Father and neighbor beat man suspected of molesting boy

I can’t say that I blame the man...damn, he was protecting his son, the way I see it!

 

Krish Carter (Broward Sheriff's Department)

• DAVIE - A father who thought his 3-year-old had been molested has been charged with attempted murder after police say he severely beat the man suspected of fondling his son.
  The beaten man has been hospitalized and is in a coma, and a neighbor police say took part in the attack has also been charged with attempted murder.
  Luke Petruschke, 38, spent the night at the home of Manuel Vidal Vega in the 5100 block of Davie Road and was preparing to drive away Saturday morning when Vega's child said he had been molested, police said.
  Vega, 27, immediately confronted Petruschke and soon was joined by his neighbor Krish Carter, 33. The two men smashed out the windows on Petruschke's car, dragged the driver out and pummeled him with punches, kicks, pieces of concrete and whatever else they could get their hands on, investigators said.
  When officers came to arrest him, Vega reportedly said: "That is my son, man. What would you do?"
  Officers had initially come to Vega's home in response to a report of a child being molested, said Davie police spokesman Sgt. Greg Gasse.
  When officers arrived, though, they found Petruschke injured. He stumbled out of a nearby wooded area upon seeing officers, his face and the rest of his head bloodied and severely swollen, police said. Vega and Carter told officers Petruschke had been in a car accident, but police determined that the damage to Petruschke's vehicle indicated otherwise.
  A neighbor later came forward and told police that he ahd witnessed Vega and Carter beating Petruschke and smashing the car and called 911.
  Vega and Carter were arrested and were being held Saturday night without bond at the Broward County Jail.
  Petruschke was hospitalized, placed in a medically induced coma and put in intenstive care. Police said they plan to charge him with lewd and lascivious molestation if he recovers.

Davie police: Father and neighbor beat man suspected of molesting boy -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Child Abuse...

 

There have been three recent cases where child abuse has either been accused, or parents have been convicted; that just really gets to me when there are many kids that are really being abused.  We, as a society, focus on the petty and let the horrendous continue. 

Wrote a blog post about it.  Like to read it? Here it go....

First we have the couple that used soap to wash out their daughters mouth, she then had an allergic reaction, so they took her to the hospital.  Ok, so I admit, if the account that I read of that incident was correct, leaving the soap in her mouth ten minutes for a bad word was overboard.  I got my mouth washed out with soap as a child, and I threw up from it as well, and was made to clean up my own mess...

But, I have a hard time meshing the fact that they were charged with child abuse and parents who are doing horrendous things, like raping their own children, are not even being charged.

Then we have the family that pulled the publicity stunt of faking that their 6 yr old had accidently flown off in the hot air balloon.  Ok, now they apparently are risk takers and media whores, so it is not surprising that people are not concerned about the well being of their children.  Apparently they take them on storm chases and dangerous outings, ok that I get!

What I don’t get is that their lawyer, David Lane, stated; 

"Do not do the perp walk for media consumption and arrest these people in full view of their children. That's child abuse. That's traumatic for kids."

Ok, I get that having the parents arrested in front of the kids is traumatic, but did he have to go as far as to say it is child abuse?

Again, I have a hard time meshing the fact that having parents arrested in front of their kids, in any situation, could be considered child abuse; when we have parents abusing their kids to death...literally.

I read today that ‘Nearly half of all Texas kids killed by abuse were in families with CPS histories’.  Yes, I do realize that is only one state; but with all the child deaths in the news all over the country, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more states with a percentage in the same range.

Which leads me to the final case that has gotten alot of media attention, while those of children being horribly abused are still suffering.  Apparently the social service workers in Italy had nothing more pressing to do, because they charged a mom with child abuse for being overly protective.  Well, they charge the grandparents as well.

This mom didn’t beat her son, or put cigarette’s out on his body, or scald him with water.  She didn’t let grown men come to her house to rape her son.  So, what did she do?  She cut his school snacks into bite sized pieces.  He is 12 years old, so that is going a bit too far, in my opinion.  But, is that really child abuse?  Why were they even investigating her one would wonder.

According to the article:

The parents divorced soon after the boy's birth and the father claimed that he wasn't permitted to see his son for nine years. Concerned about the child's welfare, he finally contacted social services and prosecutors opened an investigation into the mother and grandparents.

