concluding that abuse occurred, DHS does not get involved, and DHS does not offer any services to correct the problem that led to the abuse of these boys?”
The father is determined to get the kids back, saying Iowa can provide them more services than rural Nebraska, where the Ebys’ farm is. He recently went to Iowa juvenile court, claiming that his ex-wife was keeping the boys in Nebraska because of “extreme hostility” toward his girlfriend. The judge agreed, writing in an order issued this past September, “It’s apparent this animosity has been a factor.” The judge noted the father’s claim that he had “fully and properly cared for the boys.” The order does not mention the founded abuse and neglect rulings or any criminal investigation.
In October, a district court judge issued an arrest warrant for Eby. She learned of it when it pinged into her email from the Iowa courts’ online system. “I couldn’t cry because my sons were here. I called Faron. He came home from work and sat with the boys, so I could get myself together. Faron has been such a powerful support in all this. We both want the boys living on the farm with us.”
After Eby and the boys’ biological father separated in 2003, when the boys were six, she cared for them. When they turned 12, she thought they should get to know their father. “At the time it seemed like a reasonable idea,” Eby recalled. As the problems in the father’s home mounted, she fought to get the boys back, succeeding briefly in 2011. Through all the abuse and neglect findings, Iowa DHS documents reveal, the agency’s goal has generally been to reunite the twins with their father, and the courts have concurred. He receives their social-security and other subsidies.
Attorney Freking wondered if the situation would have played out similarly if Eby had committed the abuse. LaMere has an answer, and it’s simple: No. He said that Eby’s situation is emblematic of the double standard Yellowbank described. Indian parents are expected to leap enormous hurdles to keep their kids—with no second chances and no benefit of the doubt, said LaMere.
“It does appear that Audre’y and her ex-husband aren’t on equal footing in terms of Iowa DHS recommendations to the courts,” said Freking. ) One of Audre’y Eby’s twin sons, who has cerebral palsy, receives stitches in an Iowa emergency room. The 16-year-old and his twin brother live with their father and his girlfriend. According to court records, the girlfriend sent the teen shopping alone in his wheelchair. He got lost and tipped off a curb, gashing his forehead. The incident resulted in one of several abuse and neglect findings for the father and his girlfriend. (Courtesy Audre'y Eby)
Patterns in Indian child welfare
Recently, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services did a home study that confirmed Eby and her husband provide her twins with a good home. However, past turbulence in Eby’s life, including drug involvement as a young woman, may be why Iowa won’t grant her primary custody. “Audre’y has left those problems behind, she’s a good mother, and her home study is positive—but that’s not good enough,” said LaMere. “Many of us Native people have lived tough lives, and as far as the system is concerned, anything we’ve been involved with follows us forever. We are not allowed to grow and change.”
The phenomenon is common in Indian child welfare, LaMere continued. “I see it in meetings I attend with Native parents. The parent has solved the problem that caused the children to be taken away. Perhaps it hasn’t been an issue for years. But that’s never good enough. At one meeting, a social worker announced she’d found dirty dishes in the sink at the Native mother’s home, so she shouldn’t get her kids back. I became unglued. I stressed that the mother didn’t lose her children over dirty dishes, and they couldn’t be kept from her for this reason.”
The problem has its roots in history. Federal policy long supported forcibly assimilating Native people as a way to solve the “Indian problem.” Starting in the late 1800s, Native children were sent to government- and church-run boarding schools, where “Kill the Indian, save the child,” was the mantra. And many did die—of beatings, starvation and disease. Sexual and emotional abuse led others to commit suicide. The pervasive trauma, touching virtually every Indian family, stalks Native communities to this day.
During the mid-20th century, boarding schools were closed or turned over to the tribes, and the Indian Adoption Project took over as the assimilation mechanism. This federal program, aided by states and churches, swept about a third of Native children into non-Native homes. After hearing much testimony, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in 1978 in an effort to stem the social and cultural holocaust.
ICWA established Indian preferences for placement of Indian children like Eby’s sons, whether they are enrolled tribal members or eligible for enrollment. ICWA allows tribes to intervene on behalf of their children and requires “active” efforts keep Indian kids with Indian families. “Legally, that means more than ‘reasonable’ efforts,” said LaMere. “It means busting your butt to make it happen.”
In the real lives of Native people, it just doesn’t work out that way. “If you’re having any problems with the system, they’ll take your kids anytime they want,” said a Santee Sioux grandfather, whose granddaughter and grandniece died after being adopted out of his family—one at the hands of her new father and the other by drowning.
