CALCASIEU PARISH, LA — For law enforcement in Calcasieu Parish, 2011 presented some of the most shocking child abuse cases filed. Children who were allegedly beaten till their ears were bleeding, children living in terrible conditions and children even burned by their parent or caretaker are just some of the situations Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office Sex Crimes Division had to deal with.

The Wisconsin state Senate Committee on Public Health, Human Services and Revenue will hold a hearing today on a bill authored by state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R) that would force the sate to say that “nonmarital parenthood” contributes to child abuse and neglect, and distribute official literature saying as much. His legislationwould add the bolded portions to Wisconsin state law:

LONG BEACH – A Long Beach couple pleaded no contest Friday to charges of felony child abuse in the beating death of their 31-day-old baby. Melissa Swanson, 42, and Michael Cross, 34, each pleaded to a single count of felony child abuse causing death as well as an allegation that each personally used a weapon in the Aug. 11 slaying of their daughter, Michaela Cross. Deputy District Attorney Carol Rose included the personal use of a weapon allegation based on the Coroner’s ruling that the baby was slammed or swung into a hard object with such force it caused a massive and deadly skull fracture.

MONTICELLO, AR – Special Agents of the Arkansas State Police have arrested a Drew County couple accused of child abuse and the death of a two-year-old girl. Daniel Pedraza, 23, and Victoria Pedraza, 21, are charged with capital felony murder. The girl, Aubriana Coke, is the biological child of Victoria Pedraza.

According to Drew County Sheriff Mark Gober, Capital Murder and Permitting Abuse to a Minor charges were listed as the initial charges filed against the mother and step-father of a local 2 year old infant, who died Monday morning. Victoria Pedraza and Daniel Pedraza of Old HWY 13 were arrested at Stephenson-Dearman funeral home, after the family visitation, on felony arrest warrants last night, for the death of their child, Aubriana D. Coke.

A baby found dead in his crib at a suspected drug house may have been murdered, police say. 17-month-old Patrick Nicholas Lerch was unresponsive when police found his body on Sunday night at a two-story home in the 500 block of St. Leger Avenue in the Goodyear Heights neighborhood, Barberton. Patrick was taken to Akron Children’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead. A medical examiner’s investigator said there were signs of possible abuse, after finding ‘apparent bruising’ on his body.

A three-year-old boy almost died of starvation after being allegedly put in a freezing “punishment cell” at home where he was so hungry he ripped out his own hair and ate them, a UK court has heard. The Daily Mail reports that the parents of the child have been jailed for keeping him in a tiny room with no lights, heating or food. Mother Lisa Brooks, 25, and stepfather Tomas Lewis, 22 are alleged to have taken camera phone footage of the boy in the room.

A couple from Pennsylvania has been arrested for allegedly trapping their seven-year-old son in a coffin in the basement of their home “as a punishment”. According to news reports, neighbors called police after they heard the boy crying from inside the house in Scranton on September 26. Police found the boy sitting in a doorway of the basement, upset and wearing a diaper. The boy told police he was crying because he was hungry.

Jerry Sandusky molested young boys as young as 8-years-old according to court documents filed on Thursday in Center County Court. According to documents Sandusky molested at least 10 boys ranging in age from 8 to 17. Information about the boys were discovered in the “bill of particulars” which was released by the Attorney General’s Office. Prosecutors reveal in filing that five of the boys were sexually abused in the Lasch Building, the schools football headquarters.

SEATTLE—Snohomish County Prosecutor Cindy Larsen is seeking to have the 15-year-old girl accused of stabbing two other students at Snohomish High School tried as an adult, saying the girl is still making threats, includng a desire to attack one of the girls again. The girl, who was a sophomore at the school at the time of the attack last Oct. 24, is accused of stabbing freshmen April Lutz and Bekah Staudacher. Lutz suffered severe, life-threatening injuries and Staudacher suffered a large cut to her arm and was stabbed in the back

Nearly four months after 13-month old Tyler Dasher was found dead, bruised and beaten outside a Missouri cemetery, a grand jury has found probable cause to send his mother to trial for his murder. Shelby Dasher, 20, faces a second-degree murder charge on top of child abuse in beating her toddler to death before faking his abduction from her home in Afton last November. An attorney for Dasher pleaded not guilty to the charges on her behalf while waving her client’s arraignment. After the toddler’s body was discovered on November 15, Dasher admitted to police of repeatedly striking her son in rage because he ‘wouldn’t lay down, wouldn’t go back to sleep.’

The parents of a toddler who died from malnutrition months after being released from foster care have been charged with her murder. Jennifer Dalhover, 36, and Joseph Sandoval, 21, from Los Angeles, appeared in court today and were held in lieu of $1-million bail. The parents did not enter pleas and are scheduled to return to court March 21. Vyctorya Sandoval died months after she was taken out of foster care and returned to her biological parents last April. When she died, bruises covered her body, a rib was fractured and blood tests suggested she died thirsty and hungry.

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Dreamcatchers for Abused Children is pleased to announce their new Celebrity Spokeswoman, PAULA NELSON.

Paula Nelson was born on October 27th, 1969 in Houston, Texas. Born into a family of music and entertainment, she started playing piano and singing at the age of seven. She drew early influences from singers like Jesse Colter and Rita Coolidge, whose bluesy, supple vocal style provided one of Paula’s earliest templates as she found her own voice. Texas Monthly has called that voice “torchy,” and the Los Angeles Times praised, “There’s no missing the unforced power of Paula’s singing.” Paula and the band have been playing together since the summer of 2004, and the chemistry between the band and Paula is magic, both on stage and off the stage.