Parents Behaving Badly

Woman accused of sex with teen foster son:

Foster parent faces felony charges of sodomy, rape:

40-year-old Jennifer Ann Montag of Hooper, Utah was arrested for allegedly having sex with her 14-year-old foster son over the course of the month of October.

When discovered by a family member with the naked 14-year-old boy she allegedly exclaimed that “You will ruin our family. I could go to jail, and if I do, I will kill myself.”

The victim was also unwilling to cooperate with police for fear of getting Montag into trouble.

I like how she tried to blame everyone else for ruining the family but herself for her sick and twisted actions.

If you’re not getting enough at home go have an affair or something. The foster parent program isn’t your personal escort service.

Thanks to Monique for the tip.

Six months after Michael Barber was sentenced to prison for child abuse, he’s up for parole. He beat up his girlfriend’s two-year-old son and will go before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Michael Barber was sentenced one to 15 years for child abuse. An anonymous tip led to his arrest.

The victim, Dominick Adams, has a shunt in the left side of his brain. He’s blind in his right eye, and gets nosebleeds frequently as a result of the beating which left him unconscious and with a broken arm. Dominick was only two when his mother’s then boyfriend lost his temper and beat him. Now he is now four and attends weekly therapy sessions.

“My son has scars, he has problems in school, he’s blind in his right eye,” said JenaV Adams, the victim’s mother. “He has to deal with it every day of his life for the rest of his life.”

Adams plans to speak to the parole board. “I’m just going to let them know what our family’s gone through, and let them know that they need to keep him where he is for as long as possible, so he can’t do this to another family, another child,” said Adams. She also said that a 15-year sentence won’t make up for what’s happened especially since Barber never apologized.

A Department of Corrections spokesperson says Michael Barber is in maximum security at the prison because of behavioral problems. Tomorrow the parole board could set a parole date or schedule another hearing. The board has 30 days to make that decision.

Adams says she fears retaliation when Barber gets out of prison. As part of his sentence, Barber must also pay for Domick’s medical bills.

With nearly half its population under the age of 18, it’ll be interesting to see if the Utah Department of Corrections keeps this monster off its streets. Stay tuned.

Chris Young, the dad who came within feet of driving off of a cliff with all of his kids in the car with him, pleaded guilty to second-degree felony child abuse after his jury trial deadlocked. He’s been sentenced for 1 to 15 years in prison for his crime. Personally, I’m hoping for something closer to the “15″ side. But that’s just me. (Hat tip: Charming Bitch)

Prosecutors think they have the truth in the murder of 12-year-old Shelby Andrews – or at least enough of the truth to put both of her “parents” in jail for life. If Shelby’s father, 38-year-old Ryan William Andrews, is to be believed, it goes something like this. Both Andrews and Shelby’s stepmother, Angela Andrews, took delight in tormenting Ryan’s daughter. Of course, the husband paints her as the monster. According to Ryan Andrews, Angela regularly abused the girl at their Syracuse, Utah home, , going so far as to rape her with a can of Lysol and the heel of a shoe.

One day after he arrived home from work, Ryan says that Angela bitched about Shelby’s behavior, leading the two of them to decide she needed to be “punished”. So Ryan crammed the girl into a closet with thin-spaced shelving, and crammed the door shut. The pair turned on the television, ignoring Shelby’s screams about how she couldn’t breathe; Ryan confessed that he thought his daughter was trying to “play” him. When Ryan finally decided, “Gee, maybe I should check on my little girl,” it was too late: Shelby Andrews fell out of the closet, dead.

Ryan William Andrews pleaded guilty to murder, in exchange for the state dropping charges of sexual assault. He will be sentenced next month.

How much should we believe this tearful confession? As a rule, criminals only confess to as much as they feel they have to. Even so, this was a damning admission of guilt. (I don’t buy his blubbering and his courtroom tears for a second, of course. The time to be remorseful is when your daughter is alive; it doesn’t count after you kill her.) Prosecutors say that they have no plans to broker a deal with Angela Andrews, meaning that they’re convinced her husband’s testimony alone can convict her. From what I can tell, the confession came as a surprise, occurring shortly after Angela’s attorney requested that the cases be split. Last month, defense attorney John Caine requested a psychiatric evaluation for his client. This was after the slimeball how Shelby was a “difficult” child – as if any amount of “difficulty” justifies rape and murder. Caine appears to be positioning for a Hail Mary mental health defense. Good luck. A jury’s gonna want to see both of these parents rot for life for what they did to Shelby Andrews.

