A client that I had many years ago, who came to me because she was severely battered by her husband, left the shelter I was directing to return to her husband because "it was God's will." Two years later she developed and died from cervical cancer, leaving her three daughters to the man who had battered her. He battered her while she was dying in the hospital, and no one did anything. He went on to get involved with her sister, with whom he had a child, and battered both her and the baby.
Yesterday, this man was convicted of murdering a deputy sheriff and wounding a police officer. That's what it finally took to put this monster away. Too late for his late wife, and too late for the children he abused.
Last week during testimony for the sentencing phase of Moore's case, Moore jumped up and became violent in court. In spite of wearing a shock best, he was uncontrolable. He was then tazered and brought to the floor by several deputies. I think that he indicated just how violent he can be.
Yesterday, the jury reported that they could not make a decision on the death penalty, which means automatic life in prison without parole. The emotional testimony of Moore's daughters is thought to have influenced the jury. I remember those little girls. It is so sad, because Moore was abusive with his daughters too.
Wait a minute,I want to make sure I got this right. He abused his daughters and they testified to keep him off death row? I'm confused.
When I see people on trial get out of hand and start trying to act out in a violent manner,I always think that is the strongest possible inditement that the person serve the harshest sentence availible.Yet this jury didn't put him on death row.Unbelievable. What a truely sad story.
So many people hurt and lives ruined by one man's actions and this is how it has turned out. It is exactly this kind of thing that makes me keep trying to make a difference in the system.God bless those poor kids of his.Do keep us posted Stuck if anything new might develop in this story.
These girls' mother was the sweetest person...very religious. So I hope they got a strong enough foundation from her to overcome the damage their father has done to them. They begged the court to spare their father's life because, they said, they would have no one left in their family. I feel so sorry for them. When I knew them, they were just little girls, and they were so sad all the time.
Kansas is a "family preservation" state. Even in cases of sexual abuse, CPS' goal is to reunite the family. 'Makes me sick. I know of so many kids that should never have been allowed to remain in the home. These kids are often destined to repeat the mistakes of their parents...and the cycle continues.
What is so pathetic about the whole thing is that so many children are left in their abusive homes until they are either dead or so damaged that they will have mental aftereffects for the rest of their lives, but yet innocent people loose their kids for no apparent reason. I have seen many true story movies on parents being sent to prison and loosing custody of their children for things that they never did. It always shocked and scared me to death. But I never thought it could happen to me, until one day. I have 6 kids, 5 of them are boys, ranging in age from 4-15. Well I went to school to go pick up my 5 and 10 year old when my 10 year old came out I asked him where his brother was and he told me that the principal had told him I had already picked him up!! Well of course I was hysterical, knowing that I hadnt, so I raced home where there was a message on my machine telling me I needed to contact the police department in regards to my 5 year old (Austin) So of course I am freaking out thinking something terrible has happened to him, so I call them and he tells me I need to come to the station, wont tell me anything else. so I go and he tells me he needed to inform me that my son had been removed from my custody due to suspicion of child abuse. Then I was questioned for a couple of hours. My son had had a bruise on his face that morning, I asked him about it and he said he didnt know what happened, he is blonde with fair skin so he bruises very easily, and with 4 brothers I didnt even think twice about it. I mean boys will be boys. So I sent him off to school not thinking anything of it, biggest mistake of my life. Well all in all my son was in foster care for almost a month, then they finally let us have him back, until the hearing, but only under the circumstances that I was not allowed to be alone with him. So I had to have my inlaws come and live with us until the case. I had to pay an attorney $3000 non refundable retainer. I was absolutely livid, then I got the transcripts of the questioning of my child. I thought my head was gonna explode, I mean you can get a 5 year old to say anything if you ask him enough times and ask him in the right way, they would say things like, what does mommy do when your bad, come on you can tell us did mommy do that to your face, its ok be honest, were you bad and mommy got mad, and does mommy hit you. They didnt ask him does mommy smack you across your face, well of course he said yes, because I am a believer in spanking, I do spank them if the action calls for it, but never smacked him across his face, then he would ask him, ok give me a five as hard as mommy hits you, come on you cant ask a 5 year old this. Anyway the whole thing was outrageous. So after 2 months of this crap, we finally went to court, we walked in and told the lady who we were and why we were there, and thats when she informed us that our case had been dropped, I was like what? She was like well thats good news isnt it? I said well it would have been nice if somebody would have told me about it. So a few days later I get a notice that my case has been dropped due to insufficient evidence (DUH!) however my name is going to be added to the national child abuse registry. I was in shock. So I called my attorney and had to pay him another $500 to get my name removed.
