Tag: child abuse
Couple arrested after toddler dies from ‘wrestling moves’
ST. LOUIS — A 2-year-old Missouri girl died after her mom’s boyfriend injured the toddler using “wrestling moves” that included picking her up and slamming her on the ground, authorities said Tuesday.
Richard Gamache Jr., 24, of House Springs, was charged Tuesday with abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death. His girlfriend, 19-year Cheyenne Cook, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
Jefferson County Sheriff David Marshak said detectives found “digital data” exchanged between Gamache and Cook that documented the abuse, including communications related to concealing it.
“This child was essentially tortured,” Marshak said in a news release.
Detectives determined that one of the moves Gamache used involved picking up the girl by her waist, lifting her above his shoulders and throwing her onto the ground.
The alleged abuse was discovered after the girl had a seizure on May 16, Marshak said. The child, identified only by her initials “AC,” was taken to a hospital and died three days later.
Gamache was originally charged last week with abuse and neglect of a child. The charge was upgraded after the girl’s death.
Gamache is jailed on $500,000 cash-only bond and does not yet have a listed attorney who could comment on the allegations.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/05/23/couple-arrested-after-toddler-dies-from-wrestling-moves/
Parents charged, suspected of severe child abuse
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A local 5-year-old boy told police he would get so thirsty that he was forced to drink from the toilet. Police only learned of that after he showed up to the hospital with a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit.
The boy had such a high blood-alcohol level because police say he was drinking mouthwash. Police also found injuries over his body. His parents are now behind bars.
Tyriese Howard and his live-in girlfriend Breya Allen appeared in front of a judge for the first time Friday. Both of them are facing allegations of child abuse involving at least two of the three children who lived in a home with them at the Westwood Village Apartments.
Parents caught in disturbing tug-of-war fight with baby
Two feuding parents were caught playing tug-of-war with their baby — and the pair are now behind bars after the shocking footage spread online.
Cops collared Britnie Hass and Elias Holt after the pair were caught tussling over their 11-month-old son in the parking lot of a Utah motel last week, a local Fox affiliate reports.
The cellphone video shows the baby boy hanging loosely on Hass’s side as she fights off Holt outside a La Quinta in Orem, and the tot is then tossed around as a third family member tries to intervene.
“When I was saying to him, ‘Let me take the baby inside’, that’s when she grabs the baby out of his arms so violently,” Melina Ylinen, the third woman and Holt’s aunt, told Fox 13.
“The baby was really low on her hip, and he was bowing backwards, and I was afraid his back was going to snap.”
“She has the baby in one arm and she starts punching my nephew, and at the point the baby is falling out of her arms. She has him in a headlock and his head is the only thing keeping him from falling on the ground.”
Hass also turned on Yllinen as she tried to rescue the baby.
“I was hit seven or eight times and she tried to get her fingers in my eye sockets to pull my eyes out,” she told ABC4 Utah.
Police eventually arrived and took the family to a relative’s house. They later arrested Hass for child abuse, and Holt over a previous warrant.
They say the footage will help them make their case.
“We are going to use the video as evidence in our case as to why we filed the appropriate charges,” Orem Police Lt. Craig Martinez told ABC4.
Cops say the baby wasn’t injured in the fight, and is now staying with another family member.
Parents Heartbroken by Video of Illinois Bus Aide Slapping 6-Year-Old Daughter
A video showing a bus aide slapping a 6-year-old girl with autism has left an Illinois mother and father heartbroken.
In the surveillance-camera footage, the unidentified aide strikes the little girl twice as she screams while riding to school in New Lenox, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
Nicholas Rushing said his daughter, Kaylee, is nonverbal. Rushing said he found out about the incident because the superintendent of the local school district contacted him and asked him to review the footage.
The video “broke my heart,” he said.
The footage showed the woman had been touching Kaylee throughout the bus ride, denying her personal space, Rushing said.
Kaylee spat on the woman, who reacted by slapping her in the face, he said.
“She is an awesome kid and she is super sweet and for this to happen as a dad it almost feels like I failed her … I don’t think I have ever been more mad in my life,” he said.
While Kaylee did not suffer any physical injuries, the incident has affected how she responds to strangers, Rushing said.
“It kind of changed her personality on things,” he said. “She doesn’t want anything to do with people she doesn’t know.”
Rushing said the bus aide had only been with the bus company for two weeks and did not appear to have been trained to follow protocols around Kaylee.
Investigation underway
New Lenox police are reviewing the entire video as part of the investigation, Rushing said.
“I’m worried as a dad it may not be the first time this happened,” he said. “My main goal is to make sure this never happens to any other people.”
Rushing said staff members notified the school district superintendent about the incident.
The school district told CNN affiliate WLS that the aide involved was not a district employee, and worked for the bus contractor, Lincoln-Way Special Education District.
