Great article.
http://www.fosters.com/article/20160410/NEWS/160419950
Domestic violence survivors deserve better court model
By Crystal Paradis
Posted Apr 10, 2016 at 3:15 AM
Updated at 11:00 AM
My sister was lucky when her husband tried to kill her 18 months ago. As crazy as that sounds, it’s true. That attack against her life gave her courage to finally call for help and escape nearly two decades of abuse. Hearing this story devastated us, her loving family who suspected for decades but hoped it was just our imagination, but it also made us whole again by allowing us back into her life.
Before escaping through a window, she tried to calm her kids, my 11-year-old niece and screaming, crying 6-year-old nephew, who had just witnessed his father strangling his mother. “Who knew your own dad could turn out to be a bad guy?” he asked. As she waited outside in the freezing cold Grafton night, hiding in the dark in her pajamas, for the one and half hours it took the police to arrive after she called for help, safety seemed so far away.
After a nightmare of months on the run, moving with her kids from one safe house to another, my sister was also luckier than many survivors of domestic violence to hear her abuser proclaimed “guilty” on several counts in a courtroom, further validating her choice to finally escape and save her family from a monster.
But as anyone who’s been through a court case involving family violence can tell you, the story doesn’t end with the criminal verdict. Her attacker will likely be going to jail, but he’s still a free man throughout the sentencing and appeal process. Another year or more of hiding from the man who promised to kill her if she ever told.
With the next hearing came another judge, to decide if and how often she’d have to bring her kids to see a man that terrified them all. She was warned that supervised visitation was the most likely ruling, and was the best order she could hope for. Although she still feared for her life and the safety of her children, asking for no visitation at all was likely to get her branded as an “unreasonable” parent, and risked the judge awarding unsupervised visitation.
Just like that, she was pushed back into a compromise of keeping her kids at risk to avoid a potentially more serious and deadly consequence. This is how our court systems re-victimize survivors of domestic violence, every day.
In domestic violence cases, there are usually at least two judges involved, sometimes three. The criminal judge oversees the criminal elements of the case including orders of protection/restraining orders, charges of violent behavior, etc.; their driving motivation is typically perpetrator accountability and victim safety. The family court judge oversees matters of custody and visitation; their driving motivation is typically ensuring equal access to children, if it can be done safely. If Child Protective Services gets involved, there can be a third judge whose focus is typically on child safety and best interests.
These disparate motivating factors and separation of access to various case specifics often results in frustrating rulings. These fractures in our court systems are leaving victims unsafe and children exposed to potential harm.
My fierce niece sits outside the visitation room every week, refusing to see the man who hurt her mother. My nephew enters hesitantly, looking for the good-behavior version of his dad, trying to figure out the answer to the question he asked the night of his father’s last attack: Who knew your own dad could turn out to be a bad guy?
It’s overwhelming for already traumatized victims to go through our court systems. Those who feel completely unsafe by court mandates abandon trust in the system and flee, with or without their children. This, in turn, can result in charges against them for either kidnapping or child abandonment. It’s a lose-lose scenario for these survivors, even after they reach out to ask for help.
About a third of all reported violent crimes are cases of family violence. It is a significant enough problem to warrant its own process. And in some courts, that’s exactly what is happening.
In Portland, Oregon, family courts look very different. They follow a “One Family/One Judge” model where a single judge, familiar with the unique challenges of families and children exposed to domestic violence, is presented with all relevant information pertaining to a family. That one judge is empowered to make a timely ruling, weighing the safety and best interests of all parties.
Portland is one of four cities selected for participation in the Family Court Enhancement Project, a collaborative project of the Office of Violence Against Women, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Battered Women’s Justice Project and the National Institute for Justice. These courts are pioneering new approaches in making custody decisions.
According to a press release announcing the project, it seeks to address “concerns from domestic violence survivors, advocates, and court staff that family courts are struggling to adequately consider the physical and emotional safety of children (and their parents) in child custody cases where domestic violence is present.” This is just one initiative of domestic violence court reform.
Several other courts and lead judges have adopted the NCJFCJ’s Project ONE approach, a holistic multi-court collaborative model that puts the family at the center to achieve best outcomes. The key principles of Project ONE include: One Family-One Judge; just and timely decisions; respect; collaboration; system accountability; victim safety and empowerment. This is what it looks like to rebuild a broken system.
Other communities are calling for and creating, a better way. New Hampshire children and families deserve a better way, too. Let’s look at what is working in other communities and ask for help in bringing their successes home to our own courts. It will take those directly affected by the failings of the system and the support of people outside of this traumatic cycle to step up, speak up and lift up our brave survivors.
When I hug my sister now, I do it tightly, trying in some way to keep her safe.
When I hug my niece and nephew, I do it gingerly, as if they might break. But I know that they are stronger than all of us. And when they get around to ruling the world, I have no doubt they’ll do it better than we ever did. Until then, we’re all waiting on the courts.
Crystal Paradis is a writer, feminist, marketing professional and serial community organizer. She lives and works in Portsmouth and can be reached at cfparadis@gmail.com.
Showing posts with label New Hampshire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Hampshire. Show all posts
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Dad charged with assault in brutal beating of 3-month-old son; baby in induced coma (Brentwood, New Hampshire)
As so often happens, Mom had to work and support the family even though her baby was only 3 months old. So the deadbeat useless father took over as caretaker--only to nearly kill the baby for normal infantile behavior.
Dad is identified as JOSE A. ORTA-SANTANA.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20150305/NEWS03/150309475
March 05. 2015 11:34AM
Police say Newmarket father admitted punching baby out of frustration
By JASON SCHREIBER and JAMES A. KIMBLE
Union Leader Correspondents
BRENTWOOD — A Newmarket father admitted he punched his 3-month-old baby boy repeatedly in the head and caused multiple fractures by squeezing him because he wasn’t getting enough sleep and the infant frustrated him, police said in an affidavit.
“I know, I hit him a few times and I’m sorry,” Jose A. Orta-Santana told police in an hour-long interview reported in an affidavit filed Thursday in Brentwood Circuit Court.
Orta-Santana, 25, of 275 Great Bay Woods, faces first- and second-degree assault charges for allegedly beating the baby, who has been in an induced coma in the intensive care unit at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Police said the child is expected to survive.
Orta-Santana is accused of striking the infant repeatedly in the head with his fist, causing a fractured skull. The charges also allege he caused numerous other bone fractures to the baby’s feet, legs and torso.
“This is probably the most serious child-abuse case that we’ve dealt with in a long time. I’ve been a police officer for 30 years, and this has got to be in the top two or three that I’ve ever seen,” Newmarket Police Chief Kevin Cyr said.
Orta-Santana waived arraignment Thursday and was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail at the Rockingham County jail.
The infant first was brought to Exeter Hospital on Feb. 28 by his parents, Orta-Santana and Carissa Sarazin.
Police said that in an interview with police on Wednesday, Sarazin said she received a message from Orta-Santana on Feb. 28 saying she needed to come home from work early because there was a problem with their son, the affidavit said.
She told police she arrived home and noticed swelling on the right side of the boy’s head.
After the initial emergency room visit in Exeter, the baby was flown to Boston Children’s Hospital.
“The initial information was that (the boy) had sustained a fractured skull under suspicious circumstances,” Lt. Kyle True wrote.
In the interview Wednesday, Orta-Santana initially gave a story he allegedly told to hospital staff when the child was first brought to the hospital, claiming he slipped on a cloth rag while holding the baby and that they both fell onto the floor, causing the child to bump his head.
“When asked to explain the other 15 bone fractures to (the boy’s) ribs, wrists, legs and feet, he admitted to me that he would get ‘frustrated’ with (the boy) because of the constant crying and having to care for him, and he would squeeze (him) extremely tight to his body until he stopped crying. He stated that he grabbed and squeezed the legs and feet of (the boy) extremely hard when he was changing him,” True wrote in the affidavit.
Orta-Santana also allegedly told police that he “grabbed his wrist and squeezed extremely hard while bathing him. He did this because he was frustrated that (the boy) would squirm in the bath tub,” the affidavit said.
When True told Orta-Santana that he didn’t believe the story about how he fell while holding the child, causing the skull fracture, Orta-Santana began to cry and allegedly said, “I know, I hit him a few times and I’m sorry,’” the affidavit said. #Orta-Santana went on to tell police that he was frustrated and on edge because he doesn’t get enough sleep, according to the affidavit.
“He stated that he held (the boy) with his right arm and used his fist to punch him three times on the right side of his head. He stated that after he struck (the boy) he put him on the floor and (he) began to whine,” the affidavit said.
Orta-Santana then allegedly explained how he noticed that he had seriously injured the boy and that his head was swelling.
True asked Orta-Santana to demonstrate the power of the punches he allegedly used on his son.
“Orta-Santana stood up and struck me three times in the arm with extreme force causing significant pain,” True wrote in the affidavit.
Orta-Santana also told police that he would occasionally throw the baby onto the bed with “enough force to cause him to bounce up off the bed,” the affidavit said.
Doctors told police that the baby suffered serious injuries that included a significant cerebral contusion; two skull fractures; bruising on the right side of his head and ear with cuts; a contusion under the skull fractures; subdural hematoma; numerous rib fractures; and other leg fractures.
According to the complaints, the skull fracture allegedly occurred on Feb. 28 at an address in Newmarket. The other injuries are alleged to have happened earlier. The baby was born Nov. 25.
Orta-Santana is due back in court on March 12 at 9:30 a.m. for a probable cause hearing.
Dad is identified as JOSE A. ORTA-SANTANA.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20150305/NEWS03/150309475
March 05. 2015 11:34AM
Police say Newmarket father admitted punching baby out of frustration
By JASON SCHREIBER and JAMES A. KIMBLE
Union Leader Correspondents
BRENTWOOD — A Newmarket father admitted he punched his 3-month-old baby boy repeatedly in the head and caused multiple fractures by squeezing him because he wasn’t getting enough sleep and the infant frustrated him, police said in an affidavit.
“I know, I hit him a few times and I’m sorry,” Jose A. Orta-Santana told police in an hour-long interview reported in an affidavit filed Thursday in Brentwood Circuit Court.
Orta-Santana, 25, of 275 Great Bay Woods, faces first- and second-degree assault charges for allegedly beating the baby, who has been in an induced coma in the intensive care unit at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Police said the child is expected to survive.
Orta-Santana is accused of striking the infant repeatedly in the head with his fist, causing a fractured skull. The charges also allege he caused numerous other bone fractures to the baby’s feet, legs and torso.
“This is probably the most serious child-abuse case that we’ve dealt with in a long time. I’ve been a police officer for 30 years, and this has got to be in the top two or three that I’ve ever seen,” Newmarket Police Chief Kevin Cyr said.
Orta-Santana waived arraignment Thursday and was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail at the Rockingham County jail.
The infant first was brought to Exeter Hospital on Feb. 28 by his parents, Orta-Santana and Carissa Sarazin.
Police said that in an interview with police on Wednesday, Sarazin said she received a message from Orta-Santana on Feb. 28 saying she needed to come home from work early because there was a problem with their son, the affidavit said.
She told police she arrived home and noticed swelling on the right side of the boy’s head.
After the initial emergency room visit in Exeter, the baby was flown to Boston Children’s Hospital.
“The initial information was that (the boy) had sustained a fractured skull under suspicious circumstances,” Lt. Kyle True wrote.
In the interview Wednesday, Orta-Santana initially gave a story he allegedly told to hospital staff when the child was first brought to the hospital, claiming he slipped on a cloth rag while holding the baby and that they both fell onto the floor, causing the child to bump his head.
“When asked to explain the other 15 bone fractures to (the boy’s) ribs, wrists, legs and feet, he admitted to me that he would get ‘frustrated’ with (the boy) because of the constant crying and having to care for him, and he would squeeze (him) extremely tight to his body until he stopped crying. He stated that he grabbed and squeezed the legs and feet of (the boy) extremely hard when he was changing him,” True wrote in the affidavit.
Orta-Santana also allegedly told police that he “grabbed his wrist and squeezed extremely hard while bathing him. He did this because he was frustrated that (the boy) would squirm in the bath tub,” the affidavit said.
When True told Orta-Santana that he didn’t believe the story about how he fell while holding the child, causing the skull fracture, Orta-Santana began to cry and allegedly said, “I know, I hit him a few times and I’m sorry,’” the affidavit said. #Orta-Santana went on to tell police that he was frustrated and on edge because he doesn’t get enough sleep, according to the affidavit.