I suppose I should be grateful, I know it could have turned out alot worse. But it still amazes me that they can come into my home and rip my family apart without a second thought, but someone who is actually abusing their kids and is reported by a bunch of people can retain custody of those kids until they kill them. Ya what a great system we have in our country. Its just really sad!
I'm Anna aka annarocket aka Mr. Tyler Durden and I co-own Justice Junction and moderate this board.I hope you'll be a frequent guest.
[I feel bad that I didn't properly introduce myself on the Yates thread!]
I only have one kid and luckily this has never happened to me but you know what they say,if it can happen to you it can happen to anyone.I can't begin to imagine how much sleep you lost over all that.That's just horrible.And I agree,when kids are left in homes that are filthy,starved and being truely abused,social services sometimes "misses" them and innocent children pay the price because CPS is too busy trying to harass hardworking,good families.
Heck,I wish I had a buck for every bruise my siblings and I gave each other.We'd be on the beach at St. Tropez. Thanks for sharing your story with us.
Thats the truth, kids get scrapes and bruises all the time, for legitimate reasons, and as a parent we should not have to fear sending them out in public for what people might think. Let me tell you the day it happend, we ran to the police station, so after the initial line of questioning I told the cop I needed to go home and pick up the rest of my kids, so I left while they questioned my husband, well on the way up the stairs my baby he was 2 fell and bashed his head (forhead) really good on the concrete it was horrible, huge and bloody, I was so afraid to go back to the station with him, that I called a friend and asked her to babysit him. How pathetic is that. anyway thanks for listning to my story. and for the introduction, its nice to meet you
That is a horrible story, Angel...but unfortunately, one I know all too well. I was working with an abused woman and her children, and the two year old was in a body cast because mom and dad had been fighting, and used the baby as a tug of war. They didn't take the baby away from her, but he later died because he somehow got his face in the pillow and because he couldn't move in the body cast, he was smothered.
I worked another case, where a two year old put a pistol in her mouth and pulled the trigger. The parents said she got the key to the gun cabinet and got the gun out. In reality, her parents were meth dealers, and they carried their product in the baby's diaper bag. In the bottom of the bag was the pistol, and the baby got it.
I have reported so many cases of child abuse to CPS only to have them do absolutely nothing. Then I had a friend who had a teen who was having behavior problems, so she called welfare for help with the girl. Mistake! They took the girl away from her, and she never got her back. I'd love to say that for every bad story I can tell you, I can tell you a good story. But the truth is, I can't. CPS, in my experience, has failed more children and damaged more families than they have ever helped.
Stuff like this just bumms me out. I wish we as a nation would put children first and their welfare a more important priority than who wore what on the red carpet at the Oscars.
I know what you mean...all this nonsense about Mel Gibson, when children in this country are starving. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to our justice system.
Like I give a crap about Mel Gibson? No,I'm much more interested in trivial matters like serial killers and child abuse and how to stop them,or at least make a difference.
Forget Hollywood.Real life isn't playing at the Harkins 24 down the street.It's up in my face and I'm going to push back.
Thats just so sad. I agree with you guys about the media and Mel gibson, if they and society would focus more on the important issues of life than maybe our society would actually value our children. Its not just the children though, I dont think I posted this on this site, if I did I am sorry to double post. But my husband works at the prison here, and there is this little old man hes about 60 and this guy tried to break into his house through the skylight, well this guy (the old man) (sorry I know that sounds bad) anyway he had brought home a model from work (hes an architect) and had had it under his skylight, well when this guy tried to break into his house he fell through the skylight and onto the model and it killed him. Well since this stuff didnt actually belong there, it belonged at the office, this guy was actually charged with murder, and he is now in prison facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison, hes on appeal, but that takes sooooo long. Its just so sad. Its wrong!!! My heart breaks for all of these people being falsely accused of crime, while the real killers and abusers go free. And then in the aftermath of everything the victims get forgotten. Have you guys ever heard of that lady in Australia, Lindy Chamberlain, "The ding took my baby" Man thats another story to show you how messed up the legal system is, I know its not our system, but it could just have easily happened here in the states. If all these politicians would spend half as much time fixing our laws as they do campaigning we just might actually better ourselves. HHmm go figure.
When I heard about Mel's DUI, I thought "what is the big deal?" Driving while drunk is bad and many lives have been lost because of it, but lots of people get DUI's. They make a mistake, and if they are a celebrity, they just have to deal with it. As for Gibson's remarks about Jews, well, he was drunk...what do you expect? He's going to have to eat some crow. So what?
Oh no no Honey,I actually love it when someone says "The dingo ate my baby".It's one of the classic excuses we used to use to call in sick to work.The others were,"I can't come in,I ate some bad Chinese food" and "I can't come in I'm selling one of my kidneys in North Korea."
