Custodial dad on trial for torturing son still has unsupervised visitation with other kids (Ontario, Canada)

At first you might chalk some of this up to incompetence. But as it goes on and on, down to this freaking piece of sh** of a father CONTINUING to get UNSUPERVISED VISITATION that this is thorough and complete corruption of the family court system by the fathers rights people.

And all their names are being withheld to "protect" the identity of the boy. The boy they set up for torture. Uh huh.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2016/04/29/mountie-in-child-abuse-trial-has-unsupervised-visits-with-his-other-children

Mountie in child abuse trial has unsupervised visits with his other children 

By Gary Dimmock
First posted: Friday, April 29, 2016 08:16 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, April 29, 2016 08:36 PM EDT

The Mountie on trial for torturing and starving his shackled, naked 11-year-old son in a darkened Kanata basement is free on bail and has unsupervised weekend visits with his two other sons, who are younger than the first-born son he is accused of almost starving to death in 2013.

The father, who has admitted that he burned his oldest son’s genitals because he thought the boy was the devil, can still play with his other sons on weekends. The unsupervised visits happen outside of Ottawa and the stepmother, who is also on trial, is not present for the visits.

The father has said he chained and handcuffed his son in the basement, and that he rationed the boy’s meals down to just two peanut-butter pitas a day. He also confessed that he burned his son with a lighter and once hit him so hard with the back of his hand that the boy was left with a broken tooth, court has heard.

The victim was sent to live with his father after his mother died in 2009. The boy’s maternal grandmother went to court in 2011 to try to win visitation rights, but a judge rejected her motion. The boy was distraught about his mother’s death and torn between his maternal and paternal family. The judge who dismissed the grandmother’s motion relied on the Mountie’s story and the child psychologist he enlisted.

The psychologist recommended the boy should remain in the full-time care of the father and his wife, both of whom are now on trial.

The same psychologist told the boy’s father in 2010 that he couldn’t “terrorize” his son, and warned him that if he kept punishing the boy, he’d have to call in the child-protection office.

The judge who heard the case was also aware of allegations that the Mountie was an abusive father.

Still, the judge ruled the boy’s maternal family could not have visitation rights. In the 2011 decision, the judge said the father was to send report cards and a school photograph of the boy to his maternal relatives. And if there was correspondence between the boy and his maternal family, the judge ruled that the controlling Mountie was allowed to read all letters sent to the boy he later tortured.

Two years after that ruling, on Feb. 12, 2013, the boy escaped his chains and fled his Kanata basement in search of water. He weighed only 50 pounds and doctors said he had almost starved to death.

One neighbour spotted the boy crouched at his garden tap with an empty water bottle in hand, so he filled it up for the boy in the kitchen, handing it back to him through the patio door.

“I thought I was looking at a ghost. His face was sunken. He looked very old,” the neighbour testified last year at the trial, which began last September.

The boy’s father and stepmother are accused of keeping the boy shackled in their basement for six months. Both are charged with aggravated assault, forcible confinement, and failure to provide necessities of life.

One of their neighbours testified that the boy showed up at their front door around suppertime on the day of his escape.

She told court that she hadn’t seen the boy in a year and a half.

He used to be “chubby, happy and full of energy,” she said. “He was completely changed. I couldn’t recognize him.”

The boy appeared nervous, she said, and fumbled for piggy-bank change from his pocket, offering it while asking if he could stay at her home.

She started walking the boy back to his own home, but when the boy complained of back pain, her husband called the police.

Crown attorney Michael Boyce also called another neighbour to testify about the boy. She said he was small for his age, and occasionally wasn’t wearing proper winter clothes while waiting for the morning school bus, usually alone and across the street from where the other kids stood while his father watched from a car parked down the road.

The woman testified that the boy wasn’t allowed to go to birthday parties in the neighbourhood. She said that when she offered the thirsty boy a juice box, he said he had to go ask his father for permission. The boy returned and said he wasn’t allowed, the neighbour recalled.

The boy’s father and stepmother are prohibited from talking to one another, according to their bail conditions. The suspended Mountie is also charged with careless storage of 9-mm Luger. Lawyers for both of the accused declined to comment Friday.

The Children’s Aid Society has a policy not to comment on such cases.

The trial, presided by Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger, continues Monday. There is a publication ban on several witnesses — including the child psychologist — to protect the identity of the boy.

Custodial dad, step found guilty of 1st-degree murder in death of 5-year-old girl (St. Clair County, Michigan)

The custodial dad is identified as ANDREW MAISON. See the Killer Dads and Custody list for Michigan. See prior posts here.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/01/29/couple-guilty-death-mackenzie-maison/79526856/

Couple guilty in death of 5-year-old Mackenzie Maison

Beth LeBlanc, Port Huron Times Herald 6:36 p.m. EST January 29, 2016

Hilery Maison wiped her eyes before handcuffs were snapped around her wrists in St. Clair County Circuit Judge Daniel Kelly’s courtroom Friday afternoon.

After about four hours of deliberation, a jury of 12 found Hilery and Andrew Maison guilty in the death of 5-year-old Mackenzie Maison.

The Port Huron couple is guilty of felony murder in the girl's death, and first-degree child abuse and torture of Mackenzie and her 3-year-old sister, Makayla.

First-degree felony murder is punishable by life in prison without parole.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor Mona Armstrong said the jurors’ verdict achieved some level of justice for the girls.

“It doesn’t change what happened and it doesn’t bring back Mackenzie,” Armstrong said. “It does serve a measure of justice. But it should never have gotten to this point.”

More than 20 witnesses — including family, friends, police, firefighters, paramedics and medical experts — testified during the six-day trial. Jurors deliberated for nearly four hours on the seventh day, Friday.

Witnesses testified at trial that Mackenzie was unresponsive when emergency personnel arrived about 8:30 p.m. May 26 at her Oak Street home.

According to 911 calls played in court, Hilery Maison, Mackenzie's stepmother, called dispatchers shortly before 8:30 p.m. She initially reported Mackenzie was "rebelling" against food then, later in the call, told the dispatcher Mackenzie wasn’t breathing.

Mackenzie was pronounced dead at the hospital after medical crews spent 45 minutes attempting to resuscitate her. Medical experts have testified she was malnourished, dehydrated, bruised and had pneumonia. She weighed 25 pounds.

Makayla also was hospitalized for malnourishment. She weighed 17 pounds, but has since doubled her weight while in foster care.

According to previous testimony, neither girl had seen a doctor for at least a year prior to Mackenzie’s death, even though the girls were losing weight and follow-up appointments were recommended.

Mackenzie’s death was ruled a homicide. The cause of death was classified as dehydration and malnutrition complicated by pneumonia and its related conditions.

Custodial dad charged with manslaughter in starvation death of 21-month-old daughter (Brampton, Ontario, Canada)

Honestly, how stupid does the media think we are? There is not a lot of evidence here that the parents had joint shared custody. And even in the remote chance that they did, it was clearly not enforced. A kid does not die of malnutrition during a two-day visitation with Daddy. Plus, the signs of malnutrition would have been clear well before that. So common sense tells you that either the mother was complicit, or she was totally shut out. Well, she wasn't arrested for abuse in this case, so it's clear what was what here. Dad FRANK BRIAN O'DEA was either legally or effectively a custodial father.

See the Killer Dads and Custody list for Canada.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/brampton-father-manslaughter-charges-1.3369664

Brampton dad charged with manslaughter in toddler Victoria O'Dea's death

Police were called to Brampton home April 20 for a child without vital signs

CBC News Posted: Dec 17, 2015 11:58 AM ET|Last Updated: Dec 17, 2015 10:15 PM ET

A Brampton father is now facing a charge of manslaughter in connection with the death of his 21-month old daughter.

Frank Brian O'Dea, 42, who was initially charged with criminal negligence causing death, was arrested Wednesday and charged with failing to provide necessities of life, in addition to the manslaughter charge.

The new charges come in the wake of a provincial forensic report released Monday that found that malnutrition and dehydration were to blame for Victoria O'Dea's death.

Victoria was pronounced dead at hospital after police responded to a report just after midnight on April 20 of a child without vital signs at a home on Pappain Crescent in Brampton.

Her death prompted an outpouring of public support, with community members launching crowdfunding efforts to pay for the little girl's funeral.

Sources told CBC News that Frank Brian O'Dea and Victoria's mother were separated at the time of the girl's death. Const. Lori Murphy could not say whether the two shared custody.

Actor and comedian Russell Peters also stepped in, offering to help cover the funeral expenses.

O'Dea was released on bail eight months ago after the initial charges were laid.

He was supposed to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton Thursday for a bail hearing connected to the new charges.

The 42-year-old will return to court on Monday.

