Posted on 02/19/2005 12:10:10 PM PST by SmithL
He had a medal of bravery around his neck, but there was fear on this kindergartner's face Friday when he was summoned to the witness stand to testify against the man authorities say abused him and his siblings.
"I don't want to talk about it," the 5-year-old boy said when Assistant District Attorney General TaKisha Fitzgerald asked him about injuries he had suffered, allegedly at the hands of his mother's boyfriend.
Waving off Fitzgerald, Knox County General Sessions Court Judge Brenda Waggoner turned sideways in her chair so she could face the youngster.
"You're safe here," she told him.
Waggoner then asked the boy how he had been hurt.
"He'd been choking me," the boy said, looking directly at the judge. "He only bit me once."
Sniffles sounded in the courtroom as some spectators began to cry. Waggoner urged the boy to tell her who had choked him.
"Corey," the boy responded, casting a sideways glance at Phillip Corey Reep, who sat a few feet away at the defense table.
"Did your mother see Corey hurt you?" Waggoner asked. "Did you tell her about it?"
"No," he responded. "Every time she would turn her back, he'd hurt me."
Twice more, the boy glanced at Reep.
"Don't be afraid of him," Waggoner said. "He's not going to hurt you anymore."
Reep, 20, and the boy's mother, Stephanie Jo Allen, 23, appeared before Waggoner for a preliminary hearing on charges that Reep abused the boy and Allen's three other children and that Allen failed to protect them.
The pair were arrested Jan. 24 at Allen's Ripon Circle home in West Knox County after Knox County Sheriff's Office deputies responding to a domestic violence call saw alarming injuries on Allen's 3-year-old daughter.
"I noticed immediately that she had cuts and abrasions on her face and what I would call a baseball-sized knot on her head," Deputy Mark Kennedy testified.
Kennedy said Allen "did not want me to call an ambulance," but he did anyway.
Later, authorities would document injuries on all four of Allen's children. Dr. Patricia Perales testified that the 3-year-old girl had burn injuries on her buttocks, vaginal area and upper legs.
"I felt they were thermal burns (caused when) she came into contact with something hot that she was sitting in," Perales said.
The girl had a "large bruise" on her stomach, bruises on her arm, ear, back and chin, and head injuries that were "consistent with a hair-pulling incident," Perales testified.
Allen's 1-year-old son had a swollen eye, swollen and bruised nose and bruises on his forehead, the doctor said. He also had a pattern of bruising from his back to rib cage, she said.
Allen's 4-year-old son had a bruise on his back, a "red mark" on his chest and signs of strangulation - known as petechiae - on his neck and face. Her eldest son, who testified at Friday's hearing, had a cut and bruise on his lip, bruising on his arms and head, an abrasion on his shoulder and signs of strangulation on his neck, face and eyes, Perales said.
Kennedy said deputies questioned Reep and Allen about how the children had been injured but neither provided an answer.
"If you would ask them how the children got injured, one would say nothing and look at the other," the deputy testified.
Deputies arrested both adults. The children have been placed in foster care.
Allen was charged with four counts of aggravated assault for allegedly failing to protect her children. Reep was charged with four counts of aggravated child abuse for allegedly inflicting the injuries.
Reep's attorney, Russell Greene, and Allen's attorney, Public Defender Mark Stephens, convinced Waggoner at Friday's hearing to reduce two of the counts on each defendant to misdemeanors and lower their bonds. The judge sent the entire case to a grand jury for review.
Waggoner lauded Allen's son for testifying.
"You are a brave young man, a smart young man," the judge said. "But I'd feel better if you'd give me a hug. Would you do that for me?"
"Yes," he answered, stepping up to the bench to embrace her.
"Kennedy said Allen "did not want me to call an ambulance," but he did anyway."
And kudos to this guy, he has certainly saved these children. I just hope the foster family(ies) they've been placed with don't prove just as bad as the original home.
And, gotta ask it, what is wrong with the mother? She couldn't see her children were getting beaten up? And, oh yeah btw, where is (are) the father(s)?
Just asking!
Really? The judge had better live up to that statement and put this scum behind bars for a very long time.
Why is it that these types of people so easily reproduce and some really worthwhile people who long for children cannot have any ..?? It's a mystery I have no answer for.
Excellent direction and compassion from the courtroom judge. May her promise of safety be upheld for the boy and his siblings.
Should the judge really be hugging witnesses? I'm not suggesting it was an unfair trial or anything like that, but shouldn't her honor have known better?
This also annoyed me:
"Don't be afraid of him," Waggoner said. "He's not going to hurt you anymore."
This sort of courtroom drama seems unfair to the accused. If the accused is in fact innocent, there's no way to respond to that.
Saying something more neutral, like "you're safe in here" or "we can protect you" would be fair.
Brave yes, but will the State, in fact, protect him! A damn court ordered injunction will not do the trick!
You think this sort of thing didn't go on a hundred years ago? A thousand?
I thought conservatives were supposed to believe in "Original Sin;" doesn't that conflict with blaming our society for the existence of sin like this?
That's touching . . . but I'm not so sure it was appropriate behavior for a judge (as it implies that the judge has already drawn a conclusion about the defendant's guilt).
I smell a mistrial (or an appeal at the very least)
Damn. You beat me to it.
Swell.. so *thats" how the Judge will protect the kids?!?!?!
Hey "Judge", how about revoking bond and throwing the key away!!
This is eerily similar to one of my cases, only at this point the perp is only facing assault charges, and will be unlikely to serve more than 6 months, if convicted, and there have been no criminal charges at all filed against the mother.
I am not blaming "society" for this. I will say that "society" has allowed depravity to be dumbed down. The assumption seems to be that there is no such thing as evil; only bad actors who act that way because they are ill.
If the past is a predictor, these slimeballs will burden the system for years; get counselling and rehaibilation. Or, as likely, they walk on a technicality.
My point is that some lessons need to be taught about actions having consequences.
As far as the rights of the accused, from what I read, this looks pretty much open and shut.
Up until leftist ideology commandeered the courts and Child Protective Services, children in this situation would have been put up for adoption.
The mother in this case will most likely receive counseling and a whole host of new taxpayer funded social services, and the children will be returned to her 'care" in the name of 'Family Preservation'. Then the cycle will repeat itself until the kids grow up or end up dead.
You are in reality guilty of a crime as soon as you commit it. Your legal status as innocent until your trial is over just means your trial is not over and you cant yet be punished for the crime. In reality if you do a crime you have done it, weather others can prove you did it and punish you is a different question.
This judge was talking to the child in terms of reality, she was not punishing anyone, just yet.
I can not understand why she would reduce charges or bond.
"Should the judge really be hugging witnesses?"
No, and I agree with your other comments also.
More destruction from the emotionalization of everything. That is the curse that brought us to the point that occaisioned the situation that made this trial necessary, if you follow my thought.
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