Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] Whos Killing Families?.

Permalink

Dad on probation for DV murders wife, son (Forest Grove, Oregon)

Dad STEVEN ENGLUND, who was on probation for a criminal domestic violence charge, has shot to death his son and the mother of his son.

Oh yea, and then the coward knocked himself out of the gene pool.

Hat tip to Annie for finding this.

http://www.forestgrovenewstimes.com/news/story.php?story_id=125937746097876500
Murder-suicide in Forest Grove claims three lives
Father shoots his wife and son, then kills himself in western Washington County's third murder this month

By Christian Gaston

The Forest Grove News-Times, Nov 27, 2009, Updated 3.4 hours ago

Forest Grove police say a man on probation for domestic violence killed his wife and shot his son twice before shooting himself Friday night.

Police were called to the a house located in the 2500 block of 21st Avenue in Forest Grove around 6:30 p.m.

Inside police found Kevin Coleman who had been shot several times. Also in the house, police found the Coleman's mother, Cindy England, 52, dead from gunshot wounds.

Police searched the house and the surrounding property and finally found 56-year-old Steven England, 56, dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

The wounded man was taken by Life Flight helicopter to Oregon Health and Science University Hospital in Portland where he died later that night.

The shooter, Steven England, apparently just moved back into the house with Cindy England, even though he was on probation for a criminal domestic violence charge stemming from their relationship.

Police said they weren't sure where England got the revolver that he used in the crime, or whether it was his gun.

Capt. Aaron Ashbaugh, spokesman for the Forest Grove Police, said some family members arrived at the scene, and were shocked by the violence.

"This is just absolutely devastating," Ashbaugh said. Two of Washington County's volunteer chaplains helped the family cope as best they could, Ashbaugh said.

"It's tough for everybody, the officers, too," Ashbaugh said. "They've been dealing with a lot of death and violence."

This is the third homicide investigation in western Washington County in November. Last weekend, Forest Grove police aided Hillsboro and Cornelius police in a chase after a shooter who fled a crime scene in Hillsboro then opened fire on police. Police shot him dead.

Then on Monday, police conducted a manhunt for Josh David Nicholas, who was wanted on multiple warrants. Once police had him in custody, they said he was a person of interest in a Nov. 7 killing.

"In my 23 years out here in Forest Grove this is the most intense string of violent events in this area that I have seen," said Ashbaugh.

Posted by silverside at 5:10 PM

Labels: child death, DV, murder, murder-suicide, Oregon

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Older PostHome

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Technorati Tags: probation,Domestic,Violence,wife,Forest,Grove,Oregon,STEVEN,ENGLUND,death,gene,Annie,news,Murder,Father,Washington,Christian,Gaston,Times,Police,Avenue,Inside,Kevin,Coleman,Also,Cindy,England,gunshot,self,Life,helicopter,Health,Science,Hospital,Portland,shooter,relationship,revolver,crime,Capt,Aaron,Ashbaugh,spokesman,volunteer,everybody,homicide,investigation,November,Last,Hillsboro,Cornelius,Josh,David,Nicholas,Once,custody,person,events,area,comments,Post,Comment,Older,Home,Subscribe,Atom,members,officers,himself,suicide,western,third

Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] KS-Family Court Reform Coalition.

Permalink

CPS Abuse Child Raped In Sedgwick County Facility Mills v. Sedgwick County, KS

Kansas can't even be above the rest when it comes to protecting our children. These children are raped in facilities and foster care and the State and County wants to claim they are the protectors! This young man was reported to have been raped multiple times and he is not the first lawsuit.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Kansas Juvenile Facility Investigated

On the heels of a settlement in Kansas where a child was repeatedly raped, another facility has been reported by a Social Worker for inhumane and immoral living conditions.

http://cjonline.com/news/local/2009-11-26/juvenile_facility_investigated

By James Carlson

Created November 26, 2009 at 10:40pm

Updated November 26, 2009 at 11:27pm

The Kansas Attorney General's Office and Juvenile Justice Authority are investigating allegations of shoddy conditions at a juvenile correctional facility in North Topeka.

