We are told again and again how discriminated against poor daddies are. Waaah!
The exact opposite is true. Take this case as Exhibit A.
This custodial UNNAMED DAD has been convicted of assaulting his 5-month-old daughter. But notice how everybody makes excuses and coddles this poor little dear, while CONTINUING to endanger this baby by leaving her in her abusive father's care until sentencing! Poor Daddy, who smacked this infant and fractured her ribs, was just "inexperienced" and "immature," don't you know. That poor little sweetheart was just so "overtired" and "frustrated!" (Oh my gawd, if I only had a dollar for everytime somebody excused an abusive daddy's behavior on his "frustration." Puke...) So this little sh**, er, Poor Inexperienced Father, gets classes and the like. And one year of prison, though it really breaks our heart.
Whose interests are clearly a priority here: the baby's right to safety? Or Daddy's rights to control? And what about Mom? Who knows. We're smugly informed that "the mother is not in the baby's life," but with no explanation as to why. Are you going to tell me that Mom is worse than this piece of sh**? What happened to her "rights"? Appparently she doesn't have any, since the authorities preferred to leave this baby in the care of an abuser rather than take a look at the mother again. And believe me, if a mom had pulled this stunt, she would have been roundly crucified as an unfeeling monster. Nobody would have given a crap about how "frustrated" she may have been. The baby would have gone into Daddy's custody with no questions asked.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2011/03/01/pei-baby-assault-custody-584.html
Baby assault brings year in jail
CBC News Posted: Mar 1, 2011 2:31 PM AT Last Updated: Mar 1, 2011 2:31 PM AT
A 21-year-old P.E.I. man was sentenced Tuesday to a year in jail for assaulting his five-month-old son.
The sentencing had been delayed for months, because there was no one but the father to care for the baby. The mother is not in the baby's life, and the father's mother had health problems. So for the past seven months the baby has been back in the care of the man who assaulted him.
The father pleaded guilty last year. In September, Supreme Court Justice Wayne Cheverie agreed to delay sentencing to give the child's grandmother a chance to recover to the point where she could care for him.
With the child's grandmother now available to take charge of him, sentencing went ahead Tuesday.
Immature and inexperienced
The man testified that the night of the assault in Jan. 2009 he was overtired and frustrated, and when the baby would not take his bottle, he struck him with it twice on the cheek. When the baby kept crying he picked him up and squeezed him, fracturing three of his ribs.
In sentencing, Justice Wayne Cheverie cited three factors in the man's favour: he had pleaded guilty, the baby sustained no lasting injuries, and the father was immature and inexperienced.
The father has also taken courses and counselling.
His lawyer, Brenda Pickard, argued for less jail time.
"[He] takes full responsibility for what he did and he knows what he did was wrong, and so he was aware of the likely consequences today," said Pickard.
"He is concerned about the effect that his being away from his son now, after the last seven months or so, having primary care of him, is going to have on the child. But he recognizes that there are consequences to his actions."
Justice Cheverie said he had to sentence the man to jail, because despite reasons and excuses, an innocent child was injured, and that is a crime.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Dad on trial for killing 5-month-old daughter (Oconee County, South Carolina)
Once again, we have a babysitting daddy who just couldn't take it. Dad MATTHEW TAYLOR HINTON is on trial for bashing the skull of his 5-month-old daughter while Mom was out.
http://www.wyff4.com/r/27040079/detail.html
Slain Baby's Mother: Autopsy Changed Feelings
Matthew Hinton Accused In 5-Month-Old’s Death
POSTED: 1:28 pm EST March 1, 2011
UPDATED: 4:45 pm EST March 1, 2011
OCONEE COUNTY, S.C. -- The mother of a slain 5-month-old testified in the trial of the father of her child, saying she stood behind him until she saw the autopsy results.
Ashley Bright took the stand Tuesday in the trial of 23-year-old Matthew Taylor Hinton in Oconee County.
Hinton is accused of killing their daughter, Brianna Bright.
On Tuesday, Bright described her daughter as a “happy baby.” She said, “She loved to smile. She made other people smiled. She made other people happy."
An autopsy found that the baby died of severe blunt-force trauma to the head, and police said it was “very apparent” her death was not an accident.
Hinton called 911 on Aug. 20, 2009, saying the baby wouldn't wake up. Brianna was revived by emergency medical workers, but she died three days later at Greenville Memorial Hospital.
Ashley Bright was not at home when the baby was injured.
http://www.wyff4.com/r/27040079/detail.html
Slain Baby's Mother: Autopsy Changed Feelings
Matthew Hinton Accused In 5-Month-Old’s Death
POSTED: 1:28 pm EST March 1, 2011
UPDATED: 4:45 pm EST March 1, 2011
OCONEE COUNTY, S.C. -- The mother of a slain 5-month-old testified in the trial of the father of her child, saying she stood behind him until she saw the autopsy results.
Ashley Bright took the stand Tuesday in the trial of 23-year-old Matthew Taylor Hinton in Oconee County.
Hinton is accused of killing their daughter, Brianna Bright.
On Tuesday, Bright described her daughter as a “happy baby.” She said, “She loved to smile. She made other people smiled. She made other people happy."
An autopsy found that the baby died of severe blunt-force trauma to the head, and police said it was “very apparent” her death was not an accident.
Hinton called 911 on Aug. 20, 2009, saying the baby wouldn't wake up. Brianna was revived by emergency medical workers, but she died three days later at Greenville Memorial Hospital.
Ashley Bright was not at home when the baby was injured.