“He stated that he held (the boy) with his right arm and used his fist to punch him three times on the right side of his head. He stated that after he struck (the boy) he put him on the floor and (he) began to whine,” the affidavit said.
Orta-Santana then allegedly explained how he noticed that he had seriously injured the boy and that his head was swelling.
True asked Orta-Santana to demonstrate the power of the punches he allegedly used on his son.
“Orta-Santana stood up and struck me three times in the arm with extreme force causing significant pain,” True wrote in the affidavit.
Orta-Santana also told police that he would occasionally throw the baby onto the bed with “enough force to cause him to bounce up off the bed,” the affidavit said.
Doctors told police that the baby suffered serious injuries that included a significant cerebral contusion; two skull fractures; bruising on the right side of his head and ear with cuts; a contusion under the skull fractures; subdural hematoma; numerous rib fractures; and other leg fractures.
According to the complaints, the skull fracture allegedly occurred on Feb. 28 at an address in Newmarket. The other injuries are alleged to have happened earlier. The baby was born Nov. 25.
Orta-Santana is due back in court on March 12 at 9:30 a.m. for a probable cause hearing.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Video-game addicted father arrested for assaulting 3-month-old baby; already in custody for parole violation tied to another assault (Newport, New Hampshire)
Please, people. This isn't rocket science. A father who has a history of assault (and probation violation related to that assault) is rather likely to assault again...and again. Just as dad JERRRY CARRIER did, a video game-addicted moron who obviously has poor impulse control. These men make poor infant caretakers. Are we clear on that now?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/18/enraged-by-a-video-game-new-hampshire-dad-turned-on-infant-son-police-say/
Enraged by a video game, New Hampshire dad turned on infant son, police say
By Peter Holley February 18 at 11:48 AM
A New Hampshire father who admitted that rage over a video game led him to shake his infant son on multiple occasions has been arrested, according to news reports.
Jerry Carrier, 26, told police that he shook his three-month-old baby on two separate occasions within a two-week period in January, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.
“He was having trouble getting past a level of one of the games he was playing and got frustrated,” Newport police Sgt. Buddy Rowe told the newspaper.
Carrier was arrested on Monday and charged with two counts of first-degree assault, according to ABC affiliate WMUR, which noted that he is scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday.
Police say the first assault occurred at a home in Newport, N.H., on Jan. 5, when paramedics were called for an infant “in distress,” according to the Union Leader. The child was rushed to the hospital and released but was readmitted to a different hospital the next day because the baby was “unable to keep food down,” according to the newspaper.
Two weeks later, a similar incident unfolded in Charlestown, N.H., the Union Leader reported.
“The infant was described as being limp, unresponsive, blue and eyes rolled back in its head and not breathing,” police said, according to the paper. “The mother of the child went to the residence where Carrier was with the child and brought them both to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center where it was determined that the injuries sustained were from non-accidental trauma.”
Under questioning, Carrier — who was already in custody for a separate parole violation tied to another assault – confessed to shaking his child on both occasions, according to the New York Daily News.
Police said the baby remains in state custody, but they did not have an update on the infant’s condition, according to the Union Leader.
Carrier faces up to seven years in prison if found guilty, according to the Daily News.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/18/enraged-by-a-video-game-new-hampshire-dad-turned-on-infant-son-police-say/
Enraged by a video game, New Hampshire dad turned on infant son, police say
By Peter Holley February 18 at 11:48 AM
A New Hampshire father who admitted that rage over a video game led him to shake his infant son on multiple occasions has been arrested, according to news reports.
Jerry Carrier, 26, told police that he shook his three-month-old baby on two separate occasions within a two-week period in January, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.
“He was having trouble getting past a level of one of the games he was playing and got frustrated,” Newport police Sgt. Buddy Rowe told the newspaper.
Carrier was arrested on Monday and charged with two counts of first-degree assault, according to ABC affiliate WMUR, which noted that he is scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday.
Police say the first assault occurred at a home in Newport, N.H., on Jan. 5, when paramedics were called for an infant “in distress,” according to the Union Leader. The child was rushed to the hospital and released but was readmitted to a different hospital the next day because the baby was “unable to keep food down,” according to the newspaper.
Two weeks later, a similar incident unfolded in Charlestown, N.H., the Union Leader reported.
“The infant was described as being limp, unresponsive, blue and eyes rolled back in its head and not breathing,” police said, according to the paper. “The mother of the child went to the residence where Carrier was with the child and brought them both to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center where it was determined that the injuries sustained were from non-accidental trauma.”
Under questioning, Carrier — who was already in custody for a separate parole violation tied to another assault – confessed to shaking his child on both occasions, according to the New York Daily News.
Police said the baby remains in state custody, but they did not have an update on the infant’s condition, according to the Union Leader.
Carrier faces up to seven years in prison if found guilty, according to the Daily News.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Dad indicted on child porn charges, but allowed to live at home with kids (Dover, New Hampshire)
Just additional evidence that those in authority do not take child sexual abuse and child pornography seriously. If they did, then why would they be allowing dad DAVID POLLEY to live at home with seven kids?? On just $5,000 in bail?
Repulsive.
http://www.wgme.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/father-eight-faces-charges-child-porn-possession-21232.shtml#.Uw_wd9co4pQ
Father of eight faces charges for child porn possession
Updated: Wednesday, February 26 2014, 11:14 PM EST
DOVER, N.H. (WGME) -- A Sanford man and father of eight has been indicted on more than 50 charges of possessing child pornography.
Police said the images were found on David Polley's computer at Liberty Mutual in Dover, New Hampshire, where he worked at the time.
Dover Police started investigating in June after being alerted by Liberty Mutual. According to court documents, investigators seized dozens of flashdrives, CDs, DVDs, and a laptop for analysis. A New Hampshire state lab uncovered over 3,000 images and 1,185 videos of children being sexually abused.
Prosecutors said 500 of the children were identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC. Another 2,000 children are still unknown.
According to court documents, Polley, 52, was released on $5,000 cash bail in August and is allowed to live at home with his wife, and seven of his eight kids.
Last week, a grand jury indicted Polley on 52 counts of possession of child sexual abuse images.
"We charged the 52 videos, that did not encompass the entirety of everything, so there may be additional charges next month," said Deputy County Attorney Alysia Cassotis.
When CBS 13 went to Polley's Sanford home to hear his side of the story, a woman opened, and then immediately shut the front door.
Polley's defense attorney could not be reached for comment.
Polley is scheduled to be arraigned on March 6.
Court documents show Polley is no longer employed by Liberty Mutual. A spokesman said the company is cooperating with law enforcement.
Repulsive.
http://www.wgme.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/father-eight-faces-charges-child-porn-possession-21232.shtml#.Uw_wd9co4pQ
Father of eight faces charges for child porn possession
Updated: Wednesday, February 26 2014, 11:14 PM EST
DOVER, N.H. (WGME) -- A Sanford man and father of eight has been indicted on more than 50 charges of possessing child pornography.
Police said the images were found on David Polley's computer at Liberty Mutual in Dover, New Hampshire, where he worked at the time.
Dover Police started investigating in June after being alerted by Liberty Mutual. According to court documents, investigators seized dozens of flashdrives, CDs, DVDs, and a laptop for analysis. A New Hampshire state lab uncovered over 3,000 images and 1,185 videos of children being sexually abused.
Prosecutors said 500 of the children were identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC. Another 2,000 children are still unknown.
According to court documents, Polley, 52, was released on $5,000 cash bail in August and is allowed to live at home with his wife, and seven of his eight kids.
Last week, a grand jury indicted Polley on 52 counts of possession of child sexual abuse images.
"We charged the 52 videos, that did not encompass the entirety of everything, so there may be additional charges next month," said Deputy County Attorney Alysia Cassotis.
When CBS 13 went to Polley's Sanford home to hear his side of the story, a woman opened, and then immediately shut the front door.
Polley's defense attorney could not be reached for comment.
Polley is scheduled to be arraigned on March 6.
Court documents show Polley is no longer employed by Liberty Mutual. A spokesman said the company is cooperating with law enforcement.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Bill named after boy killed by father during supervised visitation (Concord, New Hampshire)
We've posted on this case before. Fathers who issue death threats should not have ANY kind of visitation or custody rights, supervised or otherwise. That would eliminate a lot of the problems.
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/e023b3825d8e40ef94f9e13451ecddec/NH-XGR--Domestic-Violence/#.Uv0Eltco4pQ
NH Senate passes law named for boy killed by father to create domestic violence crime statute
By NORMA LOVE
Associated Press
First Posted: February 13, 2014 - 12:40 pm
Last Updated: February 13, 2014 - 12:40 pm
CONCORD, New Hampshire — New Hampshire's Senate voted unanimously Thursday to pass legislation to establish a separate crime of domestic violence and name it after a 9-year-old boy killed during a supervised visit with his father in August.
The domestic violence bill was introduced following the death of young Joshua Savyon, who was shot to death by his father in August as the two spent time together at a Manchester YWCA. His father also killed himself.
Joshua's mother, Becky Ranes, watched Thursday's vote from the Senate gallery. Gov. Maggie Hassan hugged her afterward.
"Keep at it," Hassan told her. "You are doing great work."
Ranes told reporters it was gratifying to see so many people show so much strength.
Sen. Donna Soucy, the bill's prime sponsor, said Ranes told her she had not recognized the signs of domestic violence in the relationship with Joshua's father.
"This law would not only shed more light on the issue of domestic violence, it also would assist in getting services and protections earlier in the process," said Soucy, a Manchester Democrat.
Soucy said the bill doesn't change the substance of the crimes but will help distinguish an assault that occurred in a bar fight, for example, from one that involves an attack on a spouse. She said making domestic violence a crime will allow the state to collect better data that can be used for prevention, education and intervention.
New Hampshire is one of 15 states that does not have a crime of domestic violence, she said. The bill now goes to the House.
Supporters say the distinction is important because domestic violence often escalates. In the past decade, half of the murders in New Hampshire were related to domestic violence, as were more than 90 percent of the murder-suicides.
"Passing Joshua's Law to establish a crime of domestic violence is a common-sense step that will improve the safety of our families by helping law enforcement and prosecutors better identify and stop repeat abusers," Hassan said in a statement after the vote.
People convicted of certain misdemeanor offenses under state, federal and tribal law lose the right to purchase or possess guns and are placed on a federal registry. The crime must include the use of physical force, an attempt at it or the threatened use of a deadly weapon. It must also involve a current or former spouse, parent or guardian of the victim. Other relationships that trigger the placement on the federal registry include sharing a child in common or living with the victim currently or in the past as an intimate partner.
Soucy said police and prosecutors would retain discretion in how they charge offenders under the bill.
Bill supporters also say it will better ensure that only those offenders who belong on the federal registry are added to it, preserving gun rights for those who might have been at risk of ending up on the list because of a lack of clarity in New Hampshire's law.
The Senate also passed a bill allowing courts to limit parental visits to supervised visitation centers that use metal detectors and have trained security staff on site. New Hampshire only has two such sites, one in Nashua and one in Boscawen. The bill also creates a commission to study supervised visitation centers. The Manchester YWCA had hand-held metal detectors but they were not used the day Joshua was killed.
According to investigators, Joshua's father was upset over custody arrangements and had threatened to kill his mother or himself and the boy.
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/e023b3825d8e40ef94f9e13451ecddec/NH-XGR--Domestic-Violence/#.Uv0Eltco4pQ
NH Senate passes law named for boy killed by father to create domestic violence crime statute
By NORMA LOVE
Associated Press
First Posted: February 13, 2014 - 12:40 pm
Last Updated: February 13, 2014 - 12:40 pm
CONCORD, New Hampshire — New Hampshire's Senate voted unanimously Thursday to pass legislation to establish a separate crime of domestic violence and name it after a 9-year-old boy killed during a supervised visit with his father in August.
The domestic violence bill was introduced following the death of young Joshua Savyon, who was shot to death by his father in August as the two spent time together at a Manchester YWCA. His father also killed himself.
Joshua's mother, Becky Ranes, watched Thursday's vote from the Senate gallery. Gov. Maggie Hassan hugged her afterward.
"Keep at it," Hassan told her. "You are doing great work."
Ranes told reporters it was gratifying to see so many people show so much strength.
Sen. Donna Soucy, the bill's prime sponsor, said Ranes told her she had not recognized the signs of domestic violence in the relationship with Joshua's father.