Custodial dad wants new venue, separate trial in torture-murder of 5-year-old daughter (Port Huron, Michigan)

The custodial dad is identified as ANDREW MAISON. We've posted on this case before. According to previous posts, dad legally speaking had joint custody, but shut off the mother's contact. Of course, the authorities don't object when the daddy does that--just the mom.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/2015/10/13/father-wants-new-venue-separate-trial-death-girl-5/73858972/

Father wants new venue, separate trial in death of girl, 5

Beth LeBlanc, Times Herald 4:51 p.m. EDT October 13, 2015

A Port Huron father is asking to be tried separately from his wife in the death of his 5-year-old daughter.

Frederick Lepley, Andrew Maison’s lawyer, states in the motion that his client would not receive a fair trial if he were tried alongside Hilery Maison.

“The Defendant Andrew Maison worked long hours outside the home, and left the child care duties relating to nutrition, medical care and discipline primarily to his wife,” the motion states. “…

Defendant Andrew Maison would be substantially prejudiced if he is tried with his co-defendant.

There is a high risk that a jury could hold him responsible for the neglect or abuse perpetrated by his wife.”

Mackenzie was found unresponsive at the Maisons’ Oak Street home May 26 after her stepmother, Hilery Maison, called 911.

Mackenzie was pronounced dead at the hospital. Police said she was malnourished, dehydrated and had pneumonia. She weighed 25 pounds.

Her 3-year-old sister, Makayla, was taken to the hospital for treatment of malnourishment. She weighed 17 pounds.

Hilery and Andrew Maison are facing charges of murder, two counts of torture and two counts of first-degree child abuse in Mackenzie’s death and Makayla’s alleged abuse.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor Mona Armstrong said the prosecutor’s office will oppose the request for separate trials.

“There really is no factual basis to support the request,” Armstrong said.

While there are circumstances that lead to separate trials for co-defendants, Armstrong said she doesn’t believe those circumstances apply in the Maisons' case.

Lepley also filed a motion for a change of venue Monday. The motion argues that demonstrators outside the courthouse, people wearing shirts demanding justice during the preliminary examination and media coverage of the case could prejudice jurors.

Lepley asks that either the venue is changed or those factors are considered during jury selection.

“…Potential jurors cannot, under the circumstances, be expected to remain impartial in light of the barrage of media coverage and social media posts that depict the Defendant as the person responsible for the death and or abuse,” the motion states.

Michael Boucher, Hilery Maison’s lawyer, also filed several motions last week, including one for a change of venue due to media coverage and negative community sentiment toward the Maisons.

The motions filed on behalf of Andrew and Hilery Maison will be discussed during an Oct. 19 hearing.

Boucher said he doesn't intend to file for a separate trial for Hilery Maison.

"We maintain that there is potentially an organic cause of this problem," Boucher said. "I have no intention of maintaining that one party is more responsible than the other.”

During a hearing Monday, Boucher and Lepley said they had located a pathologist who could possibly testify about other disorders or diseases that could have caused Mackenzie's death and Makayla's low weight and weakness.

They asked Circuit Judge Daniel Kelly to delay the trial to after March 1 to explore the possibility of other contributing causes. Kelly denied the request. The trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 3.

Calls to Lepley were not immediately returned.

Sole custody dad due in court on assault charges; son still in coma (East Brookfield, Massachusetts)

This poor little boy has been in a coma for over two months now--not good.

Somehow, this crazy piece of sh** was favored over the mother and grandmother for child custody--fathers rights, you know. Even ongoing CPS "monitoring" didn't save this boy.

Dad is identified as RANDALL LINTS. We've posted on him before.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20150923/NEWS/150929579  

Injured Hardwick boy's father due in court Oct. 21
By Kim Ring
Telegram & Gazette Staff Posted Sep. 23, 2015 at 9:09 PM
EAST BROOKFIELD - A Hardwick father accused of beating and starving his 7-year-old son is due back in Western Worcester District Court October 21.

Randall Lints, 26, who lived at 16 Bridge St., in the Gilbertville section of Hardwick, is charged with assault and battery on a child with substantial injury, permitting substantial injury to a child, reckless endangerment of a child and permitting injury to a child. His son, Jack Loiselle, is now in a rehabilitation facility where, at last word, he was stable but unresponsive, according to state officials.

Mr. Lints was charged when Jack ended up comatose in his second-floor apartment July 14 after allegedly being abused. The child was being monitored by the state Department of Children and Families over concerns that Mr. Lints was withholding food and water from the child in an attempt to manage his behavior, court documents show.

The father of three children had custody of his son for about a year. Before that Jack had been cared for by his grandparents and became the subject of a custody battle involving them. He lived with his mother, Amber Loiselle, for a time during his early years.

Mr.Lints had a court date on Wednesday but did not appear in the courtroom. A spokesman for Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said his next appearance was scheduled for Oct. 21.

Sole custody abusive dad subject of DCF child abuse report (Hardwick, Massachusetts)

We've reported on this case before. Abusive dad RANDALL LINTS had sole custody. And yet the Fathers Rights guys in Massachusetts still wail about how discriminated against they are in custody matters. Total bullsh**. The reality is that the system bends over backwards to accommodate abusive fathers in custodial matters, and won't interfere with the father's "rights" till it's often too late.

http://www.whdh.com/story/29960177/dcf-to-release-report-on-hardwick-child-abuse-investigation

DCF releases report on Hardwick child abuse investigation

Posted: Sep 04, 2015 10:16 AM Updated: Sep 05, 2015 5:11 PM

Hardwick (WHDH) - The Department of Children and Families released on Friday a report on its investigation into what led a young Hardwick boy to be hospitalized.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker held a press conference on Friday and said the report was intended to identify failures of DCF processes that led to the injures sustained by 7-year-old Jack Loiselle. "These kids deserve the same chances other kids have," Baker said of children in DCF care. "To go to school, play with their friends, and find the kind of security, predictability and unconditional support that most of us take for granted so that they can grow, learn and succeed."

Baker said the report showed that DCF, despite its best intentions and efforts, does not have the policy framework, operating rules and other aspects that are required to properly served children. Several policies are more than 10 years old.

"DCF does not have a parental capability review policy for all cases involving custody issues," he said. "Neither the courts, nor DCF, did enough diligence concerning the childhood of Jack's biological father. His own childhood was enormously troubled and should have been factored into every decision concerning Jack's care, well being and safety."

By Jan. 1, the Western Massachusetts region of DCF will return to its previous management structure by recreating the Central Massachusetts region, costing between $1 million and $2 million.

"DCF has the authority to recruit, hire and train the social work team and the staff it needs to deal with rising case load and if we need to we will find the money to support the department's efforts," he said.

Baker said many people who work in DCF do good work every day, but the systemic issues show that much more needs to be done in order to keep children safe.

According to authorities, Loiselle weighed just 38 pounds.

The 7-year-old was unconscious and suffering from starvation and dehydration.

He had bruises on his face and bleach burns on his hands and knees.

At last check, he remains unresponsive at a long-term rehabilitation facility.

DCF became involved with the family in February, eight months after Randall Lints was granted sole custody of his son.

Police arrested and charged Lints a week after Jack was taken into intensive care.

Governor Charlie Baker will discuss the case Friday afternoon.

Dad sentenced to 25 years in prison for death of 2-month-old son (Sioux City, Iowa)

Dad is identified as MICHAEL WILLIAMS.

http://www.kcci.com/news/father-sentenced-in-sons-malnutrition-death/34820022  

Father sentenced in son’s malnutrition death

Published 7:41 AM CDT Aug 20, 2015

SIOUX CITY, Iowa —A 28-year-old Sioux City man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison in the death of his 2-month-old son and neglect of his two other children.

The Sioux City Journal reports Michael Williams pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges including child endangerment resulting in serious injury. The sentence is part of a plea deal.

According to authorities, 2-month-old Leonard Williams was taken to a hospital on April 29, 2014.

Authorities say an autopsy showed the child died of malnutrition and dehydration.

How abusive dad got custody in seven minutes (Worcester, Massachusetts)

The ONLY reason such a travesty could have taken place is the utter triumph of Fathers Rights in the family court system. Fathers are coddled and indulged despite histories of domestic violence, severe mental illness, drugs/alcohol abuse, evidence of child abuse...none of it matters in terms of gaining and retaining custody.

We've reported on custodial dad RANDALL LINTS before.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/08/15/seven-minutes-that-sealed-boy-fate/lLqEG1IEo4aDzBbFEZFXfI/story.html

7 minutes that set a child’s course for tragedy

Hearing that gave a Hardwick boy to father who allegedly beat and starved him was terse, incurious, disastrous

By Michael Levenson Globe Staff August 15, 2015

WORCESTER — It took seven minutes of rustling papers and perfunctory questions uttered in rapid-fire monotone, and the deal was done. A Worcester probate judge had transferred custody of a young boy from the grandmother who had raised him almost since birth to the father whom he barely knew. A year later, the father would be charged with nearly killing the boy by beating him and refusing him food and water.

