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Mother to surrender in videotaped beating of girl
Associated Press ^ | September 21, 2002 | Associated Press Staff

Posted on 09/21/2002 4:36:25 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP


Mother to surrender in videotaped beating of girl

09/21/2002

Associated Press

MISHAWAKA, Ind. - A woman seen on a department store security tape punching her 4-year-old daughter plans to surrender Saturday, her attorney said Friday night.

Police have been searching for Madelyne Gorman Toogood since Sept. 13, when a camera in a department store parking lot videotaped her punching and shaking her 4-year-old daughter.

The attorney, Stephen Rosen, said Ms. Toogood is on her way to Chicago and will surrender. She is charged with felony battery to a child.

Indiana police took the search nationwide Wednesday when they released the tape. "We want to get the girl the medical attention she needs," Police Chief Anthony A. Hazen said. "We want to get her to an emergency room and let them examine her."

Ms. Toogood is also wanted in Texas on at least two warrants. Fort Worth police said one warrant involves a shoplifting charge in March. Authorities in White Settlement, a Fort Worth suburb, issued an arrest warrant on an unspecified Class C misdemeanor.

Ms. Gorman's sister, 31-year-old Margaret Daley, who authorities say was present at the time of the incident, was arrested and charged with failure to report child abuse.

Police received more than 1,000 calls about the video, which was first aired Wednesday night.

Staff writer Laurie Fox contributed to this report.


Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/092102dnnatbeating.86c.html


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Indiana; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: child; gorman; irishtravellers; madelyne; madelynegorman; madelynetoogood; toogood; travellers; videotapedbeating
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To: budwiesest
sniff, sniff, wipe a tear from my eye, that is a beautful story. The only thing that could've made it happier is if the poor kid could have gotten away from his dad for good.

Of course, it won't take long for some sicko to show up here and tell you that 10 year old boys can act like animals and he probably deserved the beating. Then they'll say, "Plus I was beat when I was young and look at how good I've turned out".

141 posted on 09/21/2002 8:31:25 AM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: AllSmiles
Really?

Really.

142 posted on 09/21/2002 8:32:48 AM PDT by southern rock
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To: A Vast RightWing Conspirator
Explain 'white trash' please????

She's an Irish Traveler, otherwise known as a Gypsy. These people make their living off of scams and theft.

She's definitely white trash.

143 posted on 09/21/2002 8:33:25 AM PDT by sinkspur
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To: JZoback
. . . I hope you were not inferring that I don't know how to discipline my own children.

Not at all. But there are those who believe that they have a right to discipline their child the way this woman did, and that it's no one's business, period. (And I am not inferring you think this way.) I do not "believe in" Big Brother telling me how to raise my children, in most any regard. However, when children are treated inhumanely, as I believe this child is and has been, children should not be subjected to this type of treatment. It's wrong. As you know, with our freedoms come responsibilities, and children are a great responsibility. Those who "mishandle" their responsibilities do not deserve the freedom to behave in irresponsible ways at the expense of innocents. These types of cases are very sad . . . and reminds me of what Andrea Yates did to her children.....the trauma they suffered by the one they most trusted.

144 posted on 09/21/2002 8:34:00 AM PDT by nicmarlo
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To: A Vast RightWing Conspirator
"Actually, my take is that what we are witnessing right now is the product of the liberal nanny state (can we call it totalitarian?) - millions of brain-washed morons, making other people's busines their #1 concern...What do you propose? Surveillance cameras in every house where parents live with their kids? "

Good points...

I submit that this media-hyped single event (which BTW has occurred thousands of time a day in America without nary an outcry) may insidiously wind up being the 'poster-child' and so-called "proof" that further "liberal nanny-state" intrusion and control over it's citizen's children will be a "good thing."

Within ten years prepare for some Democrat to propose legislation for cameras in homes, unsolicited school 'interviews' with children about their parents, and state-sponsored childrens' "justice" centers.

145 posted on 09/21/2002 8:34:30 AM PDT by F16Fighter
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To: Under the Radar
I invite you to visit some of the homes in which the children are taken away from their parents. Unfortunately, the reality is very different from the ideal. And I think you will find that placing children in foster care places them in less danger than they would be had they stayed with their parents.
146 posted on 09/21/2002 8:34:44 AM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: Under the Radar
I agree with you - CPS in most states I have read about scares me to death. But not as much as the thought of standing before God and being asked why I did nothing when I saw one of His little ones taking it to the head from another adult.

