Horrifying. The step is being set up to take the fall for this, while the custodial daddy WESLEY LOWE gets off scott free. How many times have we seen this gone down before?
This is another case (just like the CHOATE one which we posted on below) where there is EXTENSIVE evidence of official corruption and incompetence. Here are just a few of our previous postings: here, here, and here.
This case is so egregious that the non-custodial mother has filed a lawsuit.
Here's a summary of the back story:
* After a "nasty child custody battle," Dad WESLEY LOWE was finally awarded weekend visitation with his 5-year-old daughter--but that apparently wasn't enough power and control for him. (It often isn't for aggressive father litigants.)
* When Mom tried to pick up the child one Sunday night, Daddy primly announced that the child wasn't going back to Mom, as he had filed a temporary restraining order against her and had contacted CPS.
* Although Daddy had contempt charges against him, Mom was unable to go to court to defend herself because the judges kept signing off on the time extensions for the restraining order with no apparent questioning of the evidence and/or the father's motives. Dad's "temporary custody" order was extended FOUR SEPARATE TIMES by the courts.
* DCFS took no steps to expedite the process and did nothing to evaluate Daddy’s credibility.
* DCFS not only failed to investigate the credibility of the father after he made complaints against the mother, they failed to investigate the home in which the child was placed and failed to investigate suspected abuse reported by the child’s teacher.
And then finally, the child shows up at the hospital dead. Apparently beaten to death. The child had already been dead some two hours before Daddy and the step managed to get her to the hospital. Wow, that's loving parental concern....
Very often when a child is abused or killed by a father who is separated or divorced from the mother, there's a history of court and/or CPS incompetence and/or corruption behind it--just as we see here. Only no one looks into it. Some RED FLAGS that were immediately apparent to me in this case. Why weren't they apparent to those in authority?
* Daddy apparently had a previous CPS "run in" in Nebraska regarding a domestic battery arrest. No Louisiana authorities bothered to do the research on this sort of thing or did they just not care? The step certainly knew--Daddy used that as an excuse for why the girl couldn't get immediate medical care. His own @$$ over his daughter's well being. What does that tell you?
* Daddy and the step had also been arrested for some heavy duty drug possession (Oxycodone and Darvocet). And nobody in authority knew about that either? Nobody at CPS who worked with Daddy on this case even suspected drug abuse? Don't they supposedly have training in that sort of thing? Nobody thought that a drug addiction might indicate something important about Daddy's credibility in this case?
* Daddy's prior history in terms of this child was as an every-other-weekend father who rarely paid child support. I'm not seeing this as evidence of a father who was truly involved in the child's life in a healthy way. When a father like this suddenly demands custody and refuses to return the child to the mother, there is definitely reason to suspect his motives. ESPECIALLY when the same guy has a history of domestic violence and drug abuse.
WHO ARE THE JUDGES WHO KEPT SIGNING OFF ON DADDY'S RESTRAINING ORDERS? LET'S SEE THE NAMES. And the names of the CPS idiots who went along with this fiasco.
And shame on District Attorney SHUYLER MARVIN for continuing this travesty of justice by dropping all the charges against this father.
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20121211/NEWS03/121211028/DA-drops-charge-against-slain-child-s-father?odyssey=nav%7Chead
DA drops charge against slain child's father
2:46 PM, Dec 11, 2012
Written by Loresha Wilson
The Bossier-Webster district attorney’s office has dropped the charge filed against an Elm Grove man in connection with the death of his 5-year-old daughter.
The charge of negligent homicide Wesley Lowe faced was dismissed last week, less than a month after his wife pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter for killing Anna Celeste Lowe. District Attorney Schuyler Marvin said there was no way to prove that Wesley Lowe, 35, did anything to contribute to his daughter’s death.
“We knew all along that Wesley Lowe did not cause the child’s death. He had an alibi; he was at work. “We needed him to testify and fill in where he was and what his wife told him on the phone about the child,” Marvin said. “It was never our intentions to go forward with a trial for him.”
Wesley and his wife, Catherine Lowe, were arrested in January 2011 and charged with murder after they took the child to the hospital. The 5-year-old died at least two hours before her arrival there, authorities determined.
The girl died Jan. 13, 2011, as a result of internal bleeding after her stomach was severed from her intestines and her liver was lacerated in two pieces, authorities said.
Catherine Lowe gave investigators contradictory statements regarding the events leading to the girl’s death. Her children, who were home at the time the injury occurred, told police their mom followed Anna Celeste Lowe into the bathroom of their home.
The children said they heard a very loud thump shortly afterward and, when they went into the bathroom, the 5-year-old was lying on the floor in obvious pain and vomiting.
Wesley and Catherine Lowe each initially was charged with negligent homicide. Authorities later upgraded the charge against her to first-degree murder then downgraded it to second-degree murder.
On Nov. 12, after months of turning down plea offers, Catherine Lowe agreed to plead guilty to a charge of manslaughter in exchange for a possible life sentence. She faces up to 25 years in prison when sentenced on the lesser charge.