Anziani told investigators that he was warming milk to give to the toddler who was crying when he heard a thump.  When he investigated, he said that Damien had fallen down a short flight of stairs and that was what caused the boy’s injuries occurred.  The evidence found after the examination of the fifteen month-old’s body would tell a very different story.

Damien’s body was taken to the medical examiner’s office in Augusta. Dr. Marguerite DeWitt conducted an autopsy Wednesday. She determined the boy’s injuries “could not be explained by a simple fall down six or seven steps,” the affidavit states.

“The cause of death is listed as non-accidental trauma, and the manner of death has been classified as a homicide,” Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said Thursday afternoon.

The autopsy states the child had “trauma to the brain” that was multifocused, “meaning that they were on all sides of his head, including the front, back, left, right and top,” and he had optic nerve hemorrhages, the affidavit states.

The child also had two broken bones in his right forearm, “consistent with a twisting or bending type cause,” four broken ribs, an abdominal injury, and three small puncture wounds on the bottom of his left foot, it states.

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Once the autopsy report was turned over to the district attorney,  a murder indictment was issued against him, and he fled the Bangor, Maine area to avoid prosecution.  A subsequent warrant for his arrest was issued for Anziani who was described as having a violent past, and a $10,000 reward was established for information leading to his capture.  He was found later outside of Washington, D.C. where he was arrested, waived his extradition hearing, and was returned back to Maine.

Damien’s father  traveled to Maine to attend his son memorial.  He has custody of Damien’s sister two year-old sister.  Speaking at the service was family friend, Sasha Stecher, who described the boy as the “happiest kid I ever knew.”

Laura Cummings around the age of eight.

eight year-old.  She was, therefore, totally dependent on others for her care.  Her mother, however, was not the nurturing type, in fact the abuse that Laura experienced at both the hands of her mother and half-brother, Luke Wright was extensive as well as horrendous.

Police allege that over the last few months of Laura’s life, Eva Cummings and her son Wright, 31, shackled Laura to a metal chair with a sack over her head, brutally sodomized her with a broomstick and at times shoved her face in her own feces.

“Starting in November, there’s a significant escalation of her debasement as a human being,” Senior Trial Counsel Thomas M. Finnerty of the DA’s Office said. “It was happening on a daily or nightly basis.”

“It’s sadistic, and it’s allegedly sustained over a long period of time,” he said.

Mother and son also are accused of unlawfully imprisoning Laura Cummings because of her mental disability — an elevated hate crime charge.

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From as far back as 1995, the Cummings family had been investigated before for abuse and Laura was not the only victim.

The Cummings household, in North Collins, N.Y., and prior to that in Olean, both just outside of Buffalo, was well-known to Child Protective Services, Patricia Wright, 27, Laura’s half sister, told the Buffalo News.

She said she reported abuse to Erie County Child Protective Services and Erie County Family Court more than a decade ago. Patricia Wright said she, herself, was physically abused for years, resulting in a broken ankle and cracked vertebrae in her back.

Wright left the household at the age of 13 because of the abuse and was taken in by another family.

“Chaos. Almost like a living hell. No child should ever have to go through what we went through,” Patricia Wright, told CBS affiliate WIBV when asked what the apartment was like.

After charges were filed that her father was  sexually abusing Wright, the children were temporarily removed from the home.  After receiving probation for abusing Laura, David and Eva Cummings divorced and she was given custody.  He has remained estranged from his four children despite receiving counseling and expressed sadness over his youngest daughter’s death.

Laura’s adult brother, Richard Cummings, 22,  advised adult protective services that his sister was being abused but no action was taken on her behalf by the agency.  Members of the community as well as the extended family were aware that Laura was being treated inhumanely.  Guests to the house report that Laura was covered in a blanket during their visits to hide her presence.

Despite statements from both Eva Cummings and Luke Wright regarding the Laura’s death, both have plead not-guilty to the charges leveled against them.

Now law enforcement is reaching out to the public and asking anyone who has knowledge of past incidents of abuse toward Laura to come forward.  What a shame that the same action was not taken before she was strangled by her mother.

