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.
Just how many "just beaten" kids have you observed to base this statement on?
When my kids were younger and chose to 'pitch a fit' while in their carseats, the only thing they COULD do while restrained was kick their legs and wave their arms and yell bloody murder. Children who are very upset DO thrash their legs, Texaggie79. From a distance, such thrashing might look like "happy bouncing", but after a whopping like that, is it LOGICAL that the child was happily kicking her legs?
She did leave the state. And, yes, she appears to be a member of this clan.
The Fort WOrth Star Telegram did a front page profile of the "Irish/Gypsies" a couple of years ago after five juveniles (none of whom had driver's licenses) were killed while joyriding in a brand-new Cadillac on I-20 at speeds up to 120 mph. They also killed two members of a family in the collision.
Anyway, the pictures showed new cars, well-dressed and well-coiffed women, but their houses were hovels.
The story pointed out that members fan out over the country making money any way they can, then reuniting for a couple of months in the winter.
Every adult had a record. Every single one.
I saw an excerpt of the footage last night, and there's no question in my mind that this lady was punching out her child. I don't think her legs were kicking happily at all, rather they were flailing wildly in fear and pain. The news announcer said that she had been ejected from the store for making a scene with her child. If she'll whack her daughter like this in a parking lot in front of a store, what will she do in the privacy of her own home?
I'm sorry but this is sounding a lot like last Friday -- when 2-3 guys in 2-3 cars did/did not run a toll booth, did/did not say they were blowing up Miama, did/did not have an explosive trigger.
In the video on the Fox site the child is obscured from view during the hits so you can't for sure know if they were on the child or not; or if the bouncing of the legs was happy or convulsions. I think we need to see the kid before we burn the mother at the stake.
That limb you are out on is looking awfully thin.
Tough to tell.
I am the biggest opponent of a police state you can imagine, but Eunice Stone reported Islamist twirps in a public place making allusions to an upcoming terrorist act they were pretending to be planning.
Are you saying her actions are a threat to liberty?
You laugh when you get tickled, but do you really enjoy it? Think about it. How would a four-year-old know how to react? Young children are very innocent. There's no way that incident was pleasurable. The kid had just been pummled to the floor, then thrown into a carseat (legs bouncing) now Mom grabs the kid and shakes her (violently)and throws a few more punches for good measure.
A swat on the butt will handle an unruly child. My children survived many of them and you probably did too. But this was a beating. I think the police are right to be looking for this child particularly for the head shaking. You can kill a kid or maim them for life with brain injuries from such a thing. Mom ought to get a taste of her own medicine from someone 5X her size.
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