What about when MOM is the abuser?

Ok here is another set of excerpts from an article that breaks through some stereotypes and is not something most people would consider. That nice young lady caring for your parents or grandparents would cause no suspicion right? Think again:

MN - To make "work fun" four young nursing home aides abused 15 demented residents by hitting their breasts and genitals, sticking fingers in their mouths or noses to keep them from screaming, and taunting them, according to a state investigation made public Friday.

The four unidentified women, who were working at Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Albert Lea, Minn., were fired in May when the abuse was discovered. The Freeborn County Attorney is considering criminal charges.

Their treatment of the residents, which apparently went on for months, was "pretty horrific. This shocked everybody," said Mark Dickerson, spokesman for the Good Samaritan Society, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., which operates 40 nursing homes in Minnesota. "We've asked ourselves how this could go on and nobody find out. We just don't know."

The four women -- one adult and three juveniles -- were fired after a fifth aide, who was fired for swearing in front of residents, blew the whistle on them.

Three additional aides who witnessed or were told about the abuse were also fired for failing to report it. "We can't remember anything quite like this, it's that rare -- both in the number of perpetrators and the range of pretty bad actions," said Kris Lohrke, who supervised the Minnesota Department of Health investigation.

The four committed verbal, sexual and emotional abuse of residents in their care, said a report by the Office of Health Facility Complaints at the Health Department.

"To them it's just a joke, funny, something to amuse you at work," an aide who witnessed some of the abuse told investigators. "They don't think of it as being bad, they just think of it as a joke."

According to the report, one aide spat in a resident's mouth, sexually "humped" some residents, and sat with bare buttocks on the lap of a woman resident who was in a wheelchair.

One aide who witnessed the abuse said that three of the aides would grope one man's genitals to "get a rouse out of him, as in sexual teasing." Another said that all four aides talked of hitting residents "boobs or crotch, or rub it around" to make the residents angry.

And just in case anyone might think they didn't know what they were doing was wrong there is this little tidbit:

Another aide told investigators that the four talked about what they were doing. It was "making work fun or to get a good laugh," she said. She said they would close the curtain by a resident's bed so they could not be seen if someone walked in. She said the four were confident the residents wouldn't complain because they don't "have their minds."

You can read the entire article here

Another series of articles for people to review:


Charleston, W.Va. - A Charleston woman was behind bars Wednesday after police say she attacked an officer as he was trying to arrest her.

Tina Maria Tetso, 32, was taken into custody Tuesday evening after Kanawha County sheriff's deputies were called to a home on Morgan Street near St. Albans, according to a release from the department.

"According to the initial call, two intoxicated females were inside the residence breaking things and tearing up the place," the release said. "Cpl. J.H. Thaxton and Lt. B.C. Robbins responded to the call. They located both females at the residence and both were extremely intoxicated, still causing a disturbance."

After Thaxton put Testo in his cruiser, she began kicking the cage and attempting to kick the rear glass window, the release said. While Thaxton was attempting to restrain her legs, she leaned over and bit him on the elbow. She also spit on him, the release said. - Read the entire article here


YONKERS – A Yonkers woman has been charged with second-degree assault for stabbing her ex-boyfriend in the shoulder with a kitchen knife.

Yonkers City Police said Latasha Stevenson, 36, of 20 Orchard Place, is alleged to have stabbed her 30-year-old ex-boyfriend with the knife as he was removing his belongings from her house on Wednesday afternoon. - Read the entire article here


Aylesbury - Claire Ashley, from Ceely Road, Aylesbury, is accused of murdering Andrew Short, 52, from Hampden Gardens, Aylesbury.

Mr Short died at Stoke Mandeville Hospital shortly after 8.30am on Wednesday (20/8) after he was admitted to hospital at 1.30am, having complained of being assaulted.

A post mortem carried out on Wednesday afternoon (20/8) confirmed he had died from internal injuries. - Read the entire article here


Key Largo, Fla. - A dispute over allegedly stolen cameras led a Key Largo woman to hold a 17-year-old girl against her will and beat her, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. - Read the entire article here


Bradenton, Fla. - The mother of a 2-year-old girl has been arrested on a charge she falsely told authorities that her father molested his granddaughter.

Manatee County Sheriff's Office reports say deputies arrested Wendi S. Lewis, 36, on a charge of domestic battery Aug. 13, after investigators say she got into a fight with her 65-year-old father.
During the fight, Lewis hit her father in the face and raked her fingernails down his cheek, according to sheriff's reports. After deputies arrested Lewis, she claimed her father had molested her daughter, the report said.

On Monday, after the child had been examined for signs of sexual abuse, Lewis told deputies her father had not molested the girl. Lewis was charged with filing a false report and later released on $2,500 bond from the Manatee County jail. - Read the entire article here


WEST PALM BEACH — A driver who police say ran over and killed man sprawled in busy Delray Beach roadway in February was arrested Thursday afternoon on a drunken driving vehicular homicide charge.

Thursday's arrest marks the third time Munoz was cited for drunken driving since 1982, state records show. In a September 2002 case, however, adjudication was withheld. - Read the entire article here


COLUMBUS, Kan. — The mother of Ashley Thompson’s victim on Tuesday told Cherokee County District Judge Kent Lynch that granting Thompson probation would send a message that it is OK to abuse a child.

Thompson, 23, of Columbus, pleaded guilty last month to a reduced charge of felony attempted aggravated indecent liberties with a child. The plea was part of an agreement with the prosecutor. She originally was charged with three felony counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, alleging that she had sex with a 14-year-old boy on Feb. 25, March 1 and March 2, 2007, at Thompson’s house in Columbus. The victim had worked as a baby sitter for Thompson’s children. - Read the entire article here


MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A Martinsburg woman has pleaded guilty in federal court to a retaliation charge. U.S. Attorney Sharon Potter says 42-year-old Donna Naylor entered the plea Thursday.

Potter says the incident occurred last November when Naylor mailed an anonymous letter to a witness or victim of a prior crime. The crime had occurred at the IRS Enterprise Computing Center in Kearneysville. In the letter, Naylor made threats of bodily injury.

Naylor also admitted to writing more than a dozen additional letters to numerous individuals containing the falsified signature of the witness or victim. Most of the individuals worked at the computing center. Many of the letters contained racial epithets and hand-drawn pictures of figures hanging in trees from nooses. - Read the entire article here


DAYTON, Ohio -- Dayton police said a local woman bound and gagged her 3-year-old daughter, locked her in a bedroom, and left her home alone.

Erica Bailey is now in the Montgomery County Jail charged with child endangering, kidnapping and abduction. According to police, Bailey tied her daughter up, gagged her with a sock, locked her in a bedroom and left the apartment.

According to detectives, the mother claimed this was punishment for fighting with another sibling and taking snack food out of the refrigerator. - Read the entire article here


CLEBURNE - A woman known all around town - a business owner, civic leader - is accused of having sex with teenagers. Julie Von Tungeln, 43, is relatively well known in the community.

"The parents of this 16-year-old victim contacted us and said they had found some indicators - which I am not going to be specific about because the investigation is still ongoing - that indicated to them that this woman was involved in a sexual relationship with their 16-year-old son," said Sgt. Amy Knoll of Cleburne.

"We've received information that there could be additional victims. That there may be other teenage boys that have been victimized by this woman," said Knoll. - Read the entire article here

EDINBURG, Texas - Mayra Lizbeth Rosales, 27, was indicted on one count of first-degree murder and on one count of injury to a child in the death of Eliseo Gonzalez Jr. Rosales previously had been charged with capital murder.

The grand jury indicted her after a full autopsy confirmed investigators' suspicions that the child died March 18 because he had been struck. Investigators believe the toddler was struck at least twice, crushing his head. - Read the entire article here


LANCASTER - Jessica M. Lopez, 20, allegedly hit several things this year, and a judge returned the favor, hitting her with bail set at $250,000.