ICWA may be federal law, but its enforcement takes place county by county, according to LaMere. He described progress in applying the law in one Iowa jurisdiction—Woodbury County, with its large Native population centered in Sioux City. “I have to believe that if Audre’y’s case had been dealt with here, she would have gotten custody of her sons. However, in other parts of Iowa, and in many states, old attitudes persist about Native people.” There’s a sometimes unspoken and sometimes openly acknowledged belief that American Indians can’t or shouldn’t take care of their kids, LaMere said. Neither the Iowa DHS Native Unit, which oversees Native-related cases, nor the Rosebud Sioux Tribe responded to requests for an interview about these issues.
The Iowa courts’ seeming inability to deal even-handedly with Native people causes ambiguities for other agencies, including law enforcement. In a phone interview, local Iowa police chief Dan Kremer, who observed the CPS Telemed interviews related to the blind twin’s ER visit, said at first that some were “out to hang” the father and his girlfriend. “Maybe they need hanging,” Kremer then added, “but so far the courts have not gone after them.” He pointed out that the situation in the home “has been going on for a long time.”
Looking forward
Since the twins have been on the Nebraska farm, they’ve put weight on their once-emaciated frames, and Eby has let their crewcuts grow out. “They look so handsome now!” she said. The other day, she recalled, one son told her, “I don’t feel shrunken any more.” She enjoys seeing them caught up in the rhythms of farm life. “Family comes to visit. We have real sit-down dinners with no TV, and Faron makes root beer floats on Saturday nights.”
Eby called LaMere a critical ally. “He says to focus on the good, pray and be mindful of what we have. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to express the pain of all this, but the love I can.”
LaMere sees a lesson: “The Creator sent us these two boys as teachers—to instruct us to renew our fight to keep our kids safe and our families intact.”
For Eby’s family, the future is uncertain. “Something will change, but I don't know what,” she said. “Somehow, life has to be bearable for my boys. Is there anything else I can do?”
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/01/06/sioux-mother-rescues-abused-children-faces-arrest-152971
Sioux Mother Rescues Abused Children, Faces Arrest
Stephanie Woodard 1/6/14
The emergency room doctor was furious at what he had seen, recalled Audre’y Eby, who is Rosebud Sioux and the mother of disabled 16-year-old twins. One of her sons, who is blind and autistic, squirmed on the examination-room table, screaming, “Ow, ow, it hurts!” The doctor had found livid red and purple bruises covering his penis and scrotum, according to the Nebraska hospital’s records. Those injuries would soon lead to an arrest warrant for the mother—not because she had caused the harm, but because she did not return her son, along with his wheelchair-bound twin, to their abusers.
Indian child welfare expert Frank LaMere called the twins’ situation more extreme than any he’d seen in his many years of work in the field. “These boys are suffering,” said LaMere, who is Winnebago and the director of Four Directions Community Center, in Sioux City, Iowa.
The day before the ER visit, Eby, who is 45, drove from the Nebraska farm where she lives with her husband, Faron, to pick up her boys from their father in Iowa. It was early August of 2013, and she was going to have them for the once-a-month weekend visit the courts allow her. The boys’ father is Eby’s ex-husband; he has physical custody of the kids, and his live-in girlfriend is their primary caretaker. Eby and the boys are Native, and the father and his girlfriend are white—facts that LaMere says overshadow decisions that social-services professionals and the courts make on the children’s behalf.
During the five-hour drive to Nebraska, both twins complained. Eby put the grumbling down to the road trip—a long one for such special-needs kids. The sighted twin has cerebral palsy and can suffer painful muscle spasms, and his brother has residual discomfort from a vehicle accident he was in with his father a few years ago. “We stop for breaks, but it’s a lot of sitting still,” Eby said.
The next day, the blind twin began complaining again, and Eby saw blood in his overnight diaper. Alarmed, she and Faron loaded both boys into their car and headed for the ER. After the exam, at a moment when only health-care personnel were present, the doctor took the opportunity to ask his patient, “Who did this to you?” The child named his father’s girlfriend. The doctor questioned the sighted twin, who confirmed his brother’s story.
The doctor told Eby that the injuries were consistent with being kicked in the groin. He immediately called Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services to report alleged child abuse, hospital records show. Eby says the physician also warned her that if she didn’t keep the boys until their wellbeing could be guaranteed in Iowa, he’d have to report her for exposing children to an unsafe situation: “He said Nebraska law required him to do that.”
