Mother to surrender in videotaped beating of girl

Associated Press ^ | September 21, 2002 | Associated Press Staff

[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.

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

[TigersEye]

Better yet, who is the "Jesus Christ" who is being sacrified to the mob for the release of "Barabbas"?

I guess that would be common sense. Or how about constitutional justice instead of a public pillorying?

I think you performed your sacrifice a long time ago. Killed it dead too.

[TigersEye]

Were you beaten as a child?

Never. Spanked. That's irrelevant anyway. I'm an adult and I'm responsible for my thoughts as well as my actions now. What happened to me as a child is history. I suppose you believe in some pop-psyche BS about child hood experiences scarring a mind forever. You must be a mass of scars.

[Brices Crossroads]

"Why are you so worried?"\

I am not worried. I merely make the observation that such surveillance is of limited value both as a deterrent and as a subsequent aid in the prosecution of criminals. Having been a prosecutor for a number of years, I can tell you that defense attorneys use these photos, in conjunction with temporo mandibular experts to testify that the photo, even if it resembles the defendant, is not him. Such surveillance does not deter and is generally counterproductive to the prosecution. It undercuts the eyewitnesses.

You may choose to overlook the potential for abuse, but it is there. During the 2000 presidential election, some Democratic operative got hold of a picture of President Bush, who was then a private citizen, picking his nose at a baseball game. And it was put up on the internet. I think that was an invasion of his privacy. And you can imagine how surveillance cameras used in public places, the subset of which are ever expanding, could be tools of similar abuse. The point is they neither make you safer nor are they helpful in convicting the defendant. So why use them?

[Kevin Curry]

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

So, "the presumption of innocence" is female?

And how does one obtain a "pound of flesh" from an abstract concept?

But we both know you were analogizing the girl's mother to Jesus Christ. Admit it and quit playing Clintonian word games.

If the mother is "Jesus Christ" in your analogy, who are the "little ones" who Jesus Christ championed, warning that any who offended them would suffer dire and severe judgment?

[Cultural Jihad]

Yes. According to the knee-jerk ideologues, the innocent and sinless mother who mercilessly slapped her 4 year old is a veritable Jesus being sacrificed to the blood-thirsty mob, and the little monstrous and criminal girl is the robber, Barrabas. The moral of his story is we must never experience any moral outrage about anything except moral outrage.

[Irene Adler]

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

Well, I know. I saw it.

The video was really unmistakeably clear on that point.

[FITZ]

Where is the little girl's father?

[Kevin Curry]

What happened to me as a child is history.

One you carry with you at all times. You are the culmination of your history. That you would analogize a child abuser to Jesus Christ suggests your personal history took an unfortunate detour long ago.

I hope you eventually find your way back on track.

[liliana]

we must have watched different tapes, i saw that mother using her fist many times, and according to reports from store personel the girl had done nothing.

[BraveMan]

I have not seen the video. I trust the opinion of my better half when she says the woman's behaviour was reprehensible.

My fear in all of this is the enormous potential for public opinion to swing wildly in the opposite direction; no form of corporal punishment being acceptable, ever. I also have deep concerns regarding the rise in the numbers of self-appointed protectors of children that is sure to come.

The situation is already way out of hand. Children already wield enormous power over their parents, granted to them by the enablers in the public school system and agents of the Child Protective Services.

I have a friend who spent three nights in jail over this very issue. Picked up on a Friday evening and forced to sit incarcerated until the following Monday when the courts were in session. His crime? Grabbing his rebellious teenage daughter by the shoulders and shaking her for a few seconds, admonishing her to "wake up". The subsequent intrusion and interference in both their lives by the CPS and LEOs has become for them nightmare a that doesn't seem to have an end date.

The daughter now deeply regrets filing the abuse complaint. That has no bearing on the matter however, according to the CPS. The father and daughter are now "in the system", and the legally prescribed actions of the system must now run it's course.

I shudder when I think of their story. There, but for the grace of God, go I . . .

