Posted on 09/20/2002 11:02:55 AM PDT by 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.
Outstanding Point! First reaction , Get a rope.
A: A liberal who's been assaulted.
Yes, I know. That's a very old definition. I heard it back in the 1970s. I assume everyone's heard it many times by now.
The definition I offered of a liberal ...
Q: What's the definition of a liberal?
A: A conservative who's been arrested.
... is a takeoff of the above definition of a conservative. I first heard it in the 1980s, but I assume it's still less widespread. And it's just as true.
OK already! I am not gonna say that NEVER happens, but that kind of fearmongering distorts the truth.
Are you telling me the tens of thousands of case workers in this country all do nothing but yank kids and feed them stories of suppressed sexual abuse? Are their any children left in real families? - Or is it just the weird ones that make the news?
I don't justify the wrongdoings of CPS, but feeding that kind of paranoia is exactly what leads people to views so twisted that they would look at this video and wonder whether "the right thing to do" is to call the cops.
In our effort to be hawkish about the misuse of CPS power, lets please not get so twisted that we can witness an assault on a child and worry about parents' rights being threatened.
I promise you, that's not how it works.
Paranoid snitches look for trouble. First they look for a sign: a Koran, an NRA sticker, whatever ticks them off.
Of course, they don't report it yet. They know the FBI would laugh them off. Instead, once they see your NRA sticker, they hone in on you. They watch for more "signs." Shouting, a rifle, late-night guests.
Then they exagerate what they've seen. A rifle becomes "carrying in all manner of assualt rifles and military weaponry at all hours." A Koran becomes "extremist anti-American Islamist propaganda ... I'm sure I heard them say 9/13..."
You see how it works?
Then they report their exagerated delusions, and you can sort if out from behind bars.
So how about it. I'm available any time to administer a similar beating. Sarcasm OFF!!!!
Had your relative been "white trash," and God forbid, a "white trash" male with tatoos and beer-breath, he'd of been arrested regardless of his innocence.
And if he turned out to be innocent, the cops would have invented some "probable cause" excuse or minor offense to justify the arrest, if only to counter any potential lawsuits.
"Conservatives" had better learn to temper their "tough on crime" knee-jerks with some respect for civil liberties. The innocents arrested could be a FReeper.
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