In an anonymous letter sent earlier this month to numerous governmental agencies and to The Topeka Capital-Journal, a person self-identified as a social worker at the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex, 1430 N.W. 25th St., alleged the facility housed boys in "utterly inhumane and immoral" conditions in the segregation unit. Some of the issues raised include inadequate sleeping provisions, insufficient hygiene materials, a lack of medical treatment and placement of juveniles in isolation for long periods.

"Not all investigations are made public, but we investigate any allegation of wrongdoing that we receive," he said. "When we receive info that gives us cause for concern that requires attention of an outside agency -- the attorney general, for example -- we bring them into the process."

The governor's office, Kansas Human Rights Commission, attorney general's office, JJA and The Capital-Journal received copies of the letter.

Attorney general spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett said her office can't comment on whether it is investigating the facility, but JJA and the governor's office confirmed separate investigations by both agencies.

"We support their investigative process," said Beth Martino, spokeswoman for the governor.

Miskell wasn't sure when its investigation would be complete and wasn't sure what, if any part of it, would be open to the public.

In the letter, the writer names five juveniles housed at KJCC who the writer says are experiencing the poor conditions.

This comes on the heels of JJA commissioner Russ Jennings' announcement late last month that he was implementing three changes to the state's juvenile justice system.

Under those policy shifts, JJA will now subject juvenile group homes and detention centers to twice-a-year outside reviews; reclassify its facilities to be rated as low, medium and high risk; and implement a statewide test to assess juveniles' risk of reoffending and the services best suited for their problems.

The Capital-Journal published a story Oct. 17 detailing issues at the Forbes Juvenile Attention Center, 6700 S.W. Topeka Blvd. Central to that story was a lawsuit against FJAC alleging a 12-year-old boy was raped repeatedly by his 15-year-old roommate.

Miskell said he couldn't off the top of his head quantify how many investigations happen each year but said they happen "frequently."

Posted by Kansas CPS Post Audit at 4:54 PM 0 comments

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Mills v. Sedgwick County Kansas et al

Another Settlement For A Child From Sedgwick County That Was Raped While In The Care Of The State

Posted by Kansas CPS Post Audit at 6:02 AM 0 comments

Friday, November 20, 2009

County settles rape lawsuit

The costs of defending the case, in which a resident at Riddel Boys Ranch said he was raped, were considered in the county's decision.

BY HURST LAVIANA

Posted on Thu, Nov. 19, 2009

The Wichita Eagle

Sedgwick County commissioners agreed Wednesday to spend $85,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a former Judge James Riddel Boys Ranch resident who said he was raped while being held at the home for troubled teens.

Assistant County Counselor Michael North said the county admitted no wrongdoing in settling the lawsuit. He said the costs of defending the case were taken into consideration when deciding to settle the case.

The plaintiff, who is now 19, said in his lawsuit that he was assaulted at the ranch six or seven times while being held there in September and October 2004 before leaving the facility without permission.

The boy ended up at the home of his mother, who convinced him to return to the ranch, the lawsuit said. The boy and his mother told ranch officials about the assaults, the lawsuit said, but no corrective action was taken.

On Nov. 2, 2004, the lawsuit said, the plaintiff was raped by the inmate responsible for the earlier assaults.

The younger boy received hospital treatment and was assigned to another juvenile facility, the lawsuit said.

The resident accused of the assaults was convicted of attempted aggravated criminal sodomy, and is now a registered sex offender living in Wichita.

The Boys Ranch, which is operated by Sedgwick County, is at Lake Afton in western Sedgwick County.

Reach Hurst Laviana at 316-268-6499 or hlaviana@wichitaeagle.com.

Posted by Kansas CPS Post Audit at 7:45 PM 0 comments

Former Boys Ranch resident sues Sedgwick County

By Tim Potter The Wichita Eagle, Kan.Publication: The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)Date: Wednesday, September 23 2009

Sep. 23--A former Boys Ranch resident has sued Sedgwick County, alleging it failed to protect him from being raped while he lived at the home for troubled teens in late 2004.