Magisterial Court Judge Bruce Roth set the bond for Lopez on Aug. 8, after she allegedly used her blue 2000 Chevrolet Impala as a weapon for the second time in six months and attacked three police officers in the aftermath.

After failing to post the bail, Lopez, 557 W. Grant St., Apt. 2, was remanded to Lancaster County Prison. She's charged with kicking, scratching and spitting on police officers who took her into custody Aug. 8 after she allegedly struck a vehicle intentionally and tried to run down two men who exited it.

The court also has learned of an incident that took place Feb. 25 in which she is accused of ramming her Impala into a vehicle occupied by two women. Lancaster police in May charged Lopez for the Feb. 28 incident in Lancaster, in which she allegedly beat a woman with her fists before intentionally crashing her Impala into the victim's rented 2008 Saturn Aura in the parking lot of a Gulf station at 653 Columbia Ave. - Read the entire article here


NASHUA – A woman accused of deliberately running her car into a group of people in downtown Nashua earlier this year, killing one of them, has been indicted on second-degree murder charges.

Ivonne Hernandez, 43, of 28 Major Drive, allegedly drove her 1997 Dodge Intrepid across the Maynard and Lesieur tire shop parking lot on West Hollis Street May 2, striking two people, and killing Matthew Beaudoin, a 29-year-old poker club manager from Nashua. - Read the entire article here


Taunton — Police Thursday afternoon arrested Julie Bowler, 19, after they said she admitted to picking up a broken glass and stabbing her 30-year-old boyfriend.

The victim, who had various puncture wounds that were non-life threatening, refused to discuss the incident and said he did not want to press charges. - Read the entire article here


KS - A woman who slit the throat of her boyfriend's dog was charged this afternoon with cruelty to animals and domestic battery. - Read the entire article here


WV - A Mason county woman has been arrested on multiple charges Including sexual assault and possession of drugs. The Mason county sheriff's department arrested 30-year-old Ann Thacker of Gallipolis Ferry.

She has been charged with 2 counts of felony sexual assault, five counts of felony child neglect, and one count of felony possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

The alleged victims were all juveniles ranging in age from 3 to 15 years of age. Thacker was related to three of them. - Read the entire article here


DAYTON, Ohio -- The Montgomery County Grand Jury has indicted 22-year-old Kimberly Cook for the murder of her 3-year-old sister and the abuse of her 6-year-old brother.

The charges include murder, endangering children resulting in serious physical harm, felonious assault resulting in serious physical harm, and endangering children resulting in torture and abuse.

Cook is charged with the July 20th death of Hope Cook, her half-sister, by physically abusing her in their mobile home in Trotwood. Heck said Cook had been granted custody of Hope, and her 6-year-old brother in September of 2007. - Read the entire article here

This is such a sick twisted case:


SYDNEY - A woman who emailed images of children engaged with sexual acts with animals has been sentenced to at least three years in prison.

Suzannne McDonald, 40, was convicted in Sydney's Central District Court today of drug supply charges and possession and dissemination of child pornography.

Police discovered 2169 images and 143 movies at her Surry Hills home after being tipped off by a man she met online.

Police considered the images the "most horrific and worst crime'' of child pornography.

They included a 17-minute movie of a child being forced into a bedroom to perform oral sex on an adult man, images of a baby being anally penetrated by a man and a girl being forced to perform a sex act with a dog.

Another picture was of a child being restrained and sexually assaulted by animals. - Read the entire article here

I wanted to make sure I posted this article by itself. It is from the Vancouver Sun:


Landmark sex exploitation study finds surprising number of female abusers
Gerry Bellett, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, May 28, 2008


Canada's largest study into the sexual exploitation of street kids and runaways has shattered the myths and stereotypes about who the abusers are, the most surprising finding being that many are women seeking sex with young males.

"I must admit it wasn't something we were expecting," said Elizabeth Saewyc, associate professor of nursing at the University of B.C. and principal investigator for the study, conducted by Vancouver's McCreary Centre Society.

"Some youth in each gender were exploited by women, with more than three out of four sexually exploited males reporting exchanging sex for money or goods with a female," she said.

The results were drawn from interviews with 1,845 youth -- some as young as 12 -- in surveys taken across the province between 2000 and 2006.

The stereotypical model of the child being abused -- a teenage girl being sexually abused by a man -- is wrong, Saewyc said.

Read the entire article here.

I wanted to list a series of articles for people to review:

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - An Albuquerque jury today returned guilty verdicts against a woman accused of sexually abusing her own granddaughters. Mary Lovato, 58, was convicted of a dozen crimes including rape. She was arrested for molesting the girls she was babysitting in 2005.

One of the girls, who were 7 at the time of the attack, also testified Lovato injected heroin in front of her and tried to get her to use it. The girl also testified Lovato threatened to kill them if they told anyone what had happened. - Read the entire article here

Aiken, SC - A Graniteville woman has been arrested on charges she sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl. Stephanie G. Kirkland, 20, of 225 Julianne Drive in Graniteville, is charged with three counts of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree and four counts of lewd act on a minor. According to the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office, the assaults were between May and December of 2007, and occurred at three different locations. - Read the entire article here

Warren, MI - A 27-year-old Warren woman was found guilty of felony murder and first-degree child abuse Thursday in the death of her 2-year-old boy and will be ordered to spend the rest of her life in prison.

Conklin's son, Sean Sowards, died June 13 from a single blunt force trauma blow to the head. His death came two days after being taken to a hospital for being unresponsive and vomiting.

Dozens of bruises, abrasions, cuts and a bite mark were found on the boy, whom a doctor said also was malnourished. Jurors saw photographs of those injuries, including a fracture, open wound on his forehead and missing toenails, replaced by what appeared to be dried blood.

In 2005, someone complained that Conklin beat Sean. "There were allegations made Miss Conklin would wake up Sean from naps and beat him," Magnan said. The complainant said that Conklin wished she did not give birth to Sean. "She doesn't want him and only kept him because the father wanted him," she said of the allegation.

Sean's paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Herd, testified she complained to DHS about Sean's treatment when he was 4 months old. "My concerns were Sean was being injured in his home," she said. "I told them my 4-month-old grandson was being spanked by his mother because he wouldn't stop crying." - Read the entire articles here

ST. MARIES, Id - A three-year-old girl is in critical condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane after suspected abuse by her mother and live-in boyfriend that left the girl with dead flesh on her legs and arms.

Court documents obtained by KREM 2 NEWS say the deputy who found her took pictures of the child for evidence. The pictures show a "small, blonde-haired child" with "blood on her butt and thighs... caked-on feces... feet dark, dead flesh from ankles to toes black... hands showed same... all over deep bruising of some kind... infection or internal bleeding... a large patch of blood on cheek." The documents also said the girl "appeared to go in and out of consciousness."

Doctors told the deputy that the girl has a 50% chance of survival and that she would need multiple surgeries to remove dead flesh from her fingers and hands.

During court testimony, a deputy who drove the girl to the hospital with her parents recalled she had serious scarring on her bottom, her scalp was pulled up and her hair was almost completely gone. He said she had dead tissue all over her extremities and her feet were so bruised it looked like she was wearing black socks.

Evidence exhibited in court Wednesday included photos showing a small blonde-haired girl with blood and feces caked on her body, bruising all over her body, a large patch of blood on her cheek, signs of infection and internal bleeding, and debris in her hair. Court documents say Smith "seemed very indifferent about the condition of the child." At one point Haynes told the court she didn't understand what she was being charged with or why. - Read entire article here and here.

Jacksonville, FL - Police recently arrested a woman they said deliberately hit a bike rider and crashed two separate cars, and then ran off naked.