In one story, Hillerby would state that the toddler had knocked over his beer and he had hit Blaise with his knee, knocking him down.  After the child got up and began stumbling around, Hillerby said he put Blaise in his high chair and later took him to bed, knocking his head on the door frame.  At one point he said that the boy would not open his eyes when he put him to bed.

Hillerby would also say that Blaise receive his injuries from falling in the pool the  previous day.  Witnesses have collaborated this story adding that the boy fell into the pool several times without a life jacket and had to be rescued by onlookers.  Allegations ensued that both Spoerl and her boyfriend were drinking alcohol and arguing at the pool.  Although she was not charged in her son’s death, this report led to Spoerl being charged with unlawful conduct towards a child.

After the swiming incident, Spoerl went out with her friends, leaving Blaise and her eight year-old daughter with her boyfriend.  When roommate Brandi Mihil arrived home later, she saw  the boy was whimpering and Hillerby offered the explanation of the spilled beer.  Spoerl arrived later, drunk, went to bed and didn’t check on her son until almost 11:00 a.m. when she found him unresponsive in his crib.

Spoerl had a previous assault charged following an altercation with Hillerby’s ex-girlfriend, and the mother of his child, Melissa Georgoulis.  Georgoulis also reported that Spoerl had made harrassing phone calls to her following Blaise’s death.  As for her ex-boyfriend, according to her, he was violent when he drank.

In his recent trial, Hillerby was found guilt of the murder of Blaise and sentenced to life in prison.

Pediatrician Earl Bradley Charged With Molestation of 103 Children

A popular Delaware pediatrician has been indicted by a grand jury that charged him with the molestation of 103 children.

Dr. Earl Bradley, 56, has been held in the Vaughn Correctional Center on a $2.9 million cash bond following his arrest last December. Bradley was initially charged with 33 felony counts, including rape and sexual exploitation of a child, but the number of victims has now more than tripled.

The accusations, in an indictment handed down Monday, stem from incidents that allegedly took place at his Lewes, Del., practice called BayBees Pediatrics where he is accused of videotaping the sex acts while the children’s parents waited in another room.

If convicted, Bradley faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“I cannot say certain things that I am feeling, and I am feeling a great deal. I am determined to see that this defendant will never, ever be in a position again to hurt another child,” Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said in a statement following the indictment.

The story of Malakai’s injuries would go back to earlier in the day when Kevin Anthony Hunt picked up his girlfriend’s son before going to the hospital where she was being treated for complications due to pregnancy.

Court records say that on Feb. 5, Hunt picked up the child from a local hair salon after family members were unable to supervise the boy during their hair appointments. Hunt had planned on going to Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center, where his fiancee and Dean’s mother, Kenesia, was being treated for pregnancy complications. She is 5 months pregnant with Hunt’s child.

But detectives say that during the 30-40 minute window from when he picked up the child, to when they arrived at the hospital, Hunt allegedly caused fatal injuries to Malakai’s abdomen. An autopsy report said the child had lacerations to his spleen, pancreas, intestine and had a contusion on his bladder. He did not suffer from any injuries associated with falling to the ground.

Source

After leaving the hospital with his mother and Hunt, Malakai began to vomit and his mother put him to bed shortly after they returned home.  Within a few minutes, the boy stopped breathing and emergency personnel was called. Malakai died after being rushed to a local hospital.

Autopsy reports indicate that Malakai died of blunt force trauma with specific injuries including lacerations to his spleen, pancreas, intestine and had a contusion on his bladder.  None of the injuries, however, would have been consistent with Hunt’s assertion that the toddler was injured while playing at the park. Law enforcement has not even been able to find witnesses who can place Malakai in the park on the day he was injured.

Hunt has been arrested and charged with murder and child abuse causing substantial bodily harm.

Malakai’s Guestbook

Rescue crews were out all night and continued to search the river this morning, said Stephen Jones, spokesperson for the New Jersey State Police. Shamshiddin Abdur-Raheem is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and possession of a weapon by East Orange police.

Source

The superintendent in Zara’s grandmother’s apartment, Chris Bailey, witnessed the incident and reported that Abdur-Raheem assaulted the woman before leaving with the baby.

“He pushed his way in and knocked her to the floor,” Bailey said according to Benjamin.

