No doubt the fathers rights people will assure us that Daddy RALPH WALDO MORRISON III just wanted some quality parenting time....
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/apArticle/id/D9TSSPBG0/
Authorities: Arkansas toddler abducted by father after he stabbed her mother with ice pick
By ALLEN REED Associated Press - LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
Authorities are searching for an Arkansas man suspected of abducting his 18-month-old daughter after crashing his car into the girl's mother's and then beating and stabbing the woman with an ice pick.
Arkansas State Police issued a missing child alert Sunday for Zahkairi Morrison. Witnesses told investigators that the girl's father, 28-year-old Ralph Waldo Morrison III, drove head-on into her mother's car near the town of Tollette on Sunday. The witnesses, who include two women that were in the car with the girl and her mother, Amaria Webster, said Morrison beat Webster and stabbed her in the shoulders and neck with an ice pick before fleeing with the child into some nearby woods.
Webster was treated at a hospital and released, Howard County Sheriff Butch Morris said Monday.
Authorities said Morrison fled to Columbus and then to Fulton by hitching rides from at least three motorists, and that they think he is now driving west toward Texarkana or California in an old Oldsmobile Cutlass four-door sedan. He is wanted in Sunday's attack on four counts of aggravated assault and one count each of second-degree battery and kidnapping.
No one answered repeated phone calls Monday to Morrison's home. Authorities say he is 5 feet 8 inches tall, black and has tattoos on his arms and shoulders. Zahkairi is also black, has beads in her braided hair and was wearing a blue and pink shirt and shorts when she was taken. She is 2 feet tall and weighs 25 pounds.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Dad arrested for firing pistol into apartment, endangering 15-year-old daughter (West Palm Beach, Florida)
Notice that there is no mention of this girl's mother, just of Dad TEVEL JOINER's girlfriend. Why is this 15-year-old girl around such a hot-headed nitwit? Is Dad custodial? Does he have visitation? What?
INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/west-palm-beach-man-arrested-for-firing-pistol-2278642.html
West Palm Beach man arrested for firing pistol into apartment, endangering daughter
By Alexandra Seltzer Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
WEST PALM BEACH — A 31-year-old man was arrested Sunday after his 15-year-old daughter put herself in danger while trying to stop her father from firing his Smith & Wesson pistol.
Tevell Joiner, of West Palm Beach, was arrested around 8 a.m. Sunday on charges of discharging a firearm in public and cruelty toward a child.
West Palm Beach Police officers were called to Green Pine Boulevard around 4:30 a.m. to investigate a call of an armed disturbance.
Joey Estinfil, who called 911, told officers he lives with his sister Naderge Estinfil, Joiner's girlfriend, and was in their apartment when he heard a bang at the door, according to a West Palm Beach Police probable cause affidavit.
He saw Joiner at the door and did not answer. Joiner then screamed that he would shoot through the door, prompting Estinfil to grab his children and put them in the bathroom for safety.
Estinfil then heard two shots and also ran into the bathroom and called 911, the affidavit says.
Officers interviewed witness Jean Leblanc, who said he saw Joiner fire two shots while in the parking lot. He was scared to leave the car, he told police, and watched as Joiner's 15-year-old daughter tried to keep him from firing the gun.
He said the girl was "screaming" and "crying" and "placing herself in potentially a fatal position," the affidavit says.
He then saw the two leave the area in a red Jaguar.
Police caught up with the Jaguar and conducted a felony traffic stop.
Both Joiner and his daughter were taken into custody for questioning.
The 15-year-old, who was not named, told police her father frightened her.
Joiner confessed to firing his pistol, saying he did it because he was "upset" and "stressed". He added that he didn't intend to hit anyone.
He was released from jail later Sunday afternoon after posting a $3,000 bond, according to Palm Beach County Jail records.
INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/west-palm-beach-man-arrested-for-firing-pistol-2278642.html
West Palm Beach man arrested for firing pistol into apartment, endangering daughter
By Alexandra Seltzer Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
WEST PALM BEACH — A 31-year-old man was arrested Sunday after his 15-year-old daughter put herself in danger while trying to stop her father from firing his Smith & Wesson pistol.
Tevell Joiner, of West Palm Beach, was arrested around 8 a.m. Sunday on charges of discharging a firearm in public and cruelty toward a child.
West Palm Beach Police officers were called to Green Pine Boulevard around 4:30 a.m. to investigate a call of an armed disturbance.
Joey Estinfil, who called 911, told officers he lives with his sister Naderge Estinfil, Joiner's girlfriend, and was in their apartment when he heard a bang at the door, according to a West Palm Beach Police probable cause affidavit.
He saw Joiner at the door and did not answer. Joiner then screamed that he would shoot through the door, prompting Estinfil to grab his children and put them in the bathroom for safety.
Estinfil then heard two shots and also ran into the bathroom and called 911, the affidavit says.
Officers interviewed witness Jean Leblanc, who said he saw Joiner fire two shots while in the parking lot. He was scared to leave the car, he told police, and watched as Joiner's 15-year-old daughter tried to keep him from firing the gun.
He said the girl was "screaming" and "crying" and "placing herself in potentially a fatal position," the affidavit says.
He then saw the two leave the area in a red Jaguar.
Police caught up with the Jaguar and conducted a felony traffic stop.
Both Joiner and his daughter were taken into custody for questioning.
The 15-year-old, who was not named, told police her father frightened her.
Joiner confessed to firing his pistol, saying he did it because he was "upset" and "stressed". He added that he didn't intend to hit anyone.
He was released from jail later Sunday afternoon after posting a $3,000 bond, according to Palm Beach County Jail records.
Custodial dad, step charged in starvation death of 11-year-old son (Dallas, Texas)
How much you want to bet that custodial dad AARON RAMSEY was unrelenting in his pursuit of "possession" of this child? This seems to be typical of these torture-freak dads. Notice that the mother was shut off from all contact. This is typical as well. Fathers like Ramsey are generally insistent on total, dictatorial control.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/01/missing-11-year-old-starved-to-death-in-locked-bedroom-dallas-police-say/?cmpid=cmty_fb_Gigya_Missing_11-year-old_starved_to_death_in_locked_bedroom%2C_Dallas_police_say
Missing 11-year-old starved to death in locked bedroom, Dallas police say
Published April 01, 2012
NewsCore
DALLAS – Police say a missing 11-year-old Dallas boy slowly starved to death after his parents locked him in his bedroom, feeding him just bread and water.
Police received a call on Friday from the grandfather of Johnathan Ramsey, who was concerned about his grandson because he had not seen him for at least nine months and possibly as long as a year, myFOXdfw.com reported.
During interviews with the child's father and stepmother, police received conflicting accounts of what happened to the boy.
The questioning led police to believe the child had died and search teams on Saturday began looking for his remains in a large field.
The father, 34-year-old Aaron Ramsey, and the stepmother, 31-year-old Elizabeth Ramsey, were arrested and charged with first-degree felony charges of injury to a child. They remained in custody Sunday, with bail set at $500,000 each.
