Police say 12-year-old boy tortured; Oconee couple arrested

[TigressPen]

Police say 12-year-old boy tortured; Oconee couple arrested


Associated Press

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

WATKINSVILLE — A couple has been charged with beating and torturing a 12-year-old boy. The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office said the boy’s mother and stepfather were arrested Thursday. Their names were withheld to protect the child’s identity.

Investigators believe the boy was shot with pellet guns, pepper-sprayed and was handcuffed to a coat rack in a closet.

The couple is being held in the Oconee County Jail. Each were charged with a single count of first-degree cruelty to children.

Authorities said its likely they could face additional charges.

Athens-Clarke Police opened an investigation Monday to determine if the boy had also been abused at a local motel.

The boy is now living with a foster family

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/12/16/oconee_boy_abuse.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

[TigressPen]

http://www.onlineathens.com/

A-C police now looking into abuse
Oconee sheriff says parents tortured boy in both counties
By Joe Johnson | joe.johnson@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:35 pm on 12/15/2008



Athens-Clarke police began Monday to investigate whether a 12-year-old's parents tortured the boy in a local hotel before they moved to Bogart three weeks ago.

The family moved into an extended-stay motel in Athens in October, police said, and the abuse continued when they moved to Bogart, where the victim's younger brother told a teacher at his school in Oconee County. Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry called the abuse "systemic" and said it happened in Oconee and Clarke counties.

The victim related his horror story to Oconee County deputies and a forensic interviewer, and local authorities want to hear it from the boy themselves as they investigate any abuse that happened here, said Capt. Clarence Holeman, assistant commander of the Athens-Clarke police Criminal Investigations Division.

The victim's mother and stepfather handcuffed him in a closet for hours at a time, shot him with a pellet gun at close range and pepper-sprayed him, according to Berry.

The boy continued to go to school in Clarke and Oconee counties without telling anyone, and clothes covered his injuries, Berry said.

Oconee County deputies arrested the couple Thursday afternoon, hours after the victim's 6-year-old brother told his teacher about the abuse. Investigators examined the boy and found marks on his body, including his genitals, Berry said.

The Banner-Herald is withholding the parents' names and photographs to protect the identities of the victim and his brother.

Both are the children of the 35-year-old suspect, who at the time of her arrest worked as a jailer for the Walton County Sheriff's Office. She was fired soon afterward.

The woman's 37-year-old husband was the children's stepfather, police said.

Each is charged with first-degree cruelty to children, but prosecutors may seek more charges when they take the case to a grand jury, Berry said.

"We're looking at the whole thing, and we're taking our time, doing it by the numbers," the sheriff said.

The woman posted a $25,000 bond Saturday, but returned a couple of hours later to the Oconee Jail and forfeited her bond, Berry said.

"She self-surrendered back, but I don't know why," he said. "She wanted to remain in custody for whatever reason."

A judge ordered the stepfather held without bail, Berry said.

The state Department of Family and Children Services has placed the children with a foster family.

The parents allegedly shut the boy in a closet, handcuffed him to a coat rack, Berry said, and restrained him in other parts of the house with various ligatures, such as shoelaces, the sheriff said.

They also repeatedly shot and pepper-sprayed him, he said.

Deputies seized the pellet gun, handcuffs and other evidence when searching the couple's home off Monroe Highway, between Georgia Highway 316 and Dials Mill Road.

The family came to Georgia from Miami, first living in Loganville in 1996, Berry said.

Athens-Clarke police investigators will question both the victim and his brother as part of the local probe, Holeman said.

Both boys may have been abused, but it's also not uncommon for parents to abuse one child and not others, he said.

Berry wouldn't comment on whether the younger boy also was abused.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday, December 16, 2008

[Roamer]

:1187603408.CR.Mothe


IMO, she went back to jail voluntarily because most people dislike child torturers. :mad:

[TigressPen]

I agree, Roamer. And if she did this to her child, imagine how she treated the prisoners while she worked at the jail.

[KYGramma]

http://www.onlineathens.com/

A-C police now looking into abuse
Oconee sheriff says parents tortured boy in both counties
By Joe Johnson | joe.johnson@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:35 pm on 12/15/2008



Athens-Clarke police began Monday to investigate whether a 12-year-old's parents tortured the boy in a local hotel before they moved to Bogart three weeks ago.

The family moved into an extended-stay motel in Athens in October, police said, and the abuse continued when they moved to Bogart, where the victim's younger brother told a teacher at his school in Oconee County. Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry called the abuse "systemic" and said it happened in Oconee and Clarke counties.

The victim related his horror story to Oconee County deputies and a forensic interviewer, and local authorities want to hear it from the boy themselves as they investigate any abuse that happened here, said Capt. Clarence Holeman, assistant commander of the Athens-Clarke police Criminal Investigations Division.

The victim's mother and stepfather handcuffed him in a closet for hours at a time, shot him with a pellet gun at close range and pepper-sprayed him, according to Berry.

The boy continued to go to school in Clarke and Oconee counties without telling anyone, and clothes covered his injuries, Berry said.

Oconee County deputies arrested the couple Thursday afternoon, hours after the victim's 6-year-old brother told his teacher about the abuse. Investigators examined the boy and found marks on his body, including his genitals, Berry said.

The Banner-Herald is withholding the parents' names and photographs to protect the identities of the victim and his brother.