"This law would not only shed more light on the issue of domestic violence, it also would assist in getting services and protections earlier in the process," said Soucy, a Manchester Democrat.
Soucy said the bill doesn't change the substance of the crimes but will help distinguish an assault that occurred in a bar fight, for example, from one that involves an attack on a spouse. She said making domestic violence a crime will allow the state to collect better data that can be used for prevention, education and intervention.
New Hampshire is one of 15 states that does not have a crime of domestic violence, she said. The bill now goes to the House.
Supporters say the distinction is important because domestic violence often escalates. In the past decade, half of the murders in New Hampshire were related to domestic violence, as were more than 90 percent of the murder-suicides.
"Passing Joshua's Law to establish a crime of domestic violence is a common-sense step that will improve the safety of our families by helping law enforcement and prosecutors better identify and stop repeat abusers," Hassan said in a statement after the vote.
People convicted of certain misdemeanor offenses under state, federal and tribal law lose the right to purchase or possess guns and are placed on a federal registry. The crime must include the use of physical force, an attempt at it or the threatened use of a deadly weapon. It must also involve a current or former spouse, parent or guardian of the victim. Other relationships that trigger the placement on the federal registry include sharing a child in common or living with the victim currently or in the past as an intimate partner.
Soucy said police and prosecutors would retain discretion in how they charge offenders under the bill.
Bill supporters also say it will better ensure that only those offenders who belong on the federal registry are added to it, preserving gun rights for those who might have been at risk of ending up on the list because of a lack of clarity in New Hampshire's law.
The Senate also passed a bill allowing courts to limit parental visits to supervised visitation centers that use metal detectors and have trained security staff on site. New Hampshire only has two such sites, one in Nashua and one in Boscawen. The bill also creates a commission to study supervised visitation centers. The Manchester YWCA had hand-held metal detectors but they were not used the day Joshua was killed.
According to investigators, Joshua's father was upset over custody arrangements and had threatened to kill his mother or himself and the boy.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Dad gets 2-5 years in prison for abusing infant son; baby had multiple fractures (Brentwood, New Hampshire)
Typical story. Daddy was "in charge" of infant care for a 14-day period (because he was unemployed? Because he had visitation?) and spent the time playing video games. And no doubt getting frustrated when the baby did outrageous things like crying, needing to be fed, have diapers changed, etc. So he broke the baby's bones.
Note that Mom is being held responsible for "endangerment" even though she wasn't "in charge." Wonder if she was working to support the family while Daddy played at being a stay-at-home parent.
Since this baby was barely a month old when Daddy assaulted him, once again we have to lament the lack of paid maternity leaves in the U.S.
Dad is identified as CAVAN MOORE.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20140129/NEWS03/140129152
January 29. 2014 1:53PM
Raymond father gets prison time in baby abuse case
By JAMES A. KIMBLE
Union Leader Correspondent
BRENTWOOD – A Raymond man who broke his infant son’s ankle last December was sentenced two to five years in state prison as part of a negotiated plea deal with county prosecutors.
Judge Kenneth McHugh also sentenced Cavan Moore, 27, to two other suspended prison sentences for breaking his infant son’s left rib and his wrist sometime between Dec. 10 and Dec. 28. 2012.
The suspended sentences – each three-to-six years – can be imposed within the next five years if Moore runs afoul of the law, according to court documents.
Moore pleaded guilty on Nov. 27 in Rockingham County Superior Court to three counts of second-degree assault.
Each charges was punishable by 3 ½ to 7 years in state prison. Prosecutors dropped another 11 counts of second-degree assault.
The baby, who suffered breaks to his ankle and ribs, was born Nov. 3, 2012, according to prosecutors.
Raymond police were called in to investigate the injuries after Moore had brought his infant son to Exeter Hospital last Dec. 28, prosecutors said.
Doctors who analyzed X-Rays taken of the baby boy concluded that he suffered from “classic child abuse fractures,” according to Assistant County Attorney Kirsten Wilson.
Prosecutors believe that Moore inflicted the injuries sometime between Dec. 14 and Dec. 28 – a period where Moore was in charge of diaper changes and taking care of the baby.
Raymond police Det. Richard Labell testified at a hearing in September that Moore told him that he may have “stepped on his son’s ankle while playing video games.” Moore later made a different statement to police saying that he may have sat on his son’s ankle.
McHugh rejected a bid by public defenders to have those statements thrown out of court.
Moore has already spent 390 days in the Rockingham County jail, which will count toward his state prison term.
Moore’s wife, Erica, is expected to plead guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment charges next month. The charges are punishable by up to a year in county jail, but she is expected to draw a suspended sentence in exchange for her plea, court records indicate.
Note that Mom is being held responsible for "endangerment" even though she wasn't "in charge." Wonder if she was working to support the family while Daddy played at being a stay-at-home parent.
Since this baby was barely a month old when Daddy assaulted him, once again we have to lament the lack of paid maternity leaves in the U.S.
Dad is identified as CAVAN MOORE.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20140129/NEWS03/140129152
January 29. 2014 1:53PM
Raymond father gets prison time in baby abuse case
By JAMES A. KIMBLE
Union Leader Correspondent
BRENTWOOD – A Raymond man who broke his infant son’s ankle last December was sentenced two to five years in state prison as part of a negotiated plea deal with county prosecutors.
Judge Kenneth McHugh also sentenced Cavan Moore, 27, to two other suspended prison sentences for breaking his infant son’s left rib and his wrist sometime between Dec. 10 and Dec. 28. 2012.
The suspended sentences – each three-to-six years – can be imposed within the next five years if Moore runs afoul of the law, according to court documents.
Moore pleaded guilty on Nov. 27 in Rockingham County Superior Court to three counts of second-degree assault.
Each charges was punishable by 3 ½ to 7 years in state prison. Prosecutors dropped another 11 counts of second-degree assault.
The baby, who suffered breaks to his ankle and ribs, was born Nov. 3, 2012, according to prosecutors.
Raymond police were called in to investigate the injuries after Moore had brought his infant son to Exeter Hospital last Dec. 28, prosecutors said.
Doctors who analyzed X-Rays taken of the baby boy concluded that he suffered from “classic child abuse fractures,” according to Assistant County Attorney Kirsten Wilson.
Prosecutors believe that Moore inflicted the injuries sometime between Dec. 14 and Dec. 28 – a period where Moore was in charge of diaper changes and taking care of the baby.
Raymond police Det. Richard Labell testified at a hearing in September that Moore told him that he may have “stepped on his son’s ankle while playing video games.” Moore later made a different statement to police saying that he may have sat on his son’s ankle.
McHugh rejected a bid by public defenders to have those statements thrown out of court.
Moore has already spent 390 days in the Rockingham County jail, which will count toward his state prison term.
Moore’s wife, Erica, is expected to plead guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment charges next month. The charges are punishable by up to a year in county jail, but she is expected to draw a suspended sentence in exchange for her plea, court records indicate.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Protective mom fights for reforms after 9-year-old son murdered by dad during supervised visitation (Concord, New Hampshire)
We've posted on killer dad MUNI SAVYON before. He never should have been granted ANY access. period.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20140111/NEWS07/140119912
January 10. 2014 7:59PM
Slain boy's mom leads push to create crime of domestic violence
By GARRY RAYNO State House Bureau
Joshua Savyon, 9, was shot to death by his father in a supervised visit at the Manchester YWCA. His mother, Becky Ranes, will testify next week in favor of a bill establishing a separate crime of domestic violence in the state.
CONCORD — The mother of a nine-year-old boy murdered by his father in a Manchester visitation center last August will testify next week in favor of a bill that will establish domestic violence as a crime in New Hampshire.
Nine-year-old Joshua Savyon was shot and killed by his father, Muni Savyon, during a court-ordered supervised visit. Muni had threatened both Joshua and his mother's lives and was under a domestic violence protective order that had been mistakenly allow to expire.
Tuesday, Joshua's mother, Becky Ranes, will testify in favor SB 318, which would establish the crime of domestic violence.
The bill would not change existing state laws that usually apply to domestic violence crimes, but would group the statutes in one new section.
Amanda Grady Sexton of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence said the proposal sponsored by Sen. Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, and both Democratic and Republican senators and representatives, would help the state's law enforcement and criminal justice systems properly identify instances of domestic violence.
"While New Hampshire has adequate civil protections for victims, it is one of just 15 states in the country that does not have a crime of domestic violence," Grady Sexton said. "Because of this, violent offenders go unrecognized as abusers and some victims aren't even aware that what they are experiencing is in fact domestic violence."
There is a significant difference between a man who punches his wife in their home and someone who hits his friend in a bar fight yet they would be charged with the same crime of simple assault, she said.
"Statistics show that the intimate nature of the domestic violence situation carries a potential risk for escalated criminal behavior and homicide, while the bar fight typically does not," Grady Sexton said.
The bill has caught the attention of gun rights advocate who see it as an attempt to limit access to firearms, but Grady Sexton said change would not affect existing gun rights.
"I hope this doesn't turn into a gun rights bill," she said, "because it's not."
Bob Clegg, president of Pro Gun NH, said "domestic violence is a problem and we're not against making it a crime."
While he had just received a copy of the bill, he said he believes the definition of intimate relationship needs to be clarified.
"Just because I held a girl's hand in high school and kissed, and she is now a criminal and breaks into my house," Clegg said "I don't want to lose my guns if I punch her."
He said people are just beginning to study the bill and its implications, and he noted it could pass the Senate before anyone can mount a case against it.
Creating the domestic violence crime helps clarify who would be prohibited under federal law from buying a gun, Grady Sexton said.
Federal law targets those convicted of misdemeanors involving physical force or the threatened use of deadly force against family members or those who have been in "intimate relationships."
But Grady Sexton said some people who do not belong on the federal registry or National Instant Criminal Background Check System Index are on it and some who should be are not.
By establishing the domestic violence crime, it is much clearer who should be on the registry, she said.
This bill will not create a mandate, Grady Sexton said, as prosecutors will still have discretion to determine charges that bets fit each case.
The bill has the backing of the Attorney General's Office, the Department of Safety, the N.H. Association of Chiefs of Police, Child and Family Services, N.H. County Attorneys Association, N.H. Legal Assistance and the N.H. Sheriff's Association.
The public hearing will be held on the bill at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Room 100 of the State House before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20140111/NEWS07/140119912
January 10. 2014 7:59PM
Slain boy's mom leads push to create crime of domestic violence
By GARRY RAYNO State House Bureau
Joshua Savyon, 9, was shot to death by his father in a supervised visit at the Manchester YWCA. His mother, Becky Ranes, will testify next week in favor of a bill establishing a separate crime of domestic violence in the state.
CONCORD — The mother of a nine-year-old boy murdered by his father in a Manchester visitation center last August will testify next week in favor of a bill that will establish domestic violence as a crime in New Hampshire.
Nine-year-old Joshua Savyon was shot and killed by his father, Muni Savyon, during a court-ordered supervised visit. Muni had threatened both Joshua and his mother's lives and was under a domestic violence protective order that had been mistakenly allow to expire.
Tuesday, Joshua's mother, Becky Ranes, will testify in favor SB 318, which would establish the crime of domestic violence.
The bill would not change existing state laws that usually apply to domestic violence crimes, but would group the statutes in one new section.
Amanda Grady Sexton of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence said the proposal sponsored by Sen. Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, and both Democratic and Republican senators and representatives, would help the state's law enforcement and criminal justice systems properly identify instances of domestic violence.
"While New Hampshire has adequate civil protections for victims, it is one of just 15 states in the country that does not have a crime of domestic violence," Grady Sexton said. "Because of this, violent offenders go unrecognized as abusers and some victims aren't even aware that what they are experiencing is in fact domestic violence."
There is a significant difference between a man who punches his wife in their home and someone who hits his friend in a bar fight yet they would be charged with the same crime of simple assault, she said.
"Statistics show that the intimate nature of the domestic violence situation carries a potential risk for escalated criminal behavior and homicide, while the bar fight typically does not," Grady Sexton said.
The bill has caught the attention of gun rights advocate who see it as an attempt to limit access to firearms, but Grady Sexton said change would not affect existing gun rights.
"I hope this doesn't turn into a gun rights bill," she said, "because it's not."
Bob Clegg, president of Pro Gun NH, said "domestic violence is a problem and we're not against making it a crime."
While he had just received a copy of the bill, he said he believes the definition of intimate relationship needs to be clarified.