Eby’s fateful decision to keep her kids in Nebraska soon led to an Iowa judge issuing a warrant for her arrest. She is trapped between the laws of two states and fearful for her sons’ safety.
The Nebraska doctor’s report launched an extensive investigation by Iowa’s Child Protective Services (CPS). The investigation included another physical exam and interviews of social workers, teachers and others who’d interacted with the twins. The boys participated in a Telemed closed-circuit TV interview observed by social-services and law-enforcement personnel in Iowa and Nebraska. (The twins’ names, and that of their father, whose last name they bear, are being withheld to protect the children’s privacy. All official documents quoted here were obtained under Iowa law.)
Both children claimed the kicking occurred after the blind twin was discovered masturbating. He tells the interviewer that his dad had once threatened that “he’s gonna cut my privates off” for doing that. At one point, the boy begs, “Please help me. I’m scared.”
The investigation led to a determination that the father’s girlfriend caused the groin injuries, which means the abuse was “founded.” The father and girlfriend already had several abuse and neglect determinations between them. CPS gave the twins its highest score for risk of abuse and recommended a criminal investigation.
The girlfriend has appealed the most recent abuse finding, according to Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) documents. No charges appear to have been filed against her. She claimed the boy did the damage to himself and told CPS, “I love the boys and would never do anything to hurt either one of them.”
The father told ICTMN that whatever happened didn’t happen in Iowa and that the couple would appeal more of the abuse and neglect rulings. Over the years, 14 additional allegations have been investigated and dismissed, he noted.
Iowa DHS documents record a startling list of incidents at the father’s home: Among many, the father recently pressed on the wheelchair-bound twin’s nose until it bled, resulting in one of the founded-abuse determinations. On another occasion, the dad poured hot sauce down that boy’s throat while the girlfriend pressed her elbow into his neck to ensure he swallowed it. A social worker recounts watching the father smash a sandwich onto the blind boy’s forehead, purportedly to get him to eat his lunch. The girlfriend has stuffed a cloth down one boy’s throat to silence him. Punishments include cold showers.
Social workers describe quasi-military discipline. “I’m a veteran, and I'm trying to instill values like honor, loyalty and courage in my children,” the father said. “If that’s wrong, then a lot of parents are wrong.”
Judy Yellowbank, who is Winnebago and the program director at Four Directions Community Center, likened the twins’ treatment to torture. She charged that there’s a double standard in child welfare. “Native parents would be behind bars if they had committed the child abuse and neglect that these two white caregivers have,” Yellowbank said.
Following the recent kicking incident and subsequent abuse finding, Iowa DHS recommended returning the twins to their father’s home, with the caveat that the live-in girlfriend no longer be primary caregiver. When asked how that set-up would work from a practical point of view, the father refused to answer.
One of Eby’s attorneys, Judy Freking, of LeMars, Iowa, asked, “What is the purpose of a child-abuse investigation if, upon concluding that abuse occurred, DHS does not get involved, and DHS does not offer any services to correct the problem that led to the abuse of these boys?”
The father is determined to get the kids back, saying Iowa can provide them more services than rural Nebraska, where the Ebys’ farm is. He recently went to Iowa juvenile court, claiming that his ex-wife was keeping the boys in Nebraska because of “extreme hostility” toward his girlfriend. The judge agreed, writing in an order issued this past September, “It’s apparent this animosity has been a factor.” The judge noted the father’s claim that he had “fully and properly cared for the boys.” The order does not mention the founded abuse and neglect rulings or any criminal investigation.
In October, a district court judge issued an arrest warrant for Eby. She learned of it when it pinged into her email from the Iowa courts’ online system. “I couldn’t cry because my sons were here. I called Faron. He came home from work and sat with the boys, so I could get myself together. Faron has been such a powerful support in all this. We both want the boys living on the farm with us.”
After Eby and the boys’ biological father separated in 2003, when the boys were six, she cared for them. When they turned 12, she thought they should get to know their father. “At the time it seemed like a reasonable idea,” Eby recalled. As the problems in the father’s home mounted, she fought to get the boys back, succeeding briefly in 2011. Through all the abuse and neglect findings, Iowa DHS documents reveal, the agency’s goal has generally been to reunite the twins with their father, and the courts have concurred. He receives their social-security and other subsidies.