Holly Highfield faces DUI and several other charges after witnesses said she intentionally struck a bicyclist, took off her clothes and ran around the crash scene, then drove off the road while attempting to leave the scene in someone else's vehicle. Police said the incident occurred Sunday evening while Highfield, 34, was driving three children, ages 10 to 14.

The children in Highfield's car told police that she was driving north when she turned to them and said: "Do you think this biker is going to get hit? Do you have faith? Are you afraid?" They said she then steered her SUV across San Pablo and struck 55-year-old Cathy Giury riding a bicycle. - Read the entire article here


Mankato — A 26-year-old Mankato woman is facing gross misdemeanor charges for allegedly leaving her 9-month-old baby home alone while she went to a downtown bar.

Brandi Jo Peterson also has been charged with a felony for allegedly punching a police officer in the groin when she was confronted about the neglect, then biting the officer in the ankle after she was put to the ground and handcuffed. They found the door to Peterson’s apartment open and her baby crying when they arrived, according to the criminal complaint.

Hoppe was questioning Peterson when another woman arrived, spoke briefly with Peterson, then said she was the baby sitter. That woman was taken to a detoxification unit after a breath test showed she had a blood-alcohol concentration of .32 percent, four times the legal limit of .08 percent for driving. - Mankato Free Press


WEBSTER, N.H. -- A woman beat her 8-year-old stepchild with a belt for nine consecutive hours and left their Webster home for Florida, police said.

Investigators said Kara LeBlanc pushed the child down a set of stairs seven times, dragging the child to the top of the stairs by her hair every time before pushing her. She faces assault and criminal restraint charges.

LeBlanc is also accused of beating the child with a belt until the belt broke over a nine-hour period of time last Thursday. Police said she also tied the girl's hands and feet and force-fed her cereal.

On Saturday, the little girl was taken to Concord Hospital, where medical professionals called police to report the abuse. Authorities transported the 8-year-old to a Boston-area hospital, where she remained in critical condition with liver and kidney problems. - complete article here


For locking her child alone in a closet while she went to work, Beverly Fears will spend the next 10 years in prison. Fears, 26, was arrested March 28, 2007, and charged with kidnapping, child endangering and other allegations totaling 14 charges. She pleaded guilty on May to four counts in exchange for 10 other charges being dismissed.

In January 2004, Fears had that child taken from her when, in an attempt to get him to stop sucking his thumbs, she wrapped them too tightly, resulting in the child having to have his thumbs amputated.

When police went into the apartment last year, they found the child locked in the closet, so desperate to get out that he’d pried up several of the closet’s floorboards. The closet had been sealed shut by a knife rammed into the door jamb. The closet also was filled with the boy’s urine and feces. He was clad only in underwear and had ligature marks on his wrists, indicating he’d been tied up.

They also found her 20-month-old in a playpen with a dirty diaper and severe diaper rash. Also in the playpen were a hot dog and ketchup. The neighbor who called police said she heard the 5-year-old screaming, "Why do she keep doing this to me?" - Read the entire article here


A Framingham woman scheduled to go on trial next month for allegedly helping her daughters beat up a 16-year-old girl at a mall is in trouble again, charged with restraining her son with belts. Police arrested 41-year-old Marilyn Camacho late Tuesday night and charged her with assaulting the 12-year-old boy.

Camacho’s lawyer, Mark Finkel, said Wednesday in Framingham District Court that his client was just trying to stop a misbehaving child who struck another family member.

Camacho has a long criminal history and has served jail time, but Finkel says she has turned her life around. - Read the entire article here


NEW YORK—A Florida woman who pleaded guilty to a fraud scheme in connection with the adoption of 11 disabled children who authorities say she abused has been sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison.

Judith Leekin, 63, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., collected approximately $1.68 million based on misrepresentations about her identity and the living situation of the children, prosecutors say. She admitted defrauding New York State and New York City out of adoption subsidies that were intended to provide for the care of 11 adopted children.

Prosecutors said that Leekin treated the children like prisoners. They say that she beat them and made them wear handcuffs, locking them in a room and depriving them of medical and dental care. They were not allowed to attend school, officials said and have been so physically and emotionally abused that they will never recover. - Read the entire article here


PITTSBURGH -- Police say a woman poisoned her baby with table salt in her Tennessee home and then tried to finish the job and kill the 4-month-old at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Amber Brewington, 21, was arrested Wednesday on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children. She's being held in the Allegheny County Jail, where she was undergoing psychiatric evaluation. - Read entire article here


A Veterans Way mother and her boyfriend, accused of raping and posting pornographic photographs of her 8-year-old daughter online in 2004, have pleaded guilty to federal child exploitation charges and face mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years in prison.

D'Andrea, 33, was arrested around midnight Dec. 3, 2004, when Gloucester police raided her apartment at 90 Veterans Way after the state Department of Social Services received an anonymous tip that a girl was being abused there and gained access to the Web site with photos of that girl.

According to police, D'Andrea confessed that night to sexually abusing and taking nude photos of her daughter with a cell phone camera and posting them online so Jordan could view them while he was on the road. The alleged victim and her 3-year-old sister were taken into protective custody by the Department of Social Services after D'Andrea's arrest and then placed in foster care. - Read entire article here

I wanted to post this story because it not only breaks the female as an offender stereotype but it also breaks one that is discussed even less and that is elderly women as a possible offender:

June 26, 2008 - Adrienne Laflamme, 60 , described as a long-time employee of Brevard County District Schools who taught science at the Juvenile Detention Center, was arrested and charged her with 15 counts of unlawful sex with a 17-year-old male she taught days earlier.

Police say a few days after the inmate's release, Laflamme made contact with the boy, picked him up at his home and began a sexual relationship that encompassed approximately four weeks. During this time the two had sex at least 15 times including one encounter where the two shared sex with another teenage boy, according to police.

Later, police say LaFlamme left the area for vacation and allowed the victim to use her vehicle. After LaFlamme learned she was under investigation through a co-worker, police say she falsely reported her vehicle stolen.

According to police, further investigation revealed LaFlamme was prepared to lie to police and that she encouraged the victim to lie as well.

July 31 - Prosecutors formally charged Laflamme with 25 felonies and two misdemeanors for sexual misconduct with two students. Laflamme is being held at the Brevard County jail without bond.

Originally arrested on 15 counts of unlawful sex with a minor, prosecutors added five additional counts of unlawful sex with the teen and charged Laflamme with lewd and lascivious conduct, exhibition, battery and molestation of a 14-year-old she allegedly engaged in a threesome with herself and the older boy.

Now how many people do you think would believe this story if the kids had reported this to someone? Who would ever suspect the grandmother? A grandfather yes but the grandmother? And a threesome with a 14 year old?

Ok this is just awful. Probation for murdering her daughter?? Wow.

This article is from Newsnet5 and you can read the entire article here:


Mom Who Starved Daughter Gets Lifetime Probation
Police Find Life Insurance Policy Taken Out Week Before 2-Year-Old's Death
POSTED: 8:45 am EDT August 14, 2008

PHOENIX -- A judge sentenced a west Phoenix woman to lifetime probation Tuesday after she admitted to starving her 2-year-old daughter to death.

Eboni Perri, 26, had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of attempted child abuse.

Her daughter, Nakeisha Walker, was pronounced dead at a Phoenix hospital on March 5, 2005. She weighed only 14 pounds at the time, NewsChannel5 sister station ABC15 in Phoenix reported.

After Nakeisha's death, police searched Perri's apartment. Officers found no baby formula, cups, plates or utensils, they said.

They did find a $15,000 life insurance policy Perri took out on her daughter seven days before her death.

To me this smacks of using the foster care system as a means of supporting themselves and seeing the child or children as commodities.

From FoxNews comes this article:

Court Hears Testimony in Case of Australian Youth Left to Die in Agony in Backyard

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A 12-year-old girl was left without food or water to die in the backyard of her foster home, delirious with pain and unable to move, a court heard Monday.