"Just because I held a girl's hand in high school and kissed, and she is now a criminal and breaks into my house," Clegg said "I don't want to lose my guns if I punch her."
He said people are just beginning to study the bill and its implications, and he noted it could pass the Senate before anyone can mount a case against it.
Creating the domestic violence crime helps clarify who would be prohibited under federal law from buying a gun, Grady Sexton said.
Federal law targets those convicted of misdemeanors involving physical force or the threatened use of deadly force against family members or those who have been in "intimate relationships."
But Grady Sexton said some people who do not belong on the federal registry or National Instant Criminal Background Check System Index are on it and some who should be are not.
By establishing the domestic violence crime, it is much clearer who should be on the registry, she said.
This bill will not create a mandate, Grady Sexton said, as prosecutors will still have discretion to determine charges that bets fit each case.
The bill has the backing of the Attorney General's Office, the Department of Safety, the N.H. Association of Chiefs of Police, Child and Family Services, N.H. County Attorneys Association, N.H. Legal Assistance and the N.H. Sheriff's Association.
The public hearing will be held on the bill at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Room 100 of the State House before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Dad kills 9-year-old son during supervised visitation (Manchester, New Hampshire)
Shades of JOSH POWELL--the Utah dad who also killed his two kids during supervised visitation.
This is absolutely sickening...and it was totally preventable. This is a perfect example of why I think supervised visitation is a joke. You're are either safe...or you're not. IF YOU HAVE THREATENED TO KILL SOMEBODY BEFORE, YOU ARE NOT SAFE!!
Why is this so hard for these freaking morons in authority to figure out? All I can figure is that these morons don't care, they're just interested in catering to vicious and violent fathers. So then have the freaking nerve to act stupid after the fact, AFTER somebody is dead, and then they claim they had no idea. Bullsh**.
You know how this child could have been kept safe? Cut off all of Daddy's access. No access, no murder. If you threaten to kill somebody, you're done. No more catering, no more crap. This is what the fathers rights people have given us. By giving all those poor daddies more and more favors, they just terrorize more and up the ante.
This killer dad is identified MUNI SAVYON.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/11/19978310-father-kills-son-9-and-himself-at-new-hampshire-ywca-authorities-say?lite
Father kills son, 9, and himself at New Hampshire YWCA, authorities say
By Elisha Fieldstadt, NBC News
A man shot his 9-year-old son to death and then killed himself at a YWCA in New Hampshire on Sunday morning, officials said.
Police got a call about 10 a.m. that a gunman was inside the New Hampshire YWCA building in Manchester, police Lt. Maureen Tessier said. More people called the police later reporting shots fired, she said.
When officers arrived, they searched the building and found two bodies in a supervised parental visitation room at the center, according to the New Hampshire attorney general’s office.
New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery A. Strelzin identified the father as Muni Savyon, 54, and his son as Joshua Savyon, 9.
Sayvon shot his son with a handgun halfway through an hour-long supervised visit at the YWCA, then turned the gun on himself, according to the attorney general's office.
The supervising counselor fled the room unharmed, according to the attorney general.
Tessier said police searched the building and found no further threats and no one else injured.
Rabbi Levi Krinsky of the Manchester Chabad-Lubavich synongogue told NBC News that Savyon and his son “came to a lot of the events that we do.” He said Savyon had been part of the Orthodox congregation in Manchester for more than five years, and he considered Savyon a friend.
He was a “very quiet person, very reserved,” Krinsky said. He said that Savyon recently returned from a trip to Israel, where his brother had died unexpectedly from a heart attack.
“He was very upset and depressed,” Krinsky said, but “we didn’t know he was capable of that. If we did, we would have stepped in.”
According to the attorney general's office, Manchester police detectives have discovered that Savyon made threats in the past "to kill himself, his son’s mother and their son.”
Krinsky said Savyon and his wife were separated. Joshua was their only child, and both parents used services offered by the YWCA, Krinsky said.
The national YWCA said on Twitter that it was aware of the incident but did not respond to a request for further comment.
This is absolutely sickening...and it was totally preventable. This is a perfect example of why I think supervised visitation is a joke. You're are either safe...or you're not. IF YOU HAVE THREATENED TO KILL SOMEBODY BEFORE, YOU ARE NOT SAFE!!
Why is this so hard for these freaking morons in authority to figure out? All I can figure is that these morons don't care, they're just interested in catering to vicious and violent fathers. So then have the freaking nerve to act stupid after the fact, AFTER somebody is dead, and then they claim they had no idea. Bullsh**.
You know how this child could have been kept safe? Cut off all of Daddy's access. No access, no murder. If you threaten to kill somebody, you're done. No more catering, no more crap. This is what the fathers rights people have given us. By giving all those poor daddies more and more favors, they just terrorize more and up the ante.
This killer dad is identified MUNI SAVYON.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/11/19978310-father-kills-son-9-and-himself-at-new-hampshire-ywca-authorities-say?lite
Father kills son, 9, and himself at New Hampshire YWCA, authorities say
By Elisha Fieldstadt, NBC News
A man shot his 9-year-old son to death and then killed himself at a YWCA in New Hampshire on Sunday morning, officials said.
Police got a call about 10 a.m. that a gunman was inside the New Hampshire YWCA building in Manchester, police Lt. Maureen Tessier said. More people called the police later reporting shots fired, she said.
When officers arrived, they searched the building and found two bodies in a supervised parental visitation room at the center, according to the New Hampshire attorney general’s office.
New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery A. Strelzin identified the father as Muni Savyon, 54, and his son as Joshua Savyon, 9.
Sayvon shot his son with a handgun halfway through an hour-long supervised visit at the YWCA, then turned the gun on himself, according to the attorney general's office.
The supervising counselor fled the room unharmed, according to the attorney general.
Tessier said police searched the building and found no further threats and no one else injured.
Rabbi Levi Krinsky of the Manchester Chabad-Lubavich synongogue told NBC News that Savyon and his son “came to a lot of the events that we do.” He said Savyon had been part of the Orthodox congregation in Manchester for more than five years, and he considered Savyon a friend.
He was a “very quiet person, very reserved,” Krinsky said. He said that Savyon recently returned from a trip to Israel, where his brother had died unexpectedly from a heart attack.
“He was very upset and depressed,” Krinsky said, but “we didn’t know he was capable of that. If we did, we would have stepped in.”
According to the attorney general's office, Manchester police detectives have discovered that Savyon made threats in the past "to kill himself, his son’s mother and their son.”
Krinsky said Savyon and his wife were separated. Joshua was their only child, and both parents used services offered by the YWCA, Krinsky said.
The national YWCA said on Twitter that it was aware of the incident but did not respond to a request for further comment.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Ten years later, Mom mourns kids kidnapped, murdered by dad in "custody dispute" (Concord, New Hampshire)
We've posted on killer dad MANUEL GEHRING before. Just a reminder that the pain that these men create through their vicious crimes never does really go away....
Also shows how little judges have learned in the past decade about how these abuser dads manipulate custody issues to secure victims.
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/NH-mom-mourns-decade-after-ex-nabbed-kids-on-4th-4649968.php
NH mom mourns decade after ex nabbed kids on 4th
By LYNNE TUOHY, Associated Press Updated 9:24 am, Saturday, July 6, 2013
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — It's been a decade since a man abducted his two children after an argument at a Fourth of July fireworks display in Concord.
Their father, Manuel Gehring, was apprehended in California a week later and admitted he fatally shot 14-year-old Sarah and 11-year-old Philip in his van before beginning the trek west, their bodies strapped in place by seatbelts.
Gehring killed himself in jail in February 2004 while awaiting trial. The children's bodies were discovered in December 2005 off Interstate 80 in northeastern Ohio.
Gehring was in a custody dispute with his ex-wife, who had remarried and was pregnant with twins when her children disappeared. Teresa "Teri" Knight recently told The Associated Press that the time between their disappearance and the discovery of their bodies was "unbelievably surreal."
"I remember a lot of difficult times when the publicity would stop, and I would think that no one's looking for them anymore," she said.
Her twin daughters, now 9 1/2 years old, distract her from the grief of losing Sarah and Philip. Her own stubbornness also keeps her from going back "into that world" where there was no normalcy, just intense emotion, she said.
She remarried three weeks before Sarah and Philip disappeared and gave birth to Molly and Mallory less than five months later.
The twins refer to Sarah and Philip as their "guardian angels" and send balloons skyward on their birthdays.
"They wonder and wish what would have been," Knight says of her daughters, who are both cheerleaders like Sarah was.
She still feels anger that Gehring "got out of it easy" by killing himself. But she also said she felt a sense of relief that there was no chance of something going wrong at trial that might let him off the hook.
"That would have been worse," she said.
She teaches nursing at Concord Community College and is working on her second master's degree.
She and her husband, Jim, and the girls typically leave town this time of year, and this year is no different. They're going camping on the beach in Maine. She says they will never forget that Fourth of July 10 years ago, when she and Jim drove back from Maine into the jarring reality of missing children and a sense of dread at the prospect of ever seeing them again.
Also shows how little judges have learned in the past decade about how these abuser dads manipulate custody issues to secure victims.
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/NH-mom-mourns-decade-after-ex-nabbed-kids-on-4th-4649968.php
NH mom mourns decade after ex nabbed kids on 4th
By LYNNE TUOHY, Associated Press Updated 9:24 am, Saturday, July 6, 2013
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — It's been a decade since a man abducted his two children after an argument at a Fourth of July fireworks display in Concord.
Their father, Manuel Gehring, was apprehended in California a week later and admitted he fatally shot 14-year-old Sarah and 11-year-old Philip in his van before beginning the trek west, their bodies strapped in place by seatbelts.
Gehring killed himself in jail in February 2004 while awaiting trial. The children's bodies were discovered in December 2005 off Interstate 80 in northeastern Ohio.
Gehring was in a custody dispute with his ex-wife, who had remarried and was pregnant with twins when her children disappeared. Teresa "Teri" Knight recently told The Associated Press that the time between their disappearance and the discovery of their bodies was "unbelievably surreal."
"I remember a lot of difficult times when the publicity would stop, and I would think that no one's looking for them anymore," she said.
Her twin daughters, now 9 1/2 years old, distract her from the grief of losing Sarah and Philip. Her own stubbornness also keeps her from going back "into that world" where there was no normalcy, just intense emotion, she said.
She remarried three weeks before Sarah and Philip disappeared and gave birth to Molly and Mallory less than five months later.
The twins refer to Sarah and Philip as their "guardian angels" and send balloons skyward on their birthdays.
"They wonder and wish what would have been," Knight says of her daughters, who are both cheerleaders like Sarah was.
She still feels anger that Gehring "got out of it easy" by killing himself. But she also said she felt a sense of relief that there was no chance of something going wrong at trial that might let him off the hook.
"That would have been worse," she said.
She teaches nursing at Concord Community College and is working on her second master's degree.
She and her husband, Jim, and the girls typically leave town this time of year, and this year is no different. They're going camping on the beach in Maine. She says they will never forget that Fourth of July 10 years ago, when she and Jim drove back from Maine into the jarring reality of missing children and a sense of dread at the prospect of ever seeing them again.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Dad charged with 1st-degree assault on 21-month-old son; baby has multiple fractures (Concord, New Hampshire)
Dad is identified as GREGORY M. PERKINS.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130411/NEWS03/130419712
April 11. 2013 11:10PM
Concord father charged over infant son's multiple fractures
CONCORD - A 22-year-old Concord father was arrested Thursday on first-degree assault charges for allegedly causing multiple fractures to his 21-month-old son.
Gregory M. Perkins turned himself in to police Thursday. He is charged with two counts of first-degree assault, a Class A felony.
The child appeared to have been assaulted on at least two occasions, police said.
While the child's injuries are serious, he is expected to make a full recovery, police said.
Perkins was freed on $20,000 bail. He is set to be arraigned May 13 at the 6th Circuit District Division.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130411/NEWS03/130419712
April 11. 2013 11:10PM
Concord father charged over infant son's multiple fractures
CONCORD - A 22-year-old Concord father was arrested Thursday on first-degree assault charges for allegedly causing multiple fractures to his 21-month-old son.
Gregory M. Perkins turned himself in to police Thursday. He is charged with two counts of first-degree assault, a Class A felony.
The child appeared to have been assaulted on at least two occasions, police said.
While the child's injuries are serious, he is expected to make a full recovery, police said.
