Posted on 09/26/2002 7:17:06 AM PDT by Dog Gone
SWEENY -- After his 8-year-old stepson missed his school bus earlier this week, Theodore E. Moody told the boy to walk.
Kevin Fujii / Chronicle The Panther, a stun gun wielding 300,000 volts, was used by a man to punish his 8-year-old stepson for missing his school bus. |
Child welfare officials removed the boy and three other children from Moody's home near this Brazoria County town after learning that he had been disciplining the boy with the battery-powered device.
"I just can't fathom people doing something like this to their own children," sheriff's Capt. Jeff Adkins said Wednesday.
District Attorney Jeri Yenne, who tested the device on herself to understand what the boy felt, said she is awaiting the outcome of an investigation before deciding whether to file charges.
"This is a new one for us," said Estella Olguin, spokeswoman for Children's Protective Services.
Officials at Wild Peach Elementary, in the Columbia-Brazoria school district, contacted authorities Monday after the boy arrived. Adkins said the boy told police his stepfather used the stun gun to punish him for being late to school.
Moody, 27, who recently quit his job as a truck driver, acknowledged Wednesday that he had resorted to the stun gun when other disciplinary methods failed.
"I felt I did the right thing," he said. "The belt didn't work; this did. It hurts less than the belt.
"I've whipped his ass so hard that it left marks. That just didn't send the message and this did."
Moody and his wife have two children, ages 2 and 3, in addition to the boy and his 11-year-old sister, who are her children from a previous marriage. All four are now in a foster home, Olguin said.
Although parents have the right to use corporal punishment, she said, the methods must be within reason.
"They felt (the stun gun) was an appropriate form of discipline," she said. "This just seems like a very cruel way to punish a child."
Moody, who moved here several years ago from New York, said he had told his stepson that if he missed his school bus again he would have to walk to school, although it is several miles.
"So we went for a walk and every time he slowed down, I hit him in the ass with (the stun gun)."
He said he had acquired the Panther 100 recently in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. He tested it on himself, his wife and a neighbor before using it on the boy, Moody said.
Moody said his wife drove him and the boy the rest of the way to school after they had walked about a mile and the boy grew tired.
Adkins, the sheriff's captain, said the mother told officers that she does not consider stun-gun jolts a harsh punishment.
Adkins said he has been shocked by a stun gun and likened it to a severe bee sting, followed by temporary paralysis. He said the device usually causes two small, red blisters similar to insect bites.
Yenne, the district attorney, said she wanted to know how much pain a stun gun inflicts.
"I used it on myself because I honestly thought that I needed to know if it caused physical pain and I needed to know what the 8-year-old felt like," she said.
She touched her leg with the device and said it was an unforgettable experience.
"It hurt. It was very uncomfortable," she said. "I don't think I will do it again."
From a prosecutorial standpoint, Yenne said, there are differences between parents who deliberately abuse their children and those who use poor judgment when administering punishment.
"I believe sometimes that well-intentioned people make horrible decisions on discipline," she said.
She added that the expectation of pain was almost worse than the pain itself.
"The apprehension prior to it was probably more excruciating," she said. "It is psychological abuse. This goes to show that some people believe that if you don't leave marks there is no injury. I really believe that was the thought process."
Depending on what the investigation turns up, Yenne said, Moody could be indicted on a third-degree felony of injury to a child.
A court hearing will be held Tuesday to determine whether the children should remain in CPS custody.
Moody said he still believes it was appropriate to use the stun gun, but said he will not use it since police and child welfare officials believe otherwise.
"It's not abuse," he said. "The instructions say that it cannot cause permanent damage. My definition of abuse is some kind of permanent damage, whether it be physical or mental."
The Panther is manufactured by Panther Stun Guns.com, a division of PersonalArms.com of Little Ferry, N.J. Company vice president Nick Cicala said the devices are intended for self-defense but, unfortunately, also are used to attack others.
He said he had never heard of one being used to discipline a child.
Sorry, can't defend this. This is not little spanking. It's a clear case of battery (see above).
However, what would self-hating whites call the boy's father? White Trash perhaps? Possibly African-American White Trash?
