Parents Behaving Badly

Mother charged after toddlers killed in fire:

Mother of dead children had been charged before:

This is how bad it is for me working at ‘The Sweatshop’. I live in Charlotte but since I work second shift I had to hear this story from someone who doesn’t even live around here. At least I don’t think she does. If she does Jade and myself will have to get together for a beer.

Anyway, 26-year-old Orgal Paulette Opata of Charlotte, NC left four of her children home alone. No word yet on what the reason was she left the house but that’s neither here nor there. What is here and there is that the kids were left home alone with a kerosene heater.

I’ve never been a big fan of kerosene heaters. Personally I think their two dangerous to keep in a house. I just think they’re bombs waiting to go off but that’s just me. However even if I did have one in the house you would have to be potentially brain dead to leave one running in the house with four unsupervised children.

Neighbors were able to save two of the children but Josiah Hawthorne, 2, and Gabriel Hawthorne, 14 months, were unable to be rescued.

Opata has been charged with murder and was previously charged back in October for leaving kids home alone.

And as a public service here are some tips on using a kerosene heater safely.

You’ll notice it says do not let children operate it.

Thanks to Bridget for the tip.

Conway father charged in baby’s death:

26-year-old Jermaine Obrian Freeman of Conway, NC has been charged in the blunt force trauma death of his 13-month-old daughter Khisha Lachelle Freeman. He is being held without bond.

Thanks to Mika for the tip.

I rarely do missing child stories for a bunch of reason. The first is they’re not my style. The second is I find them to be very tabloidish, thank you very much Nancy Grace. And lastly and most importantly because there are a plethora of blogs that cover them better than I ever could. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about them.

Living in North Carolina I couldn’t help be affected by the story of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis missing from Fayetteville. With all the media attention, the pictures of her from the motel and the arrests of her mother, Nicole Davis and Mario Andrette McNeill I thought to myself that this time the victim would be found alive. As I’m sure most of you know by now that wasn’t the case.

I received a slew of tips from everybody and thank you for that. However I wanted to share one particular e-mail I received from a reader by the name of Dawn who also lives in North Carolina. She put it better than I ever could.

I am sure you know, as nearly all the world does now, but Shaniya Davis, who you mentioned a day or so past, was found dead today. I live in this small town, Sanford NC, and that baby’s body was found just over a mile from my home. Our community mourns for this child that we didn’t even know, but was left within our reach so callously. Hundreds of people from our community turned out to search for her, and in the end our hearts were broken. She was found dead, decomposing, next to a deer carcass, wearing only a tshirt.

Look at that fucker McNeill. Tell me you do not wish him a thousand brutal deaths, after he is dismembered, one small piece at a time. After the bastard admits to kidnapping her, he is scene smirking in his arrest photo.

May her mother rot in hell for eternity for this. We are supposed to give up our lives for our children. How can any mother ever understand, or look upon her with less than hate in their hearts, for selling this beautiful baby.

It is a sick, sick world we live in.

And unfortunately for the children there doesn’t seem to be any cure in the foreseeable future.

Man accused of circumcising sons with utility knife:

Man who circumcised sons found guilty:

Man On Trial, Charged With Circumcising Children:

One of my predecessors originally posted about this story here.

Now I’m of the opinion that male children should be circumcised. However it shouldn’t be done at home and it sure as hell shouldn’t be done with a utility knife.

Johnny Marlowe of Caldwell County, North Carolina didn’t care for hospitals (yet another Luddite) so he circumcised two of his 14 children at home with a utility knife. In one of the circumcisions his infant son bled for 11 hours.

Marlowe is an admitted polygamist who had his 14 children through his legal wife and another woman that lived with them. Not nly was he a child abuser but he was a spousal abuser as well beating his wife and denying her pre-natal care.

Marlowe is already serving a 1215 year sentence on kidnapping charges and was found guilty of abusing his sons. He’s looking at only a sentence of 120 days for the rogue circumcisions. That seems a little light to me.

Like I said I’m all for getting your boys circumcised and I highly recommend at. However leave it to the trained professionals especially those in the medical field as they are actually trained to perform these procedures.

Thanks to WickedWomyn for the tip.

Duke employee arrested on child sex charge:

42-year-old Frank Lombard of Durham, North Carolina has been arrested for allegedly offering his adopted 5-year-old son up for sex over the internet. Lombard is also associate director of the Center for Health Policy at Duke University and has been placed on unpaid leave.

An FBI informant allegedly saw Lombard online performing sex acts on an African-American child believed to be one of his adopted sons.

As an adoptee myself this next part really disgusts me to no end. The following is from a chat between Lombard and an undercover agent.

In the chat transcript, “F.L.” is asked how he got access to a child so young. “Adopted,” he replied, and said that the process was “not so hard … esp (sic) for a black boy.”