Dad on trial for driving children into river during visitation; 5-year-old daughter killed (Birmingham, England, United Kingdom)
Once again, a headline misidentifies the dad as a random man. How convenient for abusive dads everywhere. Keeps the potentially bad publicity down, you know!
Dad CHRISTOPHER GRADY is on trial for murder in the death of his 5-year-old daughter and for attempted murder of his 6-year-old son. Like many, many of these cases, Daddy had recently separated from Mum, so he was a bit pissy about that. And once again, we have a father who took advantage of his overnight visitation to inflict unbelievable cruelty on his children. Witnesses say the children were screaming when Daddy floored the accelerator of his car and drove straight into the river. The 5-year-old daughter drowned. Notice that this arse warned Mum in advance of his intentions. How, um, thoughtful.
Also observe that like many abusers (and father rightsters in general) Daddy takes ZERO responsibility and blames MUM for everything. If she hadn't been trying to take HIS kids away, he wouldn't have been forced to kill them! In the delusional thinking typical of these guys and their supporters, keeping the kids "safe" is trapping them in a car and drowning them in the river like rats in a bag.
In fact, this crime was utterly predictable. Daddy had ALREADY threatened to kill these kids before. And his domination/control agenda was very clear. If he couldn't "have" them, then neither could Mum. He'd just murder them. And DESPITE ALL THIS, this f***tard apparently got overnight visitation rights anyway! Thank you, fathers rights! One more dead kid thanks to you folks! Any judge want to take credit for setting up this murder for Daddy?
Dad CHRISTOPHER GRADY is on trial for murder in the death of his 5-year-old daughter and for attempted murder of his 6-year-old son. Like many, many of these cases, Daddy had recently separated from Mum, so he was a bit pissy about that. And once again, we have a father who took advantage of his overnight visitation to inflict unbelievable cruelty on his children. Witnesses say the children were screaming when Daddy floored the accelerator of his car and drove straight into the river. The 5-year-old daughter drowned. Notice that this arse warned Mum in advance of his intentions. How, um, thoughtful.
Also observe that like many abusers (and father rightsters in general) Daddy takes ZERO responsibility and blames MUM for everything. If she hadn't been trying to take HIS kids away, he wouldn't have been forced to kill them! In the delusional thinking typical of these guys and their supporters, keeping the kids "safe" is trapping them in a car and drowning them in the river like rats in a bag.
In fact, this crime was utterly predictable. Daddy had ALREADY threatened to kill these kids before. And his domination/control agenda was very clear. If he couldn't "have" them, then neither could Mum. He'd just murder them. And DESPITE ALL THIS, this f***tard apparently got overnight visitation rights anyway! Thank you, fathers rights! One more dead kid thanks to you folks! Any judge want to take credit for setting up this murder for Daddy?
Man drove into river after telling woman her children were going to die, court told
Mar 1 2011
A father accused of murdering his five-year-old daughter and attempting to kill his six-year-old son in Evesham told their mother "you've got ten seconds to say goodbye to your kids and then they are dead" before driving his car into a river as they sat on the back seat, a court has been told.
Gabrielle Grady died in hospital three days after she was rescued from the submerged vehicle in the River Avon last February. Her brother Ryan survived after being pulled from the water by police.
Prosecutor Graham Reeds QC told Birmingham Crown Court that their father, 42-year-old Christopher Grady, warned their mother Kim Smith, from whom he was separated: "This is the last time you are going to see them, they're going to die".
Grady, of no fixed address, denies both charges.
The court heard that Miss Smith telephoned Grady on February 11 after she became concerned that the children had not arrived at school following an overnight stay with their father.
Mr Reeds said: "There was a confrontation on the telephone between her and the defendant at about 9.15am when the defendant told her the children 'are never going to school again'.
"He said to her, 'be outside your house, you've got 10 seconds to say goodbye to your kids, and then they are dead'.
"A minute later he arrived in his car outside her house ... he was angry and shouting."
The prosecutor added: "He said Kim had 10 seconds to say goodbye. She remembers him shouting 'river' and then accelerating away as she made an unsuccessful grab to try and open the door to get the children out of the car."
A jury of seven women and five men was told that eye-witnesses heard the children "screaming and wailing" in the car as Grady drove towards a field next to the river.
Mr Reeds QC said a man in the field at the time described how Grady "floored" the accelerator pedal "and made straight for the river at high speed".
The prosecutor said: "The car hit the water nose-first...it floated first and then it started to sink.
"Passers-by were on the bank but there was nothing they could do even if they wanted to.
"As the car sank, eye-witnesses remember seeing one of the children banging on the back window trying to get out of the car.
"Neither child had yet learned how to swim."
The court heard that Gabrielle, known as Gabby to friends and family, was trapped inside the submerged car for around two hours before she was pulled through the sunroof by police divers.
She was airlifted from the scene to Birmingham Children's Hospital and was pronounced dead three days later, on February 14.
A pathologist found her cause of death was a lack of oxygen to the brain, caused by total immersion in cold water.
The court heard that it was a "particularly cold" and frosty morning, and the temperature of the river water was 4 degrees centigrade.
The court heard that Grady told doctors who treated him in hospital after the incident that he had driven into the river because he had "had enough" of Miss Smith "trying to take my kids away".
Mr Reeds said a number of handwritten notes were found in the car after it was pulled from the water, including one addressed to Miss Smith which read: "You led me to this, my kids with me now," and another asking a friend to put three "trees of light" at his funeral, adding, "Will you say I love my children and this is the only way to be with them and keep them safe".
The prosecutor said: "Once it had been recovered from the water the car was taken to a police compound and examined.
"There was nothing in the condition of the car that might have caused the car to go into the river.
