P.A. Officer charged with child abuse of his children.

 (WBOC)

The Somerset County Sheriff’s Office has announced the arrest of a Princess Anne Police officer on child abuse and assault charges.

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Princess Anne Police Officer Accused of Severely Injuring Children | Latest News | wboc.com

New facility in Pocomoke will aid victims of child abuse

 (WBOC)

POCOMOKE CITY, Md. -- The Cricket Center, an organization that helps reduce trauma caused by child abuse, will be opening up a satellite location in Pocomoke. It was made possible after county commissioners unanimously voted to reallocate $190,000. 

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Extending the Fight Against Child Abuse in Worcester County | Latest News | wboc.com

CHILD NEGLECT - Officially A CRIME In Maryland

BALTIMORE - Child neglect is officially a crime in Maryland.

Under the new law, child neglect is a misdemeanor crime. If convicted, parents or guardians could face up to five years in prison, a fine up to five thousand dollars or both.


Parents or guardians who are not able to properly care for their children because of poverty or homelessness will not be charged.


Last year-- Maryland child protective services says there were nearly 4,150  cases of child neglect.

Source;  http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/region/baltimore_city/child-neglect-is-now-officially-a-crime-in-maryland

Mother Gets 25 Years In Prison For Murder of Daughter

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - A Norfolk woman has been sentenced to 25 years in prison in the death of her 4-year-old daughter.

Jathiya Wooden received the sentence Friday on the first-degree murder conviction in the death of her daughter Tamera, who suffered years of abuse. Prosecutors had sought a life term.

Wooden, 28-year-old mother of six, falsely reported that Tamera had disappered from a playground in August 2008. She later admitted that the child was hidden in a closet, and police found her body there. Prosecutors said Wooden admitted stabbing Tamera with an umbrella after the child tried to break free from being pinned behind a dresser as punishment.

Doctors said the child was starved, deprived of water and forced to stay in confined spaces. An autopsy found injuries on every part of the child's body.

www.wavy.com

Crackdown On Sexual Exploitation of Children Launched By FBI

WASHINGTON -- More than five dozen child prostitutes have been found in the last three days as part of a nationwide crackdown on the sexual exploitation of children, the FBI said today.

FBI spokesman Jason Pack said 69 children were removed from prostitution and 99 suspected pimps were arrested in 40 cities across 30 states and the District of Columbia. Authorities arrested 785 other adults on a variety state and local charges, Pack said.

All the children found in the last three days have been placed into protective custody or returned to their families.

The children were found during Operation Cross Country V, a three-day roundup targeting child traffickers and pimps. The largest group of child prostitutes, 24, was found in and around Seattle, according to the FBI.

FBI executive assistant director Shawn Henry said the children found ranged in age from 12 to 17. Authorities are working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to confirm their identities.

Henry said child prostitutes are often recruited by loose-knit groups that seek out kids who may be involved in drugs or runaways looking for a "responsible adult" to help them.

"There are groups of people out there preying on naive kids who don't have a good sense of the way of the world," Henry said. "Sometimes there's a threat of force, threats of violence. A lot these kids operate out of a sense of fear."

Since 2003, when the FBI and the Justice Department launched the Innocence Lost National Initiative, about 1,250 child prostitutes have been located and removed from prostitution.

www.timesdispatch.com

Indiana Children Died After 10 Hours In Closet

( Sept. 22) -- An Indianapolis woman who's been charged in the deaths of her two young children allegedly locked her five kids in a closet for 10 hours before the two perished.

That's according to a police report released Tuesday that accuses Edyan Farah, 28, of dragging a bed up against the closet to block it shut, then leaving to visit a neighbor. Investigators are awaiting results of a toxicology report, but believe the two children -- a 5-year-old girl and her 3-year-old brother -- died Sunday of asphyxiation. Details were reported by several news agencies.

The children were trapped in a closet about 6 feet by 18 inches for more than 10 hours, and one of the surviving siblings told police they'd been crammed in there before, WRTV channel 6 TV station reported.

Lt. Jeff Duhamell said it was the worst case he's seen in 28 years with the Indianapolis police force. "The bottom line is, animals are treated better than that," he told the station. The police report also alleges that Farah failed to call 911 after she arrived home and discovered her children's lifeless bodies, and tried to prevent neighbors and relatives from doing so.