[TigersEye]

some Democratic operative got hold of a picture of President Bush, who was then a private citizen, picking his nose at a baseball game. And it was put up on the internet. I think that was an invasion of his privacy.

Was he picking a booger? Did a fly or a bee go up his nose? Was his finger on the side of his nose and the angle of the photo made it look like he was mining for gold?

Half these idiots would take one look at the pic and believe for the rest of their lives that they saw incontrovertible evidence that W picked a big greenie in public. Half of them (yes you Kevin) would further believe he then took and tossed it at someone sitting in front of him.

[avenir]

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.

No, that doesn't sound corny. I like it.

Thanks for the response. My parents divorced when I was 4, and I did not grow up with the type of family bond you described. But it appeals to me. Still, I don't think it's cynical of me to notice a modern tendency to "spare the rod" as being a violation of God's wisdom.

I don't consider this "beating" by the way. Spanking is appropriate where beating is not.

Perhaps you are just blessed with children that didn't need much corporal punishment. I take it you never divorced and remarried either? That's a plus.

You do have me pondering here, Mr. Curry! I have some extremely gentle Christian friends who I cannot imagine being better parents. Even they, though, have been diligent from the cradle to teach their little ones obediance and—sure enough!—they have needed it. I know they will administer spankings when appropriate...because Scripture says so (we've discussed it).

I also know many others who have ZILCH influence over their children who, curiously, don't believe in spanking. It's these glaring examples all around me that still have me convinced you are an exception.

[TigersEye]

You are such an idiot. If you could read you could see from the context of my post that no person was the 'Jesus' or the 'Barrabas' in my analogy. I even explained it for you. My Gawd you're dense.

[wtc911]

Sometimes it saves children. I was LEO in NYC. I've seen what loving parents can do to their own children. I also raised 5 myself. I have never struck any of them except my oldest who got a whap on the butt when at the age of three he stepped into the street. He was shocked but he got the message.

[TigersEye]

You are the culmination of your history.

The difference between a sheeple and a man is that a man doesn't let his history control his behaviour. I knew you were going to defend that pop-psyche 'it's not my fault' BS.

[spunkets]

Yes, that's WI. This situation is horrible. It created a "Lord of the Flies" setting. Some kids take advantage of the "no wrath, or sanction allowed".

Some Sheriffs weigh the deed the teenager did against the child abuse complaint. They then take sides. That's not allowed though and most don't work that way. In Prairie du Chien recently, there was a teenager that continued a sexual assault attack even after the father showed up. The teen criminal physically attacked the father and the old man punched his lights out with a single blow. The police busted the old man for striking a child. The police paid the old man's fine and said it was a shame, but the law is the law.

This situation has to be reversed, or the world will end shortly. LOL...

[avenir]

I've seen families where the kids were never spanked and never yelled at and the kids turned out very sweet and respectful.

"Yelled at" is something I have often observed in parents who simply reject the idea of spanking. They completely miss the point that they have turned to verbal assault instead and that this is far worse to the psyche of the child.

I have also observed some "very sweet and respectful" offspring reveal a carefully repressed rebellion further down the road. Their parents quite sincerely just "didn't understand" this development, and were quick to reaffirm their healthy parenting.

But I'm willing to admit to some tainting, some bent towards cynicism in this because I come from a broken home and it really undermined the disciplining process in my childhood. I'm one of those seemingly rare people who think they needed MORE whippin's!

I'm curious, and not being sarcastic—What do you guys think about what God has to say about the subject (e.g. the Proverb above)?

[FITZ]

"Yelled at" is something I have often observed in parents who simply reject the idea of spanking.

Yelling is worse than spanking I think. But spanking should only be done on the rear with a hand or maybe in some cases a paddle. I've got kids and spanking doesn't seem to do that much good past a certain age of about 4. If they're sensitive a light swat is all they need, if they're hard-headed, they'll laugh off a hard swat and or pretend it didn't bother them. There's better approaches in those cases because they can provoke a parent into losing their temper.