Attorney Freking wondered if the situation would have played out similarly if Eby had committed the abuse. LaMere has an answer, and it’s simple: No. He said that Eby’s situation is emblematic of the double standard Yellowbank described. Indian parents are expected to leap enormous hurdles to keep their kids—with no second chances and no benefit of the doubt, said LaMere.
“It does appear that Audre’y and her ex-husband aren’t on equal footing in terms of Iowa DHS recommendations to the courts,” said Freking. ) One of Audre’y Eby’s twin sons, who has cerebral palsy, receives stitches in an Iowa emergency room. The 16-year-old and his twin brother live with their father and his girlfriend. According to court records, the girlfriend sent the teen shopping alone in his wheelchair. He got lost and tipped off a curb, gashing his forehead. The incident resulted in one of several abuse and neglect findings for the father and his girlfriend. (Courtesy Audre'y Eby)
Patterns in Indian child welfare
Recently, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services did a home study that confirmed Eby and her husband provide her twins with a good home. However, past turbulence in Eby’s life, including drug involvement as a young woman, may be why Iowa won’t grant her primary custody. “Audre’y has left those problems behind, she’s a good mother, and her home study is positive—but that’s not good enough,” said LaMere. “Many of us Native people have lived tough lives, and as far as the system is concerned, anything we’ve been involved with follows us forever. We are not allowed to grow and change.”
The phenomenon is common in Indian child welfare, LaMere continued. “I see it in meetings I attend with Native parents. The parent has solved the problem that caused the children to be taken away. Perhaps it hasn’t been an issue for years. But that’s never good enough. At one meeting, a social worker announced she’d found dirty dishes in the sink at the Native mother’s home, so she shouldn’t get her kids back. I became unglued. I stressed that the mother didn’t lose her children over dirty dishes, and they couldn’t be kept from her for this reason.”
The problem has its roots in history. Federal policy long supported forcibly assimilating Native people as a way to solve the “Indian problem.” Starting in the late 1800s, Native children were sent to government- and church-run boarding schools, where “Kill the Indian, save the child,” was the mantra. And many did die—of beatings, starvation and disease. Sexual and emotional abuse led others to commit suicide. The pervasive trauma, touching virtually every Indian family, stalks Native communities to this day.
During the mid-20th century, boarding schools were closed or turned over to the tribes, and the Indian Adoption Project took over as the assimilation mechanism. This federal program, aided by states and churches, swept about a third of Native children into non-Native homes. After hearing much testimony, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in 1978 in an effort to stem the social and cultural holocaust.
ICWA established Indian preferences for placement of Indian children like Eby’s sons, whether they are enrolled tribal members or eligible for enrollment. ICWA allows tribes to intervene on behalf of their children and requires “active” efforts keep Indian kids with Indian families. “Legally, that means more than ‘reasonable’ efforts,” said LaMere. “It means busting your butt to make it happen.”
In the real lives of Native people, it just doesn’t work out that way. “If you’re having any problems with the system, they’ll take your kids anytime they want,” said a Santee Sioux grandfather, whose granddaughter and grandniece died after being adopted out of his family—one at the hands of her new father and the other by drowning.
ICWA may be federal law, but its enforcement takes place county by county, according to LaMere. He described progress in applying the law in one Iowa jurisdiction—Woodbury County, with its large Native population centered in Sioux City. “I have to believe that if Audre’y’s case had been dealt with here, she would have gotten custody of her sons. However, in other parts of Iowa, and in many states, old attitudes persist about Native people.” There’s a sometimes unspoken and sometimes openly acknowledged belief that American Indians can’t or shouldn’t take care of their kids, LaMere said. Neither the Iowa DHS Native Unit, which oversees Native-related cases, nor the Rosebud Sioux Tribe responded to requests for an interview about these issues.
The Iowa courts’ seeming inability to deal even-handedly with Native people causes ambiguities for other agencies, including law enforcement. In a phone interview, local Iowa police chief Dan Kremer, who observed the CPS Telemed interviews related to the blind twin’s ER visit, said at first that some were “out to hang” the father and his girlfriend. “Maybe they need hanging,” Kremer then added, “but so far the courts have not gone after them.” He pointed out that the situation in the home “has been going on for a long time.”
