The Case : Michelle Knight

Testimony this Thursday morning began with a New York State Police Investigator who is part of the computer crimes unit. She said her analysis of Michael Beard's phone is that there was quiet a bit of deleting and a lot of powering off, including more than 100 deleted calls.

Regina is a 14 year old girl (female), of Italian descendancy from her mother’s side from her father his identity is unknown. Regina is the third oldest out of five children, she has two older half sisters Cherie age of 22 years old and Camille of age 17. A younger half brother Norman of age 13 and the youngest of the family Rose of age 8. Regina did not grow with knowing who her father was, her mom regained custody of her and her older sisters at age three. When she started to live with her mother - who she addresses as cookie, with cookie’s boyfriend Vito, her older half sisters and younger half brother. The abuse from her mother started the same day she had regained custody. Her

In her article “Gendered Racial Violence and Spatialized Justice,” Sherene H. Razack explores the murder of Pamela George; the way that her murderers’ sentences were lessened because of a variety of factors pertaining to Ms. George’s life; and the fact that the murderers were young, white, and middle-class men.

A woman, named Dellena, was involved in sex trafficking business. She made a documentary titled, “Human Trafficking Survivor Story: Dellena, California,” where she shares her experience as a victim. As a little girl, her mother was very negative and always put her down. Her parents were divorced when Dellena was just a child. Not before long her mother remarried. Dellena’s new stepfather molested her and her sister at the age of seven. Soon after her parents remarried, she was put in the foster care system for five years and her mother never once came to see her. One day her mother showed up and told Dellena she was going home. Dellena said, “The reason my mother wanted me home was because my stepfather wanted me home because he liked twelve-year-old girls. That was the perfect age for him” (“Human Trafficking Survivor Story: Dellena, California”). After being molested again, she ran away from her home. On the streets she met a 21-year old, who took her

Cyntoia Brown’s story is another sad example of male privilege and the valuing of a man’s life over a woman’s. Brown had a hard life growing up; she suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and grew up in a very abuse home. When she was a teenager she ran away from home, which ultimately led to her entering a life of prostitution. After leaving home, she met a 24-year-old man named “Cut Throat” who abused her and forced into prostitution. When she was 16 her pimp sold her to a 43-year-old man who picked her up from a Sonic parking lot and brought her back to his house. Upon entering the house, Brown noticed a gun cabinet in the man’s room. She attempted to fight off the predator’s advances, but ultimately feared for her life and pulled out a gun and shot and killed the rapist. Cyntoia was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for killing the child molester who was attempting to rape her. The prosecution stated that Cyntoia did not kill him out of self-defense, but rather as an attempt to rob him since she took his wallet after shooting him. Brown has currently been in jail for over ten years and will not be given the possibility of parole until she is 69 years old. After the initial trial people were unhappy with the sentencing which led Tennessee to change their laws and ban mandatory life sentences for juveniles without parole. Recently, Brown’s case has been brought back into the spotlight due to many A-list celebrities tweeting about the incredible injustice.

For this experience, I have visited Wynona’s House Child Advocacy Center, often referred to as Wynona’s House. This was the perfect opportunity to go to such an agency because April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. During my visit, I interviewed two women that worked at this agency: Ashley Pires, and briefly, Karen J. Zambrano. Ashley Pires is the Family Advocate and Karen Zambrano is Wynona House’s Forensic Interview Specialist.

In the case example “Falsely Accused, A mother fights back”, Brenda Frank was accused of not only neglecting her 2 daughters but sexual abuse as well. Mrs. Frank was on welfare and separated from her husband. Mrs. Frank’s belief that children wean themselves from breast feeding, called the La Leche Philosophy, is part of what started the whole mess. That and the fact that since she was a single mother she let her daughters sleep with her.

Rita Price, writer for The Columbus Dispatch, recounts a horrific story about siblings who suffered numerous accounts of abuse. After being beaten with baseball bats, burned with irons, starved, and forced to drink their own urine, the Ferguson children were finally able to come forward and testify against their adoptive parents in order to send them to prison. The children did not believe they had a voice, and the abuse went unnoticed for years. The Ferguson children, along with many others in similar situations, do not feel they have anyone to turn to. After going through foster care systems and the adoption process, the children had already experienced large amounts of change and stress, only to be left with negligent parents. In

Alejandro C. is a 36-month-old Hispanic male who was placed in foster care after being taken from his mother, Ms. C. Ms. C’s family had anonymously called the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) reporting allegations of severe neglect. The family stated that Ms. C., a methamphetamine addict, would leave Alejandro alone for long periods of time without any supervision.

I would go for a targeted communication strategy to each of the different stakeholders. The first one will be to Jessica’s parents to re-explain the true nature of these unfortunate circumstances. I would explain to them the entire process and where we went wrong and apologize. I would also convey that the unfortunate circumstances were not specifically targeted at them but it was a bad lapse in the entire process and while we can help at this particular time with your daughter, we will reevaluate the entire process to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again. I would also inform them that from now on, to reflect the changing demographics in the area the hospital covers, the hospital will be offering language classes to all their staff to better communicate with people from different social and cultural

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,

A way that true justice can be served to girls who are kidnapped in the North is when the kidnapper is found guilty for his crime. When Ariel Castro was arrested, he had “329 charges [which included] 177 counts of kidnapping, 139 counts of rape, and two counts of aggravated murder for forcing abortion” on Amanda Berry (Biography.com Editors). Justice was served due to him being

In order for a trial to be brought, the police and prosecutors might be able to prove that the elements of the particular offence are present. In this criminal case both Actus reus, Mens rea as well causation was clearly shown through the behavior of Katherine Knight.

" On July 29, 1994, seven year old Megan Kanka, from Hamilton Township, New Jersey, was walking home after playing at a friends house. She had almost reached her front door when Jesse Timmendequas, 33, a landscaper who had lived across the street for a year invited her over to pet his new puppy ( Richard 1 )." " When Megan followed him inside, he led her to an upstairs bedroom, strangled her unconscious with his belt, raped her and then asphyxiated her to death with a plastic bag. Timmendequas then placed Megan’s body in a tool box, drove it in his pick-up truck to a near-by soccer field and dumped her body in some bushes ( Jerome 1 )." This, and the tragic murder of Amanda Wengert, was how the name was developed. But in my paper I did not discuss the murder and raping of Amanda Wengert.

Karen Johnston is a director of a health planning agency which employs approximately 18 staff members and also serves on the Community Advisory Board (CAB). This program typically incorporates two student interns from her health planning agency. The CAB is a vital program as it advises the program faculty on issues that concern curriculum, internships, job placements, and scholarships.