It's FAR from a perfect situation. I agree with the poster in this thread who said that the govt should never have custody of kids. The idea that someone could anonymously report me for "abuse" without merit and my kids could be gone that fast on hearsay is beyond frightening. But can we stand by and watch someone punch a 4 year old in the head? I couldn't.
147 posted on 09/21/2002 8:36:09 AM PDT by agrace
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To: F16Fighter
sometimes these media-hyped events are the result of the shock that a mother could treat her young daughter in this way. not everything is a conspiracy.
148 posted on 09/21/2002 8:37:19 AM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: budwiesest
God bless your friend Danny.
149 posted on 09/21/2002 8:38:33 AM PDT by agrace
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To: F16Fighter
Within ten years prepare for some Democrat to propose legislation for cameras in homes, unsolicited school 'interviews' with children about their parents, and state-sponsored childrens' "justice" centers.

Undoubtedly inspired by the DoYourOwnThangAndItsAllNobodysBusiness moral-liberalism which is proselytised by the LP and the mass media.

150 posted on 09/21/2002 8:40:03 AM PDT by Cultural Jihad
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To: homeschool mama
You may have raised 6 children but that doesn't mean you know *how* to raise children. Beating is not discipline.

Lady, It will be hard, but I'll be nice in my response.

It is not your place to judge me on whether or not I have raised my children correctly. I have NEVER, EVER BEAT my kids. Each of them have been disciplined in one form or another, some a whole lot, some hardly at all. The very last resort was to spank them with a wooden paddle.

I have never used my hand to spank them. That in my estimate would be a sin.

Each and ever time they were told beforehand what the punishment would be if they behaved in a certain way. You can believe me when I had to discipline them, it was always in a loving controlled fashion.

My children all love my very much and each of them will tell you they were never spanked without just cause.

Having said all that, you might want to know we loved our children so much we homschooled them for many years at great sacrifice.

This internet board gives you anonymity to a certain degree, it let's you assume many things about people you don't have a clue to who they are.

151 posted on 09/21/2002 8:45:08 AM PDT by JZoback
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To: avenir
Honestly, no spankings? No need? All well-adjusted? It's not that I hope you are deceiving yourself here . . .

Honestly. The oldest are in college on full scholarship, attend to religious duties voluntarily and consistently, do not use drugs or engage in other destructive behavior, and are a joy to be around. We have never received an angry telephone call from another parent complaining that our children did "this or that" or were a bad influence on their own kids. Neither have we ever received a midnight call from the police.

On all our children we have always gotten independent confirmation from other adults that they are well-behaved, disciplined, hard-working kids when my wife and I aren't there to watch.

An exception? Not really. It depends on the crowd you run with, I guess. I know many parents who have had kids turn out the same way or better, who similarly employed disciplinary methods that did not include physical beatings or even more than rare bottom-swat spankings. I prefer to socialize with such people; I don't care to spend much time with people who beat their children.

Let me give you an example of how I worked the drug issue with my oldest kids when they were pre-teens. We went on a family outing together and had a great time. We sat down on the grass in a beautiful park and talked about drugs quite frankly. My kids opened and told me about the pressures they were already seeing in school. They already knew my stand on drugs because my wife and I had consistently voiced our disapproval of drugs from the time when they were very little and always tried hard to model not just anti-drug behavior, but the virtues of delayed self-gratification (e.g., saving up and sacrificing short-term gain for long-term advantage). We discussed ways they could respond if someone tried to get them to use drugs. At the end of our discussion I invoked the sacred and special nature of our family and our heritage. I said, "Others may choose to use drugs, but we're the Currys, and we don't. Let's us Currys pledge to each other right now that the Currys will never use drugs." We all joined our hands together as a family and "shook" on it. Sure it sounds corny, but my kids remember it to this very day. And they are drug free.

An alternative method would have been for me to threaten to skin my kids alive if I ever found them using drugs, a threat reinforced by frequent beatings for every other glass of spilled milk or slight act of disobedience. Call me silly, but I don't believe that would have worked as well.

152 posted on 09/21/2002 8:48:41 AM PDT by Kevin Curry
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To: Paul Atreides
Ain't it a darned shame when technology such as a camera in a public place infringes upon the "rights" of a criminal or otherwise bad guy to inflict his bad deeds on innocent folks?....< /sarcasm >
153 posted on 09/21/2002 8:49:30 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
Do you use the same compassion and logic when it comes to everyday common criminals?