The grandmother, wearing a t-shirt, sweatpants and no shoes, ran after Abdur-Raheem, who was clutching the baby, all the way to the lobby and outside. At one point, Bailey said, she tried to snatch the infant, but the 21-year-old overpowered her.

Abdur-Raheem was not married to Zara’s mother, Venetta Benjamin, and did not have any custody rights for the infant.

Bailey said the girlfriend allegedly had a restraining order against Abdur-Raheem and that there was friction before the kidnapping Tuesday night.

The body was so badly decomposed that dental records were obtained to make the final identification.  The state of deterioration also made it impossible to determine cause of death.

For the sixth grader’s father, Lenny Belitz, Michael’s death was especially sad.  Belitz had just reestablished a relationship with his son after completing rehab.  Michael told his dad about his mother’s sometimes irrational behavior.

He claims his son told him that he would sometimes barricade himself in his room though, away from Mann. “When his mom would go on a rampage he would just go in his bedroom and shut the door.”

Source

Reports indicate that family members had also been concerned about Michael and his living conditions, but there was never an investigation launched even after Manns called social services requesting that her son be put in foster care.

Once Michael’s remains were examined, Belitz had to petition for custody of his son in order to arrange for burial after Manns refused to sign a release form.

Manns has been ruled competent to stand trial for first degree murder in her son’s death.  She could face up to life imprisonment or even death if found guilty.

Michael was remembered fondly at a vigil held in his honor at the school he attended.

Michael was full of energy, talked a lot and loved to be around adults.

“He was one of those kids who as soon as you knew him, you loved him,” said his fifth-grade teacher, Dana Barker.

She would read a book aloud to the class, and within a month, Michael would have the whole series read, she said.

If she was having a bad day, she remembered, he would notice and ask what was wrong.

“He was so selfless,” Barker said. “I couldn’t wait to see where he would be in 10 years.”

Source

Campaign targets child abuse by moms’ boyfriends

By Sharon Coolidge
scoolidge@enquirer.com

Kaylee Ann Schnurr, 18 months old; Christopher Beck, 1; Trustin Blue, 3; Milton Baker, 7; and Malakai Glenn, 1.

Moira Weir, director of Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services, wants to make sure that no one forgets the names of these children or how they died.

They were beaten to death by their mothers’ boyfriends.

Beginning Monday, the agency is rolling out Choose Your Partner Carefully – a campaign of commercials, billboards and brochures aimed at alerting mothers and others in a child’s life to the warning signs.

“When mothers are choosing a partner, they are not just choosing for themselves, they are choosing for their children too,” Weir said. “Choosing the wrong partner can be, literally, deadly.

Of 17 Hamilton County children who died as a result of abuse since 2005, six were killed by their mother’s boyfriend, according to Job and Family Service case files.

In addition to Kaylee, Christopher, Trustin, Milton and Malakai, a 1-year-old Reading girl died last year. No charges have been filed in that case, but JFS believes the abuse was inflicted by her mother’s boyfriend.

That 35 percent rate is higher than the national average of 15 percent, as reported by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System.

“We know from unfortunate experience that just because someone loves a mom, it does not mean they love the child,” Weir said. “This campaign is focusing on a very specific and often deadly form of abuse.”

A handful of counties around the state, including Lorain and Franklin counties, have launched similar campaigns.

Weir said the number of deaths in Hamilton County demanded action.

Weir said the idea for the education campaign came up in 2006 after four such deaths in a little over a year.

The Ohio Department of Health reports that of the cases in which a child was killed due to child abuse or neglect, the mother’s partner was cited in 28 percent of cases.

In Hamilton County, 13.3 percent of all substantiated abuse and neglect cases in 2009 were attributed to the mother’s boyfriend or husband, who wasn’t related to the child.

Dr. Scott Bresler, a forensic psychologist at University of Cincinnati Department of Psychiatry and director of in-patient psychology at University Hospital, said in some cases, a child from a previous relationship is a reminder to the perpetrator that this individual was at one time not theirs, and in other cases the men resent raising or caring for a child that is not their own, he said.

“It’s scary, but we’re dealing with people who are psychopathic,” Bresler said. “These people walk through the world by a different set of rules. They don’t have a conscience.”