Even though family members now say that the father had a history of violence and mental illness, and though he had only recently acknowledged that he was the father, Judge Lucille A. DiLeo never questioned Randall Lints’s fitness to raise his son.

And no party to the case suggested she should.

“OK, I think we have everything,” DiLeo said in a matter-of-fact voice, after reading aloud the main points of the custody papers, and ensuring that they had been signed by the father, mother, and grandmother standing before her. “Thank you, everybody.”

Legal experts say such quick approval is typical in cases like this one.

There was no dispute over the father’s petition for custody, because the family members had signed it before the brief hearing on June 30, 2014, a recording of which was obtained by the Globe. The judge simply ratified the family consensus. There was no one in court to speak specifically for the child.

The tragic fallout from the custody ruling has raised questions about whether probate courts can do more to protect the children whose lives their decisions most deeply affect. ‘They’re all standing there, they all agree, they all signed off on it, and that’s it.’

“We must reform our probate and family courts so that, in every case, the interests of children outweigh the desires and preferences of adults,” said Gail Garinger, a former juvenile court judge who heads the state Office of the Child Advocate. “Children in our courts need experienced professionals who will listen to them and help identify their genuine needs, skilled advocates for their interests, and decision-makers who will make the welfare of the children before them their highest priority.”

Other legal specialists, even as they acknowledge the horrors allegedly inflicted by Lints, recoil at the notion that judges should intervene in cases in which an entire family is in agreement about who should gain custody.

“The idea that the state gets to tell you whether you have it together enough to bring up your child is really a little bit scary,” said Mary E. O’Connell, a professor of child and family law at Northeastern University School of Law.

Indeed, in a custody case that is not disputed, the judge must presume that the adults have the child’s best interests at heart, said Edward M. Ginsburg, a retired probate court judge who served 25 years in Middlesex County.

“In this case, there is nothing that the judge should have done that she didn’t do: They’re all standing there, they all agree, they all signed off on it, and that’s it,” Ginsburg said. “In that context, it’s an administrative function.”

The 7-year-old boy has been in a coma since July 14, when paramedics carried him from Lints’s home in Hardwick with bruises across his body and burns on his feet.

He weighed just 38 pounds, having lost 12 to 15 pounds in recent weeks. Authorities say Lints had kept his son in his bedroom and starved and dehydrated him to stop him from urinating on the floor.

The case has focused intense scrutiny on the state Department of Children and Families, which had been monitoring the boy since February when it received back-to-back complaints that Lints was neglecting the child.

Officials have acknowledged that a state social worker visited the home just two weeks before the boy fell into a coma and his father called 911.

A year earlier, DiLeo had made what would turn out to be the fateful decision to transfer custody of the boy. In court, she ticked off the nuts and bolts of the deal: The maternal grandmother, who had been the boy’s legal guardian since 2008, would hand custody to Lints, 26.

Reading from the agreement, she confirmed his promise to enroll the boy in counseling and add him to his Medicaid plan. She affirmed the visitation rights of the boy’s mother, Amber Loiselle, who had been estranged from her son for two years.

No one present raised any objections that might have prompted DiLeo to question the arrangement. The judge sealed the deal with a series of questions to each family member.

“Did you sign here? Did you review it with your lawyer before you signed it? Understood it? Signed it freely and voluntarily?” And, finally, “Thank you.”

DiLeo could have appointed an attorney for the child or an independent advocate, called a guardian ad litem, to assess whether placing him with the father was in the boy’s best interests, said Sanford N. Katz, a professor emeritus at Boston College Law School and a specialist in family law.

“The focus of the case has to be on the child, not on the parents or anybody else,” Katz said. “Even though all the parties may agree the father is the one, an independent look at this might say no.”

DiLeo did not respond to several messages.

Still, it would have been highly unusual for her to intervene when there was no dispute over custody, said Robin M. Deutsch, the director of the Center of Excellence for Children, Families and the Law at William James College in Newton.

“If people don’t bring forward a concern, it’s really not up to the court to go on a fishing expedition,” Deutsch said. “It would be very inappropriate to say, ‘Wait a moment. Let’s get an evaluation.’ Instead, you say, ‘How great that they agreed; how wonderful.’ ”

If DiLeo had scrutinized the case, she might have discovered cause for concern.

In 2007, when Lints was first told that he was going to be a father, “He would call me and threaten to cut [the baby] out of my stomach,” Amber Loiselle told the Globe last month.

A year later, a judge in Fitchburg granted Loiselle a restraining order against Lints after he allegedly shoved her to the ground. Lints was not listed on the boy’s birth certificate, and the boy was told that his father was dead, according to relatives.

Lints only became involved in his son’s life in 2013, after he was sued by the state to provide child support and was ordered to take a paternity test, court records show.

Lints’s mother, Tina LaValley, said she warned her son, who has bipolar disorder and borderline schizophrenia, not to seek custody of the boy.

“I says, ‘You don’t want to put yourself in that situation,’ ” LaValley told NECN. “[He said], ‘I don’t want nobody calling me a deadbeat dad. I’m not going to be a deadbeat dad. That is my son. I’m going to raise my son.’ ”

Custodial dad, step to go to trial for torture murder of 5-year-old daughter (Port Huron, Michigan)

We've posted on this case before.

Dad is identified as ANDREW MAISON.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/07/21/mackenzie-maison-dad-stepmom-trial/30484413/

November trial for dad, stepmom charged in girl's death

Beth LeBlanc, Times Herald 6:38 p.m. EDT July 21, 2015

A Port Huron couple charged in the death of 5-year-old Mackenzie Maison will go to trial in November.

The trial for Hilery Maison, 27, and Andrew Maison, 25, has been scheduled for Nov. 3, according to online court records.

A final plea hearing for both is scheduled for Oct. 26.

On Monday, Circuit Judge Daniel Kelly said the trial would be scheduled out further than usual to handle any anticipated issues that may come up in the case.

Lawyers for Hilery and Andrew Maison said they hadn't yet received an autopsy report in Mackenzie's death.

Frederick Lepley, lawyer for Andrew Maison, said he may be filing motions, including ones for expert witnesses and separate trials.

Hilery and Andrew Maison — Mackenzie's stepmother and father — face charges of murder, two counts of torture and two counts of first-degree child abuse in the death of Mackenzie and the alleged abuse of her 3-year-old sister, Makayla.

Police were called to the Maisons' Oak Street home about 8:30 p.m. May 26.

Mackenzie was found unresponsive at the home and declared dead at the hospital.

Police have said the 5-year-old was malnourished, dehydrated, and had pneumonia. She weighed 25 pounds.

Her 3-year-old sister, Makayla, was taken to the hospital for treatment of malnourishment. She weighed about 17 pounds.

7-year-old boy severely abused by custodial dad being moved to rehab facility (Hardwick, Massachusetts)

We've posted before on dad RANDALL LINTS. Notice that the fact that Daddy had sole custody, and that DCF knew about his abuse for months, and did nothing to stop it, is gradually disappearing from the main narrative....

So obviously the intent is to frame this as "just a tragedy" and deny that this is an outrageous miscarriage of justice. Still waiting for the name of the judge who authorized Daddy to take possession....

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/77923ad1820c49e8a8f3a52a9bb03ffd/MA--Child-Abuse-Charges

Officials: Injured boy, 7, allegedly abused by father being moved to rehabilitative facility

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS August 06, 2015 - 3:17 am EDT

BOSTON — State officials say a 7-year-old Massachusetts boy who fell into a coma after allegedly being abused and isolated by his father has been moved to a long-term rehabilitative facility.

A spokesman with the state's Department of Children and Families said Wednesday the Hardwick boy is "medically stable but unresponsive."

She says the agency remains "deeply concerned" about the well-being of the boy.

The DCF took custody of the boy on July 14 after he was found unconscious.

Authorities said the child had been beaten, starved and dehydrated.

The boy's father, 26-year-old Randall Lints, remains jailed on assault and endangerment charges until a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Aug. 19.

Gov. Charlie Baker says the state's investigation is ongoing and a report is expected to be released in September.

DCF "actively" engaged with custodial dad since February, but that didn't stop him from putting 7-year-old son into coma (Hardwick, Massachusetts)

Where do you even start with this case?

With freaking DCF, that managed to coddle this abuser for months on end while this little boy was starved and beaten?

How about with the family courts, who gave this batterer SOLE CUSTODY--even though the mother was filing for an order of protection just nine days after the baby was born?

We need to see names, people. Social workers, judges. All the fathers-rights people who have been planted in the system. And no more crap about how poor daddies are discriminated against in Massachusetts.