"The prosecution say the cause was a deliberate and settled decision by the defendant to kill himself and his children by driving into the river."
He added: "He says he didn't intend to harm either of them, but the prosecution say his actions speak for themselves. If a person drives his children into a river on a freezing cold day in February - well, what else can they intend but to kill them?"
Jurors heard that Grady's life had "started to unravel" at the beginning of 2010. He had been evicted from his home because of rent arrears and owed £2,800 to the landlord of his business premises, the prosecution said.
Mr Reeds said the self-employed welder and blacksmith had threatened to kill himself and the children on a previous occasion, telling Miss Smith in November 2009: "If I can't have my kids, you can't and I'll kill them with myself."
The prosecutor said: "What he was planning is clear and the reason for it is equally clear, it came from his own words. As he said to Kim Smith back in November: 'If I can't have the kids, you can't'."
Grady was remanded in custody and the trial, which is expected to last two weeks, was adjourned until Wednesday.
Read More http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-news/2011/03/01/man-drove-into-river-after-telling-woman-her-children-were-going-to-die-court-told-65233-28260281/#ixzz1FNzArZfH
Friend lies for daddy accused of murdering 1-year-old son; falsely accuses mom of abuse (Cambelltown, New South Wales, Australia)
Wait. You mean to tell me a MAN lied about a mother abusing her child? Just to save Daddy's @$$? Can't be! The fathers rights people have taught us that only moms lie! Only moms are devious, scheming b*****s! But finally the (male) friend 'fessed up. And FINALLY, five years after this child's death, dad STEVEN GILLETT is facing the music.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/friend-says-dad-hinted-he-killed-son/story-e6freuzi-1226014435267
Friend says dad hinted he killed son
Amy Dale From: The Daily Telegraph March 02, 2011 12:38AM
A FATHER allegedly hinted at involvement in his son's death and asked a friend "not to think differently" of him when a damning autopsy report was released, an inquest heard yesterday.
That same friend, in whom Steven Gillett allegedly confided at a Campbelltown carwash, admitted lying to police in a bid to "take the pressure off" his mate and turn it on to the child's mother Rebecca Gillett.
Robbie Dean Gillett, 1, was found dead in his cot on July 31, 2006, as a result of "blunt force trauma" to the stomach. Mr Gillett was charged with his son's murder in 2007 but the DPP later dropped the charge.
Friend Thomas Kruse, interviewed by police shortly after Robbie's death, told them the boy's mother Rebecca was "inadequate" in feeding her son and boasted about smacking her children. But questioned yesterday by assisting counsel Mark Higgins, Mr Kruse admitted he lied to protect his friend.
"What were you trying to characterise Rebecca as at that time?" Mr Higgins asked.
"[As] a bad mother ... because my mate was getting into trouble," he said.
Mr Kruse said he wanted to be loyal to his friend and waited outside Macquarie Fields police station for Mr Gillett as he was questioned on Robbie's death.
"When we started driving off, Steven said, 'If they have any evidence on me, I'll be sitting in the dock facing 25 years to life'," Mr Kruse told the court.
The inquest heard that when Mr Kruse was shown a copy of Robbie's post-mortem report, which detailed several injuries he'd suffered, Mr Gillett said to him "Don't think anything different of me ... will you?".
The inquest continues today.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/friend-says-dad-hinted-he-killed-son/story-e6freuzi-1226014435267
Friend says dad hinted he killed son
Amy Dale From: The Daily Telegraph March 02, 2011 12:38AM
A FATHER allegedly hinted at involvement in his son's death and asked a friend "not to think differently" of him when a damning autopsy report was released, an inquest heard yesterday.
That same friend, in whom Steven Gillett allegedly confided at a Campbelltown carwash, admitted lying to police in a bid to "take the pressure off" his mate and turn it on to the child's mother Rebecca Gillett.
Robbie Dean Gillett, 1, was found dead in his cot on July 31, 2006, as a result of "blunt force trauma" to the stomach. Mr Gillett was charged with his son's murder in 2007 but the DPP later dropped the charge.
Friend Thomas Kruse, interviewed by police shortly after Robbie's death, told them the boy's mother Rebecca was "inadequate" in feeding her son and boasted about smacking her children. But questioned yesterday by assisting counsel Mark Higgins, Mr Kruse admitted he lied to protect his friend.
"What were you trying to characterise Rebecca as at that time?" Mr Higgins asked.
"[As] a bad mother ... because my mate was getting into trouble," he said.
Mr Kruse said he wanted to be loyal to his friend and waited outside Macquarie Fields police station for Mr Gillett as he was questioned on Robbie's death.
"When we started driving off, Steven said, 'If they have any evidence on me, I'll be sitting in the dock facing 25 years to life'," Mr Kruse told the court.
The inquest heard that when Mr Kruse was shown a copy of Robbie's post-mortem report, which detailed several injuries he'd suffered, Mr Gillett said to him "Don't think anything different of me ... will you?".
The inquest continues today.
Custodial dad, step await trial for torture of son; once again, DCF "missed clues" (Charlotte County, Florida)
Stop the presses! Florida DCF screws up again, and allows a custodial dad (and new step) to abuse (torture) a child!
How many times have we read variations on this story, with almost no changes? I have counted 20 stories in Florida alone of children who died in situations involving custody/visitation with an abusive father. This poor little boy managed to avoid being added to the list only because he literally escaped from captivity, like some sort of prisoner of war.
http://www.news-press.com/article/20110301/SS08/110227018/Exclusive-DCF-missed-clues-Port-Charlotte-boy-s-captivity?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CHome
Exclusive: DCF missed clues of Port Charlotte boy's captivity
As father, stepmother await trial, questions linger for Florida agency
4:27 PM, Feb. 28, 2011
Written by
JANINE ZEITLIN
jzeitlin@news-press.com Filed Under
By the age of 10, the wiry boy had learned to live like a prisoner of war.