Ah ha!  So, there we have it, his father was concerned.  Ok, I buy that.  But, didn’t the social service workers have more pressing cases?  Maybe not, I don’t live in that country so I can’t speak with any first hand knowledge of what their child abuse rates are.

What is getting me with this is the media circus surrounding these three cases, when we have so many horrific cases going on that are not being reported.  In WI there is a current case of a daughter not wanting to visit her father, presumably because he is abusive and neglectful of her basics needs; such as a bed at his house. 

She has also disclosed sexual abuse, and was with her father when he was arrested for a DUI (which he went to jail for the DUI).  But he isn’t in jail or being charged with child abuse like the parents in the stories above.

Where’s her media circus?  Better yet, where is her JUSTICE?  She can do without the circus.

Oh, and there is another case that I have mentioned here before.  The daughter was taken from her mother and custody was granted to her father; this child isn’t even allowed to visit her mom.  That mothers name is Kristin Hanson, I will not publish the child’s name.  Why did this mom loose custody?

When her daughter was 8 years old she (the daughter) disclosed that she was being sexually abused.  Her daughter refused to go visit her dad because of this (understandably so), her mother felt she could do nothing else to protect her besides run with her.  She was caught.

That girl, now 14, is still after six years living with her father. 

Again, I can not mesh these stories to the ones above.  After having spent several days fuming over all of this, I think I have figured out a portion of why CPS fails to do their job in some of the worst cases, yet in others tend to over-charge parents for doing lesser offenses.

Could it be that CPS workers are afraid of the REAL child abusers?

YOU’LL BE IN MY HEART…ALWAYS from MamaLiberty

YOU’LL BE IN MY HEART…ALWAYS « MamaLiberty’s Weblog

Domestic Violence Is On The Rise in Shawnee County; District Attorney and Survivor Claudine Dombrowski Speak Openly

Posted from A Human Right’s Issue

Please sign in and leave a comment let Chad Taylor the DA know that you support him and demand safety for your wives your daughters nices and sisters.. thank you. Claudine Dombrowski

MORE: http://bit.ly/U997l

www.AngelFury.org

Domestic violence is on the rise in Shawnee County

http://www.ktka.com/news/2009/oct/20/domestic_violence_rise_shawnee_county/

Story by Jessica Drew (Contact)

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 02:59 P.M., OCTOBER 20, 2009

UPDATED 05:48 P.M., OCTOBER 20, 2009

• For your computer
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"I remember curling up in a ball to protect her from the kicks," domestic violence survivor, Claudine Dombrowski, described.

Claudine Dombrowski is a survivor to domestic violence, a cycle she went back to many times. "I had a choice I could see my daughter or I could never see her again. The abuser had complete control, so I got my daughter back and went back to him."

Going back to an abusive relationship is a problem District Attorney Chad Taylor said his office sees quite often. "We see it everyday, and it’s just a matter of the psychology of the cycle of abuse," Taylor said.

The number of cases coming across Taylor’s desk is growing. "Our year to date projections for 2009 total is going to be an increase of about 80 percent for the domestic battery cases that we filed," Taylor said.

Claudine fights to help women like herself who have fallen in the hands of abuse. "This was the crow bar, and then I was beaten and raped," Dombrowski said.

She said she never reported her beatings until after her daughter was born.

Taylor said it happens often, "It goes from bruises to hospitalization, to like we said this is all about homicide prevention."

Claudine said even if you haven’t been a victim, you probably know someone who has and you can help them. "Don’t think it’s you…get rid of the scarlet letter of shame, it’s the most important thing."

Taylor wants to show there’s help out there for victims. "Making this a priority and letting people know that this will not be tolerated in our community," Taylor said.

Taylor’s office gave us statisitics on Domestic Violence in 2008 the DA’s office received 1267 cases, out of those 508 were filed. Starting from January 1st until October 16, 2009 there have been 1347 cases received, and out of those 849 cases have been filed.

One Domestic Battery charges, in 2008 there were 723 received and 246 filed for court. The projections for this year are 784 received and 443 filed, meaning an eighty percent increase on Domestic Battery.

Domestic Violence Is On The Rise in Shawnee County; District Attorney and Survivor Claudine Dombrowski Speak Openly « A Human Rights Issue-Custodial Justice

Child Support vs. Supporting Our Children

There is a huge difference between just paying the prescribed amount based on some obscure mathematical equation and actually supporting a child.  This is one of the hotly debated topics that I see all over the place.  Moms and dads both feel they are cheated, regardless of WHO pays and WHO receives.  Generally, BOTH parties will say they are getting screwed.