Dad is identified as RANDALL LINTS.

http://www.wbur.org/2015/07/24/dcf-involved-with-harwick-boy

Since February, DCF Had Been ‘Actively Engaged’ With Hardwick Boy Now In A Coma

July 24, 2015 Updated July 24, 2015, 9:15 am

By David Boeri Updated July 24, 2015, 9:15 am

Editor’s Note: Some details in this story are disturbing.

BOSTON — The state’s child welfare agency is facing questions about whether it did enough to protect a 7-year-old boy from the Worcester County town of Hardwick who’s now hospitalized in a coma.

The Department of Children and Families acknowledges that it had been involved with the boy’s family since February.

The boy’s father, Randall Lints, is charged with child abuse and is being held without bail. He’s scheduled to be back in court next week.

WBUR spoke with the boy’s mother, Amber Loiselle, who’s waiting to find out whether her son Jack survives. Loiselle says Jack has been in a coma since July 14, when Lints called 911 to report finding him unresponsive.

“He has most beautiful soft blonde hair. He was squeezing my hand. I just know that he’s going to come back,” an emotional Loiselle said Thursday.

After Lints called 911, police and medical personnel found signs of starvation, dehydration, bruises and burns. Lints, who was granted sole custody of the child last year, was arrested and charged on Wednesday with assault and battery and reckless endangerment.

On Wednesday, Loiselle had accused DCF of clear negligence. On Thursday, she was taking pains not to talk about DCF or the boy’s father, since the matter is also in family court.

When asked if the boy had been in the care of DCF, Loiselle said: “I am not at liberty to discuss any of that information because it is a private family matter, so my lawyer advised me not to speak anything about it.”

Meanwhile, the DCF, which declined to comment on the case 10 days after the 911 call, acknowledged Thursday that indeed DCF had been “actively engaged” with both the boy and his father since February, and they had seen them three times this month, while the boy continued to lose some 25 percent of his weight, according to a hospital pediatrician.

When asked if she felt the DCF didn’t do their job, Loiselle said, “That’s something I can’t talk about right now.” #She added: “My personal feelings are that I’m upset that this happened to my son and that … something could have been done.”

According to sources familiar with the case, the report that triggered DCF’s involvement came from Jack’s elementary school. Under the law, schools are mandated to report reasonable suspicion that a child is suffering from abuse or neglect. There were also indications at school that the boy was stealing food.

A police report estimated his weight had dropped from 50 pounds to 38 and that his father withheld food and drink. The report also indicated the boy suffered from bleach burns, the result of the father’s forcing his son to wash the floors, because, according to one source, the boy was apparently urinating on himself.

Yet DCF says that one of its social workers saw the child on June 29.

Until he was arrested, Lints lived with his girlfriend, her three young children and Jack. He separated from Loiselle before their son was born and later contested paternity.

His criminal record, according to a law enforcement source, indicates that Jack’s mother sought a restraining order against Lints nine days after Jack was born. Loiselle confirmed there was a restraining order in place, saying it was “for violence, for threatening to hurt me.”

A dangerousness hearing scheduled for Friday was rescheduled until next week because Lints’ first attorney is no longer representing him.

The reason is sobering. John Madaio is not on the list of attorneys qualified to represent defendants in murder cases. Lints’ new attorney is.

DCF stated Thursday night that it “immediately took custody of the child” on July 14. That, of course, was after the child fell into a coma.

Custodial dad charged with abuse, starvation of 7-year-old son; boy in coma (Hardwick, Massachusetts)

7-Year-Old Boy Abused, Starved, Father Arrested

So yes, RANDALL LINTS IS a custodial father. So who gave this POS custody and allowed this situation to fester like this, apparently for months? I want to start seeing judge's names, people.

http://www.necn.com/news/new-england/Police-7-Year-Old-Boy-Abused-Starved-318185691.html

Police said he was brought to the hospital unconscious, weighing only 38 pounds

By Kathryn Sotnik

A Massachusetts man is facing multiple charges after his 7-year-old son was brought to the hospital unconscious suffering from starvation and dehydration last week.

(Published Wednesday, July 22, 2015) Updated at 10:38 AM EDT on Thursday, Jul 23, 2015

A 7-year-old Massachusetts boy was abused so badly by his father that he was in a coma and unresponsive when he was admitted to a local hospital, suffering from "starving and dehydration" at just 38.5 pounds, according to police and court documents.

The boy's father, 26-year-old Randall Lints, faces a slew of child abuse charges.

In addition to the malnutrition, police said the child, abused on the second-floor of a Hardwick home, had injuries to his skin as a result of "bleach exposure."

Massachusetts State Police said they discovered the boy after responding to a 911 call on July 14. Lints allegedly told police that he went to check on his son and found him unresponsive, and that he had fallen out of bed days earlier.

First responders said they found bruises to the child's "forehead and jaw," but doctors said the injuries weren't consistent with falling out of bed. The boy also had injuries to his feet, "likely from a manufactured object," and appeared to have lost "12-15 pounds in only a few months," according to the report.

Lints was arrested about a week after his son was admitted to the hospital.

Amber Loiselle identified the victim as her son, Jack. She said she's been visiting him on her custody days in the hospital.

"He's my first born, and he's a great older brother" she said. "I just want him to open his eyes, because they're the most beautiful color of blue."

Isabella Johnson, 10, rides the bus with the child.

"He told me he scrubs the floor sometimes," Johnson said. "He says for a chore, his parents make him clean the floors."

Johnson also said he would be cold and hungry at school.

"Sometimes he comes to school, like in the winter time, he was really cold," she said. "He'd go to school on the bus and be like, 'I'm hungry,' so he'd open his lunch and eat it, and then he'd have nothing to eat at lunch."

Isabella's mom, Dawn Johnson, said through tears that she saw the little boy just recently.

"I had a yard sale a couple weeks ago and I was giving toys to him and stuff, because he doesn't have — I just let him have stuff," said Dawn Johnson.

Wednesday, a woman neighbors identified as Lints' girlfriend cried near the house. Neighbors didn't report seeing anything amiss, but one downstairs neighbor said she heard yelling a few months ago.

"I heard him yelling at his son, saying, 'Why did you do it, why did you do it?' and the child crying," she said.

Amber Loiselle said Jack is slowly getting better.

"Justice will prevail for my son, and he is going to come out of this, because he is just the most amazing little boy," she said.

The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families says the boy is in its custody. He is still recovering at a local hospital. A Facebook page set up for him says he is progressing, and that he was able to wiggle his arms and shoulders and cough on his own.

Published at 3:54 PM EDT on Jul 22, 2015

Dad charged with abusing 7-year-old son who fell into coma; boy had signs of starvation, dehydration, bruising--Is this a custodial dad? (Hardwick, Massachusetts)

Is RANDALL E. LINTS a custodial father? Sure sounds like it, though this article is pretty oblique about his status.

Even in a case of joint custody, this kind of abuse could not have gone on this long without the mother knowing about it. If she had known about it, she would either have been charged with failure to protect, at minimum, or would have contacted the authorities herself.

But in fact, there is no reference to a mother either in the home or elsewhere. We're merely told--at the very end--that a mother is "not named" in the report and that Daddy Dearest is unmarried.

In other words, he was almost assuredly custodial.

So who gave this torture freak custody of a little boy? And what happened to this little boy's mom? Did dad dish out similar treatment towards her?

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/07/22/hardwick-father-charged-after-boy-found-abused-and-starved/NtrcgmJ28GzRZEJpymv4XM/story.html

Father charged in abuse of son, 7, who fell into coma
Boy showed signs of starvation

Rick Cinclair/Worcester Telegram & Gazette via AP

Randall E. Lints, 26, entered no plea at his arraignment Wednesday in East Brookfield District Court.

By Travis Andersen
Globe Staff July 22, 2015

A Hardwick man is being held without bail in a disturbing case in which he allegedly assaulted his 7-year-old son, who fell into a coma and showed signs of starvation, dehydration, and bruising, injuries that were exacerbated when he was forced to scrub floors, court records show.

Randall E. Lints, 26, entered no plea at his arraignment Wednesday in East Brookfield District Court to charges of assault and battery on a child with substantial injury, reckless endangerment of a child, and two counts of permitting injury to a child, said a spokesman for Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.

Lints was ordered held pending a dangerousness hearing on Friday. He was arrested on Tuesday.

His lawyer, John F. Madaio, declined to comment on the charges but said Lints is “very concerned for his son, and he’s very distressed about the whole situation.”

The state Department of Children and Families said in a brief statement that the agency “received a report and is collaborating with law enforcement on its investigation.” The boy is currently in DCF custody.

A DCF spokeswoman declined to say whether the boy’s family had a prior history with the child protection agency, citing respect for the youth’s privacy.