Crown Prosecutor Richard Coates said doctors at Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) uncovered a "massive 1.5 litres of puss" in the child's leg, caused by a fracture to her left thigh.

Sisters Toni Melville, 43, and Denise Reynolds, 42, have been charged with the manslaughter of the girl, who first started to limp following a school sports day.

Three weeks later, on July 12 last year, she died from a blood and bone infection.

Coates said osteomyelitis was a condition common in children that doctors would have had "no difficulty diagnosing."

"With medical treatment she could have made a full recovery," he said on the first day of a Northern Territory Supreme Court trial in Darwin.

"Even if medical treatment had been sought on the last day ... when her heart stopped beating, she would have still had a fighting chance of survival."

Coates said Reynolds was a "stubborn" woman who insisted the child had sustained a sports injury which would improve with exercise.

When the girl refused, Reynolds would "smack her leg with a stick".

"(The child) was unable to stand unassisted and when she was forced to she would just fall to the ground," Coates said during opening submissions.

"When assistance was not forthcoming to help her to the toilet she would urinate and defecate in her clothes where she lay."

Coates said social workers who visited the three-bedroom Palmerston home - which housed 17 people - the day before the death found the child lying on the kitchen floor crying.

When she was told to have a shower she struggled to walk and had to use the walls for support.

Coates said the jury would also hear evidence that, hours before her death, the girl was "punished" for soiling her clothes and taken out to the backyard.

"The children were told they were not allowed to help her get food or drink," he said.

"You will hear evidence from children who were out playing in the yard that later in the day (the girl) began to talk about fairies and witches and she said a limousine was coming to pick her up ... (The girl) said yeh, I can see the light now, and she just stopped breathing."

Melville told police she called Triple 0 but Coates said records showed the first call she made was to her sister.

The child was pronounced dead at RDH later that evening.

Coates said the jury might find both women were "genuinely distressed" by the death, but the standard of care they offered her had "grievously fallen short" of what would be expected of a reasonable person.

The trial before Justice Trevor Riley continues.

I am reposting this article with the kind permission of its author Dr. Helen Smith:



Can Women be Predators?

I was talking to a friend the other day about all the female teachers in the news who have been having sex with teenage boys. Her response was that these women must have low self-esteem, feel bad about their marriage or have some other reason for engaging in this behavior. When I asked her if she would give the same leeway to men who fondle teen girls (note, I did not even go as far as saying having sex with them), she shuddered at the mere thought of that and said, "No, they're men, that's what they do."

I was surprised because this female friend prides herself on not stereotyping others. I asked her if she thought that only men were predators, to which she replied, "well, I guess a woman could be a predator but I never thought about it." She stopped herself and said, "you know, I just assumed that was the way things were, but that can't be right." I think the idea of all men as potential predators is so ingrained in our society that we do not stop to think that the idea might be not only preposterous, but that it supposes that women are not predators.

In an incredibly insightful book entitled, When She Was Bad: How and Why Women Get Away With Murder, Patricia Pearson explains that we often mistake women for angels. We always want to see women as victims, rather than perpretrators of crime--that thought is too scary, I think, because we want to believe that the last person who would hurt us is a mother.

So we do anything we can to document that women are victims, rather than predators. When we look at crime rates, we see tables that cite the percentage of incarcerated women who were abused as children. There is typically not such a table for men---even though more boys are physically abused in childhood than girls. We try to justify why a girl would grow up to be a woman who harms others but we have no such excuse for men. Pearson says that this is because we clearly seek a preemptive cause for female transgressions that preserves an emphasis on victimization. "It is not the effect of abuse on future criminality that truly concerns us. It is the desire to avoid seeing women as willful aggressors."

Just take a look at any TV show on Lifetime or We--women are always victims and rarely aggressors. They fight only in self-defense and never out of the normal human emotions of greed, lust, or anger. Oxygen Network started to get progressive for a while with Snapped, a show about women who kill for the reasons just listed, but they quickly surcombed to the feminist dogma that women only harm others because they are forced to by men. (Notice the language of the cultural facists involved in the link to this freebattered women's site where they describe Snapped as a "misogynist, homophobic" show).

As long as we believe that women do not possess the full range of human emotions, we will continue to see them as victims of circumstance. The real tragedy in this is that the real victims of these predator women (who are often children) will never see justice served and the rest of us who are female will live with stereotypes that have not moved us beyond the 19th century.

This is the last (so far) of the articles on this case. I can not begin to put into words what I am thinking and feeling about this case.

You can read Part I here, Part II here and Part III here:

This story is from the LA TIMES:


Friends and family say they suspected that Starkeisha Brown beat her 5-year-old son -- but nobody called authorities. Such inaction has its roots in distrust of police and child-protection workers.

By Ari B. Bloomekatz, Cara Mia DiMassa and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
June 21, 2008

In Starkeisha Brown's small circle of South Los Angeles, it was no secret that her 5-year-old son was the victim of abuse.

Friends and family said they suspected that Brown beat the boy -- and a few even witnessed it. They talked among themselves about what to do, and confronted Brown on at least one occasion.

But no one called authorities.

County child-welfare officials didn't find out about his cigarette burns, whip marks and other injuries until a stranger at a Metro Rail Green Line platform called a county hotline earlier this month after the boy told her: "She put my hand on top of the stove."

The boy's plight has sparked widespread outrage, with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ordering an investigation into why officials couldn't do more to help him.

Such problems are particularly present in neighborhoods like the one where the Browns lived, where distrust of police and child-protection workers is high and residents worry that calling authorities could make problems worse.

"I don't think it is that they are colluding with the abuser," said Carole Shauffer, executive director of the Youth Law Center, a San Francisco-based public interest law firm. "For the most part, it's fear of what's going to happen, fear of nothing happening, fear of collateral consequences, and denial, that 'it's none of my business, and it can't be as bad as it seems to me.' "

Authorities allege that Brown's son was subjected to extreme abuse for more than a year, including being malnourished, burned with cigarette butts on his body and genitals, hung from a doorjamb by his wrists and whipped, left to sit in his own urine and feces and severely burned on his hands, which were held to a hot stove. Brown and two other women have been charged with child abuse and torture.

Friends and family said they had suspicions but hoped they were unfounded.

The boy's great-grandmother, Barbara Moreno, said she noticed cuts, scratches and bumps on him, but dropped the subject when he told her the injuries were caused by a fall and a dog attack.

Sometimes you turn your head," said Vivian Daniels, a family friend who about a month ago finally asked Brown about the bruises and scratches on her son's body. She said she didn't call police or the Department of Children and Family Services because she feared it would make things worse for the boy -- and perhaps even for her and her children.

"It's tit-for-tat," Daniels said. "In South-Central, we don't do that. I'm just telling you how it is."

Daniels said she finally decided to talk to Brown about her suspicions around the time she tried to throw an impromptu party for the boy's 5th birthday.

She wrote his name on a birthday cake and hoped he could celebrate at her house with her daughter, whose birthday was around the same time in May. She went to Brown's apartment to ask if her son could go to the party.

"Hell, nah," Brown replied, according to Daniels.

Around the same time, Daniels said she saw Brown "whip the baby butt naked." She said her 11-year-old daughter, Rayonna, had seen the boy hung from a door by his shirt and forced to eat on his hands and knees "like a dog," she said.

"We had heard that the little boy got messed up," Daniels said.

We have seen time and time again that people say, 'I've seen child abuse, I've heard it, I've heard screams, but I do nothing,' " said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable. "People are so reluctant to speak out on it."

Hutchinson and others said suspicion and fear of authorities runs deep in parts of South L.A. -- and that extends beyond the police to social service agencies and other public providers. They said some people are afraid that calling authorities could end up making the family situation worse -- particularly if the child is taken into foster care. Others fear authorities might end up checking on them.