And I can't wait to hear more about Gypsies.
Have you often stun-gunned her while she's undertaking these activities? (She might react a little differently.)
There has to be a middle ground between the current situation, where government intervenes almost at will in family matters, and the Roman concept of the pater familias, the father who had the power of life and death over his children. The situation that existed prior to about 1960, where there had to be clear evidence of true abuse or neglect before a judge would remove children, evidence equivalent to the habeas corpus standard used in criminal law, better protected the rights of families and individuals.
Also, prior to about 1930, churches and private charities, rather than government, took care of orphans and abandoned chidren. Despite all the negative stories about orphanages, such as in Dickens' novels and in the Little Orphan Annie comic strip, the orphanages and even the much maligned "orphan trains" provided an invaluable service to the nation, without one cent of taxpayer money being spent. Given the horrors of the foster home program under the present state-controlled system, it is hard to imagine how the former system was worse. If the old system was like Tsar Nicholas or Batista, the current system is like Stalin or Castro.
The best solution would be the abolition of CPS agencies, with the transfer of foster care to organizations like the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities and with the prosecution of child abuse and negligence, with the same safeguards to accused parents as afforded other defendants, to police agencies and district attorneys.
The guy was deliberate... he checked it out on himself and his wife and his neighbor to make sure it was safe. Potential FDA employee. :)
He was resourceful.... I mean at least he recognized the fact that spankings weren't working... so he tried other alternatives that were tested to be safe. (no doubt the PC grounding and timeout junk didn't work either)
And honestly... just going through life... haven't we all seen kids that needed a stun gun or a paddle applied on occassion to get their attention?
I can walk through the mall most any day and see a few kids that I wouldn't mind zapping with the thing myself. :)
That's not accurate. He did test the device on himself, his wife, and his neighbor. And apparently all agreed that it was "safe" and effective for discipline. I would contend that he had "first hand" knowledge of the pain transmited.
It sounds as if this kid has been beaten for years, and it's not going to get any better. I can only imagine what the father would be using in another five years.
Since I'm not a "self-hating white," I wouldn't know.
But I would call Moody (who's the step-father, not the father) a knuckle-dragging slope who has no business being around anybody's children.
This abuse is the kind of thing that inspires children to grow up to kill their parents.
You're probably right. I've had many problems as a result of my liberal 60's upbringing, devoid as it was of peach switches.
There is discipline and abuse.
And I'd be willing to consider with you that a stun gun is abuse, not discipline. But don't even think about touching my peach switch...
Maybe some of Saddam's discipline would give you a clue as to the difference.
Are we getting a little vaklempt? Talk amongst yourself.
Severe abuse of children has occured throughout history, and will likely continue until the Second Coming of Christ. There will always be "rotten apples" like the stepfather; however, there is an old saw that bad cases like this make for bad law. CPS agencies grew out of such bad cases, and now are empowered to intervene when a child is spanked in public or to repress homeschooling. They need to be abolished in the name of Constitutional rights and limited government.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! ...ahh, come on, do it again!
The district attourney isn't as dumb as she looks.
I agree, seems we, as a society, have become a bunch of blithering idiots when it comes to kids. Its no wonder so many of them grow up to be such self centered monsters.
Those aren't the only two choices a parent has to choose from.
Some kids are bad. Maybe it's genetic, I don't know, but they're just bad. They require special handling. Discipline is going to be required, probably along with rewards for good behavior.
But I doubt we'll ever hear someone credit repeated use of a stun gun by a parent as the reason why they're a model citizen today.
They do work pretty well on wives though.
-archy-/-
well, we know she is AS smart as a test monkey!
A bit mellow-dramatic don't yo think?
I don't know the people involved so it's hard to say if the step dad is a evil child abuser or if the child is a manipulative little monster. I can see where both might be the case.
All I can say is that if it were me, this is the kind of thing that would inspire me to make *amn sure I never missed the bus. I wonder why it didn't have the same effect on this 8 year old?
OR, the poor kid was EXHAUSTED from being 'cattle-prodded' every time he slowed down.......gee whiz......you sound like a very nice person! NOT.
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