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Posted on 01/06/2004 4:57:11 PM PST by mrfixit514
What you say to your children can break the law, as a DeKalb County woman learned when her tirade against her granddaughter was picked up on a tape-recorded phone call to a radio station. Venus Taylor, 55, pleaded guilty Monday to child cruelty, even though investigators found no evidence that she had physically abused her three grandchildren. DeKalb Assistant District Attorney Rachelle Carnesale, who has specialized in child abuse cases for nine years, said Taylor was the first defendant she had prosecuted only for verbal abuse.
Taylor, who spent 19 days in jail after her arrest in November 2002, was sentenced to six years on probation by Superior Court Judge Clarence Seeliger.
Carnesale did not seek prison time in the case and said it was likely that state child welfare officials will return custody of Taylor's grandchildren to her. She had taken custody of the three children from her son. An aunt has been caring for the children pending resolution of the case.
Taylor was arrested after radio station WALR-FM (Kiss 104.1) gave police a tape of a call in which Taylor could be heard screaming at a wailing child, who turned out to be her granddaughter, then 13.
The tape continued for several minutes, and the child later said that was only part of a tirade that lasted for about 15 minutes. It was not clear how the call was placed to the radio station. Police traced it to Taylor's home.
On the tape, Taylor used vulgar names, threatened to beat the child and said she wished the child had been left in a foster home.
A pounding noise could be heard, but Carnesale said the child reported that was the sound of Taylor striking a table.
Taylor told Seeliger she has come to realize in counseling that she was raised in a verbally abusive home and had mimicked that behavior toward her grandchildren.
"I learned a lot from the anger management classes. . . . Now I talk in a lower tone," she said before being sentenced Monday.
Carnesale said the tape was the worst verbal abuse she has heard. "I just hope it's been impressed on her the impact it has on these children," the prosecutor said.
Verbal abuse can be a factor in determining parents' fitness, but that doesn't mean parents will lose custody over just any angry outburst, said Jed Nitzberg, a spokesman for the state Department of Human Resources.
"It's one thing to yell at your child in terms of disciplining your child, to be angry at your child, but when it becomes excessive, when it becomes psychological abuse, when it becomes threatening, when it borders on violence, then a line has been crossed," Nitzberg said.
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