Perkins was freed on $20,000 bail. He is set to be arraigned May 13 at the 6th Circuit District Division.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Dad, son face separate sexual assault charges (Jaffrey, New Hampshire)
I disagree. I humbly submit that being raised by a rapist daddy has everything to do with Sonny turning out the same way. Funny how we'll give Daddy credit when the son emulates the father in a good way, but deny deny deny that fathers ever teach their son misogyny and violence against women.
The rapist daddy"role model" is identified as JASON CZEKALSKI.
http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/father-and-son-face-separate-sex-assault-charges/article_b0f2b789-72be-5001-8a1d-1ebe012b8170.html
Father and son face separate sex assault charges
Posted: Tuesday, February 5, 2013 12:00 pm | Updated: 10:35 am, Tue Feb 5, 2013.
By Danielle Rivard Sentinel Staff
The son of a Rindge lawyer accused of sexually assaulting a child in the 1990s was indicted on unrelated sex assault charges.
Luke Czekalski, 26, of Jaffrey is charged with seven counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault on a child.
On Oct. 9, Jaffrey police received a report of a possible sexual assault. After an investigation, police arrested Luke Czekalski on Oct. 30, alleging he sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl.
It is unclear from court documents how many times the alleged assaults occurred.
An indictment is not an indication of guilt, it is a determination by a grand jury that there is enough evidence to go to trial. Meanwhile, a separate months-long investigation conducted by Rindge and State Police led to the Jan. 25 arrest of Luke Czekalski’s father, Jason A. Czekalski, 51, at his home in Rindge.
Jason Czekalski is charged with one count of aggravated felonious sexual assault and two counts of felonious sexual assault.
Jason Czekalski engaged in a pattern of sexual contact with an 11-year-old child he knew between March 1993 and December 1995, according to court documents. His case has since been forwarded to Cheshire County Superior Court.
Police say the alleged incidents are unrelated.
“Luke’s issues had nothing to do with the father,” Jaffrey Police Chief William J. Oswalt said in an interview.
Both men are being held at the Cheshire County jail in Keene.
The rapist daddy"role model" is identified as JASON CZEKALSKI.
http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/father-and-son-face-separate-sex-assault-charges/article_b0f2b789-72be-5001-8a1d-1ebe012b8170.html
Father and son face separate sex assault charges
Posted: Tuesday, February 5, 2013 12:00 pm | Updated: 10:35 am, Tue Feb 5, 2013.
By Danielle Rivard Sentinel Staff
The son of a Rindge lawyer accused of sexually assaulting a child in the 1990s was indicted on unrelated sex assault charges.
Luke Czekalski, 26, of Jaffrey is charged with seven counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault on a child.
On Oct. 9, Jaffrey police received a report of a possible sexual assault. After an investigation, police arrested Luke Czekalski on Oct. 30, alleging he sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl.
It is unclear from court documents how many times the alleged assaults occurred.
An indictment is not an indication of guilt, it is a determination by a grand jury that there is enough evidence to go to trial. Meanwhile, a separate months-long investigation conducted by Rindge and State Police led to the Jan. 25 arrest of Luke Czekalski’s father, Jason A. Czekalski, 51, at his home in Rindge.
Jason Czekalski is charged with one count of aggravated felonious sexual assault and two counts of felonious sexual assault.
Jason Czekalski engaged in a pattern of sexual contact with an 11-year-old child he knew between March 1993 and December 1995, according to court documents. His case has since been forwarded to Cheshire County Superior Court.
Police say the alleged incidents are unrelated.
“Luke’s issues had nothing to do with the father,” Jaffrey Police Chief William J. Oswalt said in an interview.
Both men are being held at the Cheshire County jail in Keene.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Dad arrested ond 2nd-degree assault charges after "allegedly" dropping baby while drunk (Goffstown, New Hampshire)
Dad is identified as RICARDO DALACAO. No mention of a mother in the home.
http://www.newhampshire.com/article/20120921/NEWHAMPSHIRE1409/709229971/0/NEWHAMPSHIRE05
September 21. 2012 10:57PM
Police say drunk Goffstown dad dropped baby
GOFFSTOWN — Police say a 46-year-old father was drunk when he dropped his infant child, causing the 3-month-old serious bodily injury.
Ricardo Dalacao was ordered held on $5,000 cash bail after his arrest on charges of second degree assault and endangering the life of a child.
Goffstown Police say Dalacaro was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.
The injuries to the infant were not considered life-threatening.
Dalacao will be arraigned Monday in Goffstown District Court.
http://www.newhampshire.com/article/20120921/NEWHAMPSHIRE1409/709229971/0/NEWHAMPSHIRE05
September 21. 2012 10:57PM
Police say drunk Goffstown dad dropped baby
GOFFSTOWN — Police say a 46-year-old father was drunk when he dropped his infant child, causing the 3-month-old serious bodily injury.
Ricardo Dalacao was ordered held on $5,000 cash bail after his arrest on charges of second degree assault and endangering the life of a child.
Goffstown Police say Dalacaro was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.
The injuries to the infant were not considered life-threatening.
Dalacao will be arraigned Monday in Goffstown District Court.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Dad with history of drunken threats arrested for letting 1-year-old son wander the streets (Chesterfield, New Hampshire)
We're told that dad LONNIE J. PLACE is homeless, a man with a history of belligerent behavior and drug/alcohol abuse. A man with an (unspecified) criminal history.
So why is his 1-YEAR-OLD SON with him? Obviously a dude with this kind of history is incapable of supervising a child of this age--or any child. The fact that Daddy apparently abandoned his son at a grocery store, and that this baby--barely into the walking stage--was seen wandering along a highway is proof of that.
The big elephant in the room here: WHERE IS THIS LITTLE BOY'S MOTHER? Why does the reporter not even bother to ask or inquire? Obviously, about one year ago, somebody gave birth to this child. What happened to her?
We hear that Daddy's other daughter is with her mother. Is it the same mother? We don't know. The reporter doesn't tell us.
I can't help but wonder: Did this idiot have custody or something? What idiot would have awarded him custody anyway?
Lots of unanswered questions....
http://www.reformer.com/ci_21597390/child-found-wandering-route-9-father-charged?source=most_viewed
Child found wandering on Route 9, father charged
By DOMENIC POLI / Reformer Staff
Posted: 09/21/2012 03:00:00 AM EDT Friday September 21, 2012
CHESTERFIELD, N.H. -- A homeless man is being held in lieu of $2,000 bail after allegedly abandoning his son at a grocery store while he was asleep and intoxicated under a bridge connecting Vermont and New Hampshire on Wednesday.
Lonnie J. Place, 35, has been cited with endangering the welfare of a child, resisting arrest, possession of a controlled substance and possession of an open alcoholic beverage container and is in custody at the Cheshire County House of Corrections.
According to a police report, Lt. Duane Chickering of the Chesterfield Police Department responded to Riverside Grocery at approximately 3:20 p.m. on Wednesday for a report of a young boy found at the edge of Route 9 with no adult near him.
When Chickering arrived at the scene, he found a boy roughly 1 year old and no parents in sight. The child was too young to speak but was capable of walking around, according to police.
The New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth and Families was called and officials agreed to take custody of the child. Chesterfield Police Chief Lester Fairbanks stayed with the child while Chickering and Brattleboro Police Officer Carl Warner searched the area.
The two found Place sleeping and intoxicated under the bridge at approximately 4:10 p.m. and were able to wake him after a few attempts. Place said he was watching his daughter when he fell asleep. It was later confirmed that the wandering child was his son. According to police, Place also has a daughter, who at the time of Place’s arrest, was in Vermont with her mother.
Most recently, Place was arrested on Oct. 25, 2011, for drunkenly threatening people outside a motel on Putney Road. He was listed as being from Newfane at that time.
According to Windham Superior Court Criminal Division, Place has had multiple charges against him over the years.
So why is his 1-YEAR-OLD SON with him? Obviously a dude with this kind of history is incapable of supervising a child of this age--or any child. The fact that Daddy apparently abandoned his son at a grocery store, and that this baby--barely into the walking stage--was seen wandering along a highway is proof of that.
The big elephant in the room here: WHERE IS THIS LITTLE BOY'S MOTHER? Why does the reporter not even bother to ask or inquire? Obviously, about one year ago, somebody gave birth to this child. What happened to her?
We hear that Daddy's other daughter is with her mother. Is it the same mother? We don't know. The reporter doesn't tell us.
I can't help but wonder: Did this idiot have custody or something? What idiot would have awarded him custody anyway?
Lots of unanswered questions....
http://www.reformer.com/ci_21597390/child-found-wandering-route-9-father-charged?source=most_viewed
Child found wandering on Route 9, father charged
By DOMENIC POLI / Reformer Staff
Posted: 09/21/2012 03:00:00 AM EDT Friday September 21, 2012
CHESTERFIELD, N.H. -- A homeless man is being held in lieu of $2,000 bail after allegedly abandoning his son at a grocery store while he was asleep and intoxicated under a bridge connecting Vermont and New Hampshire on Wednesday.
Lonnie J. Place, 35, has been cited with endangering the welfare of a child, resisting arrest, possession of a controlled substance and possession of an open alcoholic beverage container and is in custody at the Cheshire County House of Corrections.
According to a police report, Lt. Duane Chickering of the Chesterfield Police Department responded to Riverside Grocery at approximately 3:20 p.m. on Wednesday for a report of a young boy found at the edge of Route 9 with no adult near him.
When Chickering arrived at the scene, he found a boy roughly 1 year old and no parents in sight. The child was too young to speak but was capable of walking around, according to police.
The New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth and Families was called and officials agreed to take custody of the child. Chesterfield Police Chief Lester Fairbanks stayed with the child while Chickering and Brattleboro Police Officer Carl Warner searched the area.
The two found Place sleeping and intoxicated under the bridge at approximately 4:10 p.m. and were able to wake him after a few attempts. Place said he was watching his daughter when he fell asleep. It was later confirmed that the wandering child was his son. According to police, Place also has a daughter, who at the time of Place’s arrest, was in Vermont with her mother.
Most recently, Place was arrested on Oct. 25, 2011, for drunkenly threatening people outside a motel on Putney Road. He was listed as being from Newfane at that time.
According to Windham Superior Court Criminal Division, Place has had multiple charges against him over the years.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Dad argues with mom, threatens to kill himself with handgun, and abducts 16-month-old son (Manchester, New Hampshire)
The star of this latest bit of Daddy Drama: KELLY SOUCY. Children do NOT need this....
http://www.newhampshire.com/article/20120402/NEWS03/120409993
Police: 18-month old found uninjured after Amber Alert issued
Published Apr 2, 2012 at 7:33 am (Updated Apr 2, 2012)
MANCHESTER - An 18-month-old boy was found safe Monday morning after police say his father abducted him after an argument with the boy's mother.
The father, Kelly Soucy, 29, threatened to kill himself early Monday morning during an argument with his wife in Manchester but then took his toddler son and a handgun and fled in an old black and white Ford Crown Victoria, police said.
The incident prompted an Amber Alert, which was broadcast over local radio stations and posted on signs over the state's highways.
Soucy and his son, Waylon Soucy, 18 months, were both located just before 8 a.m. The child was not injured. Police have not released details concerning how they were located or if Soucy was arrested.
The incident began at 3:47 a.m. when Soucy's wife reported her husband suddenly left their Bodwell Road home with their young son after an argument, during which he threatened to kill himself with a handgun.
He fled with the child in the 2003 Ford Crown Victoria with New Hampshire veteran license plates of V 33235. The car has a spotlight mounted on the driver's door.
"Basically, it's an old black and white police car without agency markings," said Lt. Maureen Tessier.
Waylon was in a car seat in the rear. The Ford was spotted heading south on Route 28 in Londonderry near Interstate 93, Exit 5 off-ramp.
Waylon was described as white with blond hair and blue eyes. He is 36 inches tall and weighs 25 to 30 pounds. He was wearing a gray and red zip-up coat, red pants and blue and white shoes.
Soucy was described as a white man, 6-foot-1 and weighing 195 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.
He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and black sneakers.
http://www.newhampshire.com/article/20120402/NEWS03/120409993
Police: 18-month old found uninjured after Amber Alert issued
Published Apr 2, 2012 at 7:33 am (Updated Apr 2, 2012)
MANCHESTER - An 18-month-old boy was found safe Monday morning after police say his father abducted him after an argument with the boy's mother.