Police records reveal that in the last few months of Johnathan's life he was locked in his bedroom and fed "military rations" -- bread, water and occasionally milk -- as punishment for bad behavior, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Aaron Ramsey, who once served in the military, told police that his son had begun acting in a violent manner early last year, including punching his stepmother in the stomach, causing her to have a miscarriage.
After that incident he hit the child and locked him in his bedroom, where he remained until his death, slowly withering from 90 pounds to about 60 pounds between March and August last year.
Elizabeth Ramsey described the boy as "looking like one of those kids you see on commercials from Africa," in interviews with police. She described him "as being really thin and explained that he was unable to walk at times due to loss of strength."
Aaron Ramsay said sometime in August last year he found the boy unresponsive on the floor of his bedroom and, after washing his body, placed him in a sleeping bag before dumping the body in a storm shelter of a vacant house nearby.
Later he dumped the boy's body in a wooded area -- leading to the search Saturday, which was called off about 5:00pm local time without anything being found.
Johnathan's biological mother lives in New Mexico. Police said she was notified by detectives about the search for her son and that she, too, had trouble getting straight answers from the boy's father about where he was.
"Whenever she contacted the father, he would give a reason of where the child was," Deputy Chief Sherryl Scott told myFOXdfw.com.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/01/missing-11-year-old-starved-to-death-in-locked-bedroom-dallas-police-say/?cmpid=cmty_fb_Gigya_Missing_11-year-old_starved_to_death_in_locked_bedroom%2C_Dallas_police_say
Missing 11-year-old starved to death in locked bedroom, Dallas police say
Published April 01, 2012
NewsCore
DALLAS – Police say a missing 11-year-old Dallas boy slowly starved to death after his parents locked him in his bedroom, feeding him just bread and water.
Police received a call on Friday from the grandfather of Johnathan Ramsey, who was concerned about his grandson because he had not seen him for at least nine months and possibly as long as a year, myFOXdfw.com reported.
During interviews with the child's father and stepmother, police received conflicting accounts of what happened to the boy.
The questioning led police to believe the child had died and search teams on Saturday began looking for his remains in a large field.
The father, 34-year-old Aaron Ramsey, and the stepmother, 31-year-old Elizabeth Ramsey, were arrested and charged with first-degree felony charges of injury to a child. They remained in custody Sunday, with bail set at $500,000 each.
Police records reveal that in the last few months of Johnathan's life he was locked in his bedroom and fed "military rations" -- bread, water and occasionally milk -- as punishment for bad behavior, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Aaron Ramsey, who once served in the military, told police that his son had begun acting in a violent manner early last year, including punching his stepmother in the stomach, causing her to have a miscarriage.
After that incident he hit the child and locked him in his bedroom, where he remained until his death, slowly withering from 90 pounds to about 60 pounds between March and August last year.
Elizabeth Ramsey described the boy as "looking like one of those kids you see on commercials from Africa," in interviews with police. She described him "as being really thin and explained that he was unable to walk at times due to loss of strength."
Aaron Ramsay said sometime in August last year he found the boy unresponsive on the floor of his bedroom and, after washing his body, placed him in a sleeping bag before dumping the body in a storm shelter of a vacant house nearby.
Later he dumped the boy's body in a wooded area -- leading to the search Saturday, which was called off about 5:00pm local time without anything being found.
Johnathan's biological mother lives in New Mexico. Police said she was notified by detectives about the search for her son and that she, too, had trouble getting straight answers from the boy's father about where he was.
"Whenever she contacted the father, he would give a reason of where the child was," Deputy Chief Sherryl Scott told myFOXdfw.com.
Dad accused of abusing 6-week-old daughter (Franklin County, Illinois)
Dad is identified as JONATHAN KNEPP.
http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/home/ticker/Father-accused-of-abusing-infant-daughter-145234965.html
Father accused of abusing infant daughter
Story Created: Mar 30, 2012 at 5:44 PM CDT
(Story Updated: Mar 30, 2012 at 6:17 PM CDT )
FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ill. — A 28-year-old Franklin County man is behind bars on a felony charge of aggravated battery of a child, a very small child. The Franklin County Sheriff said the alleged incident took place nearly two weeks ago.
Jonathan Knepp was arrested and taken to jail Thursday afternoon. Neighbors said they are shocked this young father is facing such a severe charge.
Investigators are remaining fairly quiet about the details in the case but a neighbor told Local 6 the child in question is Knepp's daughter.
The Franklin County Sheriff said the baby involved was six weeks old. The department answered an ambulance call March 15 at a home on River Bend Road in rural Benton, Illinois.
The infant ended up in a St. Louis hospital with a brain injury. According to court papers, the child was "shaken in a violent manner."
"No, I am shocked to hear that. I wouldn't believe it of him for a moment," said a concerned neighbor, who asked that we conceal her identity.
That neighbor said the young family was very friendly and that Knepp and his wife have another child who is a toddler.
The neighbor told Local 6 Knepp is a veteran.
"He's like I said, he served his country. He's been very neighborly. I always see the family together doing things. No, I wouldn't believe that he's the cause," said the neighbor.
Nobody answered the door at the home. Other neighbors on the street said they did not want to comment.
Knepp remains in jail on $300,000 bond in Franklin County.
A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said Knepp's two children are now in the custody of relatives.
His first court date will be next week.
http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/home/ticker/Father-accused-of-abusing-infant-daughter-145234965.html
Father accused of abusing infant daughter
Story Created: Mar 30, 2012 at 5:44 PM CDT
(Story Updated: Mar 30, 2012 at 6:17 PM CDT )
FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ill. — A 28-year-old Franklin County man is behind bars on a felony charge of aggravated battery of a child, a very small child. The Franklin County Sheriff said the alleged incident took place nearly two weeks ago.
Jonathan Knepp was arrested and taken to jail Thursday afternoon. Neighbors said they are shocked this young father is facing such a severe charge.
Investigators are remaining fairly quiet about the details in the case but a neighbor told Local 6 the child in question is Knepp's daughter.
The Franklin County Sheriff said the baby involved was six weeks old. The department answered an ambulance call March 15 at a home on River Bend Road in rural Benton, Illinois.
The infant ended up in a St. Louis hospital with a brain injury. According to court papers, the child was "shaken in a violent manner."
"No, I am shocked to hear that. I wouldn't believe it of him for a moment," said a concerned neighbor, who asked that we conceal her identity.
That neighbor said the young family was very friendly and that Knepp and his wife have another child who is a toddler.
The neighbor told Local 6 Knepp is a veteran.
"He's like I said, he served his country. He's been very neighborly. I always see the family together doing things. No, I wouldn't believe that he's the cause," said the neighbor.
Nobody answered the door at the home. Other neighbors on the street said they did not want to comment.
Knepp remains in jail on $300,000 bond in Franklin County.
A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said Knepp's two children are now in the custody of relatives.
His first court date will be next week.