Hutchinson said residents are reluctant to call authorities in such cases because of a strong belief that it's wrong to interfere in the way other parents treat their children.

They "feel that children, no matter what, are really the province of the mother and everything they do is their right and their business," he said. "Someone hears a child screaming, they're not going to say anything because their thinking is that's their child, that's their business."

It took a stranger -- the person on the Green Line platform -- to finally call the county with a tip.

As a result, Brown and the boy were ordered to report June 9 to a children's services office to discuss the abuse allegations. But Brown and her roommate, Krystal Denise Matthews, left the boy with a stranger on the street and instead took a healthy-looking 4-year-old to the meeting, trying to pass him off as Brown's son. They also brought a girl, about 6, authorities said.

The stranger felt uneasy with the 5-year-old, who looked sickly and injured. He asked people nearby what to do, and someone called authorities. County officials have called for a broad-based investigation of the abuse, and Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Gloria Molina earlier this week sponsored an ordinance that would better streamline communication among more than half a dozen county and state agencies that all had information relevant to the boy's situation.

In 2005, county child-welfare officials investigated tips that Brown's son had been abused but closed the file after finding the allegations inconclusive.

Brown is a known gang member who as a minor served time in the California Youth Authority for battery. As an adult she was convicted of robbery and petty theft. In March 2007 she was the subject of an arrest warrant for a parole violation, but authorities could not find her.

Molina and others have noted, however, that she still managed to receive welfare benefits during that time. Abuse like that suffered by the 5-year-old boy is "so common," said Jorja Leap, a professor at UCLA and an expert in crisis intervention and trauma response.

Leap said that in cases like this, the adults who do not report them are dealing with "denial, denial, denial. They absolutely, positively do not want to put the pieces together because it means they would have to do something."

Anyone interested in making donations for the 5-year-old boy can contact Michael Wrice of the county Department of Children and Family Services at (213) 739-6202.

This is the third article in the series. You can read Part I here and Part II here:

This article is from the LA TIMES:

By Andrew Blankstein and Ari B. Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
June 18, 2008

Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday demanded an immediate investigation into why a 5-year-old South Los Angeles boy suffered "unbearable" abuse for two years without detection by authorities or social service agencies.

And, on the same day, Los Angeles police announced the arrest of a third suspect in the case -- a 26-year-old babysitter who they say disfigured the boy's hands by burning them on a stove.

Police say that La Tanya Monikue Jones also conspired with the boy's mother, Starkeisha Brown, 24, and her live-in girlffriend, Krystal Denise Matthews, 21, to hide the abuse.

Brown and Matthews were each formally charged Tuesday with one count of torture and conspiracy, as well as other charges of child abuse, corporal injury to a child and dissuading a witness. They were scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Compton, but the hearing was moved to June 25. Brown's and Matthews' bail were set at $1.1 million and $1.08 million, respectively.

The two are expected to plead not guilty, and each faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Monikue Jones, the babysitter, has been charged with conspiracy to dissuade a witness, corporal injury to a child and child abuse, among other accusations. According to authorities, Monikue Jones let her 4-year-old son go with Brown and Matthews to a meeting with Department of Children and Family Services officials last week in a bid to fool them into thinking there was no abuse in their home.

According to authorities, Brown and Matthews have a history of troubled behavior.

Brown was a convicted felon and known gang member who for more than a year was wanted on a no-bail arrest warrant.

Matthews pleaded guilty in June to slashing her younger brother across the face with a box-cutter.

Nonetheless, Brown and Matthews shared their small South L.A. apartment with Brown's 5-year-old son. Over a two-year period, authorities said, the boy endured "unbearable psychological and physical abuse," including cigarette burns, near-starvation and beatings. The conditions went undetected by county officials until an anonymous caller alerted them earlier this month.

Department of Children and Family Services officials declined to provide specific information about the case, but suggested that they didn't know about possible abuse of the boy until being tipped off a few weeks ago.

Agency spokesman Stuart Riskin said the department would respond only when there was an open case or if it was contacted via its child protection hotline. He said a parent's gang membership, outstanding bench warrants or criminal background alone would not necessarily prompt the county to check on the welfare of the child.

Brown has two prior state prison sentences, for robbery and petty theft, as well as misdemeanor violations. She was in prison for at least a year after giving birth to her son, whose name has not been released. During that time, the boy stayed with relatives, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Brown appears to have regained custody of her son when she left prison in January 2007. But that March, a judge issued an arrest warrant for her in connection with parole violations. It is unclear why officials could not locate her.

Matthews also has a criminal history, including convictions for assault with a deadly weapon and forgery. In May, Matthews got into a fight with her younger brother, slashing him in the face with a box-cutter. She was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty.

The probation report related to that case describes Matthews as someone trying to raise children on her own against hard odds.

"She is apparently another example of a young woman struggling to establish a life for herself after being raised 'in the system,' " the report said. "She does not appear to have had positive parental role models. She appears to have had difficulty in adjusting to life in placement, given her criminal record and noted contacts with law enforcement."

In the probation report, Matthews said she graduated from Hollywood High School and attended Westwood College. Matthews was granted probation, with officials saying she should be ordered to take anger-management and parenting classes.

In the report, Matthews said she wanted to move in with Brown, whom she identified as her aunt.

Los Angeles police said the 5-year-old was hung by his hands and wrists from a doorjamb and beaten with some sort of leash or chain. He was routinely denied food and water, burned with cigarettes on his body and genitals, and left to sit in his own urine and feces.

The boy's mother allegedly committed some of the acts for about two years without detection -- until last week.

Because of the anonymous tip, Brown and Matthews were ordered to report June 9 to a children's services office along with the boy to discuss the abuse allegations.

But the pair left the boy with a complete stranger on the street and instead took a healthy-looking 4-year-old to the meeting, trying to pass him off as Brown's son. They also brought a girl, about 6, authorities said.

The stranger felt uneasy with a 5-year-old who looked sickly and injured. He asked people nearby what to do and eventually someone called authorities.

Meanwhile, the two women were being interviewed by a social worker who became increasingly skeptical.

During the interview, officials got word of the boy's abuse, and the social worker began asking more pointed questions and challenging the pair's story, authorities said. Halfway through the interview, the two women sprinted from the office, abandoning the 4-year-old boy and his sister at the office. The women were arrested over the weekend.

The boy was "in pretty bad shape" and was listed in guarded condition for about a week , authorities said, but they said his condition was improving.

If anyone ever says that women are not capable of committing violent crimes or that they do so because of a male co-hort point them to this story. This is part II and you can read Part I here.

This is another article from the LA TIMES and is a follow up to the one posted earlier:

The pair allegedly tried to pass off another boy as the son of one of the women during an agency interview. The actual son may be permanently disfigured from stove burns, officials say.

By Andrew Blankstein and Ari B. Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
June 17, 2008

For two years, authorities said, a mother subjected her son to what veteran detectives described as shocking, ritualistic abuse.

The 5-year-old was hung by his hands and wrists from a door jamb and beaten with some sort of leash or chain, police said. He was routinely denied food and water, burned with cigarettes on his body and genitals, and left to sit in his own urine and feces.

In the past few weeks, his hands were held to a hot stove, according to Capt. Fabian Lizarraga, causing injuries that may leave them permanently disfigured.

Starkeisha Brown, the boy's 24-year-old mother, allegedly committed the acts for about two years without detection -- until a bizarre series of events last week.

"It causes you to question the humanity of some people," Assistant Police Chief Earl Paysinger said about the abuse. "Whether they have a heart or a soul."

It started with an anonymous tip to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services saying there was a problem at the South Los Angeles apartment near 110th and Figueroa streets.

On Monday, June 9, Brown and her live-in girlfriend, Krystal Matthews, 19, were ordered to a children services office along with the boy to discuss the allegation of abuse.