The father, Kelly Soucy, 29, threatened to kill himself early Monday morning during an argument with his wife in Manchester but then took his toddler son and a handgun and fled in an old black and white Ford Crown Victoria, police said.
The incident prompted an Amber Alert, which was broadcast over local radio stations and posted on signs over the state's highways.
Soucy and his son, Waylon Soucy, 18 months, were both located just before 8 a.m. The child was not injured. Police have not released details concerning how they were located or if Soucy was arrested.
The incident began at 3:47 a.m. when Soucy's wife reported her husband suddenly left their Bodwell Road home with their young son after an argument, during which he threatened to kill himself with a handgun.
He fled with the child in the 2003 Ford Crown Victoria with New Hampshire veteran license plates of V 33235. The car has a spotlight mounted on the driver's door.
"Basically, it's an old black and white police car without agency markings," said Lt. Maureen Tessier.
Waylon was in a car seat in the rear. The Ford was spotted heading south on Route 28 in Londonderry near Interstate 93, Exit 5 off-ramp.
Waylon was described as white with blond hair and blue eyes. He is 36 inches tall and weighs 25 to 30 pounds. He was wearing a gray and red zip-up coat, red pants and blue and white shoes.
Soucy was described as a white man, 6-foot-1 and weighing 195 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.
He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and black sneakers.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Kids looked on as dad shot mom to death in driveway, then kill him himself (Concord, New Hampshire)
More crappy reporting and lazy journalism. We see that dad MATTHEW BALCH was a verbally and physically abusive @$$hole, a control freak, who eventually gunned down the mother of his children and killed her--in front of the kids no less.
And Mom? That she sometimes argued back?
How does that make for a "tumultuous relationship" which implies both parties were equally into sturm and drang? It doesn't.
But it does sound like Daddy's mother was in big-time denial about Daddy's violence. By encouraging Mom to return to her angry and violent son, she basically set her up. Lots of enabling and meddling here that she appears to take no responsibility for.
http://www.wmur.com/r/29472595/detail.html
Report: Children Witnessed Parents' Murder-Suicide
Report Describes Abusive Relationship Between Matthew, Sarah Balch
POSTED: 10:09 am EDT October 13, 2011
UPDATED: 1:26 pm EDT October 13, 2011
CONCORD, N.H. -- Two children looked on as their father fatally shot their mother in the driveway of their Concord home and then killed himself in June, a report from the attorney general’s office says.
The report describes a tumultuous relationship between 25-year-old Sarah Balch and 22-year-old Matthew Balch, who were in a relationship for five years and married for a year.
The couple lived on Elm Street with their two daughters, 2 and 5. Witnesses interviewed by investigators described Matthew as verbally and physically abusive at times and controlling, and cellphone records show the arguments between the two became more intense leading up to the shooting, the report said.
In the week leading up to the shooting, Sarah told Matthew she was done with the relationship and wanted a “civil” divorce. She had also told Matthew’s mother, Diane Balch, that she had found another man.
Diane Balch told investigators both had developed drug habits over the past year but had gotten off drugs. She also told investigators she encouraged the two to fix their problems in the week leading up to the shooting.
The report says Matthew sent Sarah roses at work on Monday, June 13, and cleaned the house as part of his effort to make up with her.
At 11 p.m. that day, after Sarah had not returned home, Matthew went looking for her.
Diane told investigators she encouraged the two to go back to the house, where their children had been left alone.
The report says that when Sarah returned home, she and Matthew got into a heated argument. About 3:45 a.m. Tuesday, Matthew called his mother and said, "Mom, you better get over here or your grandchildren will wake up with two dead parents," Diane told investigators.
Diane told Matthew to stop being melodramatic and go to bed, the report says.
At 7:30 a.m., Diane got a call from Sarah saying Matthew had thrown her against a sliding door. Diane told Sarah to call 911 and Diane took another granddaughter, who was staying with her, and drove to Sarah and Matthew’s house.
The report says Diane arrived at the house and saw Sarah in the driveway and Matthew approaching her with a rifle. Diane drove her truck in between the two, but Matthew walked around the truck and shot Sarah, the report says.
Diane grabbed her granddaughter and went to help the couple’s two children who were standing outside the house.
The 5-year-old was yelling and asking why “daddy shot mommy,” the report says.
Matthew went back into the house, told his mother and children he loved them, and went back outside and shot himself just before police arrived.
No criminal charges will be filed in the case.
And Mom? That she sometimes argued back?
How does that make for a "tumultuous relationship" which implies both parties were equally into sturm and drang? It doesn't.
But it does sound like Daddy's mother was in big-time denial about Daddy's violence. By encouraging Mom to return to her angry and violent son, she basically set her up. Lots of enabling and meddling here that she appears to take no responsibility for.
http://www.wmur.com/r/29472595/detail.html
Report: Children Witnessed Parents' Murder-Suicide
Report Describes Abusive Relationship Between Matthew, Sarah Balch
POSTED: 10:09 am EDT October 13, 2011
UPDATED: 1:26 pm EDT October 13, 2011
CONCORD, N.H. -- Two children looked on as their father fatally shot their mother in the driveway of their Concord home and then killed himself in June, a report from the attorney general’s office says.
The report describes a tumultuous relationship between 25-year-old Sarah Balch and 22-year-old Matthew Balch, who were in a relationship for five years and married for a year.
The couple lived on Elm Street with their two daughters, 2 and 5. Witnesses interviewed by investigators described Matthew as verbally and physically abusive at times and controlling, and cellphone records show the arguments between the two became more intense leading up to the shooting, the report said.
In the week leading up to the shooting, Sarah told Matthew she was done with the relationship and wanted a “civil” divorce. She had also told Matthew’s mother, Diane Balch, that she had found another man.
Diane Balch told investigators both had developed drug habits over the past year but had gotten off drugs. She also told investigators she encouraged the two to fix their problems in the week leading up to the shooting.
The report says Matthew sent Sarah roses at work on Monday, June 13, and cleaned the house as part of his effort to make up with her.
At 11 p.m. that day, after Sarah had not returned home, Matthew went looking for her.
Diane told investigators she encouraged the two to go back to the house, where their children had been left alone.
The report says that when Sarah returned home, she and Matthew got into a heated argument. About 3:45 a.m. Tuesday, Matthew called his mother and said, "Mom, you better get over here or your grandchildren will wake up with two dead parents," Diane told investigators.
Diane told Matthew to stop being melodramatic and go to bed, the report says.
At 7:30 a.m., Diane got a call from Sarah saying Matthew had thrown her against a sliding door. Diane told Sarah to call 911 and Diane took another granddaughter, who was staying with her, and drove to Sarah and Matthew’s house.
The report says Diane arrived at the house and saw Sarah in the driveway and Matthew approaching her with a rifle. Diane drove her truck in between the two, but Matthew walked around the truck and shot Sarah, the report says.
Diane grabbed her granddaughter and went to help the couple’s two children who were standing outside the house.
The 5-year-old was yelling and asking why “daddy shot mommy,” the report says.
Matthew went back into the house, told his mother and children he loved them, and went back outside and shot himself just before police arrived.
No criminal charges will be filed in the case.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Dad accused of shoplifting, abandoning 3-month-old daughter when running from store (Somersworth, New Hampshire)
The accused is dad MATTHEW SORDIFF.
http://www.wmur.com/r/28947394/detail.html
Father Accused Of Shoplifting, Leaving Baby Behind
Man Charged With Endangering Welfare Of Minor
POSTED: 7:25 am EDT August 23, 2011
UPDATED: 6:31 pm EDT August 23, 2011
SOMERSWORTH, N.H. -- A man was accused of shoplifting in Somersworth and then abandoning his infant daughter when he tried to run away.
Matthew Sordiff, 21, was charged with willful concealment and endangering the welfare of a child.
Police said that Sordiff was at a Somersworth Market Basket when he was approached by store personnel about baby food he was placing in his 3-month-old daughter's diaper bag.
"The individual made his way to the exit of the Market Basket and stopped momentarily outside of Market Basket to set his daughter down," said Capt. Russ Timmons.
Police said Sordiff then took off running, leaving the baby behind in her stroller. Timmons said the girl was never in any danger thanks to customers and workers at the store.
"Once the child was put down, people took concern and cared for the baby," he said.
Sordiff's mother-in-law, Lorie Baxter, said he was acting out of desperation and panicked.
"I didn't think he would ever do anything like leave the baby behind, but he panicked," she said. "He didn't know what to do. He thought the baby's mom was coming out -- she was right behind him -- and she wasn't there."
Police said others followed Sordiff and managed to alert police to his location, about 600 yards from the store, where he was taken into custody. The baby's mother, Brianne Baird, was also arrested. According to court paperwork, employees saw her giving Sordiff some of the items found in the diaper bag.
Baxter said her daughter didn't know any crime was taking place. The baby is now in her mother's custody.
Sordiff was arraigned on the charges Tuesday morning, and his family is trying to come up with his bail money.
http://www.wmur.com/r/28947394/detail.html
Father Accused Of Shoplifting, Leaving Baby Behind
Man Charged With Endangering Welfare Of Minor
POSTED: 7:25 am EDT August 23, 2011
UPDATED: 6:31 pm EDT August 23, 2011
SOMERSWORTH, N.H. -- A man was accused of shoplifting in Somersworth and then abandoning his infant daughter when he tried to run away.
Matthew Sordiff, 21, was charged with willful concealment and endangering the welfare of a child.
Police said that Sordiff was at a Somersworth Market Basket when he was approached by store personnel about baby food he was placing in his 3-month-old daughter's diaper bag.
"The individual made his way to the exit of the Market Basket and stopped momentarily outside of Market Basket to set his daughter down," said Capt. Russ Timmons.
Police said Sordiff then took off running, leaving the baby behind in her stroller. Timmons said the girl was never in any danger thanks to customers and workers at the store.
"Once the child was put down, people took concern and cared for the baby," he said.
Sordiff's mother-in-law, Lorie Baxter, said he was acting out of desperation and panicked.
"I didn't think he would ever do anything like leave the baby behind, but he panicked," she said. "He didn't know what to do. He thought the baby's mom was coming out -- she was right behind him -- and she wasn't there."
Police said others followed Sordiff and managed to alert police to his location, about 600 yards from the store, where he was taken into custody. The baby's mother, Brianne Baird, was also arrested. According to court paperwork, employees saw her giving Sordiff some of the items found in the diaper bag.
Baxter said her daughter didn't know any crime was taking place. The baby is now in her mother's custody.
Sordiff was arraigned on the charges Tuesday morning, and his family is trying to come up with his bail money.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Dad suspect in beating death of mom, 4-year-old son; abandoning 7-year-old daughter at murder scene (Auburn, New Hampshire)
Authorities have been curiously shy about pursuing the murder case against dad CHRISTOPHER SMELTZER.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110802/NEWS03/708029967
Child’s therapy records focus in Auburn murder probe
By JAMES A. KIMBLE
Union Leader Correspondent
Published Aug 2, 2011 at 3:00 am (Updated Aug 1, 2011)
A judge may now be reviewing therapy records related to the pending murder case against Christopher Smeltzer, 38, of Auburn, who is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife, Mara Pappalardo.
BRENTWOOD — A judge may be reviewing a young girl’s therapy records, documents that the state wants to obtain to aid in the murder investigation of Mara Pappalardo, 39, and the homicide of her 4-year-old son, Mason.
The girl’s father, Christopher Smeltzer, 38, is being held without bail on second-degree murder charges in connection with the bludgeoning death of Pappalardo with a flashlight sometime between Aug. 7 and 8 at the couple’s Auburn home.
Smeltzer has yet to be indicted for his wife’s murder nearly a year after the crime, according to court records.
And no one has been charged in connection with Mason Smeltzer’s death.
Prosecutors and a variety of other lawyers tied to the case met behind closed doors with Judge Tina Nadeau on July 6 over a dispute about sharing the therapy records with investigators from the state Attorney General’s Office.
Nadeau issued an order last week for the “production of records for (an) in camera review,” according to a court record which catalogs public and sealed documents in the case.
The judge’s order and arguments over the records are sealed so no further information is known about the judge’s decision.
The Union Leader has learned that the records are regarding Smeltzer and Pappalardo’s daughter, Mercy, 7, whom police found in the home after the murder.
Affidavits and search warrants related to Christopher Smeltzer’s arrest have also remained sealed by a district court judge since last year. The judge decided the records can remain sealed prior to indictment or at least until the state deems it no longer necessary to keep them closed, the order says.
