Tag: CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN
Mom accused of leaving 10-year-old son out in the cold for hours while she attended Christmas dinner
A North Carolina mother was accused of locking her young son out of their home on Christmas day while she attended a dinner with her other children.
Susan Dowless, 43, was arrested on Wednesday after police said she intentionally left her 10-year-old son outside their Cary home for about five hours.
Authorities said Dowless took her other three sons out to a Christmas dinner, the News & Observer reports.
The police were called after a neighbor saw the child wandering around alone.
Investigators said temperatures on Christmas were below 40 degrees and the child did not have adequate clothing or proper nourishment or supervision.
The child is said to be healthy and in the care of a relative. Dowless’ oldest son, 21-year-old Gilmore Smith, told WRAL that the incident was a big misunderstanding and his mother did not intentionally lock the 10-year-old out in the cold. According to Smith, the child had been at a friend’s house and was told to come home by a certain time.
When the boy failed to return on time, Dowless assumed the child was staying over at the friend’s house.
“We waited for him for a good hour and then we went on,” Smith said. “We weren’t trying to abandon him or anything.”
“We thought he was going to be with his friends, like he normally was. Every time he comes home from school, he goes to his friend’s house. He plays until it’s dark, then he comes home.”
Dowless was charged with one count of misdemeanor child abuse. She was released from jail on Wednesday after posting her $5,000 bond. Dowless has been ordered to have no contact with her son as the investigation continues.
via: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/mom-left-son-cold-christmas-attended-dinner-article-1.3724100
Mother accused of leaving 6-year-old child in chair to save her parking spot while she went to the store
A Florida mother was accused of forcing her child to sit in a chair alone and hold her parking spot while she went to the store.
Elda Solis, 48, was arrested and charged with child neglect after police said she used her 6-year-old child to guard a parking spot at the Eastwind Apartments in Marathon.
According to a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office press release, Solis left the complex around 10 p.m. on Dec. 7 to go to a nearby Publix.
She placed a chair in the vacant spot and made her young child sit there and wait there until she came back.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said it was alerted about the incident the following day.
When officers questioned Solis about it, she allegedly admitted that it was true.
Police say the child told investigators that it wasn’t the first time she had made them guard the spot while she ran errands.
Solis was booked and later released from jail on Thursday.
via: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/mother-accused-child-guard-parking-spot-article-1.3701198
Florida moms overdose on heroin in SUV with infants in backseat
Two Florida mothers overdosed on heroin in a car on Thursday — with a pair of infants in the backseat.
Kristen Leigh O’Connor, 28, and 29-year-old June Schweinhart would tell cops in Boynton Beach that they met in a drug treatment program and bonded during their pregnancies.
O’Connor told investigators she picked up Schweinhart in the SUV and they bought $60 worth of heroin from her old drug dealer.
“For whatever reason, they decided yesterday to buy heroin and then snorted it while inside the car with their children,” the Boynton Beach Police Department wrote on Facebook on Friday.
When one of the women began to overdose, the other one called 911 for help. But then she started convulsing, according to cops.
“Oh my God, oh my God,” O’Connor said she heard Schweinhart say, according to the Palm Beach Post.
A passerby saw what was going on and took the phone and spoke with the dispatcher. The Florida Department of Children and Families took custody of the babies before turning them over to relatives. O’Connor and Schweinhart were charged with child neglect and taken to jail after being released from the hospital.
A judge ruled Friday that O’Connor can be with her child only when the baby’s grandmother is present, according to the Palm Beach Post.
The babies were one month and two months old, respectively, the newspaper reported.
“We hope this serves as a wake-up call for these moms, and that they seek further treatment for their addiction,” cops said.
FL Woman arrested for leaving 2-year-old boy with HOMELESS baby-sitter while she traveled out of state
A Florida woman was arrested after she told police that she left a little boy in the care of a homeless baby-sitter because she needed to make a quick trip out of town.
Tampa Police were called to an apartment building near Busch Gardens following reports that a child was outside unattended.
When officers arrived they found a 2-year-old boy sitting outside an apartment door with a blanket, sippy cup and half-eaten Lunchable, a police report states.