He told his grandmother he passed the months trapped in his room peering at the freedom of the night sky, craning to hear his stepsister’s TV and plotting his escape.
Charlotte County sheriff’s reports paint a disturbing picture of the towheaded boy’s room in a quiet, middle-class Port Charlotte neighborhood:
No toys or lights. No furniture except for a urine-soaked mattress. The lock on his door reversed.
His petite 40-year-old stepmother, Kimberly Boone, told detectives she had smeared feces and urine in his face, “like you would a dog,” and slid peanut butter sandwiches under his door so she wouldn’t have to see him.
It’s been eight months since a crime scene technician found the boy asleep in a bathroom vanity and took him from the home.
But his exit could have come much earlier.
The boy was seen by a slew of child welfare, school, medical and mental health officials and law enforcement officers long before the arrests of his stepmother and father, Thomas Boone, according to records The News-Press obtained.
A Department of Children and Families investigator first visited the home and saw the room in early December.
The agency’s internal review shows the case was bungled. The case has played a role in changes to local DCF policies.
The child is not being named because of the nature of the allegations.
“It’s just unbelievable how many people erred in this,” said Mary Kaiser, his 70-year-old grandmother who has been caring for the boy in her south Fort Myers condo. “Somebody needs to be responsible.”
The background
Three abuse reports were made to DCF starting in December 2009.
The child’s pleas for another place to live went unheeded, records show. He begged DCF investigator Gordon Smith in January for another place to live because he “needed a break,” and drew a picture at school of a gun with bullets going into his head, records show.
The department’s quality assurance review of the case was acquired through a public-records request but all other DCF records are confidential.
Smith left the boy in the home after seeing the room with the mattress and reversed doorknob, records say.
He wouldn’t say why he left him there.
“I really can’t go into that right now because it’s part of the criminal case and I’m being deposed,” he said.
Smith interviewed the parents and the boy, often alone, at least six times and made at least three visits to the home, the review shows. Smith said conditions had spiraled downhill from the time he first saw him to June.
“People don’t know the whole story, and that’s not to say that mistakes weren’t made,” said Smith, 63, of Port Charlotte, who earned $1,507 biweekly and officially retired Dec. 30, 2010.
Smith said the case played no role in his retirement. He was hired by DCF in 2004 after 26 years of police work.
He said he often thinks about the boy, who “was the one who suffered because of it.”
Boy sneaks out
It wasn’t until law enforcement showed up June 19, 2010, after his father called to report him missing, that the boy found a way out.
That day, the grandmother said, the roughly 50-pound boy sneaked out to hunt for food in the master bedroom.
Kimberly and Thomas Boone, 39, spent little time in jail after posting $12,500 bond each, court records show. DCF later placed the boy with his grandmother.
On Thursday, a Charlotte magistrate terminated DCF’s supervision.
His stepmother and father are awaiting trial on two felony child abuse charges each, including one for malicious punishment and/or torture, and a felony child neglect charge.
Neither responded to requests for comment. They are being represented by attorneys paid for by tax dollars. Both have filed pleas of not guilty.
Kaiser plans to relocate with the boy to Tennessee to be with family and away from the attention that will follow from the criminal case.
Kaiser, who calls her son’s alleged actions uncharacteristic, tried to isolate her grandson from the media frenzy after the arrests, but he overheard his father’s name on TV.
“‘Now people will believe me, and now Gordon Smith will believe me,’” Boone recalled her grandson saying.
Amen, she said, and pulled him close for a hug.
The DCF report
DCF’s report outlines several shortcomings.
It concluded Smith failed to gauge the risk to the child, especially given Kimberly Boone’s past and the couple’s admission they confined him for long periods to punish him.
The couple married in 2009, the report says, and conditions changed for the boy. His birth mother has not been in the child’s life since he was a baby, his grandmother said.
Kimberly Boone’s teen children had been removed because of broken bones of her then-infant son, the report says.
It’s not clear in the review when the injuries occurred, but the incident was noted in a DCF report the year before the couple married. Kimberly Boone’s history with the child welfare system began in 1996 after an allegation of physical abuse, it says.
Smith said he had social services come to the home to provide such things as counseling. He blamed the system’s bureaucracy for a communication gap.
“If you don’t hear anything back from the services, you assume everything is OK, and that’s the problem,” he said. “I was relying on other people to tell me what was going on.”
Lutheran Services Florida is subcontracted to handle such services.
Among other failings listed in the report: Smith neglected to question explanations for documented scratches on the boy’s neck and thoroughly investigate a head injury.
He failed to take the boy for mandatory interviews with a child protection team and asked for an exception to the process that would have brought an independent opinion.
“The child continually expressed fear of his stepmother and stated he was afraid to be alone with her,” the quality assurance report says.
Smith said the Boones wanted help but the agency doesn’t have money to deliver services, only make judgments.
“If I’m knocking on the door and saying, ‘I’m from the government and I can help,’ I better be able to back that up,” Smith said. “I didn’t find that in this case and in most cases.”
It initially seemed the family could be kept together, which is often best for the child if he is safe, said Cookie Coleman, who leads DCF in Southwest Florida.
Smith and his supervisor, Abby Duwe, were verbally reprimanded after the report, she said.
Their actions also were dissected before other supervisors for training purposes.
Kaiser believes that was not enough for Smith.
