Posted on 10/31/2014 11:41:05 AM PDT by wagglebee
It seems like only yesterday, not for a good reason, but because the horror of the case made the memories so vivid.
A year ago last June we reported on the arraignment of the mother and sisters of Robert Gensiak. The women were charged in the starvation death of the 32-year-old Taylor, Pennsylvania, man.
Mr. Gensiak, who had Down syndrome, weighed 69 pounds at his death, ”his shrieking flesh raked by scabies and lice,” wrote Chris Kelly for the Scranton Times Tribune.
I just learned today that earlier this month all three were sentenced by Lackawanna County Judge Margaret Bisignani Moyle. The mother, Susan Gensiak, was sentenced to 10 to 20 years. “Joan Gensiak, 36, will spend six to 15 years in state prison while Rebekah Gensiak, 25, was sentenced to six to 23 months in Lackawanna County Prison,” Kelly wrote.
When we first reported on this ghastly case, we quoted Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola. “This is the worst case of neglect I’ve seen the last 26 years,” he said at a press conference. “This family, the mother and two sisters, basically let this young man rot to death” [http://nrlc.cc/1tTP73X].
According to Joseph Kohut of the Scranton Times Tribune
“An autopsy conducted by forensic pathologist Gary W. Ross, M.D., revealed an extreme case of neglect. Autopsy photos show his skin was a sickly yellow with cracked areas that had oozed with blood and fluid. Open sores pockmarked his body, so extreme in spots that his bone was visible. As a matter of taste, The Times-Tribune is not publishing the photos.”
Just what Mr. Gensiak meant to the family was clear from the very beginning. When police came by the day after he died to find out how his health had deteriorated so badly, “Family members expressed concern that if they placed Mr. Gensiak in a personal care facility, the financial support they received from his Social Security benefits would dry up,” Kohut reported.
“Before the end of the interview, investigators said Mr. Gensiak’s mother asked if she would still receive her son’s Social Security check even though he died.”
All that came back at the trial.
Mr. Gensiak “was confined to a child-sized bed soiled with human waste and his emaciated frame was pockmarked with oozing open sores,” Kohut reported. “He had a mouth full of rotten teeth that probably gave him agony when he tried to eat, Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Tierney said.”
“He suffered and suffered as he lay in a room inside that home,” Judge Moyle said. “No one (in the home) can claim ignorance or that they didn’t know better.”
All this unfathomable neglect transpired while the “mother and the sisters cashed the $1,042 monthly state checks meant for his care,” Kelly wrote.
“Help was available, but Robert’s mother and sisters refused to seek it,” Kelly wrote. “They filled their prescriptions, had doctor appointments and ate regularly. They had money for Internet and cable TV, but none to feed the miserable prisoner in the next room. Robert was a source of income, nothing more.”
Rebekah Gensiak received a far lesser sentence. She had “pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of neglect of a care-dependent person because she testified against her family at court proceedings as part of a plea deal,” Kohut reported.
The conclusion of Kohut’s story is extremely powerful:
Don Broderick, the executive director of the Arc of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and Sara Wolff, a motivational speaker who has Down Syndrome, sat in the courtroom and watched. They wanted to speak, but settled for writing the judge letters.
“Had we known of Robert, we could have helped the family find services and supports for him,” Broderick wrote. “We could have received day services and even residential care if warranted. But he was removed and hidden from society, secluded and isolated, eventually to die a horrible death.”
The Arc will place a memorial plaque at their Meadow Avenue office in the coming weeks that reads: “Robert Gensiak: Every voice must be heard.”
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared at National Right to Life News Today.
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A horror too terrible to be imagined.
Do you know for sure the people don’t care about the unborn babies?
Please forgive me for being a bit testy, but there was a news story locally today about a dog nearly starved to death. I was accused of caring more about the dog than aborted babies.
It is possible to be horrified by both.
Bring then down to Texas and let’s introduce them to fire ants.
Sometimes people give me a reason to think that an eye for an eye is not unreasonable at all.
Sometimes people give me a reason to think that an eye for an eye is not unreasonable at all.
She certainly looks well fed enough.
She will do 5-6 years for torture, and premeditated first degree murder. What a joke!
do fire ants like honey?
“Sometimes people give me a reason to think that an eye for an eye is not unreasonable at all.”
I asked my pastor about that saying - as it seems barbaric on the face of it. He said it is actually not - it is fair. It was for justice. The old practice would have been you steel a sheep from someone and they would take ALL of your sheep, kill you and burn your house down.
So - put her in a cell with no meals. It may take awhile with some of them though.
They eat almost anything. I use them to clean left overs off deer skulls for mounting.
fitting punishment for people like this
What I know for sure is that a baby who has Down Syndrome is almost certain to be aborted. And I've also seen more than enough pro-abortion people who would be mortified about what was done to this man.
Please forgive me for being a bit testy, but there was a news story locally today about a dog nearly starved to death. I was accused of caring more about the dog than aborted babies.
I was speaking specifically about Down Syndrome. Though it is true that many (and I certainly don't mean you) are horrified at child and animal abuse, but see nothing wrong with abortion.
It is possible to be horrified by both.
Yes, but the pro-abortion crowd is typically bothered by one while cheering the murder of millions.
Yep, the same people who are cruel to animals will be cruel in other areas of their life, even to their own children, whether unborn or already born.
I do understand that it was also to prevent escalating retaliation which could spiral downward very quickly.
However, in this case, it would not seem unreasonable, although I do see that it could take a while......
The poor soul. I hope he didn’t realize what was going on, but I imagine he actually did.
From the looks of that woman, she ate more frequently than that.
More proof of the cultural rot in America.
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