Staffer Charged With Manslaughter

MIAMI—  A West-Miami Dade daycare staffer has been charged in the death of a 3-year old after, police say, he jumped into a pool and drowned. Zobeida Gonzalez, 63, the mother of the business owner, was arrested Wednesday on charges of  aggravated manslaughter and child neglect with  great harm. Gonzalez bonded out Thursday afternoon, telling cameras “I feel fine” upon bonding out. On December 22, the parents of Jonathan Feliciano dropped him off at the day care located at 2955 NW 99th Street, leaving him  in Gonzalez’s care. READ MORE HERE

Tortured to death for being too slow at toilet training

Two days after Tanilla Warrick-Deaves should have turned five, her mother’s ex-boyfriend was found guilty of murdering her. The two-year-old was being beaten to death by Warren James Ross, 30, in her mother’s home on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia, after he became frustrated that the little girl was not toilet-trained. Ross abused Tanilla in the weeks leading up to her death in August 2011 as he used brutal methods to try to toilet-train her, forcing her to run laps, whipping her with various implements and hitting her. READ MORE HERE

A Texas father charged with carving a pentagram into his six-year-old son’s back has been ordered to a psychiatric hospital after being found incompetent to stand trial. Brent Bartel, 40, is accused of using a box cutter to carve a pentagram into his son’s back in December 2012.  Doctors have diagnosed Bartel as paranoid schizophrenic, and a judge has ordered him to spend at least one year in treatment at Kerrville State Hospital. According to the Star-Telegram, Bartel has been found incompetent by doctors twice previously since his arrest. In November after he was found incompetent, he was sent to the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon for treatment. READ MORE HERE

NEW BERLIN/BROOKFIELD – Investigators were looking for evidence related to a burglary in New Berlin — and they did not expect to find horrifying images of a one-year-old being sexually assaulted. Now, a 27-year-old man faces charges — and could spend the rest of his life behind bars. New Berlin police began investigating the burglary of a landscaping business — and issued a search warrant for 27-year-old Michael McMullen — confiscating his cell phone, iPad and laptop. READ MORE HERE

Who can forget the golden locks of Lucy Ewing? She was the pretty petite blond on the hit series “Dallas” in the 80’s and 90’s.  The actress who played the teen Ewing, Charlene Tilton, says found inspiration from her time in foster care. Tilton took time to talk about this dark chapter in her life. She shared it with a teen girl currently in foster care at Doris Bergman’s 6^th Annual Valentine and Oscar Style Suite and Lounge at Fig and Olive Restaurant in West Hollywood. She gave Harmony a big hug and words of encouragement. She talked about her own journey of going from foster home to foster home. She describes her mother as severely mentally ill. She remembers deciding as a child that she could never depend on anyone. READ MORE HERE

A six-year-old girl was found dead Thursday morning in far northern Minnesota after spending hours in temperatures that fell to nearly 30 degrees-below-zero with windchills of -40. The unidentified girl, who was a first-grader at Horace May Elementary School, was found frozen to death at 6.23am at her home in Bemidji, Minnesota, about 115 miles east of Grand Forks, North Dakota. She was found inside her apartment building’s front entrance by both her mother and a neighbor who both immediately called 911, said authorities. Police said the girl was found dressed in a coat, boots, hat and mittens by emergency service personnel who arrived at the scene minutes after being called. It is not clear how the girl had managed to get outside, but it appeared she may have been there overnight. Foul play is not suspected. READ MORE HERE

Rachel Holt pleaded guilty to rape with teenager in 2006

A Delaware elementary school teacher found guilty of having sex with one of her 13-year-old students is trying to have her 10-year prison sentence reduced. Rachel Holt was 34 when she was charged with 28 counts of raping a minor in 2006. She pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree rape and was handed a mandatory 10-year sentence. Investigators said the science teacher had sex with the boy more than 25 times in just over a week, and on one occasion let his 12-year-old friend watch. READ MORE HERE

A registered sex offender has been arrested after authorities in Montana say he distributed child pornography to someone in Montana. Dana Preston Duncan, 43, was arrested Wednesday afternoon during his weekly check-in at the Oklahoma City Police Department. According to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, a member of the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force informed them that someone was distributing child pornography from Oklahoma to someone in Montana. As police in Oklahoma investigated, they say Duncan was sending the material and that he was a registered sex offender. READ MORE HERE

A prominent sports journalist is expected to face more than 50 charges early this week arising out of a lengthy garda investigation into claims that he sexually abused a child. The man is due to appear in Dublin District Court on a range of offences arising from an alleged inappropriate relationship with a young girl. The charges include alleged sexual assault on a young girl and defilement and exploitation through sending text messages to her. The move follows a garda investigation that was launched in March 2011 after the man’s daughter found text messages to the girl on a phone she had been given by her father. READ MORE HERE

An infant girl died in Albuquerque after suffering sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend, New Mexico cops said. Angelique Montano’s 4-month-old baby, Izabellah, died Sunday, after two weeks on life support, according to KOB-TV.  Montano’s boyfriend, Elijah Fernandez, 19, is accused of causing serious brain and sexual trauma to the child while high on synthetic marijuana, commonly referred to as spice. Doctors had allegedly referred the child to the state’s Children Youth and Families Department three times before the deadly incident because of past injuries, according to KOB-TV. READ MORE HERE

Mother screams, charges defense table

“It appeared that someone held her head so tight her skull cracked”

A Poultney man charged with the murder of his 2-year-old stepdaughter denied the offense and was ordered jailed on $250,000 bail Monday. Dennis Duby, 31, faces 20 years to life behind bars for the killing of Dezirae Sheldon who Vermont State Police investigators say died from skull fractures inflicted by blunt force trauma. Duby told investigators that he believed the child had fallen off a table and said he’d seen her fall from a toilet and a sink on the afternoon of Feb. 19. But an autopsy of the little girl showed that she had fractures to either side of her head. READ MORE HERE

JUSTICE FOR DEZIRAE FACEBOOK PAGE

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MORE ARTICLES PERTAINING TO THIS STORY:

Shumlin orders investigation into Vt. toddler’s death

Protest targets DCF in case of slain child

Volatile court hearing in murder of 2-year-old

Vermont’s foster care system and claims of child abuse

Family of slain 2-year-old speak out

UPDATE : Police investigating Vt. toddler’s death

Charges of attempted murder and torture have been added to a case of suspected child abusers. Tuesday, police announced the additional charges, but relatives of one suspect said the two adults who’ve been arrested were actually trying to save the 5-year-old girl. “She was taken away from her mother, her biological mother,” Savannah Rodriguez told Eyewitness News. “And given to her father and my sister, with a whole bunch of problems that this little girl has. My brother-in-law and my sister are just trying to help.” READ MORE HERE

‘We used to cry and scream he was hurting us, but nothing would stop him’

Two women who were sexually abused as children by their stepfather have spoken out in a bid to help other victims after his crimes went unpunished for nearly two decades. Katie Shortman, 24, and Dellisa Shortman, 25, have bravely spoken out after Paul Ward was jailed for four years when he admitted two counts of indecent assault. Ward, 50, of Sale, Greater Manchester, began abusing his two stepdaughters in the early 90s, when they were aged just five and six. READ MORE HERE

NICOMA PARK, Oklahoma – A 25-year-old Nicoma Park man is suspected of not only being sexually involved with a 12-year-old girl, but Spencer Police said there are cell phone images of child pornography to prove it. Spencer Police said they pulled over Daniel McGarity for speeding at 4:30 a.m. Sunday. They said he admitted he had marijuana on him. There was also a young girl in his car. READ MORE HERE