Her uncle, Mohammad Hersi, peered into the apartment and "saw what appeared to him as a deceased child laying on the couch," the report stated, according to WRTV. When he tried to call police, "Farah grabbed the phone from Mohammad Hersi and threw it," it said. Another friend was quoted as saying Farah wouldn't let anyone into the apartment.

"She didn't look normal. She was not the woman we knew," Hersi told The Indianapolis Star.

The children were in rigor mortis when paramedics arrived.

Farah, a Somali immigrant, will appear in an Indianapolis court today to be advised of her rights, a spokeswoman for the Marion County prosecutor's office, Susan Decker, told The Associated Press. She was charged Monday with two preliminary counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, but prosecutors have asked for 72 more hours to prepare formal charges. Farah remains jailed on a $200,000 bond.

The remaining three children, whom police and neighbors described as looking malnourished, have been transferred to foster care, Duhamell said.

Relatives told the AP that Farah's family had emigrated to the U.S. from Somalia about a decade ago. Her husband, Burhan Hassan, traveled back home to Somalia a few weeks ago to visit his parents, and was still there when his children were discovered dead last weekend, the Star reported. Hassan is now en route back to America.
Meanwhile, neighbors of the Farah family at their two-story apartment complex said they were shocked by the deaths.

"The kids were always at the window waving and saying 'Hi' when you walked by. They were never out playing, but they always seemed happy," neighbor Nicole Felt told WRTV. "My heart goes out to those kids -- the two that passed, certainly, and the three that now have to live with what happened."

www.aolnews.com

Crisfield Man Charged With Sexual Abuse Of 14 Month Old Child

Crisfield Police have arrested 20 year old Virgil Dashields on child sex abuse charges. Police say he sexually assaulted a 14 month old child at the Somers Cove Apartments last Friday. Dashields faces numerous charges and is being held at the Somerset County Detention Center in default of $50,000 bond.

VIRGIL ERIC DASHIELDS
157 SOMERS COVE APARTMENTS
B/M/3-8-1990
(See Attached Photo)

On 9/20/2010 at 9:52 pm Virgil Eric Dashields was arrested by the Crisfield Police Department for a Sexual Child Abuse charging him with sexually abusing a 14 month old child. The sexual child abuse occurred in the Somers Cove Apartments located in Crisfield on 9/17/2010. Dashields was located at 59 Somers Cove Apartments and placed under arrest. The following charges were placed on Dashields:

Sex Abuse of a Minor
Sex Offense 4th Degree
Sex Offense 4th Degree
Assault 2nd Degree
Child Abuse
Sex Offense 3rd Degree
Assault 2nd Degree
Attempt Sodomy

Dashields was placed on $50,000 bond by Somerset County Court Commissioners. He is currently residing in the Somerset County Detention Center.

www.wgmd.com

Mother Made Son Eat Feces And Vomit (excuse me- ALLEGEDLY

WHAT A BEAST THIS MOTHER IS!!

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland woman has been indicted on 12 counts for allegedly beating and cruelly treating her two 14-year-old sons, prosecutors say.

According to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason's office, Talthina Jackson, 37, of Cleveland, was indicted on charges of felonious assault, endangering children, domestic violence, and aggravated menacing for assaulted one of her 14-year-old sons by choking him, biting his face, and striking him in the head with an iron.

Prosecutors say Jackson attacked the teen because he was playing on the computer in her bedroom without permission, and she thought he was stealing from her.

A neighbor that called police reported the teen had blood running down his head as he ran from the family's home on Crenell Avenue. Authorities say the teen has multiple scars over his body from being beat with a pole by Jackson.

Prosecutors alleged that Jackson abused her other 14-year-old son on several occasions this year, making the teen lick up urine from the floor, eat cat food and eat his own vomit and feces.

Jackson was arraigned on the charges on September 8th and has posted a $35,000 bond. She has a pre-trial hearing set for September 14th.

www.wtkr.com

Mother Arrested After 3-Year-Old Son Fires Gun

SEAFORD, Del.- Seaford police say an 18-year-old woman is facing charges after her 3-year-old son fired two shots from a .410 shotgun, which struck the roll-up door of a firehouse.

Christy A. Smullen is charged with tampering with physical evidence, reckless endangering, possession of a firearm by a person prohibited, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal mischief over $1,000 and discharging a weapon in city limits. She was released on $8,000 unsecured bail, pending a preliminary hearing in the Court of Common Pleas.

