Posted on 11/13/2007 6:34:38 PM PST by SmithL
TAZEWELL - A child abuse case that one investigator called the worst he's seen in a 35-year career was sent to a Claiborne County grand jury today, charging a man with using electric shock dog collars to control his two teenage daughters and with raping both girls.
The man is being held on $1 million bond on charges of aggravated child abuse and two counts of rape.
The Claiborne County Sheriff's Department began investigating in September when one of the man's 18-year-old daughters reported abuse to a school official. His wife is charged with aggravated child neglect failing to report child abuse. She is free on bond.
The man, who is a dog trainer, is accused of repeatedly using shock collars on his teenage daughters' legs to control them. The collars were activated by a push-button radio controller. It's the type of collar used to train hunting dogs and is generally more powerful than anti-bark collars or perimeter shock collars.
The family has five children ranging in age from 11 to 19, and a 15-year-old brother testified that his sisters would scream, lay on the floor and repeatedly plead with their father to stop activating the collars. The family kept about 30 bird-hunting dogs, which it trained using the same collars.
The 18-year-old wept during her testimony, explaining that her father had been raping her since was 12 or 13 years old.
She said she decided to report it to a school officer on Sept. 10, after her father used the collar on her neck for the first time.
The girl testified she was afraid that her father would kill her. She said he pantomimed shooting her and himself if she told anyone about the abuse.
A state prosecutor said authorities have been unable to locate her 19-year-old sister.
Claiborne County Sheriff's Capt. Sam Nelson, who investigated the case, testified that he told the older girl that she could go to prison if she had been witness to the events while she was an adult.
Nelson called it the worst case of child abuse he'd seen in 35 years in law enforcement.
Today's hearing began at 9 a.m. and ended after noon.
The case is being prosecuted by assistant district attorneys general Amanda Sammons and Jared Effler of the 8th Judicial District.
The family's children, except for the missing 19-year-old, are in foster care.
The family is not being identified because the charges involve allegations of rape.
Let’s dispell THAT myth right off the git-go. I have a dear friend who’s hubby is a Wayne...and you couldn’t ask for a nicer, more gentle and kind man.
He’s a Pastor, too....Calvary Chapel.
So there.
:)
My first thought exactly. This Sheriff's Dept. Captain needs to be busted down a couple of stripes for that one.
This man is just misguided. Can I chat alon with him for a few minutes. About 2 will do....
I remember going to Tazwell in 1971 to visit relatives. My how times have completely gone haywire.
First thing headlines + location - you acn’t make this stuff up.
That said
Rule 303!
A Memorial Veteran’s day to you sir!
It took me a second to get what you meant. While I would be the last to ruin a good pun, unfortunately, it's pronounced "Tazz-well", rhymes with jazz-bell, whatever a jazzbell is.
On another note, when I saw the headline, I wondered, "Tennessee or Kentucky?"
Give him to me. He will experience hell on earth.
But the 15 year old son didn’t turn his father in either - only verified the use of the shock collars.
My opinion? He gets a jail term with the father: for aiding a crime for many years. (He may have been in on the rapes as well.)
No...
Strap a dog collar around his balls, and randomly hit the button several times an hour, every day for the 25 years minimum he spends in prison....
Okay. And THEN the electric chair.
Sure you don't want to borrow my blow torch, instead?
We can take turns.
My mother always told me to share my toys...
I think we all know where they need to put that shock collar, and I think we all know who should get custody of the clicker...
I would imagine that the 15 year old son knew that he had a monster for a father and feared what would happen to him.
Give the kid a break. That whole household was probably terrorized.
He could be far more afraid for his siblings. It is very easy for a father to scare a kid to death, especially if the father demonstrates torture on a daily basis. An adult would go straight to the police and won’t return without cops. But a child probably witnessed the events growing slowly, step by step, sold to him as something acceptable. Another possible tactics for the father is to claim that the police won’t believe a minor (which, unfortunately, is possible.) Imagine what could happen if the child talks to the police and not believed. An idiot cop could call the father, receive assurances that all is just peachy and send the kid home. That would be a death sentence. Same applies to the 19 y.o. daughter, though she is old enough the know better; but it’s for the judge to decide. Scaring her off was not a bright idea.
Usually in these cases the mother is pretty beaten down and can’t conceive of doing something against the wishes of the husband/other. And what sort of threats has the brother been subject to? For such families not much exists outside of the immediate family situation.Going to the police is just not a perceived option. Their world is very tightly limited and everything outside it is just sort of a blur. In school the kids are probably detached-cocooned.
Spare me son unless you have first hand knowledge of similar cases.
I do.
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