Inside the Tunnels: The McMartin Preschool Trial

“I just knew the phone would ring some day and Joshua would be dead,” stated social worker Ann Kemmeter regarding Joshua DeShaney and the ongoing abuse he endured from his father. Joshua’s father brutally and repeatedly abused his four-year-old son Joshua (Wichenbach). The State of Wisconsin was aware of this abuse, but still did nothing to intervene and stop the mistreatment of this child (Wichenbach). The State’s inaction led to the Supreme Court case DeShaney v. Winnebago Department of Social Services, in which Joshua’s mother, Melody, sued the Winnebago Department of Social Services claiming, “the social worker deprived Joshua of his liberty without due process of law” (Alexander). In order to fully understand the DeShaney case, one must conduct thorough background research, delve into the court case itself, and analyze the impact the case has yet today.

The investigative details of the Pamela Foddrill case remained very similar to criminal theory in most ways, but not all. In Lyman’s Criminal Investigations, there are eight steps detailed

A state that undertakes custody of a child is declaring that it can do a better job providing protection. This system is a powerful agent of support, providing positive nurturing environments that enable a child to reach his or her potential. Nonetheless, when children suffer additional abuse in the system, this government intervention should be questioned.

When this Central park case was made public, the New York Police Department and District Attorney office’s main focus was to solve the case as quickly as possible. When the five teenagers were found “wilding” in the park the night of the women’s death, the police believed they had found the suspects. The police were so confident of the teenager’s guiltiness, the five boys were interrogated of their involvement in the crime. The police used their authority and persuasion to get the boys to confess and promise them that they would go home if they talked. Through strenuous and intense interrogation, the five boys confessed to the killing and rape of the young women on videotape. These confessions were given even though

A nine year old in Oregon was removed from her home by child protective services in 2010 and placed into the care of Kamlo and Dwight Reed. Even though the state Department of Human Services allegedly knew that Dwight had been accused of sexually abusing a another foster child, the adoption still went through. After the Dwight couple abused the young girl sexually, physically, and emotionally, a a guardian who was court-appointed for the child filed a lawsuit against the department in 2016. If the agency had looked into the allegations, the child would have likely been saved from suffering through years of abuse by being placed into a different home. The social service workers receive a large amount of cases each year. According to the U.S. Children 's Bureau, children protection agencies received nearly 3.6 million reports of abuse or neglect concerning 6.6 million children; however, the agency only reported roughly 702,000 children who suffered from abuse, including 1,580 children who died. The number of cases reported is less than ¼ of the cases received. If the agency discovered some of the 1,580 cases quicker, adolescent deaths

Lucius Isaiah Gibson IV, age 16, was arrested Tuesday, July 12, 2016, on the allegation that he committed sexual assault on a 3 year old girl at the home day care center known as “Jacque's Teddy Bear Child Care,” ran by his mother (Alani, 2016). The home day care facility is located at 1538 Amaryllis Court in the Thousand Oaks East Subdivision (Alani, 2016). On June 9th detectives first interviewed the 3-year-old victim, who name is not mentioned (Alani, 2016). According to the police report, the girl stated to the officers that, Gibson went into the “nap room” and assaulted her several times (Alani, 2016). Gibson’s argument to the arresting officers was that he did “expose himself in front of the children,” however, he denies touching or

Jill Lepore’s New Yorker article Baby Doe: A political history of tragedy provides documented history of child abuse in the U.S. that date back to colonial times. She illustrated tragic cases Massachusetts Child Protective Services had been confronted with and gave a synopsis of the challenging history the Department of Children and Families.

A young female at the age of 14, was kidnapped by David Maracle on May 26, 1997, Maracle pulled the female from the behind as she through a wooded. At that moment of time the female didn’t have any visuals, this was because a cloth was place over her eye and then was later replaced for duct tape. She was then directed to the assailant’s car where the first sexual attack accrued. A little while after the female was driven to an unidentified location where another sexual attack occurred.