It happened about 2:10 p.m. Wednesday when officers received a report that the Seaford Volunteer Fire Department was being shot at. When officers arrived on the scene, they found two bullet holes in a roll-up door on the west side of the firehouse.

Police say an investigation showed that a 3-year-old boy on a porch across the street had gotten the unsecured loaded shotgun from the home and fired at the firehouse.

Smullen, who is the boy's mother, was taken into custody and arrested on the aforementioned charges. Police say the shotgun was also recovered from the home and found to have been loaded with .38-caliber ammunition.

Seaford police detectives executed a search warrant at the home on the 200 block of Cannon Street where they located additional ammunition and a BB gun.

The Delaware Division of Family Services also responded and placed the child with his father.

www.wboc.com

Children Left Alone While Mother Goes To Nightclub

Five children who were left home alone while their mother went clubbing will remain in custody of the Department of Children and Families, a judge ruled Monday.

Formeka Sanders, 29, was arrested after her 4-year-old was found wandering in the Oak Glenn Apartments parking lot about 1:45 a.m. Monday. She is facing child neglect charges.

DCF initially turned the children over to Sanders' mother, a police report said. But at a hearing

Monday, a judge and DCF officials said Sanders' mother has a history of crack-cocaine use.

Sanders has six children, but apparently only five of them were home at the time.

DCF also had prior involvement with the family with allegations involving failure to protect, sexual abuse and inadequate food.

Judge Anthony Johnson indicated Sanders' mother wouldn't be a possible option for the kids to live with because of the previous DCF involvement and drug use.

Sanders' children — ages 12, 10, 9, 4 and 2 — were left home alone at their apartment on Mercy Drive while she went to Club Firestone in downtown Orlando, police said.

Sanders appeared at the hearing in a navy blue jail jumpsuit and said little. She remains in the custody of the Orange County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

David Rushing, the father of the 4-year-old, also attended the hearing and requested custody of the boy. The judge ordered a review be conducted to determine if it will be a suitable home for the child.

A similar study is being conducted at Sanders' great-aunt's home to see where they will be placed.

Police were alerted around 1:40 a.m. by a security guard who was patrolling the parking lot near Sanders unit and found the 4-year-old boy wandering around outside.

The child told the guard he was by himself and then led the guard back to his apartment, police said.

When officers arrived, they found four children sleeping in a bedroom. The officer woke all the children, who all seemed to be fine, according to the report.

The officer tried calling Sanders cell phone several times, but when she answered all he could hear was loud music in the background.

Sanders returned home around 3:20 a.m. Monday with her boyfriend and was detained.

During an interview with police, Sanders said she left her home around 12:30 a.m. and placed her oldest son in charge. She told police she feels the child is "old and responsible enough" to take care of the four children.

Jail records show Sanders has been arrested several times in the past on charges of aggravated battery with a weapon and grand theft of a motor vehicle.

After the hearing, Rushing said he wants custody of his son and he thinks Sanders is a "fit" mother.

"I would never expect for anything like this to happen," he said.

Sunday's incident isn't the first time DCF and law-enforcement have been involved with Sanders' children.

Orlando police and DCF responded to the apartment complex July 6 when one of her children nearly drowned in a pool.

Sanders was not home at the time. A father of one of the children was supposed to be supervising the kids.

"Clearly we have a documented pattern of inadequate supervision and, given the potential for such serious harm, especially in the July incident, we felt we had no choice but to remove the children and place them into protective custody," DCF spokeswoman Carrie Hoeppner said Monday.

www.orlandosentinel.com

Toddler Left Alone In Hot Car

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) - A Hampton couple is facing felony child endangerment charges for allegedly leaving their toddler in a car alone while they went shopping.

An employee at the Walmart in the 12000 block of Jefferson Avenue told police he was in the parking lot at around 11 a.m. on August 18 when he noticed a child alone in a car. He said he waited for about ten minutes for someone to return to the car, but that never happened, so the employee alerted his manager.

Newport News Police arrived at the store and made an announcement over the Walmart sound system. When the parents returned to the car, they reportedly told officers they were only inside the store for about three minutes. According to the store manager, the 2 year old child was in the car for as long as 40 minutes.

Police charged Andriy Kot and Khrystyna Porseua, both 29 years old, with felony child endangerment.

www.wavy.com

Mother Arrested For Posting Picture Of Baby With Bong On Facebook

KEYSTONE HEIGHTS, Fla. (AP) - A central Florida mom who thought it would be funny to post a picture of her baby with a bong on her Facebook page has been arrested.