The plaintiff -- who is 19 now and was 14 at the time he says he was raped -- filed a lawsuit in June in state district court that has been moved to federal court in Wichita.

The lawsuit seeks the standard "in excess of $75,000" in damages, and lists as defendants the county, Judge Riddel Boys Ranch and the county Department of Corrections, including its director, Mark Masterson, and a number of his current and former employees.

The county has denied the lawsuit's claims. The attorney defending the county in the lawsuit, Assistant County Counselor Michael North, said Tuesday that he can't comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit says that the plaintiff had been confined to the Boys Ranch at Lake Afton in September 2004, and that an older teen had assaulted him six or seven times that September and October.

The assaults caused the 14-year-old to leave the Boys Ranch without permission in October 2004 and go to his mother's house, where he reported he had been assaulted by the other teen, the lawsuit said. His mother persuaded him to return to the Boys Ranch, and she contacted the facility, the lawsuit said.

Both plaintiff and his mother advised personnel at the Boys Ranch that he feared another inmate-resident who was assaulting him," the petition said. "No corrective action was taken by Boys Ranch personnel."

The younger boy received hospital treatment and was assigned to another juvenile facility.

In the county's answer to the lawsuit's claims, North denied any unlawful actions by county employees.

North also denied that the defendants knew of allegations that the plaintiff had been sexually assaulted six or seven times by the other teen.

The former Boys Ranch resident accused of the assaults is now listed on the state's sex offender registry.

The registry says he has a conviction for attempted aggravated criminal sodomy, for an incident that occurred on the same day the other former Boys Ranch resident alleges he was raped.

Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com

Posted by Kansas CPS Post Audit at 7:35 PM 0 comments

Justia Federal Court Filings & Dockets

Mills v. Sedgwick County Kansas et al

Defendant:

Sedgwick County Kansas, Sedgwick County Department of Corrections, Judge James V Riddel Boys' Ranch, Mark Masterson, Betty Alley Hodnett, Lamont C Emery, Joe T Kaminsky, June F Fair-Harris, Robert J Brassfield, Floyd Johnson, David D Lathrom, Kathleen Suzanne Triebel-Crow, Louis V Goins, David R Patterson, Robin Ann Runyan, Dennis T Domen, Sandra K Duffield, Bobby Damon Etheridge, Cary Toby Knopf, Rodney L Pelly, Pedro E Juarez, Antonio M Ortega, Jr., Enoch I Saisi, Lanna Sue Simpson, Marlon C Green, Molly Diane Audley, Gary A. Sutton, Shannon R Silva, Stacy L Cotton, John William Martin, John C Ayres, Lorenzo Ramon Woods, II, John D Haag, Ryan W Young, Kenneth W Cox, Julie Ann Leonard, Gerald V Murphy, Kevin Gary Hansen, Kevin R Crane, Kristi Lynn Winter, Jimmy E Santiago, IV, Willie Gerome Davis, Richard L Drakeford, Crystal Jean Whiting, Tessa A Ehlers, Shaun A Johnson, Charles M Deitchler and Kami K Thatcher

Case Number: 6:2009cv01192

Filed: June 22, 2009

Court: Kansas District Court

Office: Wichita Office [ Court Info ]

County: Sedgwick

Presiding Judge: District Judge Eric F. Melgren

Referring Judge: Magistrate Judge Karen M. Humphreys

Posted by Kansas CPS Post Audit at 7:29 PM 0 comments

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

It Smells FOUL!

KSN News Report Sedgwick County DA Bullied Social Workers

Secretary of SRS/CPS Stated Sedgwick County DA Bullied Social Workers

The State Lost Adam Herrman! REPORTED ABUSED IN FOSTER CARE, Born Irvin Groeninger III

Another Child Raped While In State CARELESSNESS...Click on the picture

BMB Case Settled for $875,000

About Me

Kansas CPS Post Audit

It's past time to stop the illegal seizure of children from families and hold individuals accountable for violating Federal & State laws. Here's a couple links to read more about the audit: http://kansascpspostaudit.blogspot.com/ http://stillwaitingkscpspostaudit.blogspot.com/

Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] Whos Killing Families?.

