Unbelievable Abuse Story

[notnew]

I read in our local paper this morning:

Washington DC Police Officer cleared of child abuse charges.

It seems this single mom police officer at 37 years old, left her 7 and 8 year old children home alone every day.

The kids told police:

Mom left a 5:30 am and called them at 6:50 am to get up and get ready for school. The children would dress, eat breakfast, and walk 5 miles to school alone each day.

After returning home, the children were under strict instruction to not leave the house and mom would return home at 5:30 pm.

Additionally, the mother beat the older girl with a belt and left 10 marks on her arms.

The school called in a complaint to CPS because the children were walking to school with no coats on in 33 degree weather.

When questioning the mother this is what was said:

Asked if she beat her children? Yes, I beat them. Obviously not enough. I beat my children and I'll beat them again.

Asked if the children walked to school with no coats? If I thought they needed a coat, they'd have one but I don't think they need one. When I think they need one, I'll get them coats. If the school sends them home with coats, I'll send the coats back.

Asked if she left her children home alone? She admitted to leaving them unattended.

Charges? 2nd degree assault, leaving a child unattended, etc. as we should expect.

Result? A plea agreement in which she pled guilty to leaving the children unattended. Everything else was dropped.

Between being charged and sentenced, she moved to another county, took parenting classes, and switched her shift at her job so that she is now available to care for her children in the mornings.

She is still a police officer in Washington DC. The plea agreement allowed her to keep her job.

The judge in the case stated he agreed to the plea agreement because he felt leaving the children unattended was the worst offense.

Her sentence? 5 years of unsupervised probation and 5 days of community service. If she adheres to this, her record will be expunged and the charges will disappear forever.

I feel she moved to another county to get the kids away from the school where the report was made. She said she would beat the children again. I bet she already has.

In the entire article, there is never any mention of if the children were removed from her custody at any time. And obviously, the children are still in her care and control.

This is what our courts do. BTW - this happened in Maryland, in a suburb close to Washington DC.

What a sham. I feel so sorry for those kids. She will never stop abusing them. Someone I spoke to about this said "where is the dad?". I said what does it matter? Obviously, the courts found nothing wrong with her behavior and I am sure they would not have deemed this a reason to change custody.

It's no wonder I wasn't able to get my child due to the mother's educational and medical neglect. I thought my situation was bad, but this just takes the cake. Wonder what's wrong with our kids? Just take a look at the people the courts are deeming fit to raise them!

[mistoffolees]

>What a sham. I feel so sorry for those kids. She will never
>stop abusing them. Someone I spoke to about this said "where
>is the dad?". I said what does it matter? Obviously, the
>courts found nothing wrong with her behavior and I am sure
>they would not have deemed this a reason to change custody.
>

Well, it's not completely fair to say that the courts found nothing wrong with her behavior. They did find her guilty - even though the penalty wasn't anywhere near sufficient.

The probation MIGHT make a difference. If she gets caught beating the kids again, perhaps they'll take action the second time.

I suspect the reason for asking about the dad is the same one that came into my mind. If those were my kids, I'd have been in court in a minute demanding an emergency hearing and full custody.

But that is truly a sad story.

[notnew]

Is that she was allowed to retain her job as a police officer. She had a higher duty to uphold the law in her own life. At her job, she is most likely dealing with situations similar to her own, or at least the after affects of poor parenting. AND police officers are trained well to respond to abuse/neglect situations and know what the thresholds are regarding this. She was well aware that her actions were wrong and illegal.

Making the statements that she would beat her children again and that they didn't need coats in 33 degree weather is just unreal.

Perhaps the article was just written poorly. Perhaps there is a follow-up case management plan where she is going to be observed to make sure the kids are being cared for well.


I feel that this police officer was given special treatment and the ones suffering are those children. Why offer a plea deal with those damning statements?

Maybe I am not jaded enough and still become angered when I read and see these injustices in our world.

[mistoffolees]

>Perhaps the article was just written poorly. Perhaps there is
>a follow-up case management plan where she is going to be
>observed to make sure the kids are being cared for well.
>

That's a good point. Reporting in this country is incredibly bad. It is often the case the the published story bears absolutely no resemblence to reality.

Of course, the behavior as written is clearly wrong, so I'm hoping the reporter just messed up the story.

[backwardsbike]

Some days are harder for me to deal with my NC status than tohers.  Today is just such a day.  I am a certifed parent educator, anurse for the past 25 years and currently a master's candidate in counsleing.  Ihave custody of two children full time in myhome.  But my Exhusband has painted a horrid picture of me to the courts here and they've bought it hook line and sinker.  My older children ar eso alienated thsat I have recrently told them that they may call me when they'd like to see me.  This after they stole medical and financial records from my home to gve to their dad and made so many false reports of neglect, abuse, being scared ets etc etc to the GAL in our case, the judge, evlauators.

Then I read this and earlier today I learned a state prison inmate in my sate was just granted custody of a child- he is incarcerated in a STATE PRISON.

Pardon me whilr I crawl into my bed and pull the covers over my head!