Report: Judges not accountable (Massachusetts)
Great piece by Steve Doane.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120401/NEWS/204010343/-1/NEWS01
Report: Bay State judges not accountable
By STEVE DOANE
April 01, 2012
Two months ago, two complaints against Barnstable Probate Court Judge Robert Scandurra were sent to the Commission on Judicial Conduct, both alleging misconduct related to a sexual-abuse case highlighted by the Times.
Scandurra was the judge in a custody case in which a mother alleged her son was being sexually abused by his father. For three years, the judge allowed the father supervised and unsupervised visits despite multiple supported findings of abuse from state agencies.
Scandurra revoked joint custody after the father's semen was found on the child's pajamas.
The complaints themselves — one filed by an organization and the other by an individual — might come to nothing, but the public will probably never know the outcome because the state commission charged with investigating judicial transgressions operates in secrecy.
Massachusetts was recently ranked in the top five of states for judicial accountability in a report by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International. But the state scored low in several key categories, including public access to judicial performance reviews and the lack of written rationales behind judges' decisions.
In Massachusetts, judges on all levels are appointed until age 70. And they cannot simply be fired. It takes an act of the state Legislature to dismiss a judge, and that has not happened in more than 50 years.
Before a dismissal action even gets started, a judge is subjected to a multi-step process that occurs largely behind closed doors.
Insulated from public opinion
Proponents say allowing judges this kind of insulation from public opinion and outrage encourages them to make decisions that are fair and based solely on the facts in each case.
"We do that for a certain purpose, because we want judges to make unpopular decisions," said Nancy Gertner, a professor at the Harvard School of Law and a former U.S. District Court judge.
The trade-off is that the largely secretive process of evaluating judges allows little transparency or public accountability. The Times knows about the Scandurra complaints only because the people who filed the complaints told a reporter that they were doing so.
The "State Integrity Investigation" ranked several aspects of all 50 states based on their corruption risk, according to information from the organizations that did the study.
The Bay State's court system received a C+ rating for judicial accountability. Only four other states ranked higher, according to the investigation.
Massachusetts scored high on its disciplinary agency and that agency's ability to initiate investigations, as well as oversight on a judge's disclosure of assets.
Transparency lacking
Where it didn't score high is in transparency. In several transparency categories, the state scored below 50 percent, including zero percent on judges having to explain their decisions.
Other low-ranking categories include whether the oversight committee is protected from political influence and whether a judge's performance evaluations and administrative records are available to the public.
In Massachusetts, there are two major avenues for assessing judicial performance. The first is a case-by-case investigation of complaints against individual judges. The other is an annual evaluation compiled by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
The Commission on Judicial Conduct fields complaints from distressed parties. In operation for nearly 40 years, it is charged with vetting the battery of complaints against the judiciary.
Between 1998 and 2010 — the last year data is available — the committee dealt with 2,684 complaints. Of those, about 2,458 — or about 92 percent — were dismissed for a variety of reasons.
About half of the dismissed cases were thrown out after an initial review, usually because they didn't fall within the commission's jurisdiction.
The other half were dismissed after an investigation.
The vast majority of these complaints involve a disagreement over a ruling or verdict and are typically filed by pro se respondents, or parties who represent themselves. Other grievances include racial and gender bias, denial of constitutional rights and conspiracy or collusion on the judge's part.
'Informal adjustment'
The commission doesn't deal with grievances over judicial decisions.
Of the 170 complaints that weren't dismissed, most were resolved in a sort of plea agreement called an "informal adjustment." This usually entails some sort of reprimand or punishment that isn't public. Punishments include persuading the judge to retire, mandating counseling, additional training or providing assistance for a judge.
A complaint finally becomes public after formal charges are filed with the state Supreme Judicial Court and after the judge has a chance to respond. But this is a rare occurrence. Since 1994, there have only been five public hearings involving judicial complaints.
One of the most recent cases involved Judge Ernest Murphy, who successfully sued the Boston Herald for defamation in 2005 after a series of articles portrayed him as soft on criminals and insensitive to victims. Murphy won more than $2 million in the lawsuit, but the Herald appealed the case. Murphy then wrote two letters to Herald Publisher Patrick Purcell on official court stationery demanding Purcell drop the appeal and give the judge a check for $3.26 million, the libel award plus interest.
Formal charges were later brought against Murphy because he used official court stationery for personal business, according to court documents. In 2008, the Supreme Judicial Court reprimanded Murphy calling his actions "a misuse of the power and prestige of judicial office." The court suspended Murphy for 30 days and ordered him to pay a $25,000 fine.
The Herald ultimately paid Murphy $3.41 million, but the judge retired from the bench in 2008 because of health issues.
In 2010, the Commission on Judicial Conduct handled 119 complaints. The highest number of complaints, almost 35 percent, were filed against Family and Probate Court judges, who handle divorce, child custody, guardian and estate cases.
In general terms, child custody cases can be very difficult to decide, Judge Scandurra said in a January interview with the Times, especially if parents start to raise issues such as alcohol abuse or drug use to gain leverage.
A strict confidentiality code
Beyond the investigation, the judicial complaint process is also governed by a strict confidentiality code. At the bottom of the complaint form, there is a disclaimer advising respondents that all communications between them and the commission are private except under extenuating circumstances.
Moreover, the confidentiality section mandates that the entire process will remain out of the public eye until formal charges are leveled.
Proponents of keeping judges separated from the court of public opinion say the process encourages judges to make the best decisions in cases without fear of retribution.
It may not be the perfect system, said former Judge Gertner, but the alternatives are much worse. She cited the judicial elections held in some states, such as Mississippi and West Virginia.
"When a judge has to run on a platform, it means they've already pre-judged a case," she said. "The notion that you'll make popular decisions to get re-elected is disturbing to me."
This was echoed by Fitchburg attorney and former president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, Edward P. Ryan Jr. It's important to draw a distinction between genuine misconduct and the judge just making an unpopular ruling, he said.
"You don't want the judge so worried about an attack that they can't make tough decisions," he said. "The last thing you want is for the ump to call balls and strikes based on who's yelling the loudest."
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120401/NEWS/204010343/-1/NEWS01
Report: Bay State judges not accountable
By STEVE DOANE
April 01, 2012
Two months ago, two complaints against Barnstable Probate Court Judge Robert Scandurra were sent to the Commission on Judicial Conduct, both alleging misconduct related to a sexual-abuse case highlighted by the Times.
Scandurra was the judge in a custody case in which a mother alleged her son was being sexually abused by his father. For three years, the judge allowed the father supervised and unsupervised visits despite multiple supported findings of abuse from state agencies.
Scandurra revoked joint custody after the father's semen was found on the child's pajamas.
The complaints themselves — one filed by an organization and the other by an individual — might come to nothing, but the public will probably never know the outcome because the state commission charged with investigating judicial transgressions operates in secrecy.
Massachusetts was recently ranked in the top five of states for judicial accountability in a report by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International. But the state scored low in several key categories, including public access to judicial performance reviews and the lack of written rationales behind judges' decisions.
In Massachusetts, judges on all levels are appointed until age 70. And they cannot simply be fired. It takes an act of the state Legislature to dismiss a judge, and that has not happened in more than 50 years.