Permalink

November 29, 2009

Paterson, New Jersey -- Father chased down wife and two young sons, firing multiple shots at them, killing one boy and critically wounding the other and his mother

The father, Edelmiro Gonzales, in turn was shot and killed by a police officer. "Seven-year-old Adrian Gonzales was pronounced dead at the scene, while his 11-year-old brother, Edryn Gonzales, and their mother, Johanna, were both hospitalized in critical condition."http://wcbstv.com/local/paterson.fatal.shootings.2.1338507.html

2 Dead, 2 Wounded When NJ Dad Shoots His Family

Edelmiro Gonzalez, 54, Fatally Shot By Off-Duty Cop After Shooting Wife, Kids; One Son Dead, Wife And Other Son Injured

Reporting
Hazel Sanchez

PATERSON, N.J. (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge

1 of 1

Police are still trying to figure out what triggered Edelmiro Gonzalez to go on a shooting spree, killing his seven-year-old son, and injuring his wife and other son. They are recovering at St. Joseph's hospital.

Police are still trying to figure out what triggered Edelmiro Gonzalez to go on a shooting spree, killing his seven-year-old son, and injuring his wife and other son. They are recovering at St. Joseph's hospital.

Gonzalez is dead, and those who know his family are in shock.

The Colpas and Delgado families were stunned to find out their neighbors, Johanna Gonzalez and her two sons, were victims of a fatal domestic dispute, and that the gunman was Gonzalez's estranged husband, 54-year-old Edelmiro Gonzalez.

"Something hard had to happen, because he loves his kids – he'd come and pick them up, drop them off, it was no problem," neighbor Alexis Delgado said. "I can't believe it. I'm shocked."

"They were like a happy family," neighbor Tammy Colpas said. "It's so unbelievable. I can't believe this."

Police say just before 9 a.m. Sunday, Johanna Gonzalez was dropping off her two sons at her mother's home at 460 Broadway when Edelmiro Gonzalez appeared, armed with two handguns.

"Her estranged husband came up to the vehicle, shot several times into the vehicle, at which time her two sons, Adrian and Eldryn exited the vehicle," Detective Lieutenant Ron Humphrey, of the Paterson Police Department, said. "Adrian was immediately shot as he ran to the driveway."

Seven-year-old Adrian Gonzalez died at the scene.

Police say the enraged husband shot his 11-year-old son, Elryn Gonzalez, in the neck, then shot his 31-year-old wife in the shoulder before trying to run away past a nearby McDonalds.

Off-duty Paterson Police Det. Lt. Washington Griffen was with his young son sitting in the drive-thru lane.

"He exited the vehicle, leaving his son in the car, he hollered out to the suspect, advised him he was a police officer and to drop the weapon," Det. Lt. Humphrey said. "There was an exchange of gunfire, and the suspect was shot twice."

Gonzalez was shot in the head and femur and died at the hospital.

Det. Lt. Griffen, a 19-year veteran of the force, has been placed on administrative leave while Paterson police and the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office conducts an investigation.

Edelmiro and Johanna had been separated for three years. Although Edelmiro had visitation rights with his sons, Johanna had a restraining order on him since September.

Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] Battered Mothers Rights - A Human Rights Issue.

Permalink

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-md.castillo25oct25,0,6676991,print.story

baltimoresun.com

Living with a mother's nightmare

Amy Castillo copes with loss of her best friend and his killing their babies

By Tricia Bishop | tricia.bishop@baltsun.com

October 25, 2009

Just a few months after her husband drowned their three children, Amy Castillo found herself standing on top of a mountain during a Christian missionary trip to China, winds whipping, rain pouring down.
She asked herself a question: "Can I live with this?"
A long time passed before she could honestly answer.