In the chat, “F.L.” told Palchak that abusing the child was “easier when he was too young to know what was happening and when he couldn’t talk …He had a little too much Benadryl. Was knocked out.”

So not only did Lombard adopt his kids for his own sick sexual fetishes but he also took advantage of the fact that there are an inordinate amount of black children waiting to be adopted into loving homes.

It’s a shame that this isn’t an executable offense because I would volunteer to throw the switch.

Rot in hell scumbag

Mom accused of repeatedly burning daughter with hot iron:

Fayetteville mother charged with burning her daughter:

33-year-old Nia Michelle Brooks of Fayetteville, NC (or as it’s referred to Fayette Nam) is accused of burning her partially blind and mildly retarded 11-year-old daughter with an iron. Police allege that Brooks burnt the girl with a hot iron on her arms and legs. Police say the girl was burnt because she didn’t iron her Easter dress correctly. Brooks said the iron fell on the girl. Yeah right, four times maybe.

To try and hide her crime Brooks allegedly sent the girl to school in coats, long sleeve shirts and long pants. If you’ve ever experienced a Carolina summer you know that’s pretty much abuse in itself.

And oh yeah, as mentioned in the title Brooks has a bachelor’s degree in social work. Whatever college she got it from should demand it back. And again no matter how smart you think you are hospitals, police and sometimes schools know more than you do. You can’t hid abuse from them.

Thanks to Luci and Angela for the tips.

Woman charged with assaulting child, animal cruelty:

26-year-old Jennifer Lytton of Statesville, NC was arrested on child cruelty and animal abuse charges.

Her 5-year-old daughter told one of her teachers that her birth organism put a cigarette out on her nose. Lytton denied the charge saying a DSS employee scratched the girl with her ring.

When police went to investigate what do you think they found at the Lytton household? In the backyard police found a dog’s skeleton and two malnourished pit bulls. Who would have guessed?

Which gives me a chance to explain my whole deal with pit bulls. I’m not calling the breed trashy per se. It just seems that the pit bull is the dog of choice for trash like this. Not to mention that anyone who abuses their dogs and their kids is capable of much more travesties than this.

Thanks to LadyJade for the tip.

Mom charged with murder had second child who died:

24-year-old Latoyia Niccole Myers of Salisbury, NC has been charged with 2nd degree murder in the death of 2-month-old son, Jyhiem Adam Bacon. Police are being tight lipped on how the boy’s death occurred. The only thing they will say is that he died from suffocation and that coke and weed were found in the hotel room they were in.

In November of 2007 Myers lost a 29-day-old baby who also died by suffocation but then it was ruled an accident by investigators.

Myers’ mother told local news that he daughter’s arrest was ‘unfair’.

Parents jailed for toddler’s child abuse death:

20-year-old Kathy Lynn Swafford and her new husband, 42-year-old Dwight Stacey Justice, have both been arrested in the death of Swafford’s son, 2-year-old Jeremiah Ray Swafford.

When paramedics were called to the house for Jeremiah being unresponsive it was reported that he had a giant bruise on his forehead.

Doctors determined that Jeremiah was killed by blunt force trauma among other injuries.

Swofford’s family suspected abuse and took Jeremiah to the hospital but he was returned to his mother and Cleveland County social services would not get involved.

Thanks to Southern Lady for the tip.

UPDATE: According to this article Swofford denies responsibility in Jeremiah’s death but according to family she showed no remorse in court.

Thanks to LadyJade for that tip.

Police say toddler was injured before death:

This article is from over a week ago but it doesn’t make the crime any less heinous.

19-month-old DeVarion Gross went missing back in October. His birth organism, 23-year-old Sherita McNeil of Garner, NC, told her family that DeVarion was with his godmother. DeVarion’s grandmother found DeVarion’s body in his mother’s closet inside of a plastic storage bin. His body was also covered with linens that were soaked in bleach to mask the smell of decomposition. Investigators believe that Devarion had been dead for at least six weeks and say that he had multiple injuries.

Police arrested McNeil after weeks of investigation and evidence collecting.

Thanks to LaDonna for the tip.

Concord police arrest deputy charged with child abuse:

Mecklenburg County (NC) Deputy Sheriff Sonya Jones was arrested in Concord, NC on felony charges of child abuse. It’s alleged that her two 15 year-old daughters that consisted of them having scarring on their hips, legs, arms, and backs. The abuse was noticed by a school resource officer. Jones has also been suspended without pay.

Thanks to my wife Jade for the tip.

Couple charged with shooting kids with BB gun:

Gastonia, North Carolina is a rural suburb of my town Charlotte. It basically represents all the bad stereotypes about the south.

For example 31-year-old Jessica Green Pack and her boyfriend, 23-year-old Jackie Edward Nanney, have been charged with child abuse for shooting her three kids with a BB gun. Not even as a from of discipline but for the fun of it.