Prosecutors have described the investigation into the two deaths as ongoing, but have routinely refused to speak about the case otherwise.
Lawyers for the Division for Children, Youth and Families and another lawyer representing a non-profit counseling organization have also filed responses to the state’s request.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110802/NEWS03/708029967
Child’s therapy records focus in Auburn murder probe
By JAMES A. KIMBLE
Union Leader Correspondent
Published Aug 2, 2011 at 3:00 am (Updated Aug 1, 2011)
A judge may now be reviewing therapy records related to the pending murder case against Christopher Smeltzer, 38, of Auburn, who is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife, Mara Pappalardo.
BRENTWOOD — A judge may be reviewing a young girl’s therapy records, documents that the state wants to obtain to aid in the murder investigation of Mara Pappalardo, 39, and the homicide of her 4-year-old son, Mason.
The girl’s father, Christopher Smeltzer, 38, is being held without bail on second-degree murder charges in connection with the bludgeoning death of Pappalardo with a flashlight sometime between Aug. 7 and 8 at the couple’s Auburn home.
Smeltzer has yet to be indicted for his wife’s murder nearly a year after the crime, according to court records.
And no one has been charged in connection with Mason Smeltzer’s death.
Prosecutors and a variety of other lawyers tied to the case met behind closed doors with Judge Tina Nadeau on July 6 over a dispute about sharing the therapy records with investigators from the state Attorney General’s Office.
Nadeau issued an order last week for the “production of records for (an) in camera review,” according to a court record which catalogs public and sealed documents in the case.
The judge’s order and arguments over the records are sealed so no further information is known about the judge’s decision.
The Union Leader has learned that the records are regarding Smeltzer and Pappalardo’s daughter, Mercy, 7, whom police found in the home after the murder.
Affidavits and search warrants related to Christopher Smeltzer’s arrest have also remained sealed by a district court judge since last year. The judge decided the records can remain sealed prior to indictment or at least until the state deems it no longer necessary to keep them closed, the order says.
Prosecutors have described the investigation into the two deaths as ongoing, but have routinely refused to speak about the case otherwise.
Lawyers for the Division for Children, Youth and Families and another lawyer representing a non-profit counseling organization have also filed responses to the state’s request.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Unstable fathers rights movement dad sets himself on fire (Keene, New Hampshire)
Once again, we see the fathers rights movement exploiting violent and/or mentally ill fathers as fodder for their movement. No doubt THOMAS BALL will be turned into the next martyr to the cause, and all their paranoia and irrationality will simply be reinforced further.
In reality, the fathers rights movement directly contributes to this kind of violence. By feeding into the delusions of paranoid, violent fathers, dads like BALL are even less likely to ever face up to their abusive behavior and take responsibility for it. Eventually gory public displays (like self-immolation in front of a courthouse) are the final result. Never mind how traumatizing such an act will be for other people or their own kids. It's all part of the narcissistic "poor me" Daddy Drama that the fathers rights people have come to specialize in.
Unfortunately, too many people have bought into the fathers rights neurotic pity party. Have any doubts? Switch the genders. Had this been a mother who set herself on fire, there would be NO public doubts that the mom in question SHOULD have been kept away from her kids, as she was obviously a crazy, unfit nutcase. And if the women's movement had members that started self-immolating or pulling public Mommy Drama similar to this, the media would swoop down and discredit feminist ideas and goals in a New York minute.
Notice that for all of Ball's moaning and groaning, he DID get awarded visitation with his 2-year-old son, despite slapping the boy's older sister hard enough to draw blood. And if he had even gone through the (useless) motions of parenting classes, he probably would have got unsupervised visitation with the girls as well. But no, that would mean admitting he had a problem. And fathers rights people NEVER concede that a father may have a problem.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2011/07/10/divorced_dad_leaves_clues_to_his_desperation/
Dad leaves clues to his desperation
A grisly suicide after a 10-year divorce battle
“I miss you already,’’ Thomas Ball wrote to a friend shortly before he set himself on fire.
By Mark Arsenault
Globe Staff / July 10, 2011
KEENE, N.H. - On a mid-June afternoon, an unemployed history buff from Holden, Mass. announced cryptically on his Facebook page that “D-Day’’ had arrived.
“Time to climb down into the Higgins boat and take a bouncing ride to the beach,’’ wrote Thomas Ball, referring to the World War II amphibious landing craft.
Four hours later, the divorced father of three died outside a courthouse in downtown Keene after igniting himself in a gory self-immolation.
Engulfed in flame, he screamed as he stumbled from the courthouse steps, fell to his hands and knees, and eventually fell silent.
Ball’s final words were delivered in the next day’s mail.
A friend in New Hampshire got a card with the tender inscription, “I miss you already.’’
The Keene Sentinel received a biting screed against the legal system, in which Ball recounted the ongoing 10-year court battle over his divorce, child support payments, and visitation rights with his children.
“A man walks up to the main door of the Keene N.H. County Courthouse, douses himself with gasoline and lights a match,’’ Ball’s letter begins. “And everyone wants to know why.’’
Such a desperate act would be shocking anywhere, but in the middle of a quaint New England college town, at the end of what Ball had once called “the prettiest Main Street in America,’’ it seems unthinkable.
His death and final writings have resonated within the father’s rights movement, of which he was an active member, and revealed a stubborn man consumed by his court battles and, over time, sinking further into darkness.
Ball, 58, intended his fiery death on June 15 - planned and researched at least 10 days in advance - to be the ultimate profane gesture, according to his writings, interviews, and court and police documents. He was taking aim squarely at the courts he blamed for keeping him apart from his kids and for what he saw as the system’s corrupt and ruthless emasculation of divorced dads.
“Face it boys, we are no longer fathers,’’ Ball wrote. “We are piggy banks.’’
The courts and his former wife tell a different story. They paint a picture of a prideful and headstrong man who once lost his temper, slapped his 4-year-old daughter hard enough to draw blood, and then chose to remain estranged from his children rather than acknowledge he made a mistake and participate in court-ordered counseling.
Ball’s love for his children “made it impossible for him to accept that some of his actions were harmful to them,’’ his former wife, Karen, said Thursday in an e-mail. “He was unable to comply with the court’s requirement to meet with the children’s counselor because to do so would mean acknowledging that he had done something to warrant the requirement.’’
For years, Ball, acting as his own lawyer, filed one unsuccessful court motion after another seeking access to his children and to undo the requirement that he participate in counseling, which he rejected on principle.
He channeled his frustration at the legal system into action with father’s rights groups seeking to change the law to give fathers more clout in custody and divorce proceedings. Ball would picket courthouses while carrying a sign that read “Children need their fathers’’; he ran seminars for divorced dads on court procedures.
Ball spoke often about missing his children but did not seem depressed and never revealed any violent streak, said Ethan Allen of Clinton, 61, a close friend who met Ball more than 10 years ago through the Army Reserve.
“This is something that happened out of the clear blue sky,’’ Allen said.
Several divorced dads who knew Ball said that while they cannot condone what he did, they understand where his frustration came from.
“Tom’s story, other than its end, is pretty common,’’ said Ned Holstein, chairman of Fathers and Families, a court reform group Ball belonged to.
Ball’s legal story starts in 2001, with three slaps across his daughter’s face when she refused to go to bed.
At the time, the Balls were living in Jaffrey with their daughters, 7 and 4, and son, 2. Tom Ball was working as a service adviser at a nearby Ford dealership. After 11 years of marriage, Tom and Karen had been drifting apart, Tom Ball said in a 40-page memoir he wrote at least two years ago and posted on the Web.
“The gap between us kept stretching until finally you would ask yourself, ‘What did I ever see in her?’ ’’ Ball wrote.
The slapping incident effectively ended the marriage. Karen called the police; Tom was charged with assault. She filed for divorce within weeks.
Tom Ball’s defense was that a parent has the right to discipline a misbehaving child with corporal punishment.
A Superior Court judge later dismissed the case, saying the slaps were inappropriate but not criminal.
Ball, who had moved to Massachusetts to live with his brothers, wrote that he expected to be reunited with his daughters after prevailing in court, but Karen Ball won sole legal custody of the children in the divorce.
“Unfortunately due to the conflict in this divorce, conflict between Mr. Ball and his daughters’ counselors, pride, stubbornness, or other reasons this court cannot fathom, Mr. Ball never participated in the process that would have caused him to reestablish contact with his daughters and begin visitation,’’ the divorce judge wrote. Ball did have visitation with his son, according to court records.
Ball would later write that he decided to fight so relentlessly after reading about NFL legend Jim Brown, who chose a six-month jail sentence “on principle’’ instead of court-ordered counseling after being convicted of vandalizing his wife’s car. “Jim Brown was led out of the courthouse in handcuffs and taken to the can for six months,’’ Ball wrote in his memoir. “What he did defied logic. But I knew he was right.’’
In 2009, Ball filed one of his motions seeking unsupervised visits with his daughters. Most of the motions he wrote were competent and well-written, but this one meandered and personally criticized a judge. It also noted that a mental health specialist who consulted on the case had died. Ball wrote that he wouldn’t visit the cemetery for “fear that if I do, then I will urinate upon her grave.’’
His writings grew increasingly dark. In his last letter, published online by the Sentinel, Ball gave the history of the Molotov cocktail and exhorted divorced fathers to burn down courthouses and police stations.
Outside of these grim papers, Ball came off as intelligent and funny, with a deep love of history, genealogy, and Motown music, according to people who knew him.
He always smelled like freshly ironed clothes, said friend Trish Hamel of Milford, N.H., who spoke to Ball frequently. They visited historic buildings and cemeteries together; she brought him to a blues concert several weeks before he died.
“He was a sweet, gentle person, just in a lot of pain,’’ she said. Most of the complaints in Ball’s last letter sound familiar from their many conversations, she said. “Everything except the violence; I can’t reconcile that.’’
The Balls were due back in court this month for a hearing on a possible contempt finding against Tom, who had lost his job and had fallen several thousand dollars behind in child support. He wrote that he expected to be jailed.
Ten days before his suicide, Ball did two things that, in hindsight, suggest he was plotting his death.
During visiting time with his son, Ball drove to the courthouse in Keene, got out of his car and took a long look at the building, Karen Ball told the police.
That same day, Ball e-mailed a friend, Wayne Jewett of North Attleboro, saying he would need help sending out a statement later in June. “At the time it didn’t make any sense,’’ said Jewett. Ball never followed up, apparently deciding to mail his final letter to the Sentinel.
Security cameras recorded Ball moving methodically in his last moments. The unreleased video is described in police reports.
Ball tugged at the locked doors at the Cheshire County Superior Courthouse.
He left his driver’s license and the key to his Ford Mustang in a sandwich bag on the sidewalk.
Next, he opened a red plastic gasoline can, tipped the container above his head and drenched himself.
With a red cigarette lighter clutched in his right hand, he sat down on the concrete, reenacting the iconic Vietnam-era image of a Buddhist monk’s politically charged suicide by fire.
He jumped up when the flames appeared and walked 20 feet from the courthouse doors before he fell. A passerby kicked dirt on him to try to douse the flames. A police officer ran up with a fire extinguisher, but it was too late for Ball.
The last words of his last letter were meant for his children:
“You are to stick together no matter how old you get or how far apart you live,’’ he wrote. “Because it is like Grandma always said. The only thing you really have in this world is your family.’’
In reality, the fathers rights movement directly contributes to this kind of violence. By feeding into the delusions of paranoid, violent fathers, dads like BALL are even less likely to ever face up to their abusive behavior and take responsibility for it. Eventually gory public displays (like self-immolation in front of a courthouse) are the final result. Never mind how traumatizing such an act will be for other people or their own kids. It's all part of the narcissistic "poor me" Daddy Drama that the fathers rights people have come to specialize in.
Unfortunately, too many people have bought into the fathers rights neurotic pity party. Have any doubts? Switch the genders. Had this been a mother who set herself on fire, there would be NO public doubts that the mom in question SHOULD have been kept away from her kids, as she was obviously a crazy, unfit nutcase. And if the women's movement had members that started self-immolating or pulling public Mommy Drama similar to this, the media would swoop down and discredit feminist ideas and goals in a New York minute.