The man she once playfully called "sexy thing," who swept her off her feet and quickly became her best friend, had gradually vanished over the past five years. In his place was a manic, suicidal stranger who spent entire nights at Baltimore strip clubs, blew thousands of dollars in wild shopping sprees and accused her of being self-righteous and manipulative.

A "wolf in sheep's clothing" was how he described himself, a longtime family friend said.
On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Mark Castillo showed up at Amy's modest Silver Spring house, which they once shared, to pick up their children for a scheduled visit. The couple had been separated for nearly two years by then and were going through a difficult divorce in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Mark was clean-shaven and wearing a nice shirt, looking better than he had in months, Amy thought. He loaded the two boys - Anthony, 6, and Austin, 4 - along with 2-year-old Athena into the family minivan and drove north, to Baltimore.
The dark-haired quartet spent the day at the Maryland Science Center before checking into the Camden Yards Marriott. They ate dinner - room service - then Mark set the boys up with a computer game and took Athena into the bathroom to draw a bath.

He held her tiny frame under the water for a full 10 minutes, timed with a stopwatch, until he was sure she was dead. He repeated the act with each of the boys, then tried to kill himself that night with an over-the-counter pain reliever and, on Sunday, with a knife.

When Mark and the children failed to return Saturday night by the court-required time, Amy called the police twice and once again Sunday morning. But she was told there was nothing they could do. Call back if the family didn't show up by Monday.

Then, sometime Sunday afternoon, an officer came to her door. "Come with us, we found everyone," he said.
Amy felt relief first, then a sliver of "gotcha" as the officer drove her and her friend, Cheryl Wharton, to the Baltimore police station. She might be able to use this out-all-night stunt against Mark in custody proceedings, she thought.

It wasn't until hours later that she learned her children were dead.
Standing on that mountain in China, beneath a callous monsoon sky, Amy didn't know if she had the strength or will to survive her grief. If she died, she would be reunited with her children in heaven. If she lived, there would be more pain: Mark's trial, the empty house, an unknown future.
She thought hard and opened her mind to God.

Good, bad dogs

In a two-hour interview six days after her former husband pleaded guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court to three counts of first-degree murder, Amy Castillo, a 44-year-old pediatrician, recounted the details of their lives together. It was Oct. 20, which would have been Austin's sixth birthday.
Mark used to say that there was a good dog and a bad dog "fighting" inside him, and he had to remember to feed the good dog, Amy said. But often, he forgot.

Even after he confessed to the killings, he led the courts in circles, claiming insanity, then clear-headed health. He fought the divorce he asked for, and argued with judges and his attorneys. His plea itself was a surprise, willingly accepted by the judge, who also recommended that Mark be allowed to serve his time - three life sentences - at a mental health correctional facility.

Amy's friends say she still has trouble focusing. She's on disability and sees counselors three times per week. And her nightmares are still strong, worse now after fresh details about the deaths appeared in the newspapers.
But she's learning to cope and even forgive, she said, as God has forgiven her.
"I could always have one foot in the grave, and I sometimes want to," she said. But her faith, her friends and her family won't let her. "I have a good base."

'I flip 4 doc'

Amy grew up in Alexandria, Va., with good, solid parents. Her mother died a few years ago, but she still leans heavily on her dad, who gives her faith in men even now, she said.
At 15, she made up her mind to follow Jesus.

She graduated from the Medical College of Virginia in 1991 and went on to a pediatrics residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where she would soon meet her future husband, a traveling gymnast passing through town.

Mark Anthony Castillo was born the third of five children and raised in East Los Angeles by his mother, who disciplined him more than her other children, he once told a psychologist. That evaluation report is filed in a Montgomery County court. In it, he claims to have an IQ of 140.

After high school, Mark enlisted in the Air Force and was stationed in Missouri. He said he was discharged honorably in the third year of a four-year tour because of problems dealing with authority. He was diagnosed by a military counselor as having "narcissistic personality disorder."