Before a dismissal action even gets started, a judge is subjected to a multi-step process that occurs largely behind closed doors.
Insulated from public opinion
Proponents say allowing judges this kind of insulation from public opinion and outrage encourages them to make decisions that are fair and based solely on the facts in each case.
"We do that for a certain purpose, because we want judges to make unpopular decisions," said Nancy Gertner, a professor at the Harvard School of Law and a former U.S. District Court judge.
The trade-off is that the largely secretive process of evaluating judges allows little transparency or public accountability. The Times knows about the Scandurra complaints only because the people who filed the complaints told a reporter that they were doing so.
The "State Integrity Investigation" ranked several aspects of all 50 states based on their corruption risk, according to information from the organizations that did the study.
The Bay State's court system received a C+ rating for judicial accountability. Only four other states ranked higher, according to the investigation.
Massachusetts scored high on its disciplinary agency and that agency's ability to initiate investigations, as well as oversight on a judge's disclosure of assets.
Transparency lacking
Where it didn't score high is in transparency. In several transparency categories, the state scored below 50 percent, including zero percent on judges having to explain their decisions.
Other low-ranking categories include whether the oversight committee is protected from political influence and whether a judge's performance evaluations and administrative records are available to the public.
In Massachusetts, there are two major avenues for assessing judicial performance. The first is a case-by-case investigation of complaints against individual judges. The other is an annual evaluation compiled by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
The Commission on Judicial Conduct fields complaints from distressed parties. In operation for nearly 40 years, it is charged with vetting the battery of complaints against the judiciary.
Between 1998 and 2010 — the last year data is available — the committee dealt with 2,684 complaints. Of those, about 2,458 — or about 92 percent — were dismissed for a variety of reasons.
About half of the dismissed cases were thrown out after an initial review, usually because they didn't fall within the commission's jurisdiction.
The other half were dismissed after an investigation.
The vast majority of these complaints involve a disagreement over a ruling or verdict and are typically filed by pro se respondents, or parties who represent themselves. Other grievances include racial and gender bias, denial of constitutional rights and conspiracy or collusion on the judge's part.
'Informal adjustment'
The commission doesn't deal with grievances over judicial decisions.
Of the 170 complaints that weren't dismissed, most were resolved in a sort of plea agreement called an "informal adjustment." This usually entails some sort of reprimand or punishment that isn't public. Punishments include persuading the judge to retire, mandating counseling, additional training or providing assistance for a judge.
A complaint finally becomes public after formal charges are filed with the state Supreme Judicial Court and after the judge has a chance to respond. But this is a rare occurrence. Since 1994, there have only been five public hearings involving judicial complaints.
One of the most recent cases involved Judge Ernest Murphy, who successfully sued the Boston Herald for defamation in 2005 after a series of articles portrayed him as soft on criminals and insensitive to victims. Murphy won more than $2 million in the lawsuit, but the Herald appealed the case. Murphy then wrote two letters to Herald Publisher Patrick Purcell on official court stationery demanding Purcell drop the appeal and give the judge a check for $3.26 million, the libel award plus interest.
Formal charges were later brought against Murphy because he used official court stationery for personal business, according to court documents. In 2008, the Supreme Judicial Court reprimanded Murphy calling his actions "a misuse of the power and prestige of judicial office." The court suspended Murphy for 30 days and ordered him to pay a $25,000 fine.
The Herald ultimately paid Murphy $3.41 million, but the judge retired from the bench in 2008 because of health issues.
In 2010, the Commission on Judicial Conduct handled 119 complaints. The highest number of complaints, almost 35 percent, were filed against Family and Probate Court judges, who handle divorce, child custody, guardian and estate cases.
In general terms, child custody cases can be very difficult to decide, Judge Scandurra said in a January interview with the Times, especially if parents start to raise issues such as alcohol abuse or drug use to gain leverage.
A strict confidentiality code
Beyond the investigation, the judicial complaint process is also governed by a strict confidentiality code. At the bottom of the complaint form, there is a disclaimer advising respondents that all communications between them and the commission are private except under extenuating circumstances.
Moreover, the confidentiality section mandates that the entire process will remain out of the public eye until formal charges are leveled.
Proponents of keeping judges separated from the court of public opinion say the process encourages judges to make the best decisions in cases without fear of retribution.
It may not be the perfect system, said former Judge Gertner, but the alternatives are much worse. She cited the judicial elections held in some states, such as Mississippi and West Virginia.
"When a judge has to run on a platform, it means they've already pre-judged a case," she said. "The notion that you'll make popular decisions to get re-elected is disturbing to me."
This was echoed by Fitchburg attorney and former president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, Edward P. Ryan Jr. It's important to draw a distinction between genuine misconduct and the judge just making an unpopular ruling, he said.
"You don't want the judge so worried about an attack that they can't make tough decisions," he said. "The last thing you want is for the ump to call balls and strikes based on who's yelling the loudest."
Mom mourns loss of daughter; custodial dad, step charged with 1st-degree murder (Kingston, Jamaica)
Note that custodial dad DWAYNE BIDDERSINGH had a history of domestic violence against the mother of the murdered daughter. But given the mother's extreme poverty, the father ended up with possession of two of her children.
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/article/1154792--mother-mourns-her-daughter-s-ghastly-death
Mother mourns her daughter’s ghastly death
Published On Sun Apr 1 2012
Opal Austin, with daughter Racquel Ellis and son Issachar Fuller, speaks for the first time about the loss of her children Dwayne and Melonie Biddersingh, who came to Canada in 1990 with their father. Police now believe they have cracked the case.
By Royson James
City Columnist
KINGSTON, JAMAICA—All Opal Austin needed was a little help.
The “suitcase murder” victim’s mom says her daughter might still be alive if Canadian authorities had heeded warnings she and others gave them in the early 1990s.
Instead of pursuing the family’s suspicion that 15-year-old Dwayne Biddersingh’s fall from a 22nd-storey Parkdale apartment in 1992 wasn’t a suicide — and that his sister, Melonie, might be in danger too — authorities told Austin everything was fine, she says.
In an exclusive interview with the Star, family members said those assurances gave Opal Austin a false sense of security — which led her to cease asking Canadian officials in Jamaica to return Melonie to the island.
Two years after Dwayne’s alleged suicide, the 17-year-old girl’s body was found in a burning suitcase in an industrial complex in Vaughan. At the time, no one but the killer knew her identity — not school officials, not police.
“Suitcase murder”: Readers reach out to victim’s mother
“How on Earth that happen in a place like Canada?” asked Racquel Ellis, the victim’s sister. “You have children, they not illegally in the country, they not going to school and nobody pick up on that. Dwayne’s death should have alerted them that something was wrong.”
Melonie’s thin, broken body was barely 50 pounds. She had been confined and left to die from multiple fractures. Her finger-, foot- and hand-prints were burned off to make identification impossible.
And her family in Jamaica knew nothing. Eventually they were told, falsely, by her dad that she had run away to the United States.
While Austin and family sent feelers out to contacts in the U.S. and friend Elias Azan conducted fruitless Internet searches, Melonie was on the Toronto police cold-case files — until last November, when a tip connected the victim to her mother in Kingston, Jamaica.
