Posted on 11/19/2004 10:30:49 AM PST by Mo1
Just got this in the mail from my daughter Sherri, who works with the elderly like you do with kids. This is a local town in Mass where we lived. My ghod, some of these elderly take such abuse from their families. If they don't hurt them, they rob them blind.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Got this report at work on Friday. If she had been conscious I would have had to go to the hospital and try to interview her. The ER nurse reported this to us after she overheard the cop tell his priest that he had beat her (initially stated she fell) and asked him what he should do. The priest told him to go to work and turn himself in. My supervisor was on the phone all afternoon reporting it to the DA. So sad. If only one person suspected something and reported it to us this may not have happened. She's likely to die or will be a vegetable for the rest of her life. She suffered from cerebral subdural hematoma and had other bruising on her bodyCop admits beating mother, 73: Peabody officer turns himself in after assault leaves woman in coma
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
By Julie Manganis and Andrew Hickey
Staff writers
PEABODY — A Peabody police officer has admitted beating his elderly mother for months, culminating with a Thanksgiving Day assault that left her in a coma.
George Sideris, 33, turned himself in at the Peabody police station yesterday. He pleaded not guilty in Peabody District Court to charges of assault and battery on a person over 60 causing serious injury.
Sideris, a full-time police officer for four years, has been suspended without pay and was forced to turn over his gun and badge, according to police.
Melpomeni Sideris, 73, remained in a coma in the intensive care unit of Salem Hospital last night, a spokeswoman said. George Sideris was placed on a suicide watch at Middleton Jail.
News of the arrest stunned neighbors on Ellsworth Road, where Sideris lives with his mother just up the street from the police station.
Next-door neighbor Jack Bancroft said Sideris and his mother gardened together in the summer and often came to his door bearing vegetables. Bancroft said they often spoke to each other in Greek and he never heard them fighting.
"She speaks the world of her 'Georgie,'" Bancroft said. "They lived together. They loved each other."
In his statement to police, Sideris said he started abusing his mother in March when he kicked and slapped her and sent her to the hospital.
He assaulted her again within the last couple of weeks. Once he punched her in the forehead and watched as it swelled. Earlier this week, he slapped her in the face and hit her back with the side of his fist.
On Thanksgiving Day, Sideris hit his mother in the back and on the right shoulder. This time, she lay down and was unresponsive when he asked questions. When her breathing and circulation seemed shallow, Sideris told police he called 911.
Handcuffed with a nylon jacket covering his hands, Sideris appeared in court just after 3 p.m. yesterday. Defense lawyer James Rennick could be heard telling him not to say anything as he entered the courtroom.
Rennick had asked a court psychologist to meet with his client before the court appearance. Dr. Randall Dwyer raised concerns about Sideris's emotional stability, and Rennick requested his client be kept under observation. Judge Santo Ruma ordered that Sideris be kept under close watch for emotional disturbance or suicidal behavior.
After yesterday's hearing, Sideris was brought downstairs to a holding cell. A sheriff's department van arrived to take him to jail. But instead he was taken by ambulance to Lahey Clinic in Peabody after he complained of chest pains. He was then taken directly to jail from the hospital, police said.
Several of Sideris's relatives attended yesterday's hearing but declined comment.
But Sideris' neighbors said they were puzzled by how a mother-son relationship that appeared loving on the surface could erupt into violence.
Christine and Neil Gray both shook their heads, saying the alleged abuse was "hard to believe."
"I thought he was living with her to take care of her," Neil Gray said. "Never did she give any indication of anything like this."
"They are both very friendly," Christine Gray said. "I'm shocked. He seemed like a very, very nice guy. This is all so sad."
Bancroft, the other neighbor, said Melpomeni Sideris would give him her Feta cheese because she was watching her cholesterol.
"I don't believe this, I really don't," Bancroft said. "I refuse to believe this."
The Grays and Bancroft said having a police officer living in the neighborhood was a huge selling point when they bought their homes.
Yesterday, however, police officers were camped out in the driveway of the vacant Sideris house. They said they were "securing the scene," but wouldn't provide more details.