“That man should go to prison with the stepmother because I personally cried and called him until I’m sure if he knew I was calling he would never answer the phone,” she said.
Opinions differ
With all eyes on the family, how did the system not pluck the child from his home earlier?
The case was muddied by differing professional opinions and the child’s recanting of allegations, Coleman said, noting that is not uncommon for children to do.
“Unfortunately, the investigator was listening to that and not actually looking at the physical evidence and giving it the proper weight.”
Kaiser has been frustrated by the response. Child welfare officials have pointed to behavioral problems as a reason, she said.
The boy was taking medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the DCF report says.
“Once DCF realized they had screwed up, they didn’t just say, ‘Wow we screwed up,’ but they just tried to keep covering it up,” Kaiser said.
Coleman said the way the case was handled factored into policy changes.
Investigators can no longer ask for an exception for a mandatory interview with a child protection team, she said, as Smith did for a second report of the stepmother grabbing the child’s neck in January.
“This pretty much gets another set of eyes on the case,” Coleman said.
The team is run by an organization independent of DCF, and conducts detailed interviews to try to ferret out the truth.
Smith asked for the exception because he said there were no signs of injury and the child recanted, the DCF review says.
The agency also will do deeper research into a family’s abuse history and look for patterns that stretch to the present, Coleman said.
Still, she said, the system is not failure proof.
“We are taking steps but unfortunately, we will continue to miss things,” she said. “We can always improve and we always need to improve.”
Signs of abuse
When the crime scene technician found the 10-year-old under the sink, he emerged looking scared and malnourished, say records that also provided this information:
The 10-year-old said his stepmother hit, scratched and threw him, along with forcing him to eat a piece of cloth with feces.
At times, he was made to stand in the corner with his arms up for days.
In the morning, he was allowed a slug of water and, at night, a peanut butter sandwich he sometimes hid under his mattress for when he was really hungry.
The boy told authorities he had been locked in his room since December, only leaving for school or when his family was gone.
The couple didn’t dispute much of what he said, according to reports. Kimberly Boone said she kept the door locked from 9 p.m. to the morning.
Thomas Boone told detectives his son could come out. Keeping him in the room was punishment for lying, he said.
The couple moved out of the white house with green trim after their arrests, said landlord Phillip Heyden.
The Boones told him the boy would run away at night, and they were in counseling.
“They seemed to be nice people, and it turned into a nightmare for them,” Heyden said.
His wish list
The evening the 10-year-old was removed, before going to bed in the cozy guest room of his grandmother’s condo, he scribbled out two lists.
Things he wanted to get included: “few bags of marshmellows, few boxes of gramcrackers.”
On his to-do list was: “roast marshmellows, go shoping ... go to the park for a few minuts, draw.”
He has asked to see his father, and told detectives he loved him, court records show. His father’s attorney has asked a no-contact order be lifted, which was denied.
The boy’s drawings no longer depict suicide; they feature airplanes. He recently told his grandmother he no longer thinks about his stepmother every day. That’s probably a good thing, she told him.
“There will be remnants of this forever, but he’s got a real capability for solving problems,” Kaiser said. “He’s like a little man in a 10-year-old body.”
How many times have we read variations on this story, with almost no changes? I have counted 20 stories in Florida alone of children who died in situations involving custody/visitation with an abusive father. This poor little boy managed to avoid being added to the list only because he literally escaped from captivity, like some sort of prisoner of war.
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2011/02/175-killer-dads-fathers-who-ended-their.html
It is almost impossible to say how many children survive situations involving custody/visitation with a abusive father, but with the scars of physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse or neglect. Notice that the mother's existence is at least acknowledged--no mysterious stork here for once--but we're only told she hasn't been around since the baby's birth.
Why? Was she homeless? Did she have drug or alcohol problems? Was she underage? It seems to me whatever her issues were--assuming she had issues--they weren't nearly as bad as Daddy's turned out to be, wouldn't you think? And that's assuming she DID in fact have issues. And notice that not one word is said here to document or even suggest that she did. It is also DISTINCTLY POSSIBLE that abuser daddy THOMAS BOONE simply outgunned her in court. The general public still does not understand that these kinds of torturers are often unrelenting in their pursuit of custody, and that they are obsessive in their desire to either "punish" the mother and/or secure a helpless victim for their rage.http://www.news-press.com/article/20110301/SS08/110227018/Exclusive-DCF-missed-clues-Port-Charlotte-boy-s-captivity?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CHome
Exclusive: DCF missed clues of Port Charlotte boy's captivity
As father, stepmother await trial, questions linger for Florida agency
4:27 PM, Feb. 28, 2011
Written by
JANINE ZEITLIN
jzeitlin@news-press.com Filed Under
By the age of 10, the wiry boy had learned to live like a prisoner of war.
He told his grandmother he passed the months trapped in his room peering at the freedom of the night sky, craning to hear his stepsister’s TV and plotting his escape.
Charlotte County sheriff’s reports paint a disturbing picture of the towheaded boy’s room in a quiet, middle-class Port Charlotte neighborhood:
No toys or lights. No furniture except for a urine-soaked mattress. The lock on his door reversed.
His petite 40-year-old stepmother, Kimberly Boone, told detectives she had smeared feces and urine in his face, “like you would a dog,” and slid peanut butter sandwiches under his door so she wouldn’t have to see him.
It’s been eight months since a crime scene technician found the boy asleep in a bathroom vanity and took him from the home.
But his exit could have come much earlier.
The boy was seen by a slew of child welfare, school, medical and mental health officials and law enforcement officers long before the arrests of his stepmother and father, Thomas Boone, according to records The News-Press obtained.