Melonie’s father, Everton Biddersingh, 56, and stepmom Elaine Biddersingh, 50, are in police custody, charged with first-degree murder.
Austin told the Star she first went to the Canadian High Commission after hearing rumours that her son’s conflicts with his dad might have led to his death. She shared that information and told them: “Mi want back mi daughter.”
Weeks later, she received a letter from the embassy stating that Melonie is “Okay, she fine, going back to school; and is suicide Dwayne commit.”
She wasn’t convinced, but the assurance of people who should know eased her concerns.
“For them to say mi brother dead by suicide and everything okay, then you must have investigated the situation,” said her son Issachar Fuller.
Melonie’s disappearance suggests “some neglect down the line between the embassy and their investigation. To my knowledge, if an investigation did go on the right and proper way they would have seen a problem in the household from day one,” Issachar said.
Dirt-poor and desperate, all Opal Austin needed was a little help.
Faced with raising seven children on a street vendor’s income that couldn’t keep a Canadian kitten well fed, Austin did what any mother would: She sent two of her teenagers to live with their dad and step-mom.
The fact daddy lived in Toronto made the decision a no-brainer.
“I sent them up for something better, for a better life,” Austin told the Star. She was thinking, “Somebody must come out with something.”
Who could have imagined that Canadian authorities would soon be telling Austin, 57, that her son had jumped off a Parkdale apartment balcony at age 15; and that her daughter, Melonie, was soon to become the victim in a 1994 “suitcase murder” that police only now solved.
Austin knew Biddersingh, the father of her two children that would go to Canada, was an abuser. She says he beat her all the time, stopping only after he drew blood. But he never hit the children, so she felt secure in sending them to live with him.
Speaking for nearly two hours here Friday, Austin relived that nightmare, supported by two of her surviving five children (Racquel, 39; and Issachar, 31), her pro bono lawyer, and a family friend haunted by the fact he had encouraged her to send her children to Canada.
“Mi mother not educated, but she mek sure all of us okay,” said Racquel. “She poor but we woulda never suffer, even if she (feed us every day) with cornmeal porridge. Any mother would feel proud to do what she did. It’s their father we send them to, y’know; it’s not a stranger.”
According to family and friends:
• Toronto police are pursuing one or more witnesses to what might have happened to Dwayne and Melonie.
• The father’s initial explanation of Dwayne’s suicide suggests that several family members, including Melonie, were present when he fell to his death.
• Austin did not abandon her children, but sent teenage kids to live with a dad and his wife who were thought to be in a good situation to help the family.
• Their “smart, balanced, happy” Dwayne did not commit suicide, and they want Toronto police to reopen the 1992 case, exhume the boy’s body and pursue a possible link between the deaths.
• Austin’s family friend, Elias Azan, a former policeman in Jamaica, urged Toronto police to “dig deeper” into the cause of Dwayne’s death, as suicide seemed implausible.
• The Canadian High Commission in Kingston reassured Austin when she alerted them to her fears for Melonie’s safety. The embassy sent her a letter following a social inquiry report which states that Melonie was fine and about to enter school. But soon after, she disappeared, and Canadian authorities didn’t even know she was missing.
• When Melonie’s father said she’d run off to the U.S., Austin sent pictures to relatives and friends in America to help find the missing daughter. Internet searches by family friends came up empty.
• The family want to give the siblings a proper burial in Jamaica, but considering their lack of resources, only charity from the public could pick up the tab of the transport, estimated at up to $10,000.
• Austin wants to attend Everton Biddersingh’s trial so she can hear for herself what really happened to her children, as most details have come from media reports.
“It’s here they born; we can give them a proper funeral and I can go visit them in the cemetery.”
It’s 22 years since Austin’s dream died with her kids in a foreign land of opportunity. But it’s not until you travel to her hovel of a home — the place where her seven children slept in quarters not big enough to outfit most modern bathrooms — that the enormity of her plight smacks you in the face.
Nearby is where she spends her days at a makeshift stall, selling sweets, crackers, boxed juice and bagged popsicles outside the main gate of the Jamaican Red Cross. To call her a higgler is to insult the infamous Jamaican buy-and-sell vendors. A child’s piggy bank might be enough to bankroll Austin’s entire inventory. She easily ferries her goods to the spot each day and prays for a few sales.
Turning off the main road in downtown Kingston, columns of corrugated zinc create a rabbit warren of lanes. Ten or more turns and you arrive at her home, its wooden walls painted a beautiful maroon red and resting on concrete floors.
“This used to be all dirt,” daughter Racquel proudly declares. She sees progress where you see despair.
Family members rifle through mounds of old pictures to find one clear image of Melonie, the shy one, the girl who couldn’t hurt anyone. It baffles the mind trying to understand why, as Toronto police say, her caregivers would have starved her and left her in a confined place, with multiple fractures, to die like a dog.
And then burn off her fingerprints, hand- and footprints. And, finally, set her remains ablaze in a suitcase.
Melonie’s photograph, released by police to Canadian media, is a blurry image of a 12-year-old holding her baby niece, Kerina, Racquel’s child. Kerina is among those who on Friday were searching for a clear picture of her Aunt Melonie (she would have been 34 now). They found one that’s marginally better. Dwayne’s photo is a lovely, smiling one, hugging his younger brother Issachar, now 31.
If things had worked out as planned for Melonie and Dwayne, maybe by now they could have chipped in and helped the family move out. Instead, Opal and the remaining kids are improving themselves. Some 18 family members and acquaintances joined forces and bought a little real estate — under one acre of less-than-desirable land — before subdividing it without surveyor’s tools or planner’s design.
“Yes, the seven a mi pickney dem sleep right here,” Austin says, pointing to two tiny beds; and it is unimaginable.
When Toronto police travelled here in February to take Austin’s DNA samples, which would link her definitively to the victim of the “suitcase murder,” it capped two decades of dashed hopes and what is now unspeakable grief.
“I cry and I cry and I cry and my eye hurt,” Austin tells the Star. “I wonder if it’s a nightmare because everything happened so quick.
“I sent them to Canada to better off themselves and help the family. Now, I need (reading) glasses and I have nobody to help me.”
The nightmare started barely two years after the kids left for Canada with their father and an older sibling, Cleon, the father’s child. He has four other children.
Austin may have spoken to the kids a couple of times. Most often, the father took the collect calls and left little time for interaction, often complaining about long-distance costs.
When he called Austin to report Dwayne’s death, it was with a convoluted story that left Austin reeling. Friends in Toronto knew little or nothing about the apparent suicide. And despite Azan’s intervention and request that the body be sent to Jamaica for burial, police had determined it was a suicide and the father said it was too costly to return the body. Austin received not even a funeral program.
Family members must now read foreign newspaper reports to find out what happened to the loved ones who were supposed to return to help their siblings and end a generation of poverty.
The only way Melonie and Dwayne can return now is with help. Two decades later, all Opal Austin needs is a little help.