Mark's first marriage, which occurred while he was in the Air Force, lasted two years before his wife filed for divorce. (Their daughter, now 21, lives in Kansas City, Mo. Over the next decade, he would hold a series of jobs, according to the medical report, "working as a mailman, owning a flower shop, and dealing cards on a riverboat."
He dated a lot but had no substantive relationships until he met Amy in the summer of 1997 at a recreational volleyball game in Charleston. His smile got her.
He was doing trampoline shows around the country at the time, stopping in South Carolina on his way to a job in Minnesota, which he gave up to stay and woo Amy. "Iflip4doc@..." would become his e-mail address.
They were engaged within six months and married within eight, on Feb. 7, 1998.

'He disconnected'

Amy got a job as a pediatrician with Kaiser Permanente and, in 1999, returned with Mark to the Washington suburbs. Mark supplemented gymnastics teaching with computer jobs.
They joined the Forcey Memorial Church in Silver Spring and made friends in the Bible study group, particularly the Rev. Zeke Wharton and his wife, Cheryl Wharton.
The athletic couple also kept up with volleyball until Amy became pregnant with Anthony in 2001 - a welcome surprise.

She was 36 and they'd always wanted three children, so it was time to get started, she said. They found out about the pregnancy as they were planning a scuba-diving trip to Papua, New Guinea, as a sort of belated honeymoon.
After Anthony, Amy had two other children, each two years apart in age, though she had miscarriages in between. She was on bed rest for five months at a time when she was pregnant - and working 11-hour days when she wasn't - leaving Mark to take on more responsibility within the home.
"It was a big stressor for him," Amy said.

Mark would later say that he thought Amy was not supportive of his efforts.
His personality began to change when she was pregnant with Austin in 2003, Amy said. He started blowing money, quit going to church and talked about dying.
"He disconnected," Zeke Wharton said.
Amy thought maybe he was bipolar, shifting between manic highs and depressed lows. She remembers printing out an article on the disorder and giving it to Mark, who rejected the idea.

The Whartons and other friends tried to intervene, holding a formal meeting with Mark, a sort of living-room intervention, to help him see that his behavior was abnormal. It was a polite gathering that went nowhere.
"He had great respect for what we had to say," Zeke Wharton said, but Mark didn't believe he had mental health problems. "There was no way he would go" to a counselor.

Disdain for sleep

Mark claimed he no longer needed sleep, and he would stay out all night at Baltimore strip clubs, coming home at 5 a.m. on days when he was supposed to watch the kids, Amy said. She began to fear he would harm the children through negligence - or purposely, when he wasn't thinking right.
By mid-2006, when Athena was 8 months old, Amy said she asked Mark to leave, thinking that might be the wake-up call he needed to snap out of it, or at least get help.

He drove around the eastern half of the country for weeks, staying with various people, and then returned to Virginia, where they reunited briefly.
On June 23, Amy wrote him an e-mail saying she missed her best friend: "I wish that you would make Mr. Hyde give him back!"
Eventually, she took the kids to her brother's house in North Carolina so that she could think and they would be safe. Then Mark called on June 29, 2006.

He said he was in Room 208 at the Days Inn in Ruther Glen, Va., and that he was going to kill himself with supplies, including ant poison, bought from a local Home Depot. Amy called police and the hotel front desk, put the baby in the car and headed north, toward home.

Mark was taken into custody and committed to a mental health center in Fredericksburg, Va. The Whartons and Amy testified before the doctors at the commitment hearing about Mark's behavior, thinking this was their one shot to get him help. But he was released after six days.

'He disowned us'

"They just put him out on the street," Amy said.
"And that's when he disowned us," Cheryl Wharton added.
On July 19, Amy filed a complaint and emergency motion for sole custody of the children, but the courts would never see him as a danger. She worried. She would sometimes hide the children with family friends.
Mark became extremely bitter toward her, certain she was running a campaign to make others think he was crazy.