Looking forward
Since the twins have been on the Nebraska farm, they’ve put weight on their once-emaciated frames, and Eby has let their crewcuts grow out. “They look so handsome now!” she said. The other day, she recalled, one son told her, “I don’t feel shrunken any more.” She enjoys seeing them caught up in the rhythms of farm life. “Family comes to visit. We have real sit-down dinners with no TV, and Faron makes root beer floats on Saturday nights.”
Eby called LaMere a critical ally. “He says to focus on the good, pray and be mindful of what we have. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to express the pain of all this, but the love I can.”
LaMere sees a lesson: “The Creator sent us these two boys as teachers—to instruct us to renew our fight to keep our kids safe and our families intact.”
For Eby’s family, the future is uncertain. “Something will change, but I don't know what,” she said. “Somehow, life has to be bearable for my boys. Is there anything else I can do?”
Friday, August 31, 2012
Dad charged with raping, killing 15-week-old daughter gets big break; THIS IS DISGUSTING! (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
So if you're on tribal lands, it's apparently no biggie if you rape and kill your own infant daughter?
Seems we have another worthless deadbeat POS dad where the baby asphyxiated while he was sexually assaulting her. Of course, Mom was at work earning a paycheck to support this pathetic pervert. Killer daddy isn't even a good liar. An "evil spirit" took over his body?
Guess it wasn't the first time we had a problem with that pesky evil spirit, as this POS has raped kids before!
So why wasn't he in jail and ordered to keep away from children in the future??? Somebody dropped the ball big time. But don't hold your breath wating for the names.
Scumbag dad is identified as STEVEN DEUMAN JR.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/08/federal_prosecutor_death_penal.html
Father charged with 'disturbing' sex assault, murder of infant gets break because of alleged crime's location
Published: Friday, August 31, 2012, 7:03 AM
By John Agar The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Federal authorities are prosecuting Steven Deuman Jr. in the sexual assault and killing of his 15-week-old daughter, but he won’t face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.
The charge is a capital offense, and usually subject to the death penalty under federal law.
But the killing happened on an Indian reservation in Northern Michigan.
The location, on land held in trust by the U.S. for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, is what prompted the federal investigation and prosecution. But it also gave tribal authorities, under federal law, the right to determine if the death penalty should be used in that jurisdiction. Like most tribes in the U.S., the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians declined to make capital crimes subject to the death penalty. The Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 “conditionally eliminated” the death penalty on Native American lands unless a tribe’s governing body reinstated the penalty.
Deuman, whose trial begins Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder in the Aug. 12, 2011 killing.
“Because federal jurisdiction in this case is predicated solely on the fact that the crime occurred in Indian Country, the death penalty is not available due to the fact that the governing body for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians did not opt in to the death penalty,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Green wrote in a trial brief.
Federal authorities prosecute most of the serious crimes on Indian reservations, while tribal courts handle less serious crimes such as drunken driving, assault or theft.
The killing of Deuman’s daughter, identified in court records only by her initials, E.D., happened in Suttons Bay in Leelanau County.
Tribal police began investigating shortly after the girl arrived at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. The FBI soon got involved.
The allegations are particularly egregious: Prosecutors say the girl was asphyxiated when her father sexually assaulted her. He told police the girl accidentally fell from a bed, and choked on a used condom.
“The underlying facts of this case are particularly disturbing and, unfortunately, there is no way to sanitize those facts now or at trial,” Green wrote in the trial brief. The government said the girl’s death was suspicious from the start.
At the hospital, Deuman acted “overly aggressive,” which required hospital security and Traverse City police to respond, Green wrote.
Deuman then consented to an interview with a tribal police officer. He told police he was watching his daughter while the girl’s mother was at work when the girl became “fussy.”
He told police he gave her a bottle and put her in the middle of his queen-size bed.
He said he then went outside to smoke, then, after the girl’s mother called to say she was leaving work, said he had a “bad feeling” and went to check on the girl.
He said he found her face down on the floor, not breathing with a used condom in her mouth, the government said.
During one of several interviews with investigators, he allegedly said an “evil spirit” must have taken over his body.
The government said Deuman has made incriminating statements to investigators and others.
The defense says that the death was “accidental and not the result of homicide.”
The defense also contends that police coerced statements from Deuman during lengthy, and repeated, interviews.
Defense attorneys Clare Freeman, Richard Stroba and Sean Tilton want U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist to allow testimony of Dr. Richard Leo, an expert in the field of false confessions.
Leo testified this week in a hearing to determine if he will be allowed to testify at trial.