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/article/1154792--mother-mourns-her-daughter-s-ghastly-death
Mother mourns her daughter’s ghastly death
Published On Sun Apr 1 2012
Opal Austin, with daughter Racquel Ellis and son Issachar Fuller, speaks for the first time about the loss of her children Dwayne and Melonie Biddersingh, who came to Canada in 1990 with their father. Police now believe they have cracked the case.
By Royson James
City Columnist
KINGSTON, JAMAICA—All Opal Austin needed was a little help.
The “suitcase murder” victim’s mom says her daughter might still be alive if Canadian authorities had heeded warnings she and others gave them in the early 1990s.
Instead of pursuing the family’s suspicion that 15-year-old Dwayne Biddersingh’s fall from a 22nd-storey Parkdale apartment in 1992 wasn’t a suicide — and that his sister, Melonie, might be in danger too — authorities told Austin everything was fine, she says.
In an exclusive interview with the Star, family members said those assurances gave Opal Austin a false sense of security — which led her to cease asking Canadian officials in Jamaica to return Melonie to the island.
Two years after Dwayne’s alleged suicide, the 17-year-old girl’s body was found in a burning suitcase in an industrial complex in Vaughan. At the time, no one but the killer knew her identity — not school officials, not police.
“Suitcase murder”: Readers reach out to victim’s mother
“How on Earth that happen in a place like Canada?” asked Racquel Ellis, the victim’s sister. “You have children, they not illegally in the country, they not going to school and nobody pick up on that. Dwayne’s death should have alerted them that something was wrong.”
Melonie’s thin, broken body was barely 50 pounds. She had been confined and left to die from multiple fractures. Her finger-, foot- and hand-prints were burned off to make identification impossible.
And her family in Jamaica knew nothing. Eventually they were told, falsely, by her dad that she had run away to the United States.
While Austin and family sent feelers out to contacts in the U.S. and friend Elias Azan conducted fruitless Internet searches, Melonie was on the Toronto police cold-case files — until last November, when a tip connected the victim to her mother in Kingston, Jamaica.
Melonie’s father, Everton Biddersingh, 56, and stepmom Elaine Biddersingh, 50, are in police custody, charged with first-degree murder.
Austin told the Star she first went to the Canadian High Commission after hearing rumours that her son’s conflicts with his dad might have led to his death. She shared that information and told them: “Mi want back mi daughter.”
Weeks later, she received a letter from the embassy stating that Melonie is “Okay, she fine, going back to school; and is suicide Dwayne commit.”
She wasn’t convinced, but the assurance of people who should know eased her concerns.
“For them to say mi brother dead by suicide and everything okay, then you must have investigated the situation,” said her son Issachar Fuller.
Melonie’s disappearance suggests “some neglect down the line between the embassy and their investigation. To my knowledge, if an investigation did go on the right and proper way they would have seen a problem in the household from day one,” Issachar said.
Dirt-poor and desperate, all Opal Austin needed was a little help.
Faced with raising seven children on a street vendor’s income that couldn’t keep a Canadian kitten well fed, Austin did what any mother would: She sent two of her teenagers to live with their dad and step-mom.
The fact daddy lived in Toronto made the decision a no-brainer.
“I sent them up for something better, for a better life,” Austin told the Star. She was thinking, “Somebody must come out with something.”
Who could have imagined that Canadian authorities would soon be telling Austin, 57, that her son had jumped off a Parkdale apartment balcony at age 15; and that her daughter, Melonie, was soon to become the victim in a 1994 “suitcase murder” that police only now solved.
Austin knew Biddersingh, the father of her two children that would go to Canada, was an abuser. She says he beat her all the time, stopping only after he drew blood. But he never hit the children, so she felt secure in sending them to live with him.
Speaking for nearly two hours here Friday, Austin relived that nightmare, supported by two of her surviving five children (Racquel, 39; and Issachar, 31), her pro bono lawyer, and a family friend haunted by the fact he had encouraged her to send her children to Canada.
“Mi mother not educated, but she mek sure all of us okay,” said Racquel. “She poor but we woulda never suffer, even if she (feed us every day) with cornmeal porridge. Any mother would feel proud to do what she did. It’s their father we send them to, y’know; it’s not a stranger.”
According to family and friends:
• Toronto police are pursuing one or more witnesses to what might have happened to Dwayne and Melonie.
• The father’s initial explanation of Dwayne’s suicide suggests that several family members, including Melonie, were present when he fell to his death.
• Austin did not abandon her children, but sent teenage kids to live with a dad and his wife who were thought to be in a good situation to help the family.
• Their “smart, balanced, happy” Dwayne did not commit suicide, and they want Toronto police to reopen the 1992 case, exhume the boy’s body and pursue a possible link between the deaths.
• Austin’s family friend, Elias Azan, a former policeman in Jamaica, urged Toronto police to “dig deeper” into the cause of Dwayne’s death, as suicide seemed implausible.
• The Canadian High Commission in Kingston reassured Austin when she alerted them to her fears for Melonie’s safety. The embassy sent her a letter following a social inquiry report which states that Melonie was fine and about to enter school. But soon after, she disappeared, and Canadian authorities didn’t even know she was missing.
• When Melonie’s father said she’d run off to the U.S., Austin sent pictures to relatives and friends in America to help find the missing daughter. Internet searches by family friends came up empty.
• The family want to give the siblings a proper burial in Jamaica, but considering their lack of resources, only charity from the public could pick up the tab of the transport, estimated at up to $10,000.
• Austin wants to attend Everton Biddersingh’s trial so she can hear for herself what really happened to her children, as most details have come from media reports.
“It’s here they born; we can give them a proper funeral and I can go visit them in the cemetery.”
It’s 22 years since Austin’s dream died with her kids in a foreign land of opportunity. But it’s not until you travel to her hovel of a home — the place where her seven children slept in quarters not big enough to outfit most modern bathrooms — that the enormity of her plight smacks you in the face.
Nearby is where she spends her days at a makeshift stall, selling sweets, crackers, boxed juice and bagged popsicles outside the main gate of the Jamaican Red Cross. To call her a higgler is to insult the infamous Jamaican buy-and-sell vendors. A child’s piggy bank might be enough to bankroll Austin’s entire inventory. She easily ferries her goods to the spot each day and prays for a few sales.
Turning off the main road in downtown Kingston, columns of corrugated zinc create a rabbit warren of lanes. Ten or more turns and you arrive at her home, its wooden walls painted a beautiful maroon red and resting on concrete floors.
“This used to be all dirt,” daughter Racquel proudly declares. She sees progress where you see despair.
Family members rifle through mounds of old pictures to find one clear image of Melonie, the shy one, the girl who couldn’t hurt anyone. It baffles the mind trying to understand why, as Toronto police say, her caregivers would have starved her and left her in a confined place, with multiple fractures, to die like a dog.
And then burn off her fingerprints, hand- and footprints. And, finally, set her remains ablaze in a suitcase.