According to a State Police report, a Hardwick officer went to Lints’ home on July 14, after a caller said a child there was breathing but unresponsive. The officer saw bruising on the boy’s head and jaw, and Lints said the child fell out of bed two days earlier, the report said.

The boy was taken to Baystate Mary Lane Hospital in Ware with “life-threatening injuries,” according to the report. He was transferred to the Baystate Health medical campus in Springfield, where Dr. Stephen C. Boos examined him several times.

According to authorities, Boos noted that the boy had multiple bruises on his body that were inconsistent with a fall, and the child had lost approximately 12 to 15 pounds in recent months, dropping to just 38½ pounds.

Boos wrote in one assessment that “reports of being ‘in his room’ for days, against a background of behavioral complaints, combined with the physical injuries, apparent starvation, and dehydration create grave concerns for inflicted injury,” the State Police report said.

The report, filed after Lints’s arrest on Tuesday, said the boy is still in a coma. He remains hospitalized in Springfield, and a Baystate Health spokesman said he had no information on the child on Wednesday.

Investigators have found that Lints, who has a grim reaper tattoo on his chest, rarely lets his son out of view or allows him to be alone with others, and that he has a history of limiting the boy’s food and drink intake, even though a therapist addressed the issue in May, the report said. #Lints’ strict discipline and “forcing [his son] to continuously wash the floors contributed to [his] injuries,” State Police wrote.

The report also said injuries to the child’s knees and hands are the result of bleach exposure and are healing.

In addition, a nurse spotted scarring and blistering on his feet that appeared to be the result of a burn, the report said.

Madaio, his lawyer, said Wednesday that “I think some information will come out [during Friday’s hearing] that is interesting, at least as far as the situation that he finds himself in. . . . That’s all I have to say right now.”

The boy’s mother is not named in the State Police report, and court records indicate that Lints is unmarried.

Trial continues for dad charged in death of 2-month-old son (Sioux City, Iowa)

Dad is identified as MICHAEL WILLIAMS.

http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/trial-for-sioux-city-father-charged-in-baby-s-death/article_d78c914c-d723-567b-b119-a7826797abcc.html

Trial for Sioux City father charged in baby's death continued

6 hours ago • NICK HYTREK SIOUX CITY |

A Sioux City man charged in connection with his son's death has had a falling out with his attorney and will not go to trial next week.

Michael Williams said in a letter to the court he no longer trusted Matt Pittenger, his court-appointed attorney, because Pittenger did not have his best interests in mind and doesn't believe Williams is innocent.

Williams asked Pittenger to withdraw. At a Monday hearing, Pittenger told District Judge Jeffrey Neary that the attorney-client relationship with Williams had broken down.

Neary approved Williams' request and continued the July 7 trial date.

A new trial date will be set once Williams has a new attorney.

Williams told Neary his family is attempting to hire a private attorney to represent him.

Williams, 27, is charged in Woodbury County District Court with three counts of neglect of a dependent person and single counts of child endangerment resulting in the death of a child and child endangerment resulting in bodily injury of a child.

Williams had taken his dead 2-month-old son, Leonard Williams, to a hospital emergency room on April 29, 2014. An autopsy showed that the infant died of malnutrition and dehydration.

Woodbury County Attorney Patrick Jennings said at Monday's hearing that the continuation was warranted, but he did not want to see the case continue to drag out. Charges were filed in May 2014 and additional charges were filed in November.

The trial has been continued twice before, and Williams has twice been on the verge of agreeing to plead guilty, only to reject a plea offer.

"We can't continue to do this," Jennings said.

According to court documents, Williams told police he left the baby unsupervised for long periods of time in the apartment he shared with Leonard's mother, Rebekah Williams-McCarthy, in the 2800 block of West Fourth Street.

Williams-McCarthy faces the same charges as Williams. Her trial is set for Aug. 4.

Custodial dad, step to stand trial on murder and torture charges in death of 5-year-old daughter (Port Huron, Michigan)

Still waiting to see the names of the judges and family court officials who granted dad ANDREW MAISON custody and allowed him to cut off all contact with the mother.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3139636/Father-wife-weep-court-hearing-let-daughter-5-die-severe-dehydration-malnourishment-face-murder-torture-charges.html

'Abuser' parents finally weep as court hears horrific details of how they 'starved daughter, 5, to just 25 pounds before her death'
Andrew and Hilery Maison of Port Huron, Michigan will stand trial on murder and torture charges
They called police to their home on May 26 when his daughter Mackenzie, 5, suddenly went unconscious
Mackenzie died soon after suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition and weighing just 25 pounds
She also had numerous bruises on her body and multiple infections
Her sister Makayla, 3, weighed just 17 pounds and was also severely malnourished and dehydrated
She survived and has since been moved to a foster home

By Chris Spargo For Dailymail.com
Published: 20:07 EST, 25 June 2015 | Updated: 01:49 EST, 26 June 2015

A father and his wife who are charged with murdering his daughter wept in court on Thursday as lawyers detailed the abuse and torture that led to the young girl's death.

Andrew and Hilery Maison of Port Huron, Michigan will stand trial on charges of murder, two counts of torture and two counts of first-degree child abuse in the death of Mackenzie Maison, Andrews 5-year-old daughter.

Mackenzie was found dead at the couple's home on May 26 weighing just 25 pounds, while her 3-year-old sister Makayla, who managed to survive, weighed just 17 pounds.

Both girls were severely malnourished and dehydrated.

'These children were dying in front of these defendants, and they did absolutely nothing while they are taking adequate and appropriate care of the other two children,' Senior Assistant Prosecutor Mona Armstrong said in court Thursday according to The Times Herald.

Andrew and Hilery were at times quiet, and other times seen openly crying in court.

Despite their tears however, the prosecution argued that these girls ahd been suffering for a long period of time.

 

'Malnutrition alone doesn’t occur in a day or two days or, really, in a week. Malnutrition is more a prolonged type of a process,' Dr. Daniel Spitz, medical examiner for St. Clair County, testified in court.

 

'I think I can say this child was malnourished over a period of months and, more likely, years.'

Mackenzie's body was also bruised in numerous places and she had multiple infections

Makayla meanwhile drank four glasses of water when police arrived - after the couple called them when Mackenzie suddenly went unconscious - and could barely stand up according to their report.

 

She was also so weak she had trouble biting into an apple at the police station.

She was released from the hospital on June 1 and is now in foster care.

 

Michael Boucher, Hilery’s lawyer, and Frederick Lepley, Andrew’s lawyer, argued that the two did not knowingly deprive the girls of nutrition.

The results of Mackenzie's autopsy have not yet been released.

 

The girls' mother, Shelby Coffee, had lost custody of the two in 2013.

 

Custodial dad, step charged with torture, murder of 5-year-old daughter (Port Huron, Michgian)

We've reported on this case twice before, but this is the first time I have seen the father's name disclosed. Dad ANDREW MAISON reportedly had joint custody of the girls with their mother, but decided to shut off Mom's access. Of course, the authorities did nothing. See our previous post.

http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/29189886/father-stepmother-charged-in-death-of-malnourished-girl

Father, stepmother charged in death of malnourished girl

By JEFF KAROUB Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) - Prosecutors on Friday accused a father and stepmother of intentional, persistent abuse and neglect of two young girls, one dead and the other fighting for her life in a Detroit hospital.

Andrew and Hilery Maison were charged with murder, torture and child abuse after authorities say 5-year-old Mackenzie Maison and her 3-year-old sister were found malnourished, dehydrated and abused.

Mackenzie was found unresponsive Tuesday in a home in Port Huron and pronounced dead at a hospital. Her younger sister was being treated at the Children's Hospital of Michigan. Port Huron is 55 miles northeast of Detroit.

Bond was denied and not-guilty pleas entered during video arraignments for the Maisons, who were arrested Tuesday. Hilery Maison denied the charges and asked for an attorney. Andrew Maison also has no lawyer. The next hearing was set for June 9.

Assistant Prosecutor Mona Armstrong said Mackenzie was 25 pounds at the time of her death, and was suffering from pneumonia and a genital infection. Her 3-year-old sister weighs 17 pounds. A girl of 3 would normally be around 30 pounds and a girl of 5 years should be about 40 pounds, though that can vary based on height and other factors.

Armstrong described both girls as "severely malnourished."

Armstrong said two other children, aged 10 and 1, were placed in foster care and appeared to be healthy. She said they are believed to be Hilery Maison's biological children.

"There are two victims in this particular case," Armstrong said. The girls were "severely neglected" and denied food and nourishment over the course of "weeks to months," she said.

An autopsy was completed Thursday, but results haven't been made public. Medical examiners also are awaiting lab test results.

"It's heartbreaking," St. Clair County Prosecutor Mike Wendling told The Associated Press. "It's not the type of case any prosecutor wants to handle, but it has to be handled."