This is possibly the hardest assignment I’ve had to do to date. It’s difficult to examine how much this little boy had to suffer at the hands of his father. The crimes that took place here were more than abuse. I believe that the case worker is culpable for refusing to protect the child and should have been disciplined if not charged with a crime. The mother deserved a more severe sentence for allowing this abuse to go on for so long and should have been charged as an accessory to the crime. This case did lead to outrage and sweeping legislation in the state of Washington was enacted. Most of the legislation was aimed at allowing and even mandating that child protective services make protecting the child a higher priority than keeping the family together.

I hope to use my law degree to change the lives of mistreated children from all over the world. As a victim of child abuse, serving this community has become a part of my identity. My aspiration to represent mistreated children, albeit vitalized by personal turmoil, has been intensified through professional experience. Through my work with Child Protective Services (CPS), during an internship with a family law attorney, I developed my passion for advocating on behalf of children. While working on CPS cases, I have seen how the lives of children can improve through diligent efforts by authority figures. However, I have also witnessed the shortcoming of the system as well where there is room for improvement. These vulnerable children deserve

On June 20, 2001 a woman by the name of Andrea Yates, stunned the whole country with one of the most bizarre acts of violence that a parents could ever do to their own children. She called her husband at work and told him “I did it” confused by what was going on, he rush home only to find his house filled with officers of the law. The husband asked, “What is going on?”, and only to found out that his wife had drowned all five of their children.

For 30 years, advocates, program administrators, and politicians have joined to encourage even more reports of suspected child abuse and neglect. Their efforts have been successful, with about three million cases of suspected child abuse having been reported in 1993. Large numbers of endangered children still go unreported, but a serious problem had developed: Upon investigation, as many as 65 percent or the reports now being made are determined to be "unsubstantiated", raising serious civil liberties concerns and placing a huge burden on investigative staffs.

On July 15, 2008 a women by the name Cindy Anthony called the authorities to report the missing her granddaughter Caylee Anthony; Cindy stated that she had not seen her for “quite some time”. The grandmother Cindy informed police that the young Caylee had been missing for roughly a month or thirty days to be exact. She was only two years old (www.biography.com), this would lead to one of the most infamous trials in history when the mother of Caylee, Casey Anthony, was charged with her murder. What raised eyebrows was Casey Anthony’s abnormal behavior after her daughter’s disappearance. Casey Anthony’s trial captured headlines throughout the news and was even being compared to the OJ Simpson trial. This paper will focus on the cases of both

In 1998, Kamiyah Mobley was kidnapped right after birth from her 16 year old mother. A woman in disguise had come into the room telling her she needed to take the baby and check her temperature for a fever. When she took the baby, doctors and people in the hospital had said they haven’t seen her at all. The grandmother of Kamiyah Mobley immediately called the cops. They put out posters of the baby year after year, with a $250,000 reward if found. 18 years later, she was found. But this young South Carolina woman’s life was turned inside out Friday when the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and FBI told her that the people she knew as family weren’t, and that Gloria Bolden Williams, the woman she called Mom for the last 18 years,

The tragic case of two-year-old Caylee Anthony reveals the devastating consequences that murders can have on victims and their families. Caylee was an innocent toddler that lived with her mother, Casey Anthony and her maternal grandmothers, Cindy and George. On July 15, 2008 a call to 911 was sent in by Caylee’s grandmother Cindy, reporting that she hasn’t seen Caylee in 31 days and that the toddler’s mother’s car smelled like a dead body has been inside it. The toddler’s mother gave varied explanations on where her daughter was located but then admitted she hasn’t seen her in weeks. She told police that she left Caylee at her nanny’s apartment and when she returned, they were both missing. Detectives found discrepancies in a signed statement she made about Caylee’s disappearance. Casey’s friends and family had never heard of Gonzales, and detectives later found the nanny never existed. The apartment Casey and Caylee were supposed to be living with was found to be vacant for more than 140 days. On December 11, 2008, Caylee 's body was found in a blanket inside a trash bag in a wooded area near the child’s home. Investigative reports and trial testimony found duct tape near the front of the skull] and on the mouth of the toddler. In result, Casey Anthony was charged on October 2008 with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and four counts of providing false information to police.