Women Sought in Videotaped Beating

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[Texaggie79]

MISHAWAKA, Ind. (AP) - A woman who was angry after leaving a department store was caught on a surveillance tape looking around as she helped her young daughter into a vehicle and then brutally beating the child for about half a minute, authorities said.

Police were searching for the woman and 4-year-old child Friday. The woman's sister, who had been with her in the store, was arrested, said community prosecutor Maggie Jones.

"As far as we know, she tried to exchange some merchandise, was denied that, became angry in the store at the service clerk and left. But I don't know how that could provoke an attack like this on a child," Mishawaka Police Chief Anthony Hazen said Friday on NBC's "Today" show.

The woman could be seen on the tape punching the child and shaking her, and authorities believe the little girl might have serious injuries. A doctor who saw the tape said she could have suffered head, neck and brain injuries, said Mike Samp, a police investigator.

Authorities identified the 25-year-old woman as Madelyne Gorman or Madelyne Toogood and the child as her daughter Martha Toogood.

Hazen said the woman is believed to be from the Dallas area and has a history of misdemeanor charges. He did not elaborate.

"We've spoke with several members of the family; they are not being cooperative right now. They said they disagree with the actions but they don't know where she's at," he said.

Hazen said the sister faces charges of failing to report child abuse, and the child's mother could face felony battery charges in the Sept. 13 beating.

"You can see the woman grab one of the girl's pony tails and forcefully shake her. That right there, not even counting all the blows that we saw the woman make, that right there constitutes battery," Jones told CNN.

The videotape shows the woman and girl walking to a sport utility vehicle along with a boy and the woman's sister.

The two women had tried to return merchandise at a Kohl's department store in Mishawaka, just east of South Bend near the Michigan border, but were refused, police said.

The tape shows the woman placing the girl in the vehicle's back seat and then striking her about the head. The woman also appears to shake, slap and punch the child before getting in the front seat and driving off.

The vehicle shown in the video had Texas license plates, and police eventually found it at a Mishawaka apartment complex. Police said it was not registered to either of the women shown on the tape.

[Delbert]

There is the page with the video. Watch the kids legs at the end. Not very typical of a just beaten kid.

Kicking and screaming is not typical of a beaten child? That is a ridiculous statement, I ,like another poster above, would have intervened and commeced with a beating of my own. Damned bitch needs the crap kicked out of her.

[glory]

Wait, are these the same group of folks they did an expose on a few years back and people were appalled because they paraded around their very young daughters like adults in these pseudo beauty pagents and encouraged them to be enticing? I seem to remember something like this and the locale and circumstances sound real familiar.

[SerpentDove]

>>...you can see the kids legs kicking happily like nothing happened.<<

How do you know they were kicking "happily?" Could it be they were kcicking "painfully?"

Although I'm sure her defense lawyer will assert the former.

[ofMagog]

Remember seeing it. Reminds me of JonBenet Ramsey's parents pushing their kid, except the Traveler's kids all had BIG hairdos.

[glock rocks]

Q: What's the definition of a liberal?

A: A conservative who's been arrested.

Q: What's the definition of a conservative?

A: A liberal who's been assaulted.

[glory]

So that is the same group? I remember that expose and shudder at how those girls were expected to behave.

[SerpentDove]

>>just not going to jump to conclusions when it comes to parents and their kids. I want more proof. I want to see bruises. I want proof that she wasnt hitting the seat because it wasn't opening or closing right. Just because her arm is moving rapidly, and the child is inthe general vicinity, I'm not going to cast my judgment.<<

You have GOT to be kidding. Have you seen the video? Did you see her striking the child while she was in the floorboard? Did you see her shaking her violently?

You can't possibly have seen the whole video and assert something so ridiculous.

[glory]

Meant to add, no wonder about this mother if she is a product of such an upbringing.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Very sorry to hear of your experiences, and glad that you nonetheless managed to grow up into a compassionate adult.