Both parties may have a valid point...the Family Courts often are the ones that ‘profit’ from custody battles and child support issues.  The longer they can keep two parents fighting about this the better seems to be the modus operandi.  Parents and children surely do NOT profit in anyway from the child support issues or the money.  Now, here I am NOT talking about the stars and rich people we hear about having to pay or receiving $30,000 a month and craziness like that.

I am talking about normal people with normal incomes and normal bills.

Personally I feel that where possible no child support should be paid by either party and if it is, then the person receiving it should have a yearly review of what they are spending it on.  Now, with that said....I do not think this should be used as another means to allow abusers to control their victims!!

Personally I have been on the paying and receiving sides.  I know damn good and well what I was assessed to pay was NOT enough to totally even feed my children for the month, much less all the other stuff that they needed.  I also know damn good and well that when I was receiving support payments for my kids it was not enough to cover their food bill let alone anything else.  And, no I don’t have a football team worth of kids and no they are not pigs and just eat too much.

I also know several single parents that could NOT afford to keep a roof over the kids head and food on the table, without being paid child support.  And, let me assure you...the person with the most money is NOT always the best parent.  Remember the saying...Money can’t buy happiness....

Now along with child support we also have to look at other factors....is the parent that is keeping them kids with them only motivated by the money?  Well sometimes....but not usually I think.  Remember I said on Sunday that most likely a person would end up spending more on lawyers and court costs than they’d stand to gain.

And, then we also have to look at the patterns of abuse within the family prior to and after the separation.

I saw a discussion the other day on a forum about an article that said something to the effect of:  Protective parents would rather have their children safe than receive child support.  I tend to agree with that.  Although like I mentioned above, there are many single parents that can’t make it without the additional help from the other parent.  (Oh, and I didn’t see a link for that article so I didn’t read the article just saw the discussion that was about it, so I can not link it here.)

I have seen that abusers will fight tooth and nail to get custody of their children so that do not have to pay child support and also they can use the children to continue to control and abuse the other parent.  They also generally do not spend what they should on their children's needs, nor do they support them in a nuturing, caring, loving manner.  This all usually amounts to neglect.  The children suffer, regardless whether they are being physically abused or not.

In my opinion, parents should NEVER ever put the well being of their child below their own greed or control issues or even personal needs.   I know of couples that have worked out some rather creative child support payments, such has taking a percentage of all household bills for the house the child lives in and adding that up to come up with the amount.  That works, if there is not an abuser involved.

I’m not sure I even know the solution to the problem, but I do know there is a problem!  I also know that we as parents need to figure out what is best for our children and come up with a solution, rather than just sitting back bitching and waiting for someone else to get something changed.  Which, I guess if you wanted to you could say is what I just did.

My point here is to bring the issue to light.  From there a solution can be gained.

Leadership Council's Child Abuse and Custody Questionnaire

Found this at UAADV News Blog

The Leadership Council is conducting a survey about Child Abuse and Custody.  If you fit into a category where either of those pertain to you, I urge you to take this survey.  Below is a little about it.  It takes about 20 to 30 minutes.  Without people doing the research to show that laws need to be revamped, changed or new ones all together......these laws will remain and abuse will continue to reign, with very little consequences to the abusers.  Please pass this on to anyone else you think may be interested in taking this survey.  Any bloggers out there?  Blog it too, please!

Long URL:  https://www.leadershipcouncil.org/survey/index.php?ch=d88fc6edf21ea464d35ff76288b84103
Short URL:  http://bit.ly/3hf6hB

The responses on this questionnaire will be reviewed and tabulated regularly to supply information to the media, legislators and academic investigations.

The information you post is confidential and will be reviewed only by the researchers and administrators who are working with the data. It cannot be accessed by the public, and as research data is protected information.

The information from this questionnaire will be utilized for the purpose of furthering our understanding of child protection issues. Group trends will be shared, but no individual data will be shared without explicit permission from you.

Thank you very much for your efforts in helping us generate information that may protect children from abuse.

