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.
I agree but I will tell you that many nosey folks do not think any swatting is deserved. I say this from the perspective of having just experienced one of the most shocking invasions of my parental privacy in my life at a suburban Nashville restaurant. This tape has folks inflamed.
My 2 and a half year old threw a tantrum at said restaurant and chunked fries etc. everywhere. I gave him several warnings before taking him outside to my Suburban whereby I swatted the squirming young lad on his bottom 3 times with my open hand. I then placed his suddenly more subdued self in his booster seat and locked the car and went back to retrieve my 8 months pregnant wife and grabbed my last mouthful of french fries. Our Suburban was parked by the front door directly in front of the booth and (it's wide window) in which my wife was waiting maybe 10 feet from the front door. We took a couple of minutes to gather everything up with my both my wife and I watching the lad thru the door and booth window in said locked car. Anyhow, as I was paying my check at the front door, the hostess mumbled something to me which i failed to hear and I asked her to repeat it but from the look on my wife's face I could tell it was not good. She then loudly informed me that she had seen what I had done (spanked my child) and that if I ever returned to her restaurant she would call the police and file chrages against me.
I was absolutely as stunned as if someone had told me I was really from Mars and not Mississippi. My wife was by then pleading with me to ignore her and let's go. This girl was fat pimply faced and around 17-19. I asked her how many children do you have? She replied one. Judging by no ring on her finger I assumed this one child was being raised by her parents and the fact that she had a night job. I let it go. I think I muttered something about her being a do-gooder Democrat getting into business that wasn't her's and that if she felt I was a child abuser for spanking my son then by all means call the police now.
Anyhow we left. I felt embarrassed angry....furious...and wondered what in the absolute hell are we coming to. One cannnot spank their child in the privacy of a car or bathroom without the child abuse Nazis lurking about. It's like being accused of molestation....it sticks regardless of merit.
On the 20 mile ride home, my wife then told me that 2 weeks ago she had spanked him putting him into his car seat and a group of people in the parking lot who happened to witness this all stopped and gave her a " you must be from the Manson family" look.
It's crazy.....I cannot believe this happened to me today. uncanny....obviously because of inflamed perceptions but since when do folks feel they have the right to intrude so crudely into one's life.....the same shrill crowd that intrudes into everything.
This is not a story I would make up.....I will be reeling from this for sometime.
Not to take anything away from a gypsy woman pummelling her 4 year old but there are forces out there who wish to criminalize spankings and they will use this the same way anti RKBA folks do.
BTW, the restaurant only had 2 high chairs both taken. I wish now I had just let him run wild like the Tasmanian Devil.....see how much tolerance of behavioral diversity they have.
Feeling like crap in Nashville. Angry and humiliated. What a damn night.
Those of you who feel like flaming me because I spanked my son 3 times on his clothed posterior....feel free. I feel like i just got beat up and that's mighty rare for me.
Dazed Regards....my "abused" son is now over it....not even a red mark on his "cheeks" and after some brownies is now sleeping the sleep of a worn out hellion.
He was....thanks. I loved and respected and even a few times when younger feared him a bit. He was the alpha male and was always there for me. God knows I tested that last bit to the max.
He was....thanks. I loved and respected and even a few times when younger feared him a bit. He was the alpha male and was always there for me. God knows I tested that last bit to the max.
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