If the awareness campaign isn’t deterrent enough, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters’ track record shows there are criminal consequences. Deters feels so strongly about such cases that he helped change Ohio law to make killing a child under the age of 13 a death-penalty offense.

During his first stint as prosecutor Deters lobbied state lawmakers for the change after 12-year-old Matthew Richmond died from burns when his mother’s boyfriend held him in a tub of scalding water as punishment for soiling his pants and another man tortured and beat to death his girlfriend’s 15-month-old daughter, Star Hollingsworth.

In the five Hamilton County killings since 2005, four men are serving life sentence and a fifth was sentenced to death.

And mothers can be held accountable too, Deters said. In two of the cases, the child’s mother was also charged with child endangering for allowing the abuse to happen.

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Lavion was found dead Wednesday of multiple blunt-force injuries, said Jim Wesley, a deputy Jefferson County coroner. His death was ruled a homicide.

Long, who is Lavion’s father, has been charged with murder, menacing, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. He is being held at Metro Corrections.

Source

Leslie Gamble, Lavion’s mother, left the infant in his father’s care while she went to work her night shift job.  She had checked in with Leon around 10 pm and assured the baby was asleep and fine.  When she got in the next morning, Long and Lavion were gone, but the diaper bag had been left behind.  At that point Gamble become concerned about her son’s whereabouts.

Police became involved and were on the verge of issuing an Amber Alert when in SUV that had gone missing at the same time as Lavion and Long, was found outside the residence of his current girlfriend.  Inside the vehicle was the body of the infant.  Long himself was found inside the house asleep.  He was arrested and charged with murder, menacing, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse.

The death of Lavion is tragic enough but this is not the first time Long has murder his child.  In 1991, he was the caregiver when his son Robert Leon Long also died.  Long gave conflicting stories about what happened to the five week-old but was brought to trial for murder.

Long was tried twice for that son’s death.During the first trial, in November 1991, Long claimed that police coerced his confession, in which he said that he’d beaten the baby and let him fall off the bed.

In a 26-minute taped statement to police, Long said that the baby would not stop crying and he tried to comfort him. But he said nothing worked — not a bottle, pacifier or a new diaper.“Something just came over me, and I hit him,” Long said in the statement, according to newspaper accounts of the trial. He told police that he struck the child three times and “just went blank. I could see myself doing things to him and it was like, one side of me, it was like, stop, and the other side was like, no. …”

But during his testimony at the first trial, Long claimed that police forced him to make that confession when, in fact, he’d lost control of his son when he started to squirm. Long said his son accidentally fell down the stairs.

Although the first trial ended in a mistrial, jurors on the second trial found Long guilty and sentenced him to 35 years.  He was released under supervised probation after twelve years.  A year later a woman obtained a restraining order against him claiming that he was violent.

n the complaint, the woman said she had lived with Long for about eight months. She said she ended the relationship because of Long’s “violent ways.”

He tried to run her off the road while her children were in the car, attempted to choke her and threw her up against the wall, her complaint said. She said he stalked and threatened her.

“I am afraid of him,” she wrote. “I want him to stay away.”

Despite this, Long’s probation was not revoked and the family of his mother, Leslie Gamble, said they did not know about his violent past.  Instead they blame police for not taking the missing infant seriously assuming it was a custody issue.  There appears to be enough blame to go around in Lavion’s death.

Amber Alert Issued for 8 Year Old Oklahoma Girl

Posted: MKonday, January 25, 2010 8:12 AM CT

The State of Oklahoma issued the Amber Alert Monday morning (1-25) after the girl was reportedly abducted by the suspect from her home in Geronimo late Sunday. The girl’s mother was found dead in the home and the suspect is wanted for questioning in the woman’s homicide. The suspect should be considered dangerous.

Aja Johnson, a white female, 8 years old, 4′, 65 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. She has a very thin build.

The suspect is Lester Hobbs, a white male, 47 years old, 5′9″, 180 pounds with green eyes.

The suspect vehicle is a 1992 white Toyota Paseo with Oklahoma tag number 577BPW. The back window has been replaced with a piece of sheet metal.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Comanche County Sheriff’s Office at 580-353-4280 or dial 911.