In e-mails, Mark told Amy that his "odd behavior" at the strip clubs was based on a death wish and implored her to stop harping about the money he spent because he "was worth a million dollars to [her] dead" through insurance.
"I will never forgive you for the length you went to, to try to have me committed ... and have no desire to work out our relationship," he wrote.
He filed for divorce from Amy after she filed the custody motions, and their battle heated up. That court file is now six folders thick, full of family e-mails, financial documents, letters from friends and various motions.
They were both run ragged. Amy sometimes slept under her desk at work and worried that she, too, was losing it.

"I could tell he was really falling apart," Amy said. "I felt like we both were."
At Christmastime in 2006, the Castillos filed for protective orders against one another.
"He has never actually hurt [the children]," says Amy's handwritten plea, "but did tell me that the worst thing he could do to me would be to kill the children, and not me, so I could live without them."

On that final March weekend in 2008, when Mark didn't bring the kids back, Amy thought maybe he'd taken off with them to frustrate her. Cheryl Wharton came over to keep her company on Sunday, while they waited for word.

Knock on the door

When the officer knocked on the door, they were both thankful. The women got into a police car and were driven to Baltimore, where they were seated in a room that was under renovation. Amy thought to herself: "The boys are going to tear this place up" when they arrive.
She was asked about the van and who had the title. Then the officer told her this: "All of your children are dead, and your husband tried to kill himself; we're not sure of his status."
Silence.
Screaming.

It seemed as if days passed until Amy's cries slowed. She hung her head in her hands and asked aloud: "What am I supposed to do now?"
Cheryl Wharton, in shock, called everyone who needed to be called, and they went home, to a lawn full of reporters and a house full of friends and family, who cared for Amy and each other over the next year and a half.

Much of it was a blur of grief counseling, divorce court (the final decree was not given until late last year) and suicidal thoughts. There were extraordinary conversations with God when she was alone late at night and still the everyday routine of going to the gym, playing the violin, finding small joys.

And there were those drawn-out criminal trial dates, when she had to relive the details of her children's deaths. They came to an abrupt end 11 days ago, when Mark Castillo offered a surprise guilty plea.
Amy talks about taking action against the courts for not listening to her, but she's not certain she will. She wants mental health disorders better recognized and has sorted through her every action she took to make sure she did all she could to save Mark and herself.
"She fought with every fiber of her being," said cousin Holly Rowe.

In Amy's entryway is a panel of cracked glass that's still sealed with duct tape. She broke it by slamming the front door during an argument with Mark. Wooden masks from her belated honeymoon to Papua hang on the wall, alongside souvenirs from other trips abroad, some just for the adventure, some for missionary purposes.
And in Amy's hallway, above the steps leading to the bedrooms, family photographs still hang, even the ones with Mark. Friends removed them after the deaths, but she put them back. He was part of her life.
"We had some great years, some really great years," she said, seated on her living room sofa.

Looking ahead

But she's also looking toward the future. She's taking a trip to Israel next month and trying to rebuild her career as a pediatrician, spending half days with patients when she's able to.
She went to an AC/DC concert days after Mark pleaded guilty, followed by paint ball with a man she's dating. She casually says she could move to a new house, leaving the children's preserved rooms behind, if she were to "get married again."

Her friends see these as signs of hope.
"Her story's not over," said Zeke Wharton. "It can still have a good ending."
Next to Amy on the couch rest two photos of Austin.

She won't go to his grave to honor his birthday; it's "too depressing." But she'll spend time gazing at pictures. In November, she'll do the same for Athena, and in December for Anthony, on their birthdays.
And though she still looks forward to being reunited with them when it's her time, she's no longer in a rush.
She has a commitment to keep, made to herself on a Chinese mountaintop more than a year ago, when she realize

Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] Mothers Global Justice Alliance.

Permalink

Shared guilt in child’s murder

I suppose that by now most of us have forgotten the unutterably sad story of Shaniya Davis of Fayetteville. Let’s be reminded.

This lovely, sweet 5-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped, and killed and her tiny, innocent body dumped by the side of a country road. Her mother apparently had sold Shaniya into prostitution.