Instead, the pair left the abused boy with a complete stranger and attended the meeting with a healthy-looking 4-year-old they said was Brown's son, along with a girl of about 6, authorities said. Police said they are trying to determine those children's identities.

They told the stranger, " 'Watch him for us.' They said 'We'll be right back,' " Lizarraga said.

While the women were being interviewed, the stranger who had been asked to watch the boy started asking people in the neighborhood what he should do with the 5-year-old, who looked sickly and injured. Eventually someone called authorities.

Officials got word of the boy's condition as they were interviewing Brown and Matthews and began asking more pointed questions and challenging the pair's story, Lizarraga said.

Halfway through the interview the two women sprinted from the office, abandoning the 4-year-old and his sister at the office, police said.

"They realize that no one is buying their ruse," said Lt. Vincent Neglia of the LAPD's Abused Child Unit, and "they bug out."

Lizarraga said it was fortunate that the stranger sought help. He "had the sense that something was not right, that the situation he had been placed in was not right," the captain said.

Had Brown brought in her own son, the social worker would have seen a child with a pot belly suggestive of severe malnutrition, burns across his body in various stages of healing, bruises, and badly damaged and burned hands, Neglia said. Some scars appeared to be fairly old.

"This wasn't just one big beating," Neglia said. "You can tell by the different stages of injuries that this was prolonged."

Police said the most severe malnourishment occurred in the last two to three months.

Authorities launched a hunt for Brown and Matthews while authorities took the child to a hospital where he remains.

The boy was in guarded condition through last week, but is beginning to show signs of improvement, authorities said.

Matthews was arrested Friday and Brown turned herself in to police on Saturday.

They were arrested on multiple charges, including suspicion of torture, and the pair are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.

Both women have a history of crime and violence. According to court documents, Matthews was sentenced to three years probation earlier this year for assault with a deadly weapon.

The boy's mother served a total of two and a half years in prison for two separate convictions: one for felony robbery of an elderly woman in 2003 and later for petty theft, when she and another woman stole a bracelet and other items from a Macy's department store.

Most recently, Brown was incarcerated from March 2006 to January 2007. During that period, the boy was in the custody of relatives, authorities said.

Police said the bulk of the abuse appeared to begin when Brown was released on probation.

Neglia said that Brown's probation officer recently had a hard time locating her because she was not living at her listed address.

Children services officials, citing confidentiality rules, would not disclose why the boy was returned to his mother after she was released from prison and whether appropriate checks on the boy's welfare were made, given that she was on probation.

DCFS spokesperson Stuart Riskin said there were about 160,000 calls each year to the agency's child protection hotline.

In the South Los Angeles neighborhood where Brown and Matthews lived with the boy, neighbors said they were shocked to hear of the abuse and some said they were angered it had not been reported earlier.

"Everybody's furious," said Katherine Irvin, who recently moved into an adjacent house she said was abandoned by a group of men. "They must've heard something."

Detectives said Monday that they were still trying to determine why a mother would so badly abuse her son.

"So far we have not come up with the answer," Lizarraga said. "Our victim was not on anybody's radar, either law enforcement or DCFS. He wasn't in the system; there was no recent [reported] abuse that could be seen," he said.

Since reports of the abuse became public, dozens of people have called police and social service agencies looking for ways to help the boy, authorities said. One elderly woman called police to see if she could donate her most recent Social Security check, authorities said.

Those interested in contributing can contact Michael Wrice with the DCFS at 213-739-6202.

This story is a series of stories that I have broken into various articles by date. I will say this story brings up a lot of anger in me and more so as I read the follow up articles to this one.

This story is from the LA TIMES:

2 women arrested in 'unbearable abuse' of 5-year-old boy

The mother surrendered to the LAPD on torture charges after a public appeal was issued to find her. Her live-in girlfriend was arrested a day later.

Los Angeles Times, USA, By Ari B. Bloomekatz and Joel Rubin, Staff Writers,
June 15, 2008

The mother of a 5-year-old-boy and her live-in girlfriend have been arrested in connection with what authorities describe as "unbearable physical and psychological abuse" of the child, police said Saturday.

The mother, Starkeisha Brown, 24, turned herself in to the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th Street Division station late Friday night after officers made a public plea for help in finding the women and released their pictures. Brown was being held without bail on charges of torture.

The other woman, Krystal Matthews, 21, was arrested Saturday by detectives when she showed up for her appointment at the county Department of Children and Family Services. She was being held on $100,000 bail on charges of willful harm or injury to a child.

Police said both women have a history of violence.

The boy, who was in guarded condition at a local hospital, was rescued Monday by a stranger who found him abandoned and called authorities.

On that same day, the two women had an appointment with the Department of Children and Family Services and had brought the healthy child of a mutual friend and tried to pass him off as Brown's son.

Police said the women routinely beat the boy, forced him to put his hands on a hot stove, burned his body and genitals with cigarettes and often would not let him eat or drink.

At a news conference Friday, LAPD Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said that because of the burns from the stove, the boy no longer can open his hands. Lt. Vincent Neglia of the LAPD's Abused Child Unit said in a statement Saturday that the abuse was "akin to a level of torture we hope our military personnel would never encounter."

Residents in the South Los Angeles neighborhood where the boy lived said Saturday that they were shocked to hear of the child's treatment and disgusted by the abuse allegations against the mother and girlfriend.

"I never knew a parent could do something like this. It was just a shock," said Mary Williams, 68, who lives in an apartment complex adjacent to where neighbors said Brown and Matthews live in the 11000 block of Figueroa Street. Williams' 9-year-old grandson saw the boy often, and occasionally the two played together.

"How could you just do this and run off and leave him?" she said. "I hurt for that baby."

Another neighbor said, "If I [had known] anything, they would've been caught a long time ago."

The predominantly African American and Latino neighborhood is northwest of the intersection of the 110 and 105 freeways. The street scape is dominated by modest apartment complexes and single-story homes, auto body and machine shops, liquor stores and small motels. Across the street from the women's home is Holy Rock Baptist Church and an Ultra Oil gas station.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate in the neighborhood, in the 90061 ZIP Code, is nearly triple the national average, and about 10% of the population are homeowners.

This article is from ABC News 20/20 titled:




Tawny Kitaen and Chuck Finley's marriage was a sizzling example of beauty meets brawn in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition four years ago. She was all legs and curves, with a mane of sleek, sexy hair. He was an all-star baseball pitcher for the California Angels and then the Cleveland Indians.

But their high-flying marriage suffered a scandalous breakdown. There were allegations of domestic violence and acts of brutality with a bizarre twist. Though Finley is a strapping 6-foot-6-inch-tall pro athlete and Kitaen is just 5 feet 7 inches tall, she was arrested for beating him.

Last April, Kitaen was charged with spousal abuse after a nasty fight in the couple's car. She allegedly kicked him in the arm and leg and twisted his ear. At one point, she allegedly pressed her high-heeled shoe on his foot as it was on the accelerator.

Kitaen initially entered a not guilty plea, but agreed to 52 weeks of anger management in an effort to get the charges dropped. Finley has filed for divorce.

An Equal-Opportunity Crime

The couple's story left many wondering: How could a woman batter a man? It happens more often than you think.

Although women are most often the victims of domestic violence, surprisingly, men are battered by their partners more than 800,000 times a year, according to surveys cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I would do anything — sock 'em, put my hands around their neck, choke 'em," said Angela Corey, a serial abuser.

Meeting Corey today, she comes across as a bubbly, wholesome Sacramento housewife. "I'm adored by so many people. People think I'm the greatest thing in the world," she said.

It's hard to imagine, but she said she was once downright vicious, battering 15 different boyfriends. She's telling her story now to help dispel some of the common myths about women and violence.

