SBS: New York State: Asa Madsen arrested

11/21/2011  Dan Levy

Bill Phelps

SCHENECTADY - The father of a baby who police say was abused to the point where she is now blind says the mother is also partially to blame.
Troy police arrested the mother's boyfriend, 30-year-old Asa Madsen of Averill Park on Friday. Now Bill Phelps, who lost all parental rights with his daughter Lia several months ago, although heartbroken, hasn't given up hope that his daughter will one day recover from her injuries or that he'll one day regain custody.
Even though Phelps hasn't been able to establish the kind of father-daughter relationship he would like, in the limited time he's been able to spend with Lia he's learned quite a bit.
"She's very smart," he boasted proudly. "She's lovable. She loves to snuggle and she loves to kiss daddy."
On Tuesday of this week, Phelps got a call from the baby's mother, Beth Taber, telling him Lia had fallen in the bathtub and hit her head and was then rushed to Albany Medical Center.
"When the final report came back from the neurosurgeon, they said that there was no possible way that the baby just fell," Phelps said. "That's when they came up with the shaken baby syndrome."
On that diagnosis, police arrested Madsen and charged him with shaking little Lia so violently she is now blind.
"I tried to say to Beth, you're just as guilty as him. If he's hitting you what makes you think he's not going to hit the children?" is what he posed to his ex-girlfriend of eight years with whom he fathered two children.
Phelps says he's well aware of Madsen's violent past. As a teenager, he was charged with killing his then-girl friend's cat. Earlier this year Madsen was slapped with a court order to stay away from Taber and her children after he allegedly tried to choke her.
"I have tried to work things out several times to get her away from the situation, but it never worked out," Phelps said. "She always wanted to be back with him for what ever reason I don't know."
He continued, "In my opinion, just be her covering and the events that happened from that day until now, she's just as guilty as he is. Whether she did it or not, or he did it, she covered for him to save her own hide, while the baby is sitting in the hospital."
Phelps says Lia is making progress every day and that she's playing and alert and may be released later this week.
He and Taber also have a 2-year-old son who is now staying with relatives. Phelps says he intends to be at Rensselaer County Family Court on Monday morning to file for custody of his children.
Madsen remains in the Rensselaer County Jail unable to make bail.
Police say the investigation is continuing.
http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S2380988.shtml?cat=300

SBS: South Africa: Makinda and Bradley Connor's child dies

1st December 2011

Baby Michael, blinded and crippled both physically and mentally after ferocious assaults in the family home only months after his birth, has died, aged eight.

Baby Michael

Michael’s death – of broncho-pneumonia, on 16 October – came just a month before his parents, Malinda Marshall and Bradley Connor, were due to face judgment on November 21 in the Johannesburg Regional Court, on charges of attempted murder and assault on their infant son.

Their case, which has been extensively reported in Noseweek (noses108, 121, 130 etc) has been dragging on for years, with one legal ploy after another used to delay the day of reckoning.  Magistrate Frans Booyens has had to come out of retirement to conclude the case in Court 17.

Senior prosecutor Carina Coetzee says it was too late to change the assault charges to murder as Michael’s death came long after the original assaults.

Baby Michael, born on 11 July 2003, was taken into care in 2007 at Avril Elizabeth, a private residential home in Germiston for the mentally disabled. He lived in a section of the home called the Nursery, where he received 24-hour care. He attended physiotherapy daily, and although he didn’t progress much, did not deteriorate.

Officially, after his beatings at age two to four months, Michael had Shaken Baby Syndrome. In addition to being blind he was spastic, quadriplegic and was profoundly mentally handicapped. He was confined to a wheelchair but after prolonged physiotherapy was able to hold up his head without support, albeit for short periods of time.

Nursing sister Stephanie says: “Although profoundly mentally and physically handicapped, he was comfortable and had a reasonable quality of life for four-and-a-half years at Avril Elizabeth. He seldom cried for no reason and seemed content.”

Michael had a host mother, Gwen Hedges, who has a mentally challenged child. Gwen visited Michael frequently at Avril Elizabeth, and took him out for family birthdays and celebrations. “We were shattered by the news, but we rest in the peace that Mickey is finally free,” she says.

Michael’s parents never saw him again – Avril Elizabeth only agreed to accept him on condition they were banned from the premises.

Because of Michael’s mental and physical condition he was unable to move. This immobility caused build-ups of phlegm in his lungs, leaving the boy susceptible to chest infections, resulting in bronchitis or pneumonia. As with many mentally-handicapped people who are unable to communicate other than by crying, it was often difficult to establish what the problem was, and nursing staff would go through a process of elimination.

From August this year, Michael had not been well, and spent several sessions in Avril Elizabeth’s sick bay, the Life Healthcare Roseacres Hospital (where he had a CT scan), and at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital. Staff remember Michael as a generally happy little boy, “our treasured little angel” much loved by all.

Baby Michael’s story has highlighted the dedication and commitment of charitable institutions such as Avril Elizabeth and their belief that every life has value, even that of a grievously brain-damaged child – if only for his uplifting smile.

A Noseweek staff member who visited Baby Michael recalls the boy’s beautiful smile. “Look!” would cry the nursing attendant, “he knows it’s you!”

SBS: damaged for life

THORNTON, Colo. – A Thornton man has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for shaking his two-month-old daughter, causing irreversible brain damage.
Daniel Griffin, 23, pleaded guilty in June to Knowing Reckless Child Abuse Causing Serious Injury for the death of Jazmyn Griffin.
On June 9, Thornton Police were dispatched to an apartment complex on Woburn Keep on a report of a physical domestic incident in progress. When they arrived, they found the baby girl with her eyes closed and breathing.
Jazmyn was rushed to Children’s Hospital where doctors determined that she had suffered neurologic devastation. They had to drill a hole into her head to relieve brain swelling and save her life.
Griffin explained to police how he violently shook his daughter, then later recanted saying that he didn’t remember what happened, prosecutors said. He also admitted to being under the influence of methamphetamines at the time.
As a result of her injuries, prosecutors say Jazmyn’s head will never grow because of the death of her brain matter. She is blind for life and, at 18-months-old, is unable to walk or talk and is being fed through a stomach tube.
"This case is beyond tragic”, states Adams/Broomfield County District Attorney Don Quick. “An innocent child will suffer for the rest of her life as the result of horrible choices made by her father. He will pay the price for those choices for 24 years, but Jazmyn will pay for the rest of her life.”
http://northglenn-thornton.kdvr.com/content/meth-user-sentenced-shaken-baby-case