Posted on 10/16/2005 1:21:23 PM PDT by wagglebee
It's been three years since Terry Ashcraft of Billings last spoke to his daughter, the 21-year-old University of Southern California student accused of leaving her newborn son to die in an alley behind a popular bar in Los Angeles.
So Ashcraft was as shocked as anyone when he learned of the allegations against Holly Ashcraft - a pretty honor roll graduate of West High who reportedly attended USC on a full scholarship.
“If I could say something that would enlighten things, I would do that,” Terry Ashcraft said outside his home Friday. “All I can really say about it is this: I love her. She's one hell of a good kid, and I'm puzzled. I don't understand it.”
Police in Los Angeles say Holly Ashcraft was arrested Wednesday, three days after an anonymous tipster called 911 to report finding the newborn in an alley behind a bar popular with USC students. When officers arrived, they found the child's body lying in a cardboard box next to a trash bin. The boy's umbilical cord was still attached, suggesting a medically unattended birth.
Ashcraft was charged with murder and a felony count of child abuse. If convicted, she would face 25 years to life in prison.
On Thursday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge raised her bail from $1 million to $2 million, upholding a request by prosecutors who described her as a flight risk.
Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, and police spokesman Officer Jason Lee declined to disclose how police tied Ashcraft to the birth. But police told the owner of the building where the bar was located - and where Ashcraft lived in a second-floor apartment - that she was linked to the case after seeking medical treatment, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Times also reported that Ashcraft was a full-time student in her third year. She was suspended pending the outcome of the criminal case, the newspaper said.
Ashcraft was scheduled to appear for arraignment Nov. 9.
An attorney representing Ashcraft said people shouldn't rush to judgment.
“A lot of information is yet to come,” Paul Wallin, of the criminal defense firm Wallin and Klarich, said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. “We're hoping the ultimate result will be a positive one for our client.
Results of an autopsy performed on the child this week will not be available for at least a month, though police said the child was born full-term and alive.
A California law allows mothers to surrender newborns to hospital emergency rooms and some fire stations with no questions asked and no legal repercussions. Montana has a similar law allowing a parent to surrender a newborn baby to emergency services providers, such as hospitals, fire departments or law enforcement agencies. The child is then put up for adoption.
Terry Ashcraft was separated from Holly's mother for some time before they divorced in 2000 or 2001. It's been years since he lived under the same roof with his daughter, whom he described as “very bright, athletic and very upbeat.”
He did not know whether his daughter was pregnant and said he hasn't heard from Holly or her mother, who lives in Washington state, since Holly's arrest. What little he knows about the case has come from monitoring media reports, he said.
“There's so much confusion right now,” Terry Ashcraft said. “I'm confused; there's confusion in Southern California. There's so much going on down there that I don't know about that I just don't want to comment.”
Terry Ashcraft said his home telephone and cell phone had been ringing off the hook on Thursday and Friday, mostly from concerned relatives and friends. He would not be able to visit his daughter for at least two weeks, he said.
Wallin said he had more than 35 media inquiries about the case Friday, including calls from People and Time magazines, “Good Morning America” and “Today.” But Wallin said family members who have come to Southern California to support Ashcraft won't be doing any interviews.
“Everyone should be respectful,” Wallin said. “She has the support of her entire family.”
Wallin and partner Steve Klarich will team up for Ashcraft's defense. The firm has offices across Southern California and has been in business since 1981. Wallin said he has provided legal analysis on MSNBC during high-profile trials, including the recent Michael Jackson trial.
Brave New World...
They wanted moral relativism. They got it.
My wife and I would love to have children, but it just wasn't meant to be, evidently and unfortunately. It pains us every time we read a story like this.
But they just don't understand it!
They're SHOCKED and of course standing by her for the second time ... er you're not supposed to know about that.
"They wanted moral relativism. They got it."
They sure did!
This one is an "honor role" student so she excelled in it.
A post-birth abortion....
This gal couldn't be bothered to drop the baby off at a hospital or church. Didn't fit into her plans for a hot night out., I guess.
Wait and see - maybe he's the biological father of both abandoned babies she had.
His daughter is a slut, smokes a pack a day and drinks hard when she parties. At 22, she has already had at least 10-15 sexual partners; and he knows all this and yet, "she's a good girl, basically" .
No parent wants to face the fact that they've raised a tramp, but you can't argue with the facts.
The crux of the matter. Say what you will, but when you get right down to it, the disregard of the unborn by the marxist influence in our own government over the past 70 years, coupled with the feminist movement over the past 30 tears has brought this upon us.
Now, this was not an aborted baby, it was born and thrown away to die...anyone surprised by the advancement of the "killer marxist movement" in this country? I, for one, am not and it will get worse....BITS
FMCDH(BITS)
No, the sad thing about this is that to this girl, there is no difference between what she did and getting an abortion.
She probably figured that abortion is legal after all and her mental health was at risk and what does a day or two matter.
That was my point...perhaps not well articulated.
FMCDH(BITS)
When Laci Peterson and her unborn baby were murdered, I was sort of surprised that the Culture of Death left didn't try to get the charges against Scott Peterson amended to one count of murder and one count of performing an unlicensed abortion.
Wouldn't that be a little difficult..if he hasn't seen her in three years?
She's one hell of a good kid...
**
Sorry, sir, your daughter is NOT a good kid.
...she was probably in agony for hours, scared out of her mind, and desperate as hell.
((
Oh, please! Surely, she knew she was pregnant. There are many places where she could have received medical help. Instead she chose to murder her child and discard it like rubbish. This selfish pig deserves no sympathy.
Next time use some birth control
**
Or learn how to keep your knees together.
I am also a woman who has given birth to four children. And I am in agreement with those who say that she is an evil woman who deserves no mercy.
There are so many options today for a woman who does not want to keep her baby, and this trollop couldn't be bothered to arrange anything for this innocent baby. And, apparently, this is not the first time she has done such a thing.
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