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.

[spokanite]

If I knew for certain that a child was being beaten hour after hour, then yes I would call authorities, but I'm not going to call authorities when a child is getting a spanking for doing wrong.

There's a big difference between discipline and abuse.

[SarahW]

Did you not read my post?

I'm just saying that the truth is enough. It's abuse and she should be prosectuted.
I saw the tape, and the woman is being quite deliberate about not hitting full force. Id be surprised if the girl had a mark.

[SarahW]

For one thing, exaggerating the mothers actions only makes a case for her to fight. The truth is enough. She struck her daughter in rage and frustration. She'd been put out by the store. (Her daugher probably also failed a shoplifting lesson.) She's a child abuser. The end.

[HairOfTheDog]

"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.

And we have had some FReepers who have let their weird ideas get whacked out to the point where they died in a shoutout with cops over a traffic ticket. Posting here does not indicate sanity.

Freedom for everyone, to do what they please, at all costs, no matter what they want to do, eh? What about the little kid? - Who fights for her freedom?

[GovernmentShrinker]

There really is quite a lot of it going on. Between financial incentives to the agencies for taking the children, and new-age-nut therapists who aren't very bright and were schooled in an uncritical faith in "repressed memories", and have you ever seen the "anatomically correct" dolls which are used with young children? No child who has ever played with put-the-square-peg-in-the-square hole toys could fail to start connecting these things. And the stats on kids abused in state foster care placements?

The scope of the problem varies a lot from state to state, but in a lot of states it's really serious. There was recently a final ruling in a court case in New York, against the agency, which had fought the case for years (and the case was brought by disgusted former CPS workers). The agency is now ordered to cease and desist from removing children from a mother, who has taken the kids and gotten away from an abusive husband/boyfriend/father, on the SOLE grounds that she had "exposed them to abuse" -- that she had rescued them from abuse was irrelevant. The agency kept claiming that it only did this in very rare cases and with other circumstances involved, but the judge pointed out many hundreds of well-documented cases, along with creidble allegations of many hundreds more.

The bottom line was that abused women with children (often also abused, of course) who called police or a domestic violence hotline for help in leaving the abuser, or for protection from threats from an abuser they'd already left, often found that they'd started an irreversible process in which their children were taken from them, often permanently for all practical purposes. Word got around and they were learning to call for help in the first place. This example is just one little piece of the problem in one state.

I know we still need to call police when we see or hear strong evidence of abuse, but we also need not to ignore the very real reasons why many people think they shouldn't do that. When those reasons are eliminated (or just substantially reduced), a lot more people won't hesitate to call, and a lot more children will be helped.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Correction: "Word got around and they were learning NOT to call for help in the first place."

[sinkspur]

The Mishawaka authorities have already filed felony assault charges against this Ms. "Toogood", and are negotiating with her attorney. So said the sheriff in the news conference.

Negotiating what? The only leverage she's got is the kid, and if she does any more to her she'll be in the big house for a long time.

[ValerieUSA]

The thing I noticed about the video is that the woman's arm is not moving very far back, she only has the force of a foot or so of motion and the child isn't likely to have serious injuries from that.

[Conservababe]

Oh goodness gracious, Sarah, stop taking up for this peice of trash woman. The punches you describe as benign...I believe the men call them "rabbit punches" if I recall correctly. A rapid succession of punches meant to punish, not to take down completely. geez

[SarahW]

Who is taking up for her?
Again, the truth is bad enough. Exaggerating only serves her.

[Billy_bob_bob]

"There's a big difference between discipline and abuse."

Yes, there is. I can understand giving a small child a well timed swat on the butt, or an older child a number of swats on the posterior while turned over a knee. I understand the reflexive swat, followed by the kid howling for a couple of minutes. This has been a part of human society since the dawn of history.

What I don't understand is the parent who lashes out in anger, and who keeps hitting the child over and over again. I simply do not have any patience for parents who strike out in anger. I don't understand any need for a spanking to last more than a couple of minutes, at most.

Anything beyond that, and as far as I'm concerned the parent is out of bounds. If the punishment escalates to where closed fists are used, or implements are used to bludgeon the child, or blood is drawn, then at that point I'm comfortable with the idea of getting authorities involved.

[HairOfTheDog]

You and I both have a problem of burying the lead:

YOURS: I know we still need to call police when we see or hear strong evidence of abuse, but we also need not to ignore the very real reasons why many people think they shouldn't do that. When those reasons are eliminated (or just substantially reduced), a lot more people won't hesitate to call, and a lot more children will be helped.

MINE: 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.

The most words on thise thread are about getting people to even recognize abuse and the need to report it without getting paranoid about the authorities.

The other complaints about CPS belong in a discussion, but don't you see how mucked up this thread is with people who are too cynical to help an abused kid being beaten before their very eyes? - Their first thought is that CPS is somehow worse for this kid than her mother?

[wardaddy]

Thanks but that's the same feed I saw before. I must confess that while it looks excessive in any event that it appears to be slapping and some hair pulling to me. Everytime I can see the woman's hand come back ...it is an open hand. When I fight someone my fist stay quite clenched between punches.

I'm not crazy about this woman's spanking/slapping or perhaps hitting frenzy but I have yet to see solid proof of a child being pummelled.

I'm almost 45 and my eyes aren't what they were and I mean to get some glasses.

Sometimes women get hysterical or just plain mean. This woman may have done both but I'm not convinced this was anything beyond an excess whupping...yet.

Now we have a media frenzy and this woman and her clan have a quite checkered history so anything is possible for sure.

Respectfully.

[Conservababe]

Wardaddy, if you cannot see the woman's closed fist at the end of the attack, by all means get some glasses as soon as possible.

[wardaddy]

Well said BBB!

[Conservababe]

I meant to say the closed fist in the last period of the attack, before she slammed the door.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I don't think for a second that CPS custody would be worse for this kid than being with her mother, and didn't mean to imply that. There also seems to be a problem here with a lot of people seeing different versions of the video, and some seeing it only on a PC, and getting very different impressions of what the evidence is here. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I saw a short RealPlayer clip last night that really didn't show much and could reasonably be consistent with a little tussle with a toddler who was resisting being put in a car seat.

I think most of the posters who are saying this shouldn't have been reported (only a very few), and the people who are saying the reaction seems overblown in light of the evidence (a larger number), are people who saw only shortened and/or PC versions of the video. Their reactions strike me as based on a combination of less-than-conclusive evidence and perceptions of the problems CPS can cause. It's pretty clear to me that those who have seen the whole video on a TV are appalled, and not hesitating to say that authorities need to intervene urgently.

[wardaddy]

Well my wife has seen all the feeds at home. She claims the MSNBC feed is best. I cannot link my mpeg player on this PC to MSNBC thru Drudge so I'll have to wait till I get home.

My wife thinks that of course it appears excessive but is unable to draw the conclusions many on this thread have and she has perfect vision.

I do indeed need glasses or...longer arms.

Regards....and yes it is very very wrong to pummell a 4 year old with a fist.

[RightOnline]

"I still cannot see it as good as you people at home; but what if a BEE went on her and the kid was allergic and we're seeing the mother swinging at the bee? What a horrible misunderstanding.."

TRUST me........this bitch wasn't knocking a bee off of that baby.

[MEGoody]

Little kids in a car seat will also kick if they are upset or hurt.