“False confessions are counter-intuitive, but they’re well documented,” Leo testified.
He said some people confess by speculating they must have committed the crime, perhaps while blacked out.
Deuman has allegedly told investigators “it is possible that he may have killed his daughter, but he did not recall doing so,” the prosecution wrote.
The judge has not determined if Leo will be allowed to testify at trial.
The government also wants to offer evidence to jurors that Deuman had previously sexually assaulted other children in the past. The defense wants to exclude the evidence.
Seems we have another worthless deadbeat POS dad where the baby asphyxiated while he was sexually assaulting her. Of course, Mom was at work earning a paycheck to support this pathetic pervert. Killer daddy isn't even a good liar. An "evil spirit" took over his body?
Guess it wasn't the first time we had a problem with that pesky evil spirit, as this POS has raped kids before!
So why wasn't he in jail and ordered to keep away from children in the future??? Somebody dropped the ball big time. But don't hold your breath wating for the names.
Scumbag dad is identified as STEVEN DEUMAN JR.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/08/federal_prosecutor_death_penal.html
Father charged with 'disturbing' sex assault, murder of infant gets break because of alleged crime's location
Published: Friday, August 31, 2012, 7:03 AM
By John Agar The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Federal authorities are prosecuting Steven Deuman Jr. in the sexual assault and killing of his 15-week-old daughter, but he won’t face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.
The charge is a capital offense, and usually subject to the death penalty under federal law.
But the killing happened on an Indian reservation in Northern Michigan.
The location, on land held in trust by the U.S. for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, is what prompted the federal investigation and prosecution. But it also gave tribal authorities, under federal law, the right to determine if the death penalty should be used in that jurisdiction. Like most tribes in the U.S., the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians declined to make capital crimes subject to the death penalty. The Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 “conditionally eliminated” the death penalty on Native American lands unless a tribe’s governing body reinstated the penalty.
Deuman, whose trial begins Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder in the Aug. 12, 2011 killing.
“Because federal jurisdiction in this case is predicated solely on the fact that the crime occurred in Indian Country, the death penalty is not available due to the fact that the governing body for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians did not opt in to the death penalty,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Green wrote in a trial brief.
Federal authorities prosecute most of the serious crimes on Indian reservations, while tribal courts handle less serious crimes such as drunken driving, assault or theft.
The killing of Deuman’s daughter, identified in court records only by her initials, E.D., happened in Suttons Bay in Leelanau County.
Tribal police began investigating shortly after the girl arrived at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. The FBI soon got involved.
The allegations are particularly egregious: Prosecutors say the girl was asphyxiated when her father sexually assaulted her. He told police the girl accidentally fell from a bed, and choked on a used condom.
“The underlying facts of this case are particularly disturbing and, unfortunately, there is no way to sanitize those facts now or at trial,” Green wrote in the trial brief. The government said the girl’s death was suspicious from the start.
At the hospital, Deuman acted “overly aggressive,” which required hospital security and Traverse City police to respond, Green wrote.
Deuman then consented to an interview with a tribal police officer. He told police he was watching his daughter while the girl’s mother was at work when the girl became “fussy.”
He told police he gave her a bottle and put her in the middle of his queen-size bed.
He said he then went outside to smoke, then, after the girl’s mother called to say she was leaving work, said he had a “bad feeling” and went to check on the girl.
He said he found her face down on the floor, not breathing with a used condom in her mouth, the government said.
During one of several interviews with investigators, he allegedly said an “evil spirit” must have taken over his body.
The government said Deuman has made incriminating statements to investigators and others.
The defense says that the death was “accidental and not the result of homicide.”
The defense also contends that police coerced statements from Deuman during lengthy, and repeated, interviews.
Defense attorneys Clare Freeman, Richard Stroba and Sean Tilton want U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist to allow testimony of Dr. Richard Leo, an expert in the field of false confessions.
Leo testified this week in a hearing to determine if he will be allowed to testify at trial.
“False confessions are counter-intuitive, but they’re well documented,” Leo testified.
He said some people confess by speculating they must have committed the crime, perhaps while blacked out.
Deuman has allegedly told investigators “it is possible that he may have killed his daughter, but he did not recall doing so,” the prosecution wrote.
The judge has not determined if Leo will be allowed to testify at trial.
The government also wants to offer evidence to jurors that Deuman had previously sexually assaulted other children in the past. The defense wants to exclude the evidence.
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