Nineteen-year-old Rachel Stieringer was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. A Texas resident called Florida's abuse hot line after seeing the picture online of the baby posing with his face in the bong.

Two weeks ago the mom had defended her actions , claiming there were no drugs or tobacco in the bowl, and her child was not breathing in smoke.

But child protection officers from the Florida Department of Children and Families launched an inquiry into her actions.

"We are alarmed that any parent would take pictures of their child next to what is obviously drug paraphernalia," said spokesman John Harrell.

The mother had spoken via the social networking site Facebook, and insisting the pictures were a joke.

She said: "If u look at the picture u can see that there is no bowl in the TABACCO pipe.

"And i took a pic to show one (expletive) person and it was a mistake. I would never ever ever let him get high."

The mom said that as part of the investigation she was ordered to take a drugs test, and her son was being checked by doctors.

She added: "Do you realize how serious this is? i can go to jail and he can be taken away from me. WHY would you do something so (expletive) stupid?

"i know what i did was stupid but i would NEVER put by baby in harm. im so nice to everyone idk (I don't know) why you would do this to me."

Clay County Sheriff's deputies say Stieringer turned herself in July 29 and was released on $502 bond.

A spokesman for the Department of Children and Families said Monday the baby had no injuries and drug tests came back negative.

A message could not be left at Stieringer's home Tuesday morning. The phone number was busy on several attempts.

(The grandparents are now caring for the child.)

www.myfoxorlando.com

Mother Of Toddlers Suffocated Sons Before Driving Car Into River

ORANGEBURG, S.C. - A South Carolina mother who claimed her children drowned when their car careened into a river was charged with murder Tuesday after authorities said she confessed to suffocating the two toddlers and then faking the accident.

Sheriff Larry Williams said 29-year-old Shaquan Duley told investigators she was distraught about money troubles and unemployment and that she killed her children by putting her hand over their mouths after a dispute with her own mother. He says Duley then strapped the children into her car and drove it into a river Monday morning.
"This was a young lady that was in trouble, in trouble in more ways than she realized," Williams said. "She was in trouble and she didn't know where to turn."
Williams said the responsibilities of being a mother were simply too much for Duley, who didn't show signs of remorse during an overnight interview with authorities.
Two-year-old Devean C. Duley and 18-month-old Ja'van T. Duley were dead in their child seats by the time divers got to the car Monday near a rural boat landing on the North Edisto River in Orangeburg, some 35 miles south of Columbia, the state capital.
The Highway Patrol was notified around 6:15 a.m. Monday that a woman needed help getting her children out of a car. Duley, who did not have a cell phone, had walked some distance down the country road by the boat landing and flagged down a passing motorist to call the Highway Patrol.
Duley was to be arraigned later Wednesday.

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

www.startribune.com

Police Collect Evidence In Neglect Case

I bet this case is far from being over!
In case you don't remember the father of this child remained in jail because he neglected to register as a child sex offender........something the mother doesn't deny but says isn't exactly as is stated in court documents. That doesn't matter. He still didn't register! And she has had other children with this man since he was charged. She also stated in previous reports that she asks her six year old everyday if she has been touch by him. Wow!

Parents Allegedly Placed Child On Stove

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) - Police have taken the stove top from the home of two parents who allegedly placed their 1-year-old child near an ignited burner, where they say, she was burned.

Justin Jones and Julia Tomlin were charged with felony child neglect after police say they failed to seek medical attention for their daughter. The stove top--four heating elements and four drip trays--were taken for analysis.

The child suffered burns on her back, shoulders, and arms.

Police went back to the Misty Harbor Apartments and a building off Woodall Court, where the girl was allegedly burned on April 30. Detectives were called days later to meet Child Protective Services at the home and said she had burn marks on her back "consistent with the heating elements on a stove."

Police contend the parents, Justin Jones and Julia Tomlin, placed the girl on the stove while they tended to another one of their five children. They say the toddler fell on one of the burners and was burned.

After the discovery was made, the girl was taken to a local hospital, treated and released.

In charging documents a detective wrote about Tomlin saying "she could not say for sure if the burners were turned off or not."

Neither Tomlin nor Jones could be reached for comment.