Notice that for all of Ball's moaning and groaning, he DID get awarded visitation with his 2-year-old son, despite slapping the boy's older sister hard enough to draw blood. And if he had even gone through the (useless) motions of parenting classes, he probably would have got unsupervised visitation with the girls as well. But no, that would mean admitting he had a problem. And fathers rights people NEVER concede that a father may have a problem.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2011/07/10/divorced_dad_leaves_clues_to_his_desperation/
Dad leaves clues to his desperation
A grisly suicide after a 10-year divorce battle
“I miss you already,’’ Thomas Ball wrote to a friend shortly before he set himself on fire.
By Mark Arsenault
Globe Staff / July 10, 2011
KEENE, N.H. - On a mid-June afternoon, an unemployed history buff from Holden, Mass. announced cryptically on his Facebook page that “D-Day’’ had arrived.
“Time to climb down into the Higgins boat and take a bouncing ride to the beach,’’ wrote Thomas Ball, referring to the World War II amphibious landing craft.
Four hours later, the divorced father of three died outside a courthouse in downtown Keene after igniting himself in a gory self-immolation.
Engulfed in flame, he screamed as he stumbled from the courthouse steps, fell to his hands and knees, and eventually fell silent.
Ball’s final words were delivered in the next day’s mail.
A friend in New Hampshire got a card with the tender inscription, “I miss you already.’’
The Keene Sentinel received a biting screed against the legal system, in which Ball recounted the ongoing 10-year court battle over his divorce, child support payments, and visitation rights with his children.
“A man walks up to the main door of the Keene N.H. County Courthouse, douses himself with gasoline and lights a match,’’ Ball’s letter begins. “And everyone wants to know why.’’
Such a desperate act would be shocking anywhere, but in the middle of a quaint New England college town, at the end of what Ball had once called “the prettiest Main Street in America,’’ it seems unthinkable.
His death and final writings have resonated within the father’s rights movement, of which he was an active member, and revealed a stubborn man consumed by his court battles and, over time, sinking further into darkness.
Ball, 58, intended his fiery death on June 15 - planned and researched at least 10 days in advance - to be the ultimate profane gesture, according to his writings, interviews, and court and police documents. He was taking aim squarely at the courts he blamed for keeping him apart from his kids and for what he saw as the system’s corrupt and ruthless emasculation of divorced dads.
“Face it boys, we are no longer fathers,’’ Ball wrote. “We are piggy banks.’’
The courts and his former wife tell a different story. They paint a picture of a prideful and headstrong man who once lost his temper, slapped his 4-year-old daughter hard enough to draw blood, and then chose to remain estranged from his children rather than acknowledge he made a mistake and participate in court-ordered counseling.
Ball’s love for his children “made it impossible for him to accept that some of his actions were harmful to them,’’ his former wife, Karen, said Thursday in an e-mail. “He was unable to comply with the court’s requirement to meet with the children’s counselor because to do so would mean acknowledging that he had done something to warrant the requirement.’’
For years, Ball, acting as his own lawyer, filed one unsuccessful court motion after another seeking access to his children and to undo the requirement that he participate in counseling, which he rejected on principle.
He channeled his frustration at the legal system into action with father’s rights groups seeking to change the law to give fathers more clout in custody and divorce proceedings. Ball would picket courthouses while carrying a sign that read “Children need their fathers’’; he ran seminars for divorced dads on court procedures.
Ball spoke often about missing his children but did not seem depressed and never revealed any violent streak, said Ethan Allen of Clinton, 61, a close friend who met Ball more than 10 years ago through the Army Reserve.
“This is something that happened out of the clear blue sky,’’ Allen said.
Several divorced dads who knew Ball said that while they cannot condone what he did, they understand where his frustration came from.
“Tom’s story, other than its end, is pretty common,’’ said Ned Holstein, chairman of Fathers and Families, a court reform group Ball belonged to.
Ball’s legal story starts in 2001, with three slaps across his daughter’s face when she refused to go to bed.
At the time, the Balls were living in Jaffrey with their daughters, 7 and 4, and son, 2. Tom Ball was working as a service adviser at a nearby Ford dealership. After 11 years of marriage, Tom and Karen had been drifting apart, Tom Ball said in a 40-page memoir he wrote at least two years ago and posted on the Web.
“The gap between us kept stretching until finally you would ask yourself, ‘What did I ever see in her?’ ’’ Ball wrote.
The slapping incident effectively ended the marriage. Karen called the police; Tom was charged with assault. She filed for divorce within weeks.
Tom Ball’s defense was that a parent has the right to discipline a misbehaving child with corporal punishment.
A Superior Court judge later dismissed the case, saying the slaps were inappropriate but not criminal.
Ball, who had moved to Massachusetts to live with his brothers, wrote that he expected to be reunited with his daughters after prevailing in court, but Karen Ball won sole legal custody of the children in the divorce.
“Unfortunately due to the conflict in this divorce, conflict between Mr. Ball and his daughters’ counselors, pride, stubbornness, or other reasons this court cannot fathom, Mr. Ball never participated in the process that would have caused him to reestablish contact with his daughters and begin visitation,’’ the divorce judge wrote. Ball did have visitation with his son, according to court records.
Ball would later write that he decided to fight so relentlessly after reading about NFL legend Jim Brown, who chose a six-month jail sentence “on principle’’ instead of court-ordered counseling after being convicted of vandalizing his wife’s car. “Jim Brown was led out of the courthouse in handcuffs and taken to the can for six months,’’ Ball wrote in his memoir. “What he did defied logic. But I knew he was right.’’
In 2009, Ball filed one of his motions seeking unsupervised visits with his daughters. Most of the motions he wrote were competent and well-written, but this one meandered and personally criticized a judge. It also noted that a mental health specialist who consulted on the case had died. Ball wrote that he wouldn’t visit the cemetery for “fear that if I do, then I will urinate upon her grave.’’
His writings grew increasingly dark. In his last letter, published online by the Sentinel, Ball gave the history of the Molotov cocktail and exhorted divorced fathers to burn down courthouses and police stations.
Outside of these grim papers, Ball came off as intelligent and funny, with a deep love of history, genealogy, and Motown music, according to people who knew him.
He always smelled like freshly ironed clothes, said friend Trish Hamel of Milford, N.H., who spoke to Ball frequently. They visited historic buildings and cemeteries together; she brought him to a blues concert several weeks before he died.
“He was a sweet, gentle person, just in a lot of pain,’’ she said. Most of the complaints in Ball’s last letter sound familiar from their many conversations, she said. “Everything except the violence; I can’t reconcile that.’’
The Balls were due back in court this month for a hearing on a possible contempt finding against Tom, who had lost his job and had fallen several thousand dollars behind in child support. He wrote that he expected to be jailed.
Ten days before his suicide, Ball did two things that, in hindsight, suggest he was plotting his death.
During visiting time with his son, Ball drove to the courthouse in Keene, got out of his car and took a long look at the building, Karen Ball told the police.
That same day, Ball e-mailed a friend, Wayne Jewett of North Attleboro, saying he would need help sending out a statement later in June. “At the time it didn’t make any sense,’’ said Jewett. Ball never followed up, apparently deciding to mail his final letter to the Sentinel.
Security cameras recorded Ball moving methodically in his last moments. The unreleased video is described in police reports.
Ball tugged at the locked doors at the Cheshire County Superior Courthouse.
He left his driver’s license and the key to his Ford Mustang in a sandwich bag on the sidewalk.
Next, he opened a red plastic gasoline can, tipped the container above his head and drenched himself.
With a red cigarette lighter clutched in his right hand, he sat down on the concrete, reenacting the iconic Vietnam-era image of a Buddhist monk’s politically charged suicide by fire.
He jumped up when the flames appeared and walked 20 feet from the courthouse doors before he fell. A passerby kicked dirt on him to try to douse the flames. A police officer ran up with a fire extinguisher, but it was too late for Ball.
The last words of his last letter were meant for his children:
“You are to stick together no matter how old you get or how far apart you live,’’ he wrote. “Because it is like Grandma always said. The only thing you really have in this world is your family.’’
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Dad killed by police during police standoff; had been holding 7-year-old daughter hostage at gunpoint (Manchester, New Hampshire)
Though it's not spelled out here, dad JAMES BRETON apparently had visitation, since Mom had called the police for a welfare check. Notice that there was a complaint that Daddy had sexually abused a teenager. Well, Daddy started waving a handgun at the police and before you knew it, the Daddy Drama just got more and more intense. Finally, the police shot and killed Daddy.
But why did this idiot have visitation to start with? Oh right. Any freaking father, no matter how nutty or volatile, gets visitation these days--just so long as he has a pulse.
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/27839520/detail.html
Mother: Man Killed In Standoff Was ScaredGirl Was Held Hostage By Manchester Man, Police Say
POSTED: 11:28 am EDT May 10, 2011
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The mother of the 7-year-old girl New Hampshire held hostage by her father during a standoff with police in Manchester said he kept the child away from the apartment windows and cried at times.
Laura Gardner told WMUR-TV her daughter told her James Breton was scared, and may have been too afraid to open the door to let the girl go.
Breton was shot and killed by a state police officer on Saturday. The girl was in another room and was not hurt.
The standoff started Thursday after officers said they went to check on the child's welfare and were met by Breton, who waved a handgun and made threatening statements.
Gardner said police went to the apartment after receiving a complaint alleging that Breton sexually abused a teenager.
But why did this idiot have visitation to start with? Oh right. Any freaking father, no matter how nutty or volatile, gets visitation these days--just so long as he has a pulse.
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/27839520/detail.html
Mother: Man Killed In Standoff Was ScaredGirl Was Held Hostage By Manchester Man, Police Say
POSTED: 11:28 am EDT May 10, 2011
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The mother of the 7-year-old girl New Hampshire held hostage by her father during a standoff with police in Manchester said he kept the child away from the apartment windows and cried at times.
Laura Gardner told WMUR-TV her daughter told her James Breton was scared, and may have been too afraid to open the door to let the girl go.
Breton was shot and killed by a state police officer on Saturday. The girl was in another room and was not hurt.
The standoff started Thursday after officers said they went to check on the child's welfare and were met by Breton, who waved a handgun and made threatening statements.
Gardner said police went to the apartment after receiving a complaint alleging that Breton sexually abused a teenager.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Death of 3-year-old boy ruled homicide; murder took place during weekend custody with father (Nashua, New Hampshire)
Yet another poor child "allegedly" murdered by his father during weekend custody time. Notice that we still have an UNNAMED DAD here. Elsewhere, he is being identified as SHAWN GANLEY.
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/crime_files/crime_watch/death-of-3-year-old-boy-ruled-homicide-20110224
Death of 3-year-old boy ruled homicide
Updated: Thursday, 24 Feb 2011, 11:02 AM EST
Published : Thursday, 24 Feb 2011, 10:58 AM EST
Nikoletta Banushi
Web Producer
NASHUA, N.H. (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - The death of a 3-year-old boy in Nashua, N.H., has been ruled a homicide, New Hampshire Attorney General Michael A. Delaney and Nashua Police Chief Donald F. Conley announced today.
Christian Jackson was rushed to the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center from a home on Chestnut Street on Saturday night. He was pronounced dead on Sunday.
New Hampshire's Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Jennie D. Duval, completed an autopsy on February 21 and determined that the cause of the boy's death was blunt force trauma.
The child's great aunt Lisa Dorval told FOX 25 Christian was in the custody of his father over the weekend.
The victim's family set up the Christian Jackson Fund, held by Jennifer Dorval at the TD Bank branch at 191 Main St., to help pay for the funeral expenses.
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/crime_files/crime_watch/death-of-3-year-old-boy-ruled-homicide-20110224
Death of 3-year-old boy ruled homicide
Updated: Thursday, 24 Feb 2011, 11:02 AM EST
Published : Thursday, 24 Feb 2011, 10:58 AM EST
Nikoletta Banushi
Web Producer
NASHUA, N.H. (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - The death of a 3-year-old boy in Nashua, N.H., has been ruled a homicide, New Hampshire Attorney General Michael A. Delaney and Nashua Police Chief Donald F. Conley announced today.
Christian Jackson was rushed to the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center from a home on Chestnut Street on Saturday night. He was pronounced dead on Sunday.
New Hampshire's Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Jennie D. Duval, completed an autopsy on February 21 and determined that the cause of the boy's death was blunt force trauma.
The child's great aunt Lisa Dorval told FOX 25 Christian was in the custody of his father over the weekend.
The victim's family set up the Christian Jackson Fund, held by Jennifer Dorval at the TD Bank branch at 191 Main St., to help pay for the funeral expenses.
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