Melonie’s photograph, released by police to Canadian media, is a blurry image of a 12-year-old holding her baby niece, Kerina, Racquel’s child. Kerina is among those who on Friday were searching for a clear picture of her Aunt Melonie (she would have been 34 now). They found one that’s marginally better. Dwayne’s photo is a lovely, smiling one, hugging his younger brother Issachar, now 31.
If things had worked out as planned for Melonie and Dwayne, maybe by now they could have chipped in and helped the family move out. Instead, Opal and the remaining kids are improving themselves. Some 18 family members and acquaintances joined forces and bought a little real estate — under one acre of less-than-desirable land — before subdividing it without surveyor’s tools or planner’s design.
“Yes, the seven a mi pickney dem sleep right here,” Austin says, pointing to two tiny beds; and it is unimaginable.
When Toronto police travelled here in February to take Austin’s DNA samples, which would link her definitively to the victim of the “suitcase murder,” it capped two decades of dashed hopes and what is now unspeakable grief.
“I cry and I cry and I cry and my eye hurt,” Austin tells the Star. “I wonder if it’s a nightmare because everything happened so quick.
“I sent them to Canada to better off themselves and help the family. Now, I need (reading) glasses and I have nobody to help me.”
The nightmare started barely two years after the kids left for Canada with their father and an older sibling, Cleon, the father’s child. He has four other children.
Austin may have spoken to the kids a couple of times. Most often, the father took the collect calls and left little time for interaction, often complaining about long-distance costs.
When he called Austin to report Dwayne’s death, it was with a convoluted story that left Austin reeling. Friends in Toronto knew little or nothing about the apparent suicide. And despite Azan’s intervention and request that the body be sent to Jamaica for burial, police had determined it was a suicide and the father said it was too costly to return the body. Austin received not even a funeral program.
Family members must now read foreign newspaper reports to find out what happened to the loved ones who were supposed to return to help their siblings and end a generation of poverty.
The only way Melonie and Dwayne can return now is with help. Two decades later, all Opal Austin needs is a little help.
Police missed warnings about girl tortured by custodial dad, step (Madison, Wisconsin)
Infuriating, to hear of the same old official incompetence again and again while children suffer....UNNAMED DAD in this account, though I believe he has been named elsewhere. Note that it is not explained here HOW or WHY the mother lost custody, and why this girl was moved from Texas to Wisconsin to live with her custodial father in this chamber of horrors.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/police-had-warnings-about-tortured-girl-records-show-rv4pcau-145462665.html
Police missed warnings about tortured girl, records show
Multiple visits were made to Madison home
By Crocker Stephenson of the Journal Sentinel
March 31, 2012
On a snowy day in early January 2011, shortly before 4 p.m., a woman driving through a subdivision on Madison's southeast side saw something disturbing.
A girl. Thin. Dark hair and dark eyes. Standing on a porch. Very cold. Bare feet turned purple.
The woman asked if she needed help. The girl remained silent.
A woman came out of the house and took the girl inside, into what police now describe as a kind of torture chamber, a place where, according to a criminal complaint filed in February, the girl was beaten, starved, sexually abused and forced to eat her own excrement.
The complaint charges the girl's father and stepmother with reckless endangerment, child abuse and child neglect, and charges her stepbrother with sexual assault and child abuse.
The Journal Sentinel is not naming members of the girl's family in order to protect her identity. The father, stepmother and step brother are scheduled for arraignment April 16 in Dane County Circuit Court.
The incident in January 2011 has come to light because of a Journal Sentinel request for all reports and records regarding the girl and her family. The 27 documents that were released go back as far as 1980.
In responding to the Journal Sentinel's request, the Madison Police Department excluded all items that are part of its current investigation of the girl's alleged abuse, which means that the documents do not include the harrowing allegations that are now part of the ongoing court case.
But they do show a pattern of problems in the girl's family dating back years and demonstrate yet another case in which officials were warned that the girl was in trouble but failed to help her.
Two days after the brief 2011 encounter with the girl, the woman - troubled by what she saw - called the police.
The woman "wishes she had called that day," according to police records, "but thinks welfare should be checked."
Two officers, Carlin Becker and Mary Chavala, went to the house.
They knocked on the door and rang the bell. Nobody answered. After 7 minutes 48 seconds, they left.
That was the extent of their investigation.
They did not talk neighbors, who might have told them - as they did the Journal Sentinel - that they had seen the girl barely dressed and shoveling snow. Some had seen her foraging through garbage for food. One said she never appeared happy, that she was treated like a slave.
Police did not contact Dane County child protective services, who might have told them that, by that date, the agency had received six calls concerning the family.
"Based on what facts were given to the officers, we believe they acted appropriately," Madison Police Capt. Sue Williams said last week. "There is nothing to indicate more should have been done."
More than a year would pass before the girl would again be noticed by a passer-by, Mike Vega. She was wandering several blocks from the house, barefoot, wearing nothing but pajamas. The girl told Vega she needed help. Vega called police.
Shortly after Vega found the girl, the Madison Police Department released a statement acknowledging it had received "prior calls regarding members of (her) family."
"One case, in 2007, involved the girl," the statement said.
In that case, "an unnamed party alleged the girl may have been molested by a family member," the statement said. "The girl did not corroborate the allegation during an investigation by the MPD."
The police statement did not mention the 2011 call.
History of problems
The girl moved from her mother's home in Texas and came to Wisconsin to live with her father sometime in 2006, records show.
Several of the oldest documents that were released concern disturbances and domestic abuse reports that involve the girl's future stepmother and a boyfriend, the father of the future stepbrother charged with sexual assault.
In a report dated September 1991, the 21-year-old stepmother, then six months pregnant, tells police who were called to her parents' home that her boyfriend slapped and choked her. He denies the allegations but is arrested. The woman tells police the boyfriend has punched her several times in the past.
It is unclear how long the couple's on-again, off-again relationship lasted. The last domestic report, in which the man refuses to leave her apartment, is dated April 1998, and refers to him as her ex-boyfriend.
The records document 10 visits by police to the home while the girl lived there. Only the 2007 molestation allegation and the January 2011 call by the worried passer-by specifically concerned the girl.
Most of the reports that brought police to the girl's home involved her stepbrother.
On Sept. 15, 2009, police went to the home to recover a runaway juvenile girl.
The runaway told a police officer "that her boyfriend lives at this house and that she had been staying with her boyfriend and his family."
While the age of the runaway is unclear, the stepbrother was a few weeks shy of his 16th birthday. According to a criminal complaint in the current case, he already had sexually assaulted his stepsister, who would at that time have been 12.
In November 2011, in an unrelated matter, the now-18-year-old stepbrother pleaded no contest to intentionally contributing to the delinquency of a child and two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault involving a 13-year-old girl.
As a condition of his probation, he was ordered to undergo sex offender treatment and to have no unsupervised contact with female juveniles.
The state Department of Corrections has acknowledged state probation officers made three visits to the home, the last on Jan. 19, less than a month before the stepbrother would be charged with sexually assaulting the girl.
***
Visits by police
Madison police visited the home of the girl they now say was being tortured, starved and sexually abused by family members at least nine times before the teen was rescued, according to records recently released. They met with the girl once at her school.