The conventional wisdom is that women who are involved in domestic violence are acting in self-defense. Corey says that's not always the case.

She recalled the first time she abused a boyfriend. She said it was sparked when she didn't get her way. "So I reacted. I chased him with knives," she said.

She said her anger was often triggered by not getting her way, or being called names, or getting in an argument over something silly. She said she felt the need to get her point across. "And to get it across, I used my fist," she said.

Corey said she felt that her boyfriends had caused her to act abusively.

Like most women who batter, Corey said she learned to be angry early in life. She said she was molested by a trusted adult as an adolescent.

Flashing back on that same rage at being violated, Corey said, may have contributed to one final, horrifying assault when she and a boyfriend had come home from a bar with a couple of friends.

She said her boyfriend was making a sexual advance, and pushed her down on a bed. When she got up and he tried to kiss her, she bit him hard. "I felt something in my mouth, and I spit it out, and it was his lip," she said.

Corey said, at the time, she wasn't remorseful, or sad, or sorry for what she'd done. She was simply scared about going to prison.

Women Batterers Often View Themselves as Victims

Untangling the roots of their rage is part of what Corey and other women do in a batterers class, but they don't get a lot of sympathy for their troubles. "They come into this program and they're absolutely convinced that what they did was justified. … They make an awful lot of excuses," said Claudia Dias, an attorney and psychologist, who runs batterers programs for men and women. Angela Corey attends one of her classes.

Dias thinks women who batter are much harder to treat than their male counterparts. According to Dias, female batterers "start from a place where everyone sees them as victims." She said men tell the very same stories of childhood abuse, yet men are never excused for hitting women. Women, on the other hand, have gotten just the opposite message.

"Look what's on television. It's a comedy when a woman slaps a man," Dias said. Our culture is replete, she said, with subtle and not-so-subtle permission for women to hit men. As a result, men are subject to a different set of rules. Many don't hit back, and very few call for help.

According to a controversial, landmark study co-authored by Richard Gelles, a University of Pennsylvania dean and psychologist, women are seven times more likely than men to be injured in domestic violence, but women also hit men as often as men hit women. Gelles said both genders do it because they want control.

Gelles said, "Men will often batter because they want to be left alone. An awful lot of the women I interviewed who use fairly extreme forms of violence, including stabbing their husbands and boyfriends, said very specifically and consistently, 'It was the only way I could get him to put the paper down and pay attention to me!'"

Angela Corey's case illustrates Gelles' point. "You start to yell and scream and you're not getting their attention, so you kind of vent out and hit them," she said.

Taking It Like a Man

It seems incredible that it took 15 boyfriends and countless acts of violence before Corey was reported to the police, but several men who talked with 20/20 say they know firsthand how it happens. Whether they've suffered a single brutal incident, or years of battery, men rarely call for help.

They risked ridicule to share their side of the story with 20/20.

Most men in this situation, such as Jerry Miranda (video clip is on Blog sidebar), have a hard time convincing friends, colleagues, even the legal system that they are victims of domestic violence.

The disbelief continued up until the day that his wife, who had battered him for 25 years, tried to kill him at work. She came at him with a knife, and struck him so hard with it that she actually bent the knife blade in his shoulder.

He said it took four men to hold her back, and that she threatened to return and kill, not only him, but everyone he worked with as well. She is now serving 10 years in prison for attempted murder.

Equal Time for the Crime

The only way to stop female batters, many men believe, is to hold them just as accountable for violence as men.

Angela Corey agrees. She said, "Going to jail made me stop. … I'm telling you, reality hit me that day like nothing. Because I thought, this is forever."

Corey said she swore off violence the day she went to jail. But it took months of counseling before she had a true change of heart. She never thought what she was doing was wrong until she started her classes.

"I learned that it's a lot easier than I think it is to control my temper," she said.

A lot of the cases I come across of women sexually abusing males comes from the teaching profession. And yes I believe that most teachers find this behavior as awful as I do. This is not a slam on the teaching profession but rather to show that offenders are not just men. I would like to also point out that many of these women were married and had children of their own.

And consider this quote - "The 37-year-old Arkansas woman is the 3,496th teacher to be arrested this year on charges that she had sex with an underage student." - The Smoking Gun, November 2005

Here are some cases that I have found. These are only cases from 2008 and where they were found or pled guilty and only cases of sexual abuse. There are many more cases of other criminal behaviors as well as cases of those accused that I did not put into this list. It puts back to school time in a whole different light:

Maurna Cay Thornton, 40, a former teacher at Hornbeck High School in Hornbeck, Louisiana has pleaded guilty to a charge of carnal knowledge of a juvenile. (He was 14) - http://http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080801/NEWS01/808010323/1002

Kanesa Hopkins, a 31-year-old a 7th grade math teacher. Hopkins has been a teacher at the school for 8 years and is the 2007 Westview Middle School’s “Teacher of the Year”, so selected by her fellow teachers. In addition to being the girl’s 7th grade teacher Hopkins was also her Sunday school teacher. Kanesa Hopkins was found guilty after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of Lewd Act Upon a Minor Under 16. The original charge of Criminal Sexual Conduct With a Minor was dismissed. (She was 14) - Blog Admin note that this has been verified at the Charleston County Court Clerk’s web site.

Brandy Lynn Gonzales, 28, a former fifth-grade teacher pled guilty to four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child. It was alleged that Brandy Gonzales victimized four male students in the same fifth-grade class and a fifth boy from a different class in 2004 and that she would touch them under their desks and that she sexually assaulted them at her apartment and at movie theaters. - http://http//www.cbs19.tv/Global/story.asp?S=8788432

Keri Ann Brekne, 28, pleaded guilty in Warren County, New Jersey to a second-degree sexual assault charge. As a result of her guilty plea, Brekne who is already facing up to 50 years in prison in Pennsylvania is now facing up to 10 years in prison in New Jersey. (She was 14) - http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/warren_county_teacher_pleads_g.html

Heather Thorsby, 34, has pleaded guilty to three counts of statutory rape by an authority figure and 2 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure. (She was 17) http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080731/COUNTY090101/80731026

Today Sarah Bridges, 24, pleaded guilty to rape in the third degree and sodomy in the third degree. (He was a male middle school student). - http://http://www.kval.com/news/local/25512229.html

Melody Ybona Gawliu, 24, a former teacher’s aide and summer school counselor at El Camino High School in South San Francisco, California has pleaded no contest to oral copulation with a minor. (She was 16). - http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=95639

Jennifer Gonzales, 32, has pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted forcible sexual abuse, a third-degree felony. (He was 16) - http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/268685/17/

Heather Chesser, 26, has pleaded guilty to statutory rape and will be sentenced on September 26. (He was a "teen") - http://www.crossville-chronicle.com/local/local_story_206163849.html

Michelle Morano, 34, a former English teacher at West Essex Regional High School in North Caldwell, New Jersey has been sentenced for having sex with a 17-year-old special education student. - http://http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/west_essex_teacher_gets_probat.html

Gay Lyn Turley, 42, in a plea deal with prosecutors pleaded guilty today to sexual conduct with a minor and admitted that she violated the girl between June 1 and June 30, 2003. (She was 16) - http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/2008/07/24/20080724mr-turley0725.html

Heather Kennedy, 25, pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct (He was 16) - http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--teacherarrested0722jul22,0,2065162.story

Katherine Harder, 31, today entered a no contest plea to an amended charge of aggravated endangering of a child (He was 17) - http://cjonline.com/stories/071708/bre_teacher.shtml

Today Anne Knopf, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child (He was 13 and her daughters former boyfriend) - http://www.twincities.com/ci_9902949

Tabatha Fidler, 27, has pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual battery. (He was 16) - http://www.wtol.com/global/story.asp?s=8677601