When deputies went inside the apartment, they found a computer mouse with an attached cord tied to a bedroom door to keep it secure. Authorities said the door had enough space for a small child to get in and out. Inside the bedroom was a cheese snack, a jug of iced tea, a Gatorade and pull-up diapers.
Police believe the child had been outside by himself for a few hours.
According to the report, 22-year-old Cotisha Long-Green was supposed to be looking after the child but she was in another state. Long-Green, who is the guardian of the boy, said she had to catch a flight early in the morning on Aug. 21 because she had a court hearing in Illinois. She didn’t return until late on Aug. 22. Long-Green said that she asked a homeless woman known as “Fe Fe,” or Felicia, to look after the child while she was gone. Long-Green said she had met Felicia on the street and let her nap at her apartment a few times.
According to the report, Long-Green didn’t know Felicia’s last name or a phone number she could be reached at. Long-Green also told police that she suspected Felicia was an addict.
“She knows for certain that Felicia smokes marijuana,” the report stated.
Authorities said Long-Green’s cousin lives nearby but she never asked her cousin to watch the child. She also never told the boy’s mother or his family members that she had to leave town.
According to neighbors, they have never seen a woman fitting Felicia’s description going in and out of Long-Green’s apartment. Tampa police spokesman Steve Hegarty told the Daily News that police have not been able to track down Felicia and the boy is now with the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Father accused of slamming 1 month old son against a changing table and threw him into a ceiling fan for crying
A 1-month-old baby in Oklahoma is in critical condition after police say the newborn’s father brutally beat him for crying.
Robert Jackson Jones Jr. was arrested and charged with child abuse after he allegedly told Muskogee police that he choked, slammed and tried to smother his son.
According to the Tulsa World, the baby’s mother Emma Whitehead told authorities that she and Jones took their child to the emergency room on Sunday when the baby started having seizures.
At the hospital, Whitefield was told horrifying details of her son’s condition.
Medical personnel determined that the infant, named Calvin, had two skull fractures, a pool of blood around his brain and fingerprint bruises on both sides of his neck.
The newborn also had a bruised left eye and a bruise on his left ear.
Muskogee Police Department investigator James Poffel wrote in an affidavit that the injuries were “considered to be non-accidental,” the outlet reports. Jones allegedly confessed to causing the baby’s injuries, telling police that he picked Calvin up by his throat and shook him, before covering the baby with cushions and towels because he wouldn’t stop crying.
Investigators said Jones then slammed the infant against a changing table, threw the baby in the air and hit him on the ceiling fan.
Police said the abuse didn’t end there. Jones also allegedly told investigators he put his son on his shoulders and then dropped the baby to the floor, causing Calvin to hit his head against the toilet.
Authorities alleged the abuse went on from Aug. 16 to Aug. 19, the Tulsa World reports.
Whitehead told KTOV that she usually gets a babysitter to watch Calvin while she works, but couldn’t get her usual sitter. She said Jones agreed to watch the baby.
“I never thought anything like this would ever happen,” Whitehead said.
Jones is being held at the Muskogee County Jail with a $1 million bail. He’s scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 5.
South Carolina mom beats 6-year-old son for making grandma Mother’s Day card instead of her
A South Carolina woman beat her 6-year-old son after he made a Mother’s Day card for his grandmother and not one for her, cops said.
Shontrell Murphy, 30, was charged with cruelty to children after admitting she hit him, local Fox affiliate WBRC reported.
Cops were called to her mother’s house in Spartanburg Thursday where they found the grandmother with Murphy’s daughter and bawling son.
The daughter told cops that Murphy found the card and fumed when she realized it wasn’t for her, WBRC reported.
Murphy started ripping up the card, her daughter told cops, then hit her son several times on the head.
Cops found shards of the handwritten card on the floor, the news channel reported.
Murphy’s children told police their mom violently hit them on a regular basis and lived in fear of her.
Cops said Murphy told them she did hit her kids, but argued she “does not believe it was in a hard or violent manner.”
The boy was later transported to the hospital for evaluation and later released