Let’s see what the birth organism had to say…

“I tried to stop him, but he still wouldn’t,” said Pack during her first court appearance Wednesday afternoon.

Now let’s hear from the sponge…

“We’ll shoot cans. That’s all we shoot. I don’t shoot no kids,” said Nanney.

Can’t you just hear the banjos in the background?

All three kids, ages 4, 5 and 7, are now in custody of DSS.

Thanks to LadyJade for the tip.

It’s almost certain that John Patrick Violette will adopt an insanity defense when he faces charges of decapitating his four-year-old girl Kaitlin. According to the latest dispatch, witnesses are saying that he was ranting to himself when he came home that day, and not into a cell phone as another witness had previously reported. Also, the cops who arrested him in D.C. reported he was screaming passages from Revelations. Yep, you can’t be crazy in America unless you’re quoting from the Bible at an inappropriate volume. It appears that the whole family was deeply religious; even 4-year-old Kaitlin was concerned for other people’s immortal souls. But this only deepens the question: what the hell happened? Was Violette ever diagnosed with a mental illness? Did he go off his meds (in which case I have zero sympathy for the bastard)? Did he really believe that the End Times were upon us? Ugh. More answers and fewer questions, please.

Update on the John Patrick Violette case: Police in North Carolina say they have no freaking idea why Violette flipped his shit and decapitated his daughter. One insanity plea, coming right up. I’ll be curious to see whether his wife Amber sticks by him, or runs screaming. As I’ve said in the past, I doubt I could stick by my spouse, even if I were convinced they had lost it. If you want some raucous commentary on the case, check out the Freepers, many of whom are calling for all manner of gruesome punishments – all ending in death.

When I wrote for Blogging Baby, I found that there was a whole cadre of folks who are virulently anti-adoption. They believe that the adoption industry is an inherently evil, immoral entity that tears families apart. I hadn’t encountered these folks again, though, until today, when MCA alerted me to the case of Allison Quets. According to anti-adoption organization Adoption: Legalized Lies, the 48-year-old woman was faced with “intense pressure” to surrender her twins immediately after she gave birth. After six weeks of caring for them, Quets signed the papers. The babies, Holly and Tyler, were subsequently adopted by Denise and Kevin Needham of Raleigh, North Carolina. Quets changed her mind the same day she signed papers, and fought the adoption. When a court upheld the adoption as valid and legal, Quets kidnapped the kids and ran off to Canada.

Quets has since been arrested, and the twins returned to the Needhams. For their part, the Needhams won’t discuss the details of the case; their only public statement has been to insist that they want to keep the babies. Both the Needhams and their lawyer are relying on the privacy granted adoption proceedings to remain mum about their side of the story. All that the Needham’s lawyer will say is that the facts “don’t support” the Quets family’s account of how the adoption went down.

My first instinct was to side with the Needhams – largely because the anti-adoption advocates like Tricia Vaughn Smith frighten the holy hell out of me. But after considering the case, I realized that too much shit just doesn’t add up.

First, Quets is not some 18-year-old broke-ass mom who got accidentally knocked up. She’s a single professional woman who became pregnant through in vitro fertilization. She reportedly started considering adoption during the pregnancy. According to the News Observer, Quets suffered from hyperemesis, which caused her to become violently ill and frail. Her birth was reportedly a traumatic experience; according to her sister Gail, Allison had to be hooked up to a PICC line and a feeding tube afterwards. A mere 12 hours after realizing that she had given up her babies, she changed her mind. So on first blush, this is not a mom who came back after three months and tries to take it all back; this is a mom who realized she had committed a fatal error that same day.

But then there’s the question of the waiting period. Ironically, as the Ottawa Sun points out, Canadian adoption law would have enforced a 7-day waiting period on the adoption as well as a 28-day revocation period, giving Quets plenty of time to recover from the trauma of her pregnancy and change her mind. But Florida (where Allison Quets gave birth) has a three-day waiting period. Which raises the question: if Quets objected to the adoption the same day she signed the papers, why was the adoption allowed to proceed? To even further confuse the subject, check out the discussion on MCA’s site, where at least one poster claims that Quets tried to get more than one adoption agency to foot the bill for the birth. (Given that Quets has since spent nearly half a million dollars trying to get her kids back, though, that piece of info sounds a tad far-fetched.)

My verdict on this currently leans toward the birth mom and against the Needhams, who seem intent on keeping their shiny new babies regardless of what their bio-mother wants. But a key fact or two could flip my decision. So let’s open this up for discussion: who’s the real villain here? Is there one?

Sadly, there’s little question as to who the victims are…

(Minor P.S. to the folks at abc7.com: it’s PICC line, not “pick line”. PICC is an acronym for “peripherally inserted central catheter”. Sorry, just had to be a know-it-all…)