A Department of Children and Families investigator first visited the home and saw the room in early December.
The agency’s internal review shows the case was bungled. The case has played a role in changes to local DCF policies.
The child is not being named because of the nature of the allegations.
“It’s just unbelievable how many people erred in this,” said Mary Kaiser, his 70-year-old grandmother who has been caring for the boy in her south Fort Myers condo. “Somebody needs to be responsible.”
The background
Three abuse reports were made to DCF starting in December 2009.
The child’s pleas for another place to live went unheeded, records show. He begged DCF investigator Gordon Smith in January for another place to live because he “needed a break,” and drew a picture at school of a gun with bullets going into his head, records show.
The department’s quality assurance review of the case was acquired through a public-records request but all other DCF records are confidential.
Smith left the boy in the home after seeing the room with the mattress and reversed doorknob, records say.
He wouldn’t say why he left him there.
“I really can’t go into that right now because it’s part of the criminal case and I’m being deposed,” he said.
Smith interviewed the parents and the boy, often alone, at least six times and made at least three visits to the home, the review shows. Smith said conditions had spiraled downhill from the time he first saw him to June.
“People don’t know the whole story, and that’s not to say that mistakes weren’t made,” said Smith, 63, of Port Charlotte, who earned $1,507 biweekly and officially retired Dec. 30, 2010.
Smith said the case played no role in his retirement. He was hired by DCF in 2004 after 26 years of police work.
He said he often thinks about the boy, who “was the one who suffered because of it.”
Boy sneaks out
It wasn’t until law enforcement showed up June 19, 2010, after his father called to report him missing, that the boy found a way out.
That day, the grandmother said, the roughly 50-pound boy sneaked out to hunt for food in the master bedroom.
Kimberly and Thomas Boone, 39, spent little time in jail after posting $12,500 bond each, court records show. DCF later placed the boy with his grandmother.
On Thursday, a Charlotte magistrate terminated DCF’s supervision.
His stepmother and father are awaiting trial on two felony child abuse charges each, including one for malicious punishment and/or torture, and a felony child neglect charge.
Neither responded to requests for comment. They are being represented by attorneys paid for by tax dollars. Both have filed pleas of not guilty.
Kaiser plans to relocate with the boy to Tennessee to be with family and away from the attention that will follow from the criminal case.
Kaiser, who calls her son’s alleged actions uncharacteristic, tried to isolate her grandson from the media frenzy after the arrests, but he overheard his father’s name on TV.
“‘Now people will believe me, and now Gordon Smith will believe me,’” Boone recalled her grandson saying.
Amen, she said, and pulled him close for a hug.
The DCF report
DCF’s report outlines several shortcomings.
It concluded Smith failed to gauge the risk to the child, especially given Kimberly Boone’s past and the couple’s admission they confined him for long periods to punish him.
The couple married in 2009, the report says, and conditions changed for the boy. His birth mother has not been in the child’s life since he was a baby, his grandmother said.
Kimberly Boone’s teen children had been removed because of broken bones of her then-infant son, the report says.
It’s not clear in the review when the injuries occurred, but the incident was noted in a DCF report the year before the couple married. Kimberly Boone’s history with the child welfare system began in 1996 after an allegation of physical abuse, it says.
Smith said he had social services come to the home to provide such things as counseling. He blamed the system’s bureaucracy for a communication gap.
“If you don’t hear anything back from the services, you assume everything is OK, and that’s the problem,” he said. “I was relying on other people to tell me what was going on.”
Lutheran Services Florida is subcontracted to handle such services.
Among other failings listed in the report: Smith neglected to question explanations for documented scratches on the boy’s neck and thoroughly investigate a head injury.
He failed to take the boy for mandatory interviews with a child protection team and asked for an exception to the process that would have brought an independent opinion.
“The child continually expressed fear of his stepmother and stated he was afraid to be alone with her,” the quality assurance report says.
Smith said the Boones wanted help but the agency doesn’t have money to deliver services, only make judgments.
“If I’m knocking on the door and saying, ‘I’m from the government and I can help,’ I better be able to back that up,” Smith said. “I didn’t find that in this case and in most cases.”
It initially seemed the family could be kept together, which is often best for the child if he is safe, said Cookie Coleman, who leads DCF in Southwest Florida.
Smith and his supervisor, Abby Duwe, were verbally reprimanded after the report, she said.
Their actions also were dissected before other supervisors for training purposes.
Kaiser believes that was not enough for Smith.
“That man should go to prison with the stepmother because I personally cried and called him until I’m sure if he knew I was calling he would never answer the phone,” she said.
Opinions differ
With all eyes on the family, how did the system not pluck the child from his home earlier?
The case was muddied by differing professional opinions and the child’s recanting of allegations, Coleman said, noting that is not uncommon for children to do.
“Unfortunately, the investigator was listening to that and not actually looking at the physical evidence and giving it the proper weight.”
Kaiser has been frustrated by the response. Child welfare officials have pointed to behavioral problems as a reason, she said.
The boy was taking medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the DCF report says.
“Once DCF realized they had screwed up, they didn’t just say, ‘Wow we screwed up,’ but they just tried to keep covering it up,” Kaiser said.
Coleman said the way the case was handled factored into policy changes.
Investigators can no longer ask for an exception for a mandatory interview with a child protection team, she said, as Smith did for a second report of the stepmother grabbing the child’s neck in January.
“This pretty much gets another set of eyes on the case,” Coleman said.
The team is run by an organization independent of DCF, and conducts detailed interviews to try to ferret out the truth.
Smith asked for the exception because he said there were no signs of injury and the child recanted, the DCF review says.