And I don’t blame them one lick.

For a full link roundup on this case, see Bonnie’s Blog of Crime.

(Hat tip: Runesong)

Hot tipper Serena gave me this disquieting piece about Salt Lake City, Utah dad Eric Ison Jones, who’s on the run after allegedly scalding his son’s legs and stomach with hot water. The boy’s mother left little Malicah in his father’s care, thinking he could be trusted. It’s a decision she will likely regret for the rest of her life. Physical evidence shows that Jones likely held Malicah down while he applied scalding water to him, causing his skin to bubble and blister all over the lower half of his body.

What should happen to Jones one police catch him? Bridgette Matthews, Malicah’s sister, has an idea: “They should put [Jones] in boiling hot water, push him down and cut his hair and ask him how it feels. That’s what I think… and then he spend the rest of his life behind bars.”

Can’t argue with that punishment. How much more depraved can you get – not only punishing your kid with hot water in the first place, but holding him down in order to inflict maximum damage? On second thought, scalding water might be too good for this asshole.

The police in Salt Lake have released a photo of Jones, and have a hotline set up. If you see the bastard, turn him in NOW.

Hold onto your hats, folks – we have MORE news of parents kidnapping their own adult children! Thanks to Nicholas and Lola Kampf for kicking off this latest trend in parental stupidity, in which moms and dads who could stand to work on their control issues attempt to save their offspring from themselves. Now, Lemuel and Julia Redd of Salt Lake City, Utah don’t quite make the Worst Parent Ever bar set by the Kampfs, who tried to have their daughter’s fetus vacuumed out of her womb against her will. But worry not, Mr. and Mrs. Redd: there’s still a nice, hot circle of Hell reserved for folks who kidnap their daughter-bride and make her miss her own wedding. The Redds told Julianna Redd that they were taking her shopping, and instead drove her 240 miles away from the temple where her wedding was scheduled to commence in only a few hours.

No motive is given for her parents’ rabid distaste over watching their girl get hitched. Perry Myers, the husband of the 21-year-old young woman (they married four days after the kidnapping), says he doesn’t think it has anything to do with him. It rarely does, dude. Suffice it to say, your in-laws are whackjobs, and you’re stuck with ‘em for the rest of their natural lives. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like Perry will have to worry about awkward conversations over the Thanksgiving table any time soon: Mr. and Mrs. Kidnapper faces up to 15 years in prison for their crime. By the time they’re done serving time, the 50-something couple will be on death’s doorstep. Whew! Talk about dodging a bullet there…

Looks like The Gays are at it again! This time, they’re trying to infliltrate Provo High School and form some kind of Alliance with the God-fearing straight kids in the hopes of – that’s right! – TURNING THEM GAY. This, at least, according to Stephen F. Graham, head of something called the Standard of Liberty Foundation. Mr. Graham is the voice of opposition to a proposed extracurricular Gay-Straight Alliance club at the high school in Provo, Utah.

Mr. Graham’s chief concern is apparently to protect the school district. Not from leather-clad teens singing Village People tunes, but from the avalanche of lawsuits that’s sure to come once the straight kids’ parents sue the school the school because their kids have “come out as homosexuals after attending club meetings”. Not to mention the fact that the straight kids will inevitably “later contract the HIV virus and AIDS”. Hard to find fault with that logic! (Unless, of course, you’re one of those people that believes in “research studies” and “common sense”.)

The article presents an overview of what the club actually stands for (promotion of acceptance and tolerance of gay students), and also features quotes from parents and students who are in favor of the organization. What? It doesn’t? A Utah newspaper running a one-sided story about gaybashers? Go figure.

A word about Colorado City. It’s neither in Colorado, nor is it much of a city. But if you have a hankerin’ to marry two or three of your closest sweethearts and raise you some young ‘uns, it’s your kind of town. Plus, if Sheriff Sam Roundy’s on the job, you can abuse your kids as you like and not have to worry about getting busted.

Apparently, Roundy wasn’t aware that he was “supposed to” report all sexual abuse cases that he had investigated over the years to the Utah Division of Child and Family Services. Details! Who has time for details when you’re the law in the vast sprawling megalopolis of Colorado City! Plus, you know, it’s hard to devote 100% to your job when you have three wives and (hold on – need to break out the calculator) 21 kids. Work-life balance is important, you know.

Still, you gotta feel bad for the guy. Imagine the fights in his house when Wife #1 wants to watch Oprah, Wife #2 wants to watch Ellen, and Wife #3 wants to watch Hee Haw. Hope he has TiVo.