Posted on 09/23/2002 4:02:27 PM PDT by Conservababe
She sounds like a Michigander Yankee to me..
(Apologies to Conservative Michiganders)
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (Sept. 23) - The woman caught on video beating her 4-year-old daughter in a department store parking lot will probably plead guilty and throw herself on the mercy of the court, her lawyer said Monday.
Madelyne Gorman Toogood, 25, was arraigned on a felony charge of battery to a child, and a magistrate entered an innocent plea on her behalf.
Her attorney, Steven Rosen, said there was no point in trying to challenge the surveillance videotape in court.
''I don't think there's anything, any expert of any degree in any type of credibility that can do anything about that tape. It is what it is,'' he said.
''We will probably enter a guilty plea and throw ourselves on the mercy of the court,'' he said after the arraignment.
Earlier Monday, a Probate Court judge ordered that Toogood's daughter, Martha, remain in foster care in the meantime, and he gave child-protection officials two weeks to recommend who should care for the girl.
If convicted, Toogood could get up to three years in prison. She faces a hearing on Oct. 7.
The mother of three had no comment as she left court. She remained free on $5,000 bail.
''People might think I'm a monster, but I've been a mother for six years, and no harm has come to my children before this, never,'' Toogood told CNN earlier Monday. ''I'm sorry. That's all I can say.''
A doctor examined the girl and found no medical problems and no long-term signs of abuse, authorities said.
Toogood told reporters Sunday she hit her daughter in the head and back and pulled her hair but did not punch her. On the video of the Sept. 13 incident, which has been televised nationally, Toogood appears to make punching motions toward her daughter inside a sport utility vehicle.
''Martha didn't deserve what she got,'' Toogood said over the weekend. ''I just lost my temper.''
Rosen said he believed the hitting took place because Martha misbehaved in the store, taking toys out of packages and wandering away, prompting store employees to page Toogood twice.
Toogood said she hopes to be reunited with her daughter and that she, her daughter, and her husband, John, plan to start parenting classes. ''Anything that they want us to do, we will do,'' Toogood said.
She said her two young sons are staying with family.
Toogood said she and her husband have been living in Mishawaka for about six months. She said they are Irish Travelers - a nomadic group that police say has been linked to fraudulent home repair.
By some estimates, 7,000 Travelers live in the United States - most in Texas and South Carolina - about 40,000 live in Ireland and England. The Travelers began migrating to the United States more than 100 years ago.
Toogood's sister also was arraigned Monday on a charge of assisting a criminal.
I don't know about the rest of you but I sure don't go for cameras spying on every stinking thing I do . . . Same kind of people that have nothing better to do than to pry into others business, probably are for cameras everywhere . . . Next time you pick you nose . . .I'm sorry that security cameras offend you so. Perhaps you should avoid Kohl stores; and for that matter, I noticed a sign in the Walmart parking lot last Saturday informing me that the premises are video monitored. If you don't like the cameras - don't go to the stores, it's that simple. But, I can't blame any of the stores for having cameras because there are so damn many theives out there. In this case, I'm glad she was caught on "candid camera". The cameras don't bother me at all - I'm not a theif and I have nothing to hide. Perhaps you should pick your nose in private?
That's a very fair question. I'm no doctor, so I don't know if a child can be struck like that and show no marks. And I have not heard a credible medical report that says the girl is fine, only the word of the mom and her attorney, after the child has been hidden for what, a week? If I missed it, I will be glad to be informed of it.
Maybe she was hit in the stomach, that wouldn't show marks. Speculation, I admit.
But, we have the testimony of the little girl to consider. She said the woman shook her by the pigtails and hit her.
If I were on the jury, the fact that the woman grabbed her by the pigtails and shook a four-year-old child's head around would be considered battery. No question.
That's why I always liked Cher. Simple and to the point.
From article I posted at posting #43
"Rosen said he believed the hitting took place because Martha misbehaved in the store, taking toys out of packages and wandering away, prompting store employees to page Toogood twice."
Buonas noches. You have any kids?
That statement should have been preceeded by a barf alert.
http://fraudtech.bizland.com/news_link3.htm
Travelers get indictment for fraud charges
By Kathy Steele
South Carolina Bureau The Augusta Chronicle
NORTH AUGUSTA -- Three Irish Travelers from Murphy's Village in North Augusta have been indicted on federal charges of filing false loan applications to buy pickup trucks in Wayne, Nebraska.
The indictments were announced Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Nebraska.
Thomas ``Champ'' O'Hara, 47, and his sons, Michael, 26, and Bryan, 24, were charged in separate indictments with one count each of fraudulent use of a Social Security card. They are being held in Omaha at the Douglas County Detention Center after being arrested in June on a federal warrant in Eldorado, Kansas.
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