The agency also will do deeper research into a family’s abuse history and look for patterns that stretch to the present, Coleman said.
Still, she said, the system is not failure proof.
“We are taking steps but unfortunately, we will continue to miss things,” she said. “We can always improve and we always need to improve.”
Signs of abuse
When the crime scene technician found the 10-year-old under the sink, he emerged looking scared and malnourished, say records that also provided this information:
The 10-year-old said his stepmother hit, scratched and threw him, along with forcing him to eat a piece of cloth with feces.
At times, he was made to stand in the corner with his arms up for days.
In the morning, he was allowed a slug of water and, at night, a peanut butter sandwich he sometimes hid under his mattress for when he was really hungry.
The boy told authorities he had been locked in his room since December, only leaving for school or when his family was gone.
The couple didn’t dispute much of what he said, according to reports. Kimberly Boone said she kept the door locked from 9 p.m. to the morning.
Thomas Boone told detectives his son could come out. Keeping him in the room was punishment for lying, he said.
The couple moved out of the white house with green trim after their arrests, said landlord Phillip Heyden.
The Boones told him the boy would run away at night, and they were in counseling.
“They seemed to be nice people, and it turned into a nightmare for them,” Heyden said.
His wish list
The evening the 10-year-old was removed, before going to bed in the cozy guest room of his grandmother’s condo, he scribbled out two lists.
Things he wanted to get included: “few bags of marshmellows, few boxes of gramcrackers.”
On his to-do list was: “roast marshmellows, go shoping ... go to the park for a few minuts, draw.”
He has asked to see his father, and told detectives he loved him, court records show. His father’s attorney has asked a no-contact order be lifted, which was denied.
The boy’s drawings no longer depict suicide; they feature airplanes. He recently told his grandmother he no longer thinks about his stepmother every day. That’s probably a good thing, she told him.
“There will be remnants of this forever, but he’s got a real capability for solving problems,” Kaiser said. “He’s like a little man in a 10-year-old body.”
Prosecutors: Custodial dad chained teen son to dryer and tortured him (Glenwood, Illinois)
Here we go again. Yet another "ignore the elephant in the corner" news story. Daddy and his "girlfriend" arrested for, well, basically torturing his teenage son.
Let's discuss the elephant, shall we? WHERE IS MOM?
Basic biology tells us that fathers may very well invest 5 minutes or less in "fathering"--typically at the very beginning of the pregnancy, if you catch my drift. So to have a child in a single-mother household is something of a default development. Unless the father makes a conscious commitment to the mother and her offspring, you have a single-mother household.
Fathers DO NOT create single-father households unless there has been deliberate act to create them. They are not "natural." Mothers give birth, not fathers. This should be obvious, but to this reporter and the countless commenters on this article, it apparently is not.
So the question that SHOULD be raised--and seldom is--is HOW DID THIS CHILD END UP IN THIS HOME? Is the mother deceased? Was the father married to her, and thus get custody by default through her death? If he was not married to her, or even living with her, who decided he should have custody upon her death? The father's custody is a SOCIAL/POLITICAL determination, not an act of nature.
Likewise if this father stripped a living mother of custody--the more likely scenario--then that is also a social/political act within a society that determines that fathers/sperm donors (and their 5 minute contributions) have rights and privileges that are "equal" to the human being who actually carries the child through nine months of pregancy and gives birth.
So who were the people who determined that torturer dad HUGO DOMINGUEZ and his sicko gal pal would have custody? Why aren't they identified? And what happened to the mother? Why has she been erased from this story?
INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/4014805-418/prosecutors-dad-kept-teen-chained-to-dryer.html
Prosecutors: Dad kept teen chained to dryer
BY TINA SFONDELES Staff Reportertsfondeles@suntimes.com Feb 26, 2011 02:04AM
A south suburban teenager was routinely chained to a dryer and viciously beaten by his father and his father’s girlfriend with everything from bamboo scratchers to yardsticks to a broken ax handle, Cook County prosecutors allege.
Hugo Dominguez, 38, of Glenwood, admitted he kept the 13-year-old boy captive in the laundry room most nights while he and his live-in girlfriend, Mary Ramirez, slept, authorities said.
The couple routinely unchained the Brookwood Junior High School student in the morning and kept him in the garage before school, court records indicated.
The boy told investigators that Dominguez and Ramirez, 38, often hit him with many objects, including wooden ax handles, yardsticks, bamboo scratchers, belts and rulers that had been taped together.
Dominguez also recently stabbed his son with a knife, prosecutors said.
Authorities began investigating the couple after school officials called to report the alleged abuse Tuesday.
The teenager currently has a large laceration to his left elbow, bruising on a large portion of both arms and lash marks on his lower and middle back and lower legs, prosecutors said.
Dominguez was ordered held in lieu of $250,000 bail Friday for aggravated domestic battery, according to state’s attorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. Ramirez was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail for unlawful restraint.
Let's discuss the elephant, shall we? WHERE IS MOM?
Basic biology tells us that fathers may very well invest 5 minutes or less in "fathering"--typically at the very beginning of the pregnancy, if you catch my drift. So to have a child in a single-mother household is something of a default development. Unless the father makes a conscious commitment to the mother and her offspring, you have a single-mother household.
Fathers DO NOT create single-father households unless there has been deliberate act to create them. They are not "natural." Mothers give birth, not fathers. This should be obvious, but to this reporter and the countless commenters on this article, it apparently is not.