On Friday Brenda Baillargeon, 39, entered a no contest pleas to one count of sex assault of a student by school staff and one count of child enticement with sexual contact. In exchange for her no context plea three other felony charges were dismissed. (He was 16) - http://www.twincities.com/ci_9845261

A St. Louis County Circuit Court has found Cathy Heminghaus, 47, guilty on three counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, two counts of a teacher having sex with a student and two counts of plying minors with alcohol. (The 4 victims age ranged between 13 and 16) - Jury recommends prison for teacher in sex case

It took the jury less than two hours of deliberation to find Stephanie Stein, 31, guilty on two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, one count of using the Internet to communicate with a minor to commit a crime and one count of distributing obscene material of a sexual nature to a minor. (He was 15) - http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080703/NEWS02/80702069/1001/NEWS

Janelle Batkins, 42, of Harrison Township, Michigan, a former French teacher at Roseville High School and “Teacher of the Year in 2002″ has pleaded no contest to two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. (He was 17) - http://www.candgnews.com/Homepage-Articles/2008/07-02-08/EE-FRENCHTEACHER.asp

Christel C. Gravlin, 33, a 10th-grade English teacher pleaded guilty today to one count of 3rd-degree rape. (He was 15). - http://www.newswatch50.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=ad2651b2-22b9-4716-a208-a2beafaf6448

Monica Ann Cluck, 25, a kindergarten teacher was found guilty on two counts of first degree sexual assault and guilty on the contributing to the delinquency of a minor. (Her victims were 15 and 17) - http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=8533123&nav=0jsh

Marsha J. Mote, aka, “Marcy” Mote, 37, a former teacher at Tyro Community Christian School, in Tyro, Kansas has entered a no contest plea to a charge of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. (She was 14) - http://www.cjournal.com/local/local_story_178011226.html

Elizabeth Munn, 32, an eighth grade social studies teacher has pleaded guilty to the third-degree rape count. (He was 15) - http://capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/117454/teacher-pleads-guilty-to-rape/Default.aspx

Cecelia Schneider, 54, a former math teacher at Monmouth Regional High School in Tinton Falls, New Jersey has pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography and endangering the welfare of a child. Schneider, who was arrested in 2004, was indicted last year on allegations that she performed or simulated a sexual act on a 2-year-old boy in 2002 and sent images of the act to others via e-mail. - http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080604/NEWS01/806040394

Tabitha Adams, 35, a second-grade teacher pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, an 8-year-old female relative. Adams has also been charged in Richardson County Nebraska with two counts each of first-degree sexual assault of a child and aiding and abetting a felony and she also faces federal child pornography charges. - http://www.kwch.com/Global/story.asp?S=8399453

Kerry Smith Foulk, 47, a former substitute teacher at Nederland High School in Nederland, Texas has pleaded guilty to felony charges of indecency with a child for engaging in sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl in September 2006 - http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19728466&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6

Rebecca Becker, 28, of Walden, NY a former teacher has pleaded guilty to a charge of rape in the third degree. (Both victims were 16) - http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080521/NEWS/80521021

Cris Lynn Morris, 29, a social science and history teacher as well as girl’s soccer and track coach pleaded guilty to three lesser counts of third-degree felony unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old. - http://www.localnews8.com/Global/story.asp?S=8337433&nav=menu554_2

Pamela Balogh, 39, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania a field hockey coach and teacher was convicted of second-degree sexual assault, third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child, and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact for sexually assaulting a female student while a teacher and coach at Immaculata High School, a Catholic private school, in Somerville, New Jersey. (She was 15) - http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2007/12/somerville_high_school_coach_c.html

Jennifer Diane Mally, a 26-year-old Paradise Valley High School English teacher and cheerleader coach pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual conduct with a minor. (He was 16) - http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/115942 (Note on this case. Not only was she recorded calling the victim and pressuring him to lie to his parents about them she was also taped telling her husband "I know what I am doing, I watch CSI". Even worse at her sentencing she received a show of support from family members and several students who wore “Team Mally” t-shirts.)

A judge approved a plea deal under which Anastasia Pappas, 41, a former teacher at Blackhawk Middle School, pleaded guilty to felony criminal sexual assault. (He was 15) - http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=186613

Diane Hillman, 39, a counselor at Ballou Junior High pled guilty to three counts of third-degree child rape and one count of third-degree child molestation has been sentenced to 5 years in prison. (She was 15) - http://www.komoradio.com/news/18315934.html

Teresa Engelbach, 22, a former substitute teacher and volunteer track coach at Senn-Thomas Middle School has pleaded guilty to one felony count of second-degree statutory rape one misdemeanor count of sexual misconduct. (He was 14) - http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/jeffersoncounty/story/92CB72188BE5747F8625742C006846DD?OpenDocument

Regina McKay, 33, a former computer teacher at Geronimo High School, in Geronimo, Oklahoma has pleaded “no contest” to the second degree rape of a 17-year-old male student in 2006. - http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=8131007

Laura E. Sieradzki, 34, a former special education teacher at McHenry High School West Campus in McHenry, Illinois has pleaded guilty to having sex with a 17-year-old male student. - http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=151320&src=1

Jodi Church, a former special education teacher was sentenced to 7 years prison for online enticement of a minor for sex. Jodi Church pleaded guilty to state charges for having sex with a Manual High School male student. As a result of her guilty plea Church was sentenced to 4.5-year to be served concurrently with a 7-year federal sentence she was given earlier. (One victim was 16) - http://www.kwqc.com/Global/story.asp?S=7922992

Marla Meek, 34, a former teacher at South Beauregard High School in Longville, Louisiana was today sentenced to five years in prison, with four years suspended, on her guilty plea to a charge of to carnal knowledge of a juvenile. (He was 15) - http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7907878&nav=0nqx

Meredith Hollen, 40, a former teacher and the mother of four, as part of a plea deal has pled guilty to a single count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust. (He was 13) - http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8325109

Allenna Williams Ward, 24, the daughter of a minister and a 7th grade Language Arts teacher has pleaded guilty to to having sex with at least five students. Ward pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and three counts of lewd acts on a minor. Ward admitted that she had sex with at least five boys, three 14-year-olds, and two 15-year-olds in cars, parks, a hotel and at the school. - http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=58633

Michelle VanMeter, 35, a former Catholic studies teacher at St. Jude Catholic School in Ft. Wayne, Indiana pled guilty morning to charges alleging that she molested a then 12-year-old boy. Reportedly VanMeter also admitted having sexual contact with the boy’s two older siblings, who were between 13 and 15 years old. In June VanMeter gave birth to baby. A paternity test revealed with 99.9 percent certainty the 15-year-old was the baby’s biological father. VanMeter has also pleaded guilty to a single count of child molesting, stemming from the molestation of another boy. - http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080302/LOCAL/803020412

Sister Norma Giannini, 79, has pled no contest to molesting two teenage boys, then 12 and 13-years-old, at a Milwaukee elementary school in the 1960s. - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-nun-abuse_webfeb02,1,7218385.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Jennifer Elizabeth Bagley 35, a substitute teacher, has been found guilty in a jury trial on charges involving sexual relations with a 15-year-old female student at Bullard High School, in Bullard, Texas in 2004. Jennifer Bagley, now 36 and already convicted of having an improper relationship between educator and student by a Smith County jury has entered into a plea deal and pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old Bullard High School student while Bagley worked as a substitute teacher there. - http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080124/NEWS01/801240302

Sandra Bratt, 31, a third-grade teacher entered a guilty plea in the Court of Common Pleas of Adams County on one count of rape of a victim under 13 years of age. (He was 11) - http://www.local12.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=54b3d387-757c-4804-82b4-53d0729519b8

Meredith L. Kane, 24, a former teacher at Lawrence High School has entered a guilty plea to one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a 15-year-old male student. - http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/jan/09/former_teacher_appeals_sentence/