I think some people here are confusing the act of calling police about signs of abuse, with some of the methods employed by "Child Protective Services" workers who respond, and the courts which rubber stamp CPS actions. The former is the responsibility of any civilized person, but unfortunately the horror stories of CPS seizing uninjured children from perfectly innocent parents, and refusing to give them back, have resulted in many people thinking it's better not to call in the first place.

Furthermore, regardless of the parents' guilt or innocence, in a huge number of cases, CPS agencies have placed children in foster homes where previous serious abuse has been documented, and in a few cases children have even been killed in the foster homes.

It's all a pretty miserable situation, and I really hope it's starting to get enough publicity to get some serious changes made. If you have the time and energy, and aren't already doing it, it would be a great area for activism. Many state agencies are way out of control, and too often no one but accused parents are mounting a serious challenge (you, on the other hand, would have a lot of credibility). The tragic result is a growing chorus of "better not to call the police in these situations", and too many children not getting rescued when they urgently need to be.

[Delbert]

It all "appeared" one way or another. I want PROOF.

I have sen your posts before and thought that you were more intelligent than this. You want proof? We can put you in the backseat of a car, and pummell the hell out of you and see if you kick your legs?

[SerpentDove]

It astounds me the lengths people go to to minimize this beating. I remember people coming out of the woodwork to defend andrea Yates, though.

Strange.

[Defend the Second]

Careful SerpentDove. If you show any more willingness to believe your own eyes then TexAggie79 will use the devastating "kiss my fat hiney" argument on you. He did with me and I was completely, utterly defeated by his blazing intellect.

You have been warned...

[Paul Atreides]

Q: What's the definition of a conservative?

A: A liberal who's been assaulted.

Q: What's the definition of a conservative?

A: A liberal who has grown up, gotten a job, and joined the real world.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Uh oh, I wonder if the poor little girl has been trained to shoplift while mom provides a distraction, got caught, and then got viciously beaten for getting caught. People really do this with children; not just "gypsies", but also drug dealers, who have a toddler make the actual handover in order to protect the adult from prosecution -- they just say the buyer must have given it to the kid, instead of the other way around, and the kid's too little to really testify, and knows he/she would get beaten for saying the wrong thing.

[TC Rider]

It all "appeared" one way or another. I want PROOF.

I watched it over and over last night to the point my wife said I was obsessed with it.

I could tell nothing conclusive one way or the other.

It did seem the little girl 'scampered' into her car seat after the initial 'beating', which I thought odd. If the child had been hurt, wouldn't she be cowering?

The rest showed a lot of arm motion of the woman, but I couldn't discern contact with the child.

I too thought the foot waving typical of a child.

These Irish Gypsys are bad news. I would never let one in my home. There are groups of them in SC that behave the same as the ones described in Texas.

Being a petty thief and scam artist doesn't make her a homicidal Mom though.

[Paul Atreides]

The mother probably shouted to the child to get in the seat, so she could make a hasty retreat. The child, hoping to end the beating, did what she was promptly told.

[Conservababe]

You can actually see the woman's closed fist in this attack. A very quick sequence of closed fist hits.

[agrace]

I hope so too. Chances are they did. I speak from experience, used to work for a dept store chain and spent a bunch of time in security offices behind the cameras (I've said this on a couple threads about this, starting to feeling like I'm spamming, ha) and it all depends on where the office is etc. The last store I worked in, the office was at the back, up the stairs on the second floor - NOT a good place. But sometimes they are right by the front door, which for obvious reasons is much smarter. All I know is, the guys in our stores would have headed to that parking lot immediately. And from the looks of the camera as it is taping, someone is on the camera the whole time, since it zooms in. My sincere assumption is that one stayed at the camera and the other headed outside.

I'm with you - I would love to hear more details from store security.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Sorry if my post #175 came across wrong. I posted it before I read your description of your personal experiences, and now I understand that your choice of words was probably due to that.

[Conservababe]

I saw the video last night that showed the attack from a distance. Today, Fox is showing the zoomed in version, and it is more telling.