The bus operator’s executive director, Sarah Rexroad, said an investigation is underway.
“I cannot provide a specific comment at this time. There is an ongoing investigation regarding an incident that allegedly occurred on a school bus. Student safety is a number one priority for the cooperative,” she said.
No charges have been filed, the affiliate reported.
Okla. Woman Gets Life In Prison for Dressing as a Witch to Terrorize Her 7-Year-Old Granddaughter
An Oklahoma City woman who prosecutors say dressed like a witch while severely abusing her 7-year-old granddaughter was sentenced last week to life in prison, PEOPLE confirms.
It was two months ago that Geneva Robinson, 51, and her 33-year-old boyfriend and co-defendant, Joshua Granger, pleaded guilty to child abuse and neglect charges.
On Thursday, Robinson learned she’ll spend the rest of her life behind bars when she received three life sentences; Granger received a 30-year sentence for helping Robinson commit the abuse.
The defendants initially faced a combined 29 counts of felony child abuse and neglect.
Robinson assaulted her granddaughter for more than a year, prosecutors said, including burning the girl with cigarettes, smacking her in the face and beating her with a rolling pin.
She painted her skin green and dressed in black whenever assuming the persona of the abusive “Nelda the Witch,” according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.
Robinson also removed the girl from the local school system and deprived her of food. Court records further confirm Robinson often forced her granddaughter to sleep outside with her dogs.
As she was sentenced, prosecutors also released cellphone video showing some of her abuse.
In the footage, which PEOPLE declined to publish, Robinson appears dressed as “Nelda” and grabs the girl by the throat before dragging her across the floor.
She tells the child she’s going to eat her, according to the video.
Detectives began investigating Robinson in 2014, after receiving a call from workers at Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman, Oklahoma, where she had tried to have her granddaughter committed – saying she couldn’t control the girl.
The victim told investigators her grandmother regularly whipped her, beat her and pinched her skin with pliers, court documents state. She also said she went days without eating.
The girl told detectives her grandmother would wear a green mask and bring her into the garage, where she was restrained and forced to sleep on a pair of pants, according to the documents. Robinson also used a pink dog leash to tie her up and suspend her from the ceiling.
Inside Robinson’s home, police recovered the leash as well as a horse whip.
Court records indicate Robinson allegedly utilized her “Nelda” character on others, including the girl’s father when he was a child.
The victim, who is now 9, addressed Robinson in a letter that was read in court on Thursday, a court official confirms.
“I love you,” the girl wrote, the official says. “I forgive you. You’re the best grandmother I ever had.”
It was not immediately clear in whose custody the child is now.
Lawyers for both defendants were unavailable for comment Monday afternoon.
via: https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/okla-woman-gets-life-dressing-165822265.html
COUPLE TRIES TO SELL A BABY ON CRAIGSLIST FOR $3K, SHERIFF SAYS
Authorities say a Tennessee couple is accused of trying to sell a 5-month-old baby online for $3,000.
Local news outlets report that the Greene County Sheriff’s Office says 37-year-old Deanna Lynn Greer and 26-year-old John David Cain were arrested Friday on charges of aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect or endangerment.
Sheriff Pat Hankins says authorities were alerted after another couple saw an ad posted on Craigslist listing the infant for sale.
Hankins says an undercover officer contacted Greer and Cain and was given the price for the child. He says the couple then met with the agent at a store, exchanged the baby for cash and both were then taken into custody.
Hankins says the child is in state custody.
It’s unclear if Greer and Cain have attorneys.
Mother brutally assaulted daughter for reciting Bible verses incorrectly (slam head in wall, bites, strangles)
A Middletown woman was arrested after police said she severely assaulted her daughter and kicked her out of her house because the girl incorrectly recited Bible verses to her last week.
Police filed child endangerment charges against Rhonda Kemp Shoffner, 41, of the first block of Genesis Court, following the incident on March 14.
The victim, who is under the age of 13, told police the assault occurred just after she awoke from a nap in her mother’s home about 3 p.m.
Shoffner, who the victim said had been drunk for three days straight, told her daughter to call multiple family members, police said. When they didn’t answer the calls, police said, Shoffner ordered her daughter to get on her knees in the bathroom.
Her daughter knew that meant Shoffner was going to beat her, police said. The victim was scared and pleaded with her mother, according to police in the charging documents.
Police said the victim told her mother, “please don’t hit me. I don’t want to get on my knees.”
Shoffner became enraged and yelled at the victim, telling her “to get on her (expletive) knees,” police said.
The girl complied, and Shoffner began quoting Bible verses, expecting the victim to repeat the lines verbatim, according to police.
Shoffner asked her daughter, “What did God tell the man to do with his son?”
When the girl said she did not know, her mother said, “God told the man to kill his son.”