March 30, 2007: Police speak with the girl at her elementary school after girl reportedly tells school counselor she is being sexually abused by her stepbrother. Girl refuses to cooperate with police.
June 13, 2007: Police dispatched to home. No report filed.
Feb. 13, 2009: Stepmother calls police to home because someone won't return stepbrother's iPod.
Sept. 15, 2009: Police sent to the home to retrieve a juvenile girl. She is returned to her father.
June 28, 2010: Stepmother calls police to home because the stepbrother has an odd text on his phone and threats on Facebook. Stepbrother is not home and ignores police request to call.
July 9, 2010: Police sent to retrieve a 14-year-old boy whose mother said had run away from home. Police found no one home.
July 11, 2010: Father calls police to home because the stepbrother has destroyed his room, reportedly because his mother took away his phone. The stepbrother is released to the custody of his parents.
Aug. 26, 2010: Police sent after someone reports teens in the backyard talking about drugs. Police find no one.
Jan. 13, 2011: Passer-by calls police to home after seeing barefoot girl on porch.
Aug. 28, 2011: Police dispatched to home. No report filed.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/police-had-warnings-about-tortured-girl-records-show-rv4pcau-145462665.html
Police missed warnings about tortured girl, records show
Multiple visits were made to Madison home
By Crocker Stephenson of the Journal Sentinel
March 31, 2012
On a snowy day in early January 2011, shortly before 4 p.m., a woman driving through a subdivision on Madison's southeast side saw something disturbing.
A girl. Thin. Dark hair and dark eyes. Standing on a porch. Very cold. Bare feet turned purple.
The woman asked if she needed help. The girl remained silent.
A woman came out of the house and took the girl inside, into what police now describe as a kind of torture chamber, a place where, according to a criminal complaint filed in February, the girl was beaten, starved, sexually abused and forced to eat her own excrement.
The complaint charges the girl's father and stepmother with reckless endangerment, child abuse and child neglect, and charges her stepbrother with sexual assault and child abuse.
The Journal Sentinel is not naming members of the girl's family in order to protect her identity. The father, stepmother and step brother are scheduled for arraignment April 16 in Dane County Circuit Court.
The incident in January 2011 has come to light because of a Journal Sentinel request for all reports and records regarding the girl and her family. The 27 documents that were released go back as far as 1980.
In responding to the Journal Sentinel's request, the Madison Police Department excluded all items that are part of its current investigation of the girl's alleged abuse, which means that the documents do not include the harrowing allegations that are now part of the ongoing court case.
But they do show a pattern of problems in the girl's family dating back years and demonstrate yet another case in which officials were warned that the girl was in trouble but failed to help her.
Two days after the brief 2011 encounter with the girl, the woman - troubled by what she saw - called the police.
The woman "wishes she had called that day," according to police records, "but thinks welfare should be checked."
Two officers, Carlin Becker and Mary Chavala, went to the house.
They knocked on the door and rang the bell. Nobody answered. After 7 minutes 48 seconds, they left.
That was the extent of their investigation.
They did not talk neighbors, who might have told them - as they did the Journal Sentinel - that they had seen the girl barely dressed and shoveling snow. Some had seen her foraging through garbage for food. One said she never appeared happy, that she was treated like a slave.
Police did not contact Dane County child protective services, who might have told them that, by that date, the agency had received six calls concerning the family.
"Based on what facts were given to the officers, we believe they acted appropriately," Madison Police Capt. Sue Williams said last week. "There is nothing to indicate more should have been done."
More than a year would pass before the girl would again be noticed by a passer-by, Mike Vega. She was wandering several blocks from the house, barefoot, wearing nothing but pajamas. The girl told Vega she needed help. Vega called police.
Shortly after Vega found the girl, the Madison Police Department released a statement acknowledging it had received "prior calls regarding members of (her) family."
"One case, in 2007, involved the girl," the statement said.
In that case, "an unnamed party alleged the girl may have been molested by a family member," the statement said. "The girl did not corroborate the allegation during an investigation by the MPD."
The police statement did not mention the 2011 call.
History of problems
The girl moved from her mother's home in Texas and came to Wisconsin to live with her father sometime in 2006, records show.
Several of the oldest documents that were released concern disturbances and domestic abuse reports that involve the girl's future stepmother and a boyfriend, the father of the future stepbrother charged with sexual assault.
In a report dated September 1991, the 21-year-old stepmother, then six months pregnant, tells police who were called to her parents' home that her boyfriend slapped and choked her. He denies the allegations but is arrested. The woman tells police the boyfriend has punched her several times in the past.
It is unclear how long the couple's on-again, off-again relationship lasted. The last domestic report, in which the man refuses to leave her apartment, is dated April 1998, and refers to him as her ex-boyfriend.
The records document 10 visits by police to the home while the girl lived there. Only the 2007 molestation allegation and the January 2011 call by the worried passer-by specifically concerned the girl.
Most of the reports that brought police to the girl's home involved her stepbrother.
On Sept. 15, 2009, police went to the home to recover a runaway juvenile girl.
The runaway told a police officer "that her boyfriend lives at this house and that she had been staying with her boyfriend and his family."
While the age of the runaway is unclear, the stepbrother was a few weeks shy of his 16th birthday. According to a criminal complaint in the current case, he already had sexually assaulted his stepsister, who would at that time have been 12.
In November 2011, in an unrelated matter, the now-18-year-old stepbrother pleaded no contest to intentionally contributing to the delinquency of a child and two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault involving a 13-year-old girl.
As a condition of his probation, he was ordered to undergo sex offender treatment and to have no unsupervised contact with female juveniles.
The state Department of Corrections has acknowledged state probation officers made three visits to the home, the last on Jan. 19, less than a month before the stepbrother would be charged with sexually assaulting the girl.
***
Visits by police
Madison police visited the home of the girl they now say was being tortured, starved and sexually abused by family members at least nine times before the teen was rescued, according to records recently released. They met with the girl once at her school.
March 30, 2007: Police speak with the girl at her elementary school after girl reportedly tells school counselor she is being sexually abused by her stepbrother. Girl refuses to cooperate with police.
June 13, 2007: Police dispatched to home. No report filed.
Feb. 13, 2009: Stepmother calls police to home because someone won't return stepbrother's iPod.
Sept. 15, 2009: Police sent to the home to retrieve a juvenile girl. She is returned to her father.
June 28, 2010: Stepmother calls police to home because the stepbrother has an odd text on his phone and threats on Facebook. Stepbrother is not home and ignores police request to call.
July 9, 2010: Police sent to retrieve a 14-year-old boy whose mother said had run away from home. Police found no one home.
July 11, 2010: Father calls police to home because the stepbrother has destroyed his room, reportedly because his mother took away his phone. The stepbrother is released to the custody of his parents.
Aug. 26, 2010: Police sent after someone reports teens in the backyard talking about drugs. Police find no one.
Jan. 13, 2011: Passer-by calls police to home after seeing barefoot girl on porch.
Aug. 28, 2011: Police dispatched to home. No report filed.
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