The Leadership Council is a nonprofit independent scientific organization composed of respected scientists, clinicians, educators, legal scholars, and public policy analysts. We are committed to providing professionals and lay persons with the latest scientific information on issues that may affect the public's health and safety. We also seek to correct the misuse of psychological science to serve vested interests or justify victimizing vulnerable populations -- especially abused and neglected children.  The Leadership Council - Homepage

Parents lying about abuse

In recent conversation the subject about parents lying about sexual and physical abuse done to their children by the other parent came up.  I have often thought of this when I blog here the articles that I find all over the internet.  Because of this conversation, I have given more thought to this.

When one parent accuses the other parent of sexual or physical abuse of their child while going through divorce proceedings or custody battles, many often claim the abuse didn’t happen.  Most people claim that the parent making the accusations are fabricating them just to get custody of the child; and further to get money, i.e. in the form of child support.

I have seen studies that say parents lie about abuse in very few cases, and I have seen studies where they say parents lie about it in a very high percentage of cases.  So, I will not quote OR link to any studies for what I have to say about it.  Obviously, it depends on which study you read.  So who do we believe?

I tend to believe what I have seen and experienced first hand, not what I read, but what I personally have witnessed.  It is very obvious to anyone that has ever been divorced or sat in Family Court; that no matter how peaceful the parties involved are trying to make this...the Family Court System can and often does turn the proceedings into a three ring circus.  Throw in domestic violence and child abuse; and you have a nightmare!

Shared Parenting comes up in most divorce cases, it has to.  Most states have a clause that says the child should live where the best interest of the child is better served.  Shared Parenting can work, but if and only IF there is NO abuse going on.  NONE.  When there has been abuse either before, during or after the divorce or separation...all efforts at shared parenting or co-parenting will fail.

No one can share in parenting with someone that has abused them or their child.  Abusers will NOT split decisions and parenting equally, not will they compromise with their victims. 

Yes, there are vindictive petty people out there that are parents.  Yes, these same parents do see using the child as a pawn for whatever gain they can as a means to an end for their own vengeful ideas.  I won’t, or well can’t, deny they exist because I have met parents like that.  BUT, for the most part I’d say the majority of parents that I personally know actually love their kids and will do what is best for them.

How can we as a society see through all this mess and determine when there really is abuse and when there is just a vindictive parent on the loose?  It is hard!  One thing that I have used as a guidepost is looking at the length of time the parent persists.  Vindictive parents usually will not go to such lengths as to have themselves inconvenienced by the fight in court.

What do I mean by that?  Well, during my conversation we were talking about a couple of moms that had been put in jail because they were claiming their child was being abused by the father.  In one situation the mom had hidden the daughter somewhere and would not tell where she was.  So she was put in jail as a method of trying to force her to tell. 

The article that we were discussing made it seem like she was being accused of lying about the abuse.  Now, I ask you this....if all she wanted was revenge or child support, why on earth did she let it go on for years of her being in jail.  I can’t believe that someone would lie about something like that, then hide their child and go to jail for years rather than tell where the child is.  NOPE, I won’t and can’t believe she was lying.

A vindictive or greedy person, in my opinion, would not spend all the money it takes to continue going to court.  It just makes no sense.  They will end up spending more on court and lawyers than what they will get in return.  Not to mention they will be inconvenienced for far too long. 

So, in my opinion, the ones that go to such extremes are more than likely the ones that are telling the truth.  Now, that doesn’t mean to me that the ones that ‘give up’ quickly are lying as well.  Some people just don’t have the means to even get the battle started, no matter how REAL the abuse to their child is.

"A Citizens Voice"

 

"A Citizens Voice" IS BACK-Monday Nights on WLIP Radio 1050 AM

MOMS, we have a voice again!

Beginning next Monday, October 19, 2009 from 6-8 PM (CT)...listen and call in to "A CITIZEN'S VOICE" on WLIP Radio 1050 AM-Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Media personality, Terry Florio (formerly known by his stage name as FRED FLANNIGAN), will host the discussion of the cover-ups of domestic violence, child abuse in our family courts, with Catherine Campbell and Karyn Mehringer.   Both moms have experienced and witnessed the cover-ups, and the retaliation by the system when you report and expose their activity.  Catherine and Karyn will report the federal and state laws that were passed that have created this crisis.

Share your input and/or your horror stories from America's family courts and the legal system.  

You can listen on the internet on www.WLIP.com. or call in to (262) 694-1050.