The little girl, along with her four siblings, who showed no signs of abuse, were placed in the care of Child Protective Services.

www.wavy.com

Stepfather Beat Boy To Death

How do small children "fall through the cracks"? This child made it clear that he did not want to go stay with his mother. And why, oh, why do adults do these terrible, nightmarish things to their OWN innocent children.......or even make excuses for why it happened?!! This child was sent to Utah by a Virginia judge even though the child did not want to go...............

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The Utah man held in the slaying of his 4-year-old stepson beat him for days before the boy died, then used a hammer to disfigure his face and teeth before burying his body in the mountains, according to police records released late Wednesday.

The body of Ethan Stacy, wrapped in plastic, was unearthed by police Tuesday.

Interview summaries filed by Layton police detectives documented increasingly harsh treatment of the boy during his short time in Utah. A Virginia judge had sent the boy to Layton for a summer visit with his mother just 10 days before his death, police said.

Investigators said they obtained photographs and video images of Ethan's worsening condition from his mother's cell phone, starting more than a week ago.

The injuries resulted from the stepfather, Nathanael Sloop, "engaging in a systematic and progressively more violent pattern of abuse toward Ethan," detectives wrote in interview summaries. The documents say Sloop was angry with the child and "tried everything" to discipline him; however, they don't say why the boy was being disciplined.

Sloop, 31, acknowledged hitting the boy, which caused his face to swell, and leaving him in a locked bedroom May 6 while the couple went to get married in Farmington, about 10 miles away, according to the probable cause statements used to support arrest warrants and detention in jail.

Sloop and the boy's mother, Stephanie Sloop, 27, feared his injuries would alert authorities if they took him along to the courthouse wedding, the documents state.

"This pattern of behavior and abuse was done in a manner that was recklessly indifferent to the child's welfare," police wrote.

Stephanie Sloop told police she did not seek medical help for Ethan because she was afraid Nathanael Sloop "would harm her," Detective Brooke Plotnick wrote.

The couple told police they found Ethan dead in his bed Sunday morning, and that Nathanael Sloop buried him later that day.

Stephanie Sloop told investigators she bought two cans of lighter fluid for Nathanael Sloop to burn the body before it was buried. The reports didn't say whether that was actually done.

The stepfather disfigured the boy's face and teeth "in an effort to defeat or delay identification," detectives concluded in their reports.

Prosecutors said they expect to file charges against the couple Friday. Nathanael Sloop was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder. He and the mother face additional charges of desecration of a corpse, along with felony child abuse and obstruction of justice, police said.

Chief Deputy Davis County Attorney David Cole said prosecutors are awaiting the results of an autopsy conducted Wednesday.

The Sloops are being held at the Davis County jail.

Attorney Richard Gallegos, who has represented Nathanael Sloop in previous criminal cases, did not return a message Wednesday. It was unknown if Stephanie Sloop had an attorney.

Nobody answered a phone at the Sloops' apartment Wednesday, and a message wasn't returned.

Stephanie Sloop initially told officers that Ethan wandered away from their apartment complex late Monday, but that was just a ruse aimed at covering the couple's tracks, Lt. Garret Atkin said.

Police searched overnight and said that by midday Tuesday, the Sloops had revealed the location of Ethan's body. The search then moved 20 miles away to a spot off a wooded trail in Wolf Canyon, which borders the Powder Mountain ski resort, about 40 miles northeast of Salt Lake City.

Ethan's biological father told The Associated Press police gave him details on the slaying Wednesday.

"I can't talk right now. I just got the horrible news, talking to prosecutors," said Joe G. Stacy of Tazewell, Va.

A relative says Ethan didn't want to spend the summer with his mother.

"Ethan did not want to even talk to (his mother) on the phone. She'd call and he'd say, 'I don't want to talk to her,"' Freida Stacy, Joe G. Stacy's stepmother, told the Deseret News of Salt Lake City.

Stephanie Sloop told police Ethan was vomiting, lethargic and refusing to eat for three days before his death. She also said that on Friday, she found Ethan badly burned from his feet to his buttocks from hot bath water, and that she suspected Nathanael Sloop was responsible.

At another point, the couple forced the child to drink two 16-ounce bottles of water, a 16-ounce bottle of Kool-Aid and a glass of orange juice over two hours, police said. They also gave him Motrin and Benadryl to ease his facial swelling and pain.

Utah State Courts records show that between 2000 and 2003, Nathanael Sloop had several convictions, including for criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and drug possession. In 2003, he served 30 days in jail for one drug possession charge and received a six-month suspended sentence for another.

No criminal history was found for Stephanie Sloop.

www.wavy.com