Free Republic

Judge blocks abuse angle in Atkinson trial 'Battered husband' testimony inadmissible in Hutchins girl case 12/10/2002 By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News The jury hearing the case of a Hutchins man accused of locking his stepdaughter in a squalid closet will not hear testimony that Kenneth Atkinson was a "battered husband," the judge in the case ruled Monday. Much of the testimony Monday - the first day of the defense presentation - tried to show that Mr. Atkinson cared for his children, worked long days at a cabinet shop and was abused by his former wife. Mr....

Witness: Girl's earlier house had 'secret room' 12/07/2002 By JENNIFER EMILYand TIM WYATT / The Dallas Morning News The squalid closet in a Hutchins trailer wasn't the first prison for an 8-year-old Hutchins girl. Ralph Hewitt discovered a "secret room" in another home where the girl had lived when he renovated a Waxahachie home he bought two years ago. "We thought there was a dog or an animal kept there," Mr. Hewitt said Friday, testifying in the trial of the girl's stepfather, Kenneth Atkinson. "A pallet was torn up, and there were feces everywhere." Mr. Atkinson is charged with...

Stepdad's trial starts in starvation of girl 'I know what I have done is wrong,' he says of child kept in closet 12/06/2002 By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News Kenneth Atkinson referred to Barbara Atkinson's daughter, who was starved and confined in a closet or small space for years, as "Barbie's secret." But Thursday, on the first day of testimony in Mr. Atkinson's trial, prosecutors said he also had a secret because he participated in years of abuse. Police rescued the girl from the Hutchins trailer in June 2001 after Mr. Atkinson told a neighbor Jeanie Rivers...