Wendling said there are many unanswered questions about the history of the girls' conditions but that evidence to be presented in court would show malicious intent.

"I think the facts will establish ... why two children (were) treated differently than the other two," he said.

Custodial dad, step in custody for child abuse death of 5-year-old daughter (Port Huron, Michigan)

UNNAMED DAD. Not a word on what happened to the mother of this poor little girl.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/local/2015/05/27/police-investigating-death-port-huron/28000595/

POLICE: Dad, stepmom in custody after girl's death

Beth LeBlanc, Times Herald 5:57 p.m. EDT May 27, 2015

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Frank Hawkins got news no relative wants to hear. The Port Huron man sat on a stoop in front of 829 Oak St. after hearing that his five-year-old granddaughter — a child he described as "a beautiful little girl" — had died.

"I'm just in total shock," Hawkins said. "I need to go wake up my wife and tell her our granddaughter died."

Across the street, a boy wearing a backpack sat on his front porch and watched police come and go at the Oak Street home. And children walking to school or waiting for the bus looked around barricades to catch a glimpse of the home roped off with police tape.

A bouquet of flowers sat Wednesday afternoon in the yard of the home where five-year-old Mackenzie Lynn Maison was found unresponsive.

Police have said Mackenzie was malnourished, dehydrated, and had injuries consistent with child abuse, when rescue crews responded Tuesday night to calls of an unresponsive child at a home in the 800 block of Oak Street.

First responders took Mackenzie to St. Joseph Mercy hospital in Port Huron.

Medical staff were unable to resuscitate the girl and she was pronounced dead. Mackenzie's 27-year-old father and 25-year-old stepmother are being held by police on charges of second-degree child abuse.

Mackenzie's death is being investigated as a homicide, Port Huron Public Safety Director Michael Reaves said.

Charges in the case are pending the completion of the investigation and review by the St. Clair County prosecutor's office.

Two other children at the home were placed in foster care, Reaves said. A third child was taken to Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit for treatment for malnourishment. All of the children are under the age of 11.

"The shape of the kids was pretty bad," Reaves said. "Seasoned investigators looked at this and shook their heads."

Reaves said there had been minor calls at the home prior to Mackenzie's death.

"At this time we have not uncovered any history of ongoing CPS concerns at that residence or with those children," Reaves said.

He said Mackenzie's parents have indicated the children had a reluctance to eat.

The Port Huron Police Neighborhood Enforcement Team is leading the investigation. Units from the Port Huron Fire Department, St. Clair County prosecutor's office, and the Michigan State Police crime lab assisted in the investigation.

Theresa Hofer, the stepmother of the woman in custody, said the family is trying to wrap its mind around what happened.

"I never guessed in a million years this would happen," Hofer said. "We're just waiting for it to unfold, just like the public."

Hofer said Mackenzie was a friendly, loving and sweet child.

"She didn't deserve this," Hofer said.

Neighbors said they spent most of Tuesday night watching police respond to the home at 829 Oak St. Neighbors said they answered several questions about the the family that lives at the home.

"They pretty much kept to themselves," said Ben Gonzalez, who lives two doors down. "I didn't even know they had any little girls over there. ...I never expected anything to happen a few doors down."

Several neighbors said they seldom saw little girls at the home.

"You'd catch a glimpse of them every once in a while," said Karen Critchett, who lives across the street from 829 Oak St. "I'm kind of depressed. I can't believe that could happen to a little girl."

Elizabeth Sanchez said early Wednesday morning that her daughters hadn't yet seen the crime scene tape running from her porch and around the neighbor's home.

"They're going to question me when they come outside," Sanchez said. "It's scary. I'm worried about it. ...It's just super, super scary to think someone next door to me could potentially hurt my kid."

Non-custodial mom: They ran my little girl to death (Birmingham, Alabama)

In many ways this is a typical custodial father story. Dad ROBERT HARDIN outlawyers Mom, buries her in unfounded child abuse allegations, moves out of state, denies Mom all contact. Mom can't even get legal help.

Notice that there are hints of wife abuse as well.

And of course, Daddy isn't interested in parenting. He's only interested in hurting Mom--just as he told her at the outset of his custodial war. And then what does Daddy do after he gets custody? He promptly moves out of state with no warning, then HE moves out of the country and dumps the girl on wife #2, that even HE claims was unstable and violent.

If moms are responsible for violent boyfriends and the like--even when they are being battered themselves--then surely this dude is responsible as well. But as very often happens, fathers are virtually never held accountable for failure to protect.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/19/they-ran-my-little-girl-to-death.html?source=TDB&via=FB_Page

03.19.15
They Ran My Little Girl to Death

Heather Walker's daughter, Savannah, died after her grandmother and stepmother allegedly forced her to run laps until she collapsed.

Heather Walker thought she had finally reached the end of a grueling three-year custody battle for her 9-year-old daughter, Savannah Hardin. But the next time she saw Savannah, the little girl was in a coma after allegedly being forced to run laps for hours as a punishment for eating candy bars.

Now, Savannah’s grandmother Joyce Hardin Garrard is on trial for capital murder in connection with Savannah’s death, and the girl’s stepmother, Jessica Hardin, has been charged with murder for allegedly failing to intervene when Savannah pleaded for help.

Walker, who declined to speak publicly about the tragedy for three years, told her story in an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast. Heather Walker sat beside 9-year-old Savannah in a Birmingham children’s hospital on February 19, 2012. Savannah's mop of blond hair had been pulled into a tight ponytail on the top of her head, and it looked as if she was just sleeping.

Heather wiped the blood off Savannah’s face and hands with a warm cloth and thought how big the little girl had gotten in the two years since she’d seen her last.

She didn’t know if Savannah could hear her—she had learned in radiology school that doctors don’t really know how sentient the brain of a coma patient really is—but there were so many things Heather wanted to say to her daughter, and so many questions she’d wanted to ask. So Heather just talked like Savannah was there with her, though part of her knew that this was her last chance to tell her daughter anything again.

What was daily life like for Savannah? Was she still cheerleading like she had been at home? How was she doing in school? Did she have pets at her new house? Had she received any of the packages Heather had been sending? Did she know Heather had been fighting for her, that she didn’t just give her away?

“I just want you to know that mommy fought for you and never gave up on you,” Heather told her. “I love you with all of my heart,” Heather said, making the secret circle with her hands that she and Savannah had done back and forth so many times.

A tear ran down Savannah’s face.

Maybe it didn’t mean anything. A nurse said it was just a nerve, a reflex, and maybe she was right.
But for Heather, it was goodbye. And she felt Savannah let go.

***

What happened to Savannah?

According to doctors, Savannah had suffered from seizures triggered by low sodium, brought on by “prolonged physical exertion.”

Savannah’s grandmother, 49-year-old Joyce Hardin Garrard, had taken Savannah to the hospital. She told Heather that Savannah was practicing for a race at school. “She keeps coming in second place,” Heather says Garrard told her. “So we were outside practicing in the yard and I don’t know what happened.” Neighbors testified they thought the punishment would stop when they saw Savannah down on all fours, vomiting in the yard.

When Heather heard Garrard telling the seizure story to her sister, the details had changed: Now Savannah had tripped and fallen.

“Joyce’s story kept changing. Nothing was consistent,” Heather says. (A paramedic, a school counselor, and an investigator would all later say that Garrard had changed her story with them as well.)

When Heather finally arrived at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital—after 12 hours of travel, where the doctor’s “Ma’am, how soon can you get here?” echoed in her brain—she says it was Joyce who tried to stop her from seeing Savannah. Heather says she walked into the ICU as Joyce shouted behind her to the nurses, “Don’t you let her in there with that baby alone!”

When Joyce finally agreed to let Heather see her daughter, she told her that she would only be able to sit a minute, that she would have to switch with her and Jessica Hardin, Savannah’s stepmother. “And don’t be touching her a lot,” Heather says Joyce said when she hugged Savannah.

“When you looked at Joyce you didn’t see an upset person. There was just…nothing,” Heather says of her ex-mother-in-law’s demeanor. After they had taken Savannah off the breathing machines, Heather says, Joyce started to panic.

“She pinned Jessica up against the side of the hospital wall. She was staring into her eyes and telling her in a low stern voice, ‘Listen here, you need to pull it together. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you? There’s a lot on the line here.’”

“And I knew something wasn’t right,” Heather says.

***

Savannah’s grandmother had reason to worry.

Both she and Jessica Hardin would be arrested the next day on charges of murder for Savannah’s death. Joyce Garrard currently is on trial in Alabama facing capital murder charges. She maintains her innocence, but if found guilty, she could receive a death sentence or life without parole.

According to investigators, on the afternoon of February 17, 2012, Garrard—whom prosecutors have dubbed the “drill sergeant from hell”—forced little Savannah to run 50-foot sprints for close to three hours while carrying firewood the size of cinder blocks, until the girl collapsed from vomiting and dehydration. It was corporal punishment, officials say, for eating chocolate bars on the school bus and lying about it.