We probably reacted to this tragedy initially by shaking our heads back and forth a couple of times. Then we quickly moved on to more important things like Christmas shopping and “Desperate Housewives.”

Yes, let’s move on in a hurry so we don’t notice how deeply sick, broken, and lost we are in the depths of our American soul.

Something as horrific as this must affect us, disturb us, horrify us, keep us tossing and turning in our sleep. We can’t forget this tragedy in a day or two and then “move on” as we do with everything else. For we’re all guilty of this child’s inhuman end. We’re all complicit in it at a deep, dark level.

Shame on Shaniya’s tormentors and killers. But shame on all of us as well.

JERRY GILL

Hertford

Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] Mothers Global Justice Alliance.

Permalink

The ugly side of supply & demand

http://mediamisses.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/the-ugly-side-of-supply-demand/

The recent case of Shaniya Davis brought to light the problem of sexual slavery in this country. Headlines, stories and TV broadcasts all talked about the horrors of a mother who sold her 5-year-old into sexual slavery. But, may I ask….

Why aren’t we also talking about the demand side of sexual slavery? Why aren’t we talking about the rape of a 5-year-old child prior to her murder? 

If we don’t talk about the demand for minors and adults in prostitution and slavery, we will never solve this problem.

Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] I will not SHUT UP or give up and I WONT go away!!.

Permalink

Press release: Global media monitoring project

November 10, 2009

“Today gender equality in the news media came under scrutiny in some 127 countries around the world. Teams of volunteers around the world took part in measuring how well their national media are doing on fair and balanced representation and portrayal of women and men in the news. They monitored thousands of stories in hundreds of newspapers and news broadcasts. The Global Media Monitoring Project is the largest research and advocacy initiative in the world on gender equality in news and journalism.

From Argentina to Zimbabwe, Bangladesh to Yemen, Barbados to the Solomon Islands and Australia to Canada, national newspapers, television, radio and internet news broadcasts were analyzed in the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). Teams of volunteers around the world took part in measuring how well their national media are doing on fair and balanced representation and portrayal of women and men in the news. They monitored thousands of stories in hundreds of newspapers and news broadcasts.

The Global Media Monitoring Project is the largest research and advocacy initiative in the world on gender equality in news and journalism. It is coordinated in Toronto by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) with regional coordinators and national coordinators in each country. Through it, community organizations, organizations concerned with gender equality, university students and researchers and media professionals, among others, work together in a massive voluntary collaborative effort. Its ultimate goal is to advance gender justice by encouraging the fair and balanced gender portrayal and representation in and through the news.

It is often said that the news is a mirror on the world.The GMMP study in 2005 found that women are largely invisible in the news. Four out of every five persons (21%) in news stories worldwide were men, and just ten percent of all news stories focused specifically on women. The data gathered today will generate solid evidence of whether and how much this has changed across the world.

Today’s research investigates concrete examples of how the routines and practices of journalism result in news stories that reinforce gender stereotypes, and highlights instances of exemplary gender sensitive journalism. The data generated today are expected to provide evidence — facts and figures — for transformation.

The United Nations Development Fund for Women UNIFEM is supporting the project, recognizing the importance of gender equality in news media to women around the world. The International Federation of Journalists and numerous national media associations are involved.

The results will be analyzed by WACC in partnership with Media Monitoring Africa and Gender Links, both based in South Africa. A report will be published in time for the 2010 the Millennium Development Goals Review Summit and the 15 year review of progress in the implementation of the 1995 Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing. Through Section ‘J’ of the Beijing Platform for Action, governments and other actors committed to promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media. They also committed to increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication.

The project highlights the need for fair and balanced gender portrayal to take its rightful place in ethical professional standards for journalism.

For updates from monitoring groups around the world visit: www.waccglobal.org

For more information, please go here or contact Terry Mutuku, Communication Officer: MT@waccglobal.org

This press release was posted on  AWID

PUBLISHED IN:

• MEDIA