Olga Jaramillo (pictured), 27, is charged in Dane County Circuit Court with 11 counts of child abuse, three counts of false imprisonment, one count of causing mental harm to a child and three counts of resisting or obstructing police. Posted on 02/27/2002 7:27:33 AM PST by chance33_98
MADISON, Wis. -- An 8-year-old girl was covered from head to toe in bruises when police removed her from her mother's apartment last April, a prosecutor said Monday in the first day of the mother's abuse trial.
Olga Jaramillo (pictured), 27, is charged in Dane County Circuit Court with 11 counts of child abuse, three counts of false imprisonment, one count of causing mental harm to a child and three counts of resisting or obstructing police.
Authorities say she kept her daughter as a slave.
Assistant District Attorney Barbara Franks said the girl was brought to Madison from Mexico in April 2000, and enjoyed living with her grandmother and attending school.
But her life changed dramatically when she went to live with her mother, brother and her mother's boyfriend in October 2000, Franks said.
The mother's boyfriend withdrew the girl from school in January 2001, telling administrators she had returned to Mexico.
Madison police Sgt. Dave McCaw and Officer Lester Moore testified they found the girl hiding under her mother's bed on April 9. Because of her short-cropped hair, they mistook her for a boy.
There's no doubt the girl suffered "grievous treatment," but the jury will have to decide who is responsible for it, said defense lawyer Ron Benavides.
Prosecutors plan to have the girl testify in person.
Jaramillo's boyfriend, Mauro Lopez, 36, entered no-contest pleas Monday to seven counts of child abuse, two counts of false imprisonment, one count of causing mental harm to a child and one count of resisting police.
In a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed not to ask for more than 20 years of imprisonment when Lopez is sentenced in about two months. He agreed to testify truthfully if called to the witness stand during Jaramillo' s trial.
??? They are ALL responsible for it. Everyone in that home had to have known about this, yet no one reported it. Whether or not any one of them laid a hand on her or not, they are all equally guilty. Absolutely horrible! How could a mother do this to any child, much less her own?
I will never understand why prosecutors do not request a delay in the sentencing of those who plea bargain with proffered testimony until the testimony is given in open court.
twigs...that is absolutely the truth! Thank you for writing that...
Let's let more in!!!!!!!
In Wisconsin, that's called "being party to the crime of __________________." The prosecutor should know this. It's in his DA handbook.
I had to read the article twice, but the mother's trial (and I use the term "mother" very loosely in this case) started on Monday. I doubt if the trial will last more than a week or two. The guy isn't going to be sentenced for two months. If he doesn't keep up his side of the plea bargain--that he testifies truthfully--the prosecutor will revoke the plea bargain agreement and his case goes to trial.
And just because the defendant and the prosecutor have a plea agreement on sentencing doesn't mean the judge automatically goes along with their agreement. They do about 75% of the time, and in that other 25%, the judge usually sentences over what the plea agreement is (I'd say about 20%), with the other 5% being under the plea agreement.
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