At Garrard’s trial, witnesses for the prosecution have testified about what went on during Savannah’s last hours.
A neighbor said he watched Savannah as she begged Garrard to stop.

“Keep running,” Garrard replied. “I didn’t tell you you could stop.” When Savannah pleaded for her stepmother, Jessica Hardin, to stop the punishment, Garrard reportedly said, “‘Don't look at her. She won’t help you.”

It seems Garrard was right. Officials say Savannah’s mother and father were miles away and Savannah’s stepmother (who has also been charged with murder for failing to intervene), her neighbors, and the bus driver who all watched as the punishment was taking place, did nothing to stop it.

A surveillance video taken from the bus Savannah rode to school captured a conversation between bus driver Raeanna Holmes and Garrard. On it, Garrard tells the driver, “She’s going to run until I tell her to stop.”

“She’s going to learn,” Garrard said.

Savannah ran until she couldn’t anymore. Neighbors testified they thought the punishment would stop when they saw Savannah down on all fours, vomiting in the yard. Garrard was pouring water in her mouth. Eventually Savannah just collapsed and her stepmother finally called 911.

When an ambulance arrived, medics found the 75-pound girl in panties and a T-shirt, passed out on the lawn, freezing and soaked to the bone, a wet blanket laid on top of her. Cuts from the firewood lined Savannah’s arms.

***

When a child suffers such a horrific ordeal, the natural question follows: Where were her parents? In Savannah’s case the answer is simple: Her mother was in Florida, her father overseas working as a civilian contractor. The “why” behind Savannah’s separation from her mother is much more complicated.

Robert and Heather Hardin got married young after getting pregnant with Savannah. Robert’s mother, Joyce Garrard, had arranged the shotgun wedding, Heather says. “In two weeks we planned to get married by a pastor I didn’t know, in a church I had never been to,” she says.

Robert joined the military and was gone for long stretches. Before long, the two had grown apart and by the time Savannah was 3 years old, her parents’ divorce was final and Heather had moved with her daughter to Plant City, Florida. The divorce wasn’t amicable. As Heather boarded the plane to Florida, she says Robert said, “I hate you and you’ll pay for this one day.”

But it was Robert who started paying, $200 a month in child support, and even when he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 2006, he didn’t see much of Savannah. By 2009, he was remarried, to Jessica Hardin, and had had another child, their son Gavin. According to Heather, his new family sparked a desire on Robert’s part to be a bigger part of Savannah’s life.

Heather says Robert started asking to take Savannah on the holidays and weekends. He would come to see her cheer at Little League games and the co-parenting arrangement was working well. Savannah went to visit her dad on spring break in 2009—but when Heather arrived at the usual exchange point in Daytona, she says Robert never showed. Heather says Robert was adamant: “I’m not giving her back,” he said.

Later that day, she got a call from an investigator at the Florida Department of Children and Families; Robert had charged her with abandonment, claiming that she had relinquished rights to their daughter by going on a weeklong trip to visit a boyfriend in Wyoming during Robert’s scheduled visit with Savannah. When she got home, a sheriff met her at the door with paperwork asking a judge to turn over full custody.

When Robert decided he wanted Savannah, he hired a lawyer and started an aggressive campaign to keep the child away from her mother. According to Florida Department of Children and Family records, Robert filed at least five complaints between 2009 and 2012. The state investigations found his accusations—from physical and mental abuse of Savannah to inhabitable living conditions—to be unfounded and each of the cases were closed. In one of the reports, an investigator said Savannah sounded as if she had been “coached” by her father.

On top of the constant DCF investigations, and a legal process that she had to make her way through without the help of a lawyer, Heather was laid off from her job as a catering truck delivery driver. She had been forced to move from her home and while she was waiting for her new job at a hardware store to start, she had to move into an ex-boyfriend’s home. Robert reported the man to the court for being a former felon. (An investigation found the boyfriend not to be a threat to Savannah’s well-being). Other reports were specifically aimed at Savannah’s babysitter, who subsequently refused to watch Savannah anymore, reportedly fearing for her own children’s safety.

“Robert took every avenue to make things more difficult for me,” Heather says.

They were going back and forth to court. Robert’s attorney filed petitions on his behalf while Heather went to the courthouse alone and sought out pro bono legal services, which would help her fill out forms, but wouldn’t give legal advice. One service could only help if she was a victim of domestic abuse, which she wasn’t.

“He had an attorney and I didn’t. He was in the military, and people look highly on that,” Heather says. “I was afraid that we would go to court and a judge would say, ‘Well, how do you think you’re going to take care of her?’ So I brought myself to terms with voluntarily letting her live there, against my better judgment, because if I thought if I don’t, the judge is probably going to take her anyway.”

And so the couple agreed that Savannah would temporarily move into her father’s Jacksonville home in September of 2009. A court-ordered parenting plan shows that Heather and Robert shared custody—school and medical decisions and the like would be made jointly—and Heather would visit with Savannah on designated weekends. Heather sent Savannah trinkets and treats in care packages and they would talk on the phone. In the meantime, Heather was going to school and working a new full-time job. Soon she moved into a little house with her 3-year-old son, Savannah’s younger half-brother.

Things looked like they were settling down. She would have Savannah back soon; that was the plan. On Martin Luther King Day weekend 2010, Heather took Savannah to get pictures made at Walmart. Their birthdays were close together so they bought a cake, too. Savannah asked the woman behind the bakery counter to write, “Happy Birthday, Savannah and Mommy.”

“And that was the last birthday we ever shared together,” Heather says. “It was the last time I saw her outside of a hospital bed.”

Heather says Robert never told her that he was moving his family back to Alabama. When Savannah’s birthday package was returned to Heather’s address and Robert stopped answering his phone, Heather called Joyce Garrard, who told her that Savannah was at her home. Heather says she was allowed to speak to her only once, and Savannah told her they had moved into “Maw-maw’s house.” It was the last time she would be able to talk to her daughter.

What happened during the next two years that Savannah lived in Alabama with her father and stepmother is still something of a mystery to Heather. Robert was working as a civilian contractor overseas; a spokeswoman for the Etowah County Sheriff's office told the AP that Robert “lived outside the country,” leaving Jessica and Joyce to do the majority of the caregiving.
Still, the custody fight continued in Alabama. Robert filed for a petition to modify custody, an action that, if granted, would strip Heather of her parenting rights, reasoning he could “provide a more stable home” for Savannah. Heather answered in court documents that Robert was on “a crusade to keep Savannah away” from her.

She continued: “[Savannah] was doing well in school, enrolled in cheerleading, and was a well-rounded child. Since residing with Robert she is now in counseling and seeing therapists…I am extremely concerned for the welfare of Savannah as I am concerned that there may be things going on in their home that are the cause of the problem.”

Though Heather didn’t know it, she had reason to be concerned. At Joyce Garrard’s trial, Savannah’s pediatrician, Dr. Deborah Smith, cryptically testified that the relationship between Joyce, Savannah, and her stepmother Jessica "was not normal" and said she almost contacted authorities, but in the end didn't.

Meanwhile, Robert and Jessica had been going through a divorce and custody dispute as well.

Records show an environment far from stable. Robert’s divorce complaint charged Savannah’s stepmother with verbal and emotional abuse. He claimed she had a drinking problem and suffered from bipolar disorder that she refused to treat.
Jessica, in turn, filed for a restraining order against Robert in August 2010. In her petition, she said Robert had become physically and mentally abusive. He “pushed her against a wall and threw her on the couch” and threatened her. “Robert has said I will never be allowed to see my son and will do whatever it take to make sure of it,” the complaint says.

The following day, Robert filed an affidavit claiming Jessica was “not financially, mentally, or physically able to provide a safe environment for the child.”

Five months later, Robert and Jessica reconciled and asked a judge to dismiss their case.

Heather didn’t know any of this as she drove back and forth to Alabama half a dozen times between 2010 and 2011 to appear in court in her attempt to win Savannah back. She’d stop by Savannah’s new home but no one was ever there. She’d leave packages for Savannah on the porch but still doesn’t know if she ever received them. The Hardins changed their phone numbers so contact was impossible.

Robert never appeared in court for the custody hearings, Heather says. She says Robert’s lawyer explained his client’s absence by saying her ex-husband was working or training. The repeated motions for continuances were wearing on Heather and at their final court appearance in December 2011, Heather says Robert made new accusations that she was too mentally unstable to take care of Savannah. At every appearance, Heather says the judge would tell her the same thing: “You need to get an attorney.” That’s when she says she broke down in the judge’s chambers.