Within the police department, Sideris was considered a nice guy and model officer, Peabody Police Lt. Dennis Bonaiuto said. Several Peabody police officers showed up at the courthouse yesterday.
"He was very well-liked within and about the department," Bonaiuto said.
Sideris' arrest has caused "a great deal of sadness and a great deal of surprise" to his fellow officers, Bonaiuto said.
Bonaiuto said it doesn't appear that George Sideris has been arrested in the past or has been disciplined within the police department.
"I would be extremely surprised to learn anything like that," he said.
Melpomeni Sideris immigrated to Peabody from Greece with her husband about 35 or 40 years ago, according to her second cousin, Minas Dakos, who is well-known as a member of the city's License Commission and as a bail commissioner. Dakos accompanied Sideris to the police station yesterday and was also in court.
Dakos said that at some point after their only son was born, her husband abandoned his young family and returned to Greece.
Melpomeni Sideris raised her son on her own and bought the house on Ellsworth Road, Dakos said.
Dakos said George Sideris went to Salem State College before getting on the police force. Before joining the force full time in October 2000, Sideris was a dispatcher for almost two years.
The investigation has been taken over by State Police assigned to the district attorney's office. Sideris will be held without bail at least through Tuesday, when a judge will determine whether he poses a danger if released.
Thunderstorms approaching.. Guess I'll shut down.
Sweet goodness!
Can't she find employment in a massage joint? or something?
That is so awful.
Well.. Lod, that's what she and Libby do. I don't think I could do it.
I am so sorry for what you are both going through with your friends. Several years ago, I lost 2 very good friends within months of each other. One of them was barely 40. The other, 50. It is very hard. May God's peace be with you.
That is depressing...
That is SO nice of you, thank you. I'm not sure if I told you before, I just lost my best friend from grammar and high school at the end of July. She had a baby, then something unexpected happened with her heart five months later. I spoke at her funeral. Now, only four months later, this...
I've known way too many who died way too young; it sucks to say the least. I feel so sorry for their families too. Thank you for your kind words.
There has to be a special place in hell for those who prey on the most vulnerable among us. It isn't my call to make that judgement, and I'm glad for that, but it would take an act of God to bring some of these people to repentance.
I know Libby. The young and innocent and the old and weak. Bastards!
I couldn't do either job unless I was allowed to kill some of them.
SO9
*Smooch*
I don't fit in well in today's society. My family always taught that it was OK to kill those that needed killing.
So9
Lyrics I found
Nightwish - Sleepwalker
From the album "Over The Hill And Far Away"
Close your eyes
Feel the ocean where passion lies
Silently the senses
Abandon all defences
A place between
sleep and awake
End of innocence, unending masquerade
That's where I'll wait for you
Hold me near you
So close I sear you
Seeing, believing
Dreaming, decieving
A place between
sleep and awake
End of innocence, unending masquerade
That's where I'll wait for you
Sleepwalker seducing me
I dare to enter your ecstacy
Lay yourself now down to sleep
In my dreams you're mine to keep
Sleepwalker..
Sleepwalker..
(Sleepwalk with me...)
Sleepwalker seducing me
I dare to enter your ecstacy
Lay yourself now down to sleep
In my dreams you're mine... to... keep
I could do either job, if I was allowed to kill some of them.
Gulp. Speaking of poetry and poets :)... Have you seen Dr. Zhivago? I am watching it for the 100th time. Funny these little things I forget - like during Lenin's time how "Holy Cross Hospital" had to be changed to something like "Reform Hospital". Hmmmmm, sound familiar? Oh, and Lenin looked like a modern day Beserkeleyite.
I could function better in society if I were allowed to do some killing too.
LOL!!! . . . you sound just like my MIL . . .she always used to say "that SOB just needed killing" . . . it must be a Texas thing . . . can't say I disagree with her premise, she was a very wise and common sense kinda gal . . . sigh . . . I sure miss her!!!
.
LOL!
Vaguely.
The lyrics posted were from a song I have as an mp3.
Pretty song too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.