You assume the mothere is a criminal

I mean, when you hear a 17 year old robbed a convenience store do you find the same empathy in your heart?

No.

Robbing a convenience store and getting out of control when spanking a child are way different issues.

One is pemediated and the other a serious lack of mental control.

154 posted on 09/21/2002 8:50:36 AM PDT by JZoback
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To: F16Fighter
Within ten years prepare for...
to propose legislation for...
cameras in homes, 'interviews'
with children about their parents,...
and state-sponsored childrens'...
"justice" centers.

155 posted on 09/21/2002 8:52:19 AM PDT by Consort
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To: JZoback
Either way can result in the death of an innocent.
156 posted on 09/21/2002 8:53:22 AM PDT by RabidBartender
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To: MeeknMing
Funny how they don't view owning a gun, and using it on a perp, as infringing on the rights of some criminal. I guess we need to abolish the military, because it infringes on the rights of some hostile force to invade us.
157 posted on 09/21/2002 8:53:32 AM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: MeeknMing
Public place. Means you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. That's why the white trash whore looked around first.

She punched the kid in the head repeatedly, because she was frustrated. She deserves all the obscene names we can think up. She has a higher duty to her own vulnerable child than an average 17 year old punk robber of a 7-11 has to the cashier. That's why the State gets to step in. A fiduciary relationship between parent and child.

158 posted on 09/21/2002 8:54:07 AM PDT by frodolives
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To: Patriotic Rich; All
If a woman has the right to "choose" whether to have her unborn child destroyed or spared. Does it not cheapen the childs life after he or she is born?

You bet your life it does. EVERY parent, since Roe v. Wade, can look at their child when they are being a big PITA and think to themselves "I shoulda flushed this monster when I had the chance.". Whether they condemn themselves with the next thought for that one or not it's still there. The highest law of the land signed sealed and approved to you that onetime opportunity to scuttle your 'little' problem and you, like an idiot, missed your chance.

So how does the Spock-brained parent now feel when all the feel good rhetoric about 'relating to your children' doesn't do a damn bit of good because your five or six year old knows he/she's got the upperhand? "Go ahead and spank me, I'll tell my teacher!" They feel like hitting something that's what they feel like. And many of them today have no self control because they weren't disciplined and there's no discipline anywhere else to be seen.

This group is great! /sarcasm

From a thirty second fuzzy 2 D video about two by two inches taken from thirty yards away they've got enough to crucify this woman before the world. We got dipwads suggesting that 2nd graders should stone her to death. On pay-per-view I bet. That's what we need, Taliban justice. She used her hands to hit the kid so why not just whack 'em off? She's a whore too! Let's get the O.J. SkyCam to follow her car to court with a banner on the screen that says "Child beatin' whore goes to court.". Put her face on every website and every milk carton in the land and let's have Geraldo and O'Reilly get her lawyer on the air and call him some nasty names too.

You want a pound of her flesh? You want justice?You lame bunch of statist sycophantic pricks!!!

Maybe this lady hit her kid. (no one here knows)

Maybe her kid pushes all the right buttons and does it for fun. (no one here knows)

Maybe this child needs a new home and mom needs a serious time-out, with help.
(NO ONE HERE KNOWS)

The only thing that can be said for certain about this story is that 30 seconds of surveillance video can get every loser in America to scream for Barrabas' release and demand to be put on the nailing crew.

There's a story here alright. Not about what this woman did or didn't do. There's a political story about what the government and the media can and will do to a person if given half a chance. It raises some interesting questions like why, how far can they go and who's next? And for what? But it's a whole lot easier to forget all that and let the media and the government dance you around like puppets. It's always fun to be part of something.

159 posted on 09/21/2002 8:54:19 AM PDT by TigersEye
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
We'll never know the fate of that boy, however, his dad may hesitate before doing it again. One can hope.

The line between punishment and abuse was something easily recognizable to Danny. Crossing that line in front of him would cost one dearly- it was his hot-button issue. Having learned that most opponents are defeated with very quick and aggresive action (from his dad's bar) he never hesitated. Punching a kid in his presence would come at a high price.

160 posted on 09/21/2002 8:54:50 AM PDT by budwiesest
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