“I just need to see my daughter,” Heather says she told the judge. “I don’t have money for an attorney and I just need someone to tell me what to do. I’m not crazy, but if I was, it’s because he took my child away from me and hasn’t let me see or talk to her for two years.”

Finally she says—and court documents show—the judge told her, “Look. You need to go get a psychiatric evaluation and when it comes back the way I’m pretty sure it will, I will make up the time you’ve lost with your daughter.”

“We left that day and never made it to the next trial,” Heather says. “I did everything I knew to do, but in the end, everything I knew to do wasn’t enough.”

***

It’s been three years since Savannah’s death. The little girl who loved the color blue and horses should be in the sixth grade. Time hasn’t dulled Heather Walker's loss; the Florida mother has a 9-year-old, a 10-month-old, and two stepchildren with her new husband, who she met the weekend before Savannah’s death. Heather finished her radiology degree in 2011, but can’t bear to step foot in a hospital anymore, so she says she’s in a kind of limbo. She works two jobs in Florida while her husband is training to be an EMT.

Heather sometimes finds herself picking up trinkets at the store that Savannah would love before remembering there’s no way to send them to her. And she doesn’t know how to reply when people ask how many children she has—to say two feels like a betrayal of Savannah, to say three opens herself up to questions that are hard to answer.

And she’s keeping an eye on the trial in Alabama. Heather has been subpoenaed as a potential witness, but says prosecutors haven’t called her yet. She may go to Alabama for the verdict, but says the thought of seeing Joyce and listening to the closing statements where prosecutors will relive Savannah’s final moments may be too much to handle.

“I feel like she’s guilty,” Heather says. “It might not have been her intention, but ultimately it all falls on Joyce. As an adult and a parent and a grandparent, you should know when enough is enough. Even if Savannah really did do what they are saying she did, you don’t punish a child like that.”

Custodial dad, girlfriend bound over for trial in torture-murder of 3-year-old daughter (Holmen, Wisconsin)

We've reported on this case before, but this is the first time I have seen it confirmed that dad DYLAN BARTSH was CUSTODIAL.

This is what happens when we strip out social services. Moms with serious illnesses or disabilities are forced to farm out their kids, just like we were still living in the 19th century. This child would never have been in the home of these psychos if the mother had had adequate support.

http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/father-girlfriend-bound-over-for-trial-in-toddler-s-death/article_9cb72349-66d6-5950-bd78-d179349e0f7f.html

Father, girlfriend bound over for trial in toddler’s death

Holmen father, girlfriend charged in toddler’s death
A Holmen father and his girlfriend beat a malnourished 3-year-old girl, subjected her to 10-hour timeouts and may have forced her to eat salt

LA CROSSE, Wis. — A phone call from a nurse ripped Sheena Poldoski from her sleep early Oct. 29.

“I remember her words vividly,” Poldoski said during an interview last month. “She said, ‘You need to get ready. You need to come say goodbye to your daughter.’”

Poldoski drove from Hutchinson, Minn., to a La Crosse emergency room, where her 3-year-old daughter clung to life. She grabbed Audryna Bartsh’s tiny body, apologized through sobs and held her daughter until she died on Oct. 31.

The toddler’s father, Dylan Bartsh, 30, and his girlfriend, Jaymie Rundle, 24, subjected the malnourished and dehydrated child to extensive abuse while raising her in their Holmen home until she suffered a seizure early Oct. 28, according to testimony in La Crosse County Circuit Court.

A judge Wednesday bound the couple over for trial on charges of child neglect resulting in death and physical abuse of a child, both as party to the crime. They return to court Tuesday for arraignments.

“I hate them. They’re monsters,” Poldoski said. “I want them to suffer the way my daughter did. I would love an eye for an eye, but that’s not the way it is. I want them in prison for the rest of their lives. I want them to suffer for the rest of their lives.”

Dane County Medical Examiner Vincent Tranchida testified Wednesday that he discovered 22 scrapes and 28 bruises on the toddler’s head, including a black eye, as well as a torn lip and bleeding in her brain.

Audryna had 70 scars on her neck consistent with an adult fingernail. Abrasions, bite marks and 17 injuries consistent with being struck with a wire hanger covered her body.

The child also was dehydrated and emaciated, with cracked lips, sunken ribs and protruding hip bones.

“We’re talking about quite a few days of not being fed enough,” Tranchida said.

The toddler’s sodium level reached 206 — the normal range is 136 to 146 — and the medical examiner could not rule out she was forced to ingest table salt.

Tranchida ruled Audryna’s death a homicide, the result of child abuse.

Bartsh told police he had “checked out” of caring for Audryna and considered her Rundle’s responsibility, Holmen police investigator Crystal Sedevie testified. He said he spanked the toddler after he noticed she was thin but did not seek medical care because he was frightened police would investigate her physical injuries.

Bartsh also said Rundle denied harming the girl when he confronted her, Sedevie testified.

Two other children who lived in the house said the couple spanked Audryna and that Rundle slapped and hit her with a flyswatter, Sedevie said. Police did not see signs of abuse to four other children living in the house.

Bartsh and Rundle took custody of Audryna in May 2013 from Poldoski, her biological mother, although she said she did not forfeit her rights to her child.

Poldoski said a medical condition that required surgeries left her unable to care for Audryna and her son.

“I knew I was having a hard time taking care of my kids. I wanted what was best for them,” she said. “It was the most difficult thing I ever had to do. Clearly, I wish I had never made that decision.

“Do not make me regret this,” Poldoski said she told Bartsh. #She next saw her daughter Oct. 29 in a hospital bed, hooked to ventilators.

“I couldn’t believe they would do that to her,” she said. “I knew they were going to go away for this.”

Poldoski remembers praying for a daughter when she learned she was pregnant in 2010. Audryna was born Aug. 12, 2011, at a healthy 7 pounds, her mother said. She grew into a child drawn to shoes and leopard print.

“She was a little bit of a drama queen,” Poldoski said.

Audryna’s ashes are in a white box on her mother’s dresser. One day, when there’s justice in her daughter’s case, Poldoski plans to hold a celebration of life.

“People say, ‘Be strong,’ but I don’t feel strong. The only thing that keeps me going is my son and knowing one day I’ll see Audryna again,” she said. “I’m so sad. It’s a living nightmare.”

Custodial dad with history of domestic assault charged in abuse death of 3-year-old daughter (La Crosse County, Wisconsin)

So basically Daddy and his girlfriend tortured his 3-year-old daughter to death.

That's sickening enough. But what is left unsaid and unexplained is just as horrifying. Who made the decision to take this little girl away from her mother and give custody to a father with a previous CONVICTION for domestic assault? Let's start seeing names. Because the people who delivered this poor little girl to this vicious freak are just as responsible.

Dad is identified as DYLAN BARTSH.

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/holmen-father-girlfriend-charged-in-toddler-s-death/article_c8a5d419-617b-5e7c-80a0-7892ac513266.html

Holmen father, girlfriend charged in toddler’s death

19 hours ago • By Anne Jungen

A Holmen father and his girlfriend beat a malnourished 3-year-old girl, subjected her to 10-hour timeouts and may have forced to eat salt before her Oct. 31 death, according to court records.

Prosecutors Tuesday charged Dylan Bartsh, 30, and Jaymie Rundle, 24, with child neglect resulting in death and physical abuse of a child, both as party to the crime, in La Crosse County Circuit Court.

The toddler died at a hospital after a seizure three days earlier, when doctors discovered she was emaciated with bruises, scratches and scarring on her face and body, according to the complaint.

A medical examiner ruled her death a homicide and during autopsy discovered contusions to her head, a black eye, fingernail and bite marks, injuries inflicted by an object similar to a wire hanger and chronic malnutrition and dehydration.

The autopsy also found elevated levels of table salt contributed to her death. The medical examiner could not rule out that she was forced to eat salt after finding injuries to her mouth, cheeks and jaw, the complaint states.

Bartsh and Rundle, who together have other four children, took custody of his daughter in May 2013 from her biological mother.

Bartsh told investigators that his daughter’s life was a “challenge” and that she stopped eating two weeks before her death, according to the complaint. He blamed her sodium levels on PediaSure and Ensure consumption.

The other children reported the couple forced the toddler into timeouts in the shower and spanked the child with a fly swatter, the complaint states.

Bartsh’s mother, who wasn’t allowed to visit her grandchild, told police the victim was put on timeout for 10 hours. The grandmother photographed the child’s injuries.

Bartsh, who lives now in Altura, Minn., is in the Winona County Jail awaiting extradition to Wisconsin. Rundle is housed in the La Crosse County Jail and expected to make her first court appearance Wednesday.

Bartsh was convicted of domestic assault in Winona County District Court in 2008 and 2012, according to court records. The 2008 conviction stemmed from an incident where he was accused of brandishing a steak knife and threatening and hitting a woman in the presence of a small child.