So the question that SHOULD be raised--and seldom is--is HOW DID THIS CHILD END UP IN THIS HOME? Is the mother deceased? Was the father married to her, and thus get custody by default through her death? If he was not married to her, or even living with her, who decided he should have custody upon her death? The father's custody is a SOCIAL/POLITICAL determination, not an act of nature.
Likewise if this father stripped a living mother of custody--the more likely scenario--then that is also a social/political act within a society that determines that fathers/sperm donors (and their 5 minute contributions) have rights and privileges that are "equal" to the human being who actually carries the child through nine months of pregancy and gives birth.
So who were the people who determined that torturer dad HUGO DOMINGUEZ and his sicko gal pal would have custody? Why aren't they identified? And what happened to the mother? Why has she been erased from this story?
INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/4014805-418/prosecutors-dad-kept-teen-chained-to-dryer.html
Prosecutors: Dad kept teen chained to dryer
BY TINA SFONDELES Staff Reportertsfondeles@suntimes.com Feb 26, 2011 02:04AM
A south suburban teenager was routinely chained to a dryer and viciously beaten by his father and his father’s girlfriend with everything from bamboo scratchers to yardsticks to a broken ax handle, Cook County prosecutors allege.
Hugo Dominguez, 38, of Glenwood, admitted he kept the 13-year-old boy captive in the laundry room most nights while he and his live-in girlfriend, Mary Ramirez, slept, authorities said.
The couple routinely unchained the Brookwood Junior High School student in the morning and kept him in the garage before school, court records indicated.
The boy told investigators that Dominguez and Ramirez, 38, often hit him with many objects, including wooden ax handles, yardsticks, bamboo scratchers, belts and rulers that had been taped together.
Dominguez also recently stabbed his son with a knife, prosecutors said.
Authorities began investigating the couple after school officials called to report the alleged abuse Tuesday.
The teenager currently has a large laceration to his left elbow, bruising on a large portion of both arms and lash marks on his lower and middle back and lower legs, prosecutors said.
Dominguez was ordered held in lieu of $250,000 bail Friday for aggravated domestic battery, according to state’s attorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. Ramirez was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail for unlawful restraint.
Dad charged with fracturing infant son's skull (Grand Forks, North Dakota)
Yet another daddy who was babysitting while Mom was working. Couldn't take the pressure or whatnot, and now the baby has a skull fracture. Dad WILLIAM HOEHN has been charged with child abuse, with a warrant issued for his arrest.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/195151/
Published February 28, 2011, 07:34 PM
Grand Forks dad charged with child abuse
A Grand Forks father was charged Monday with fracturing the skull of his infant son.
By: Archie Ingersoll, Grand Forks Herald
A Grand Forks father was charged Monday with fracturing the skull of his infant son.
William Hoehn, 25, was not in custody Monday, but there was a warrant issued for his arrest on a child abuse charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
Prosecutor Jason McCarthy said Hoehn’s son, who is younger than a year old, is doing OK and will not suffer long-term consequences from his injuries. McCarthy said he did not know who has custody of the boy, who is no longer in the hospital.
According to a police report, Hoehn picked up his son at daycare about 3:30 a.m. Jan. 5. Hoehn and the boy’s mother did not notice anything unusual about their son’s head that morning, the report states.
The report says the boy’s mother went to work about 4:40 p.m., leaving the boy in Hoehn’s care. A couple of hours later, she received a call from Hoehn, who was crying; he told her their son’s head was swollen and asked if he should take him to the emergency room, according to the report.
Hoehn brought the boy to Altru Hospital in Grand Forks where he was diagnosed with fractures near his right ear, McCarthy said. Suspecting child abuse, emergency room staff reported the boy’s injuries to police, authorities said.
Two doctors told police that in a case like this, “swelling would have more than likely occurred within a couple of hours after the incident that caused the fracture,” the report says.
McCarthy said authorities have ruled out the possibility the boy’s injuries were caused by an accident or a medical condition such as brittle-bone disease.
Hoehn does not have a listed phone number. A message left for DeWayne Johnston, an attorney believed to be representing Hoehn, was not returned Monday.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/195151/
Published February 28, 2011, 07:34 PM
Grand Forks dad charged with child abuse
A Grand Forks father was charged Monday with fracturing the skull of his infant son.
By: Archie Ingersoll, Grand Forks Herald
A Grand Forks father was charged Monday with fracturing the skull of his infant son.
William Hoehn, 25, was not in custody Monday, but there was a warrant issued for his arrest on a child abuse charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
Prosecutor Jason McCarthy said Hoehn’s son, who is younger than a year old, is doing OK and will not suffer long-term consequences from his injuries. McCarthy said he did not know who has custody of the boy, who is no longer in the hospital.
According to a police report, Hoehn picked up his son at daycare about 3:30 a.m. Jan. 5. Hoehn and the boy’s mother did not notice anything unusual about their son’s head that morning, the report states.
The report says the boy’s mother went to work about 4:40 p.m., leaving the boy in Hoehn’s care. A couple of hours later, she received a call from Hoehn, who was crying; he told her their son’s head was swollen and asked if he should take him to the emergency room, according to the report.
Hoehn brought the boy to Altru Hospital in Grand Forks where he was diagnosed with fractures near his right ear, McCarthy said. Suspecting child abuse, emergency room staff reported the boy’s injuries to police, authorities said.
Two doctors told police that in a case like this, “swelling would have more than likely occurred within a couple of hours after the incident that caused the fracture,” the report says.
McCarthy said authorities have ruled out the possibility the boy’s injuries were caused by an accident or a medical condition such as brittle-bone disease.
Hoehn does not have a listed phone number. A message left for DeWayne Johnston, an attorney believed to be representing Hoehn, was not returned Monday.
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