Both are the children of the 35-year-old suspect, who at the time of her arrest worked as a jailer for the Walton County Sheriff's Office. She was fired soon afterward.

The woman's 37-year-old husband was the children's stepfather, police said.

Each is charged with first-degree cruelty to children, but prosecutors may seek more charges when they take the case to a grand jury, Berry said.

"We're looking at the whole thing, and we're taking our time, doing it by the numbers," the sheriff said.

The woman posted a $25,000 bond Saturday, but returned a couple of hours later to the Oconee Jail and forfeited her bond, Berry said.

"She self-surrendered back, but I don't know why," he said. "She wanted to remain in custody for whatever reason."

A judge ordered the stepfather held without bail, Berry said.

The state Department of Family and Children Services has placed the children with a foster family.

The parents allegedly shut the boy in a closet, handcuffed him to a coat rack, Berry said, and restrained him in other parts of the house with various ligatures, such as shoelaces, the sheriff said.

They also repeatedly shot and pepper-sprayed him, he said.

Deputies seized the pellet gun, handcuffs and other evidence when searching the couple's home off Monroe Highway, between Georgia Highway 316 and Dials Mill Road.

The family came to Georgia from Miami, first living in Loganville in 1996, Berry said.

Athens-Clarke police investigators will question both the victim and his brother as part of the local probe, Holeman said.

Both boys may have been abused, but it's also not uncommon for parents to abuse one child and not others, he said.

Berry wouldn't comment on whether the younger boy also was abused.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday, December 16, 2008

:1187603408.CR.Mothe I just dont understand this kind of treatment.... Lets do the parents the same way and see how they feel!:45024:

[annalyzer]

The little brother that told is a hero in my book. God bless both those children. I hope a good home is found for them and they can stay together.

[Pandabear]

Again, I have to say that I can not for the life of me imagine a mother that gave birth to a child that would then torture that child. Even worse, she allowed a man that wasn't even related to the child take part in the cruelty. My mind just won't fathom anything like that. If I live to be 100, I'll never understand how anyone could abuse any child, much less their own flesh and blood. :mad:

[TigressPen]

These people rate the same as the Lynn Paddock's and Joseph and Sonya Smith's of the world for me. I'm glad she went back to jail, and pray she stays there for many many years. Her and her husband. Thank God for this child's little brother.

[TigressPen]

Police: Boy abused in hotel

Couple jailed in Oconee also likely to face charges in Athens

By Joe Johnson | joe.johnson@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:36 pm on 12/17/2008

A Bogart couple likely will face charges in Athens after authorities in Oconee County arrested them last week and accused them of torturing their 12-year-old son.

Investigators found that the boy's mother and stepfather physically and emotionally abused him at a Macon Highway hotel where they lived until moving to Bogart three weeks ago, according to Capt. Clarence Holeman, assistant commander of the Athens-Clarke police Criminal Investigations Division.

The boy told about the alleged abuse - in which his parents handcuffed him in a closet, shot him with a pellet gun and pepper-sprayed him - during a videotaped two-hour interview with Oconee authorities last week. The boy's chilling description of his parents' actions was good enough to bring charges in Athens as well, Holeman said.

"We can put our case together just on that," he said. "We're not going to subject the victim to another interview like that because that would be doubly cruel."

Athens-Clarke police won't take out warrants against the boy's parents - who already each face a charge of first-degree cruelty to children in Oconee County - but will work with prosecutors to present charges to a Clarke County grand jury.

"Both (parents) are already in the system where the DA has authority over Oconee and Clarke counties, so there's no use getting warrants," Holeman said. "We have done enough investigation that we know there will be some charges in Athens-Clarke County."

The abuse came to light last Thursday, when the victim's 6-year-old brother told an Oconee County school teacher about it, police said.

Oconee County deputies arrested the parents hours later at their home off Monroe Highway, between Georgia Highway 316 and Dials Mill Road.

The Banner-Herald is not naming the mother, 35, and stepfather, 37, or publishing their photographs to protect the identities of both boys.

The victim told a forensic interviewer that his parents locked him in a dark closet for hours at a time and kept him handcuffed to a clothes rack, Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry said. They left him a jug to use as a toilet and made him sleep on the kitchen floor, Berry said.

The boy still bears wounds all over his body, including his genitals, when he was shot a hundred times or more at close range with plastic pellets, according to the sheriff, who said the parents also repeatedly pepper-sprayed him.

The mother had the handcuffs and pepper spray from her job as a jailer with the Walton County Sheriff's Office, though she has been fired, he said.

The boy drew pictures to show investigators how he was abused, including an image of a child facing a wall on his knees, handcuffed and tied, Berry said.

The stepfather told investigators he punished the boy for, among other things, taking a can of corn to eat, according to Berry.

The sheriff didn't know if the victim was malnourished, but the boy told investigators he would take food because his parents weren't feeding him enough.


The stepfather is held without bond at the Oconee County Jail.

The mother posted a $25,000 bond Saturday, but returned a couple of hours later to the Oconee Jail and forfeited her bond because she wanted to remain in custody for reasons the sheriff wouldn't explain.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Thursday, December 18, 2008


http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/121808/new_368812640.shtml

[TigressPen]

:1187603408.CR.Mothe This poor child. I just can't see how any adult could perform this type cruelty on a child, especially their own.

[Breezy]

This just makes my stomache turn....I don't understand how people can be so cruel to these children!!!