Instead, the victim said, “God said to forgive his son,” and Shoffner grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head into the wall, police said.
Each time the girl incorrectly recited a verse or gave her mother a wrong answer, Shoffner slammed her head into the wall, police said. Shoffner slammed her daughter’s head into the bathroom drywall at least five times, according to police.
The victim tried to use her hands to defend herself, but Shoffner’s kicks connected at least two times, police said. The girl repeatedly begged her mother to stop, but after her mother told her to lie on her back, she complied, police said.
That’s when Shoffner said, “I’m gonna kill you (expletive deleted),” police said, and she started to strangle her daughter and cut off her airway.
The girl feared for her life and tried to fight Shoffner off, according to police. Shoffner bit the girl’s left forearm and then dug her teeth into her left shoulder, police said.
The victim continued to fight her mother off until Shoffner said, “just leave and don’t ever come back.”
The girl grabbed a phone, a coat, sneakers and fled down the street. She called her father, who drove her to the police station.
Police filed charges of aggravated assault against a child, strangulation and terroristic threats.
via: http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/03/mother_brutally_assaulted_daug.html
Oklahoma Parents Arrested After Twin Infants Found in ‘Worst Case of Child Abuse’ Nurses Say They’ve Seen (Warning: Graphic Content)
Warning: The story below contains graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised.
A mother and father were arrested on child abuse charges in Oklahoma late last week after two infants were found in what nurses called “the worst case of child abuse they had seen,” according to multiple reports.
The child abuse allegations began when police responded to an urgent care facility in Owasso on Friday evening. When they arrived, they discovered two victims described as twin infants, the Tulsa World reported.
The infants suffered from bed sores and severe diaper rash, and were apparently malnourished and looked like skeletons, according to television station KJRH in Tulsa.
A nurse told officers through tears that she saw a maggot crawl out of one of the young victim’s genitals, the station reported. Nurses also found feces in the ear of one of the infants.
Both were hospitalized.
The parents — identified as Kevin Fowler, 25, and Aislyn Miller, 24 — were arrested the following day on suspicion of child abuse, according to the reports.
Miller allegedly admitted she knew there were issues with the children’s conditions, but told police she and Fowler were “new parents,” and had no experience caring for babies, according to the Tulsa World.
She also told them the infants were born premature, something she said explained their condition, the newspaper reported. The pair didn’t have health insurance, nor did they know how to find healthcare they could afford, Miller said.
Both were jailed and held on $100,000, according to the newspaper.
Mom storms house to rescue daughter allegedly tortured by husband in front of infant *graphic photos*
ATLANTA, GA. – Prosper Ortega’s family says just six months ago, she was a happy 23-year-old bride. Photos show her beaming and posing with her growing belly. Their child, Ari, would be born June 16th.
Now, Prosper in the hospital in serious condition after that same husband, Aaron is charged with aggravated battery, false imprisonment, and cruelty to children. Ortega’s family says he tortured her for days, drugging her beverages to keep her weak.
Prosper’s family says it all happened in front of their weeks-old infant baby boy.
The pictures of injuries are difficult to see, but Ortega’s family says she insisted they post them because she wanted people to see what had happened to her.
Ortega, and her mother, Fawn, have worked with domestic violence victims and helped to combat sex trafficking. They believe Uchitel threatened to leave with the baby, so Prosper initially endured the abuse believing it would make him stay.
She wanted to make sure “people are aware this can happen, and that it happened to her and she couldn’t believe it because she loved him so much,” said Fawn Ortega.
The couple had a fight last November and Uchitel had been ordered to take an anger management class. Ortega says Uchitel talked positively about the program, making it even harder to reconcile what happened to her daughter.
“Her ribs are broken. He beat her ribs and breast saying her milk was useless and she was worthless,” said Ortega. “He tried to blind her so she couldn’t see her baby, he tried to make her deaf so she couldn’t hear him crying for her.”
According to Ortega, when her daughter broke a window and tried to run away, the husband tied her to the bed and cut off her hair. He also tried to rip out her teeth and bite off her top lip.
Ortega says her daughter was stabbed in the chest and the back of her leg. She was within hours of dying when the mother forced her way inside the house to save her daughter.
“I fought him. I fought him. I just went in there and I fought him,” she said.
The horrific story, and the photos to go with it, have gone viral. Prosper faces multiple medical procedures, and the online community has rallied around that need, donating more than $47,000 in three days.
Ortega says what she needs most is for her daughter to heal, emotionally and physically. “I just want her to be okay and I just want to make sure he doesn’t get out because she’s terrified he’s going to get out.”
Aaron Uchitel remains in jail. Because of the holiday, police could not comment on the case, nor could we get information from the jail on Uchitel’s next court appearance.
via: http://www.ksdk.com/news/crime/husband-tortured-wife-in-front-of-infant-for-days/263380214