Praying Parents Charged in Child's Death

Dale and Leilani Neumann, parents of Madeline Kara Neumann, were charged with second-degree reckless homicide, Marathon County District Attorney Jill Falstad announced. If convicted, the couple could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Madeline Kara Neumann,11, of Weston, Wisconsin died of diabetic ketoacidosis. Her parents, believed so strongly in the power of prayer, that they refused to seek medical attention for their daughter until it was too late to save her life. Read the entire story here.

A copy of the police investigation into Kara's death is available here

District Attorney Jill Falstad in preparing the charges against the Neumanns looked at the "progression of the illness" and the response of the parents:

"By that Saturday (the day before the girl's death) you had an 11-year-old child who wasn't eating, so she wasn't getting any nourishment, she wasn't taking in any fluids, she wasn't walking, she was struggling to get to the bathroom," Falstad said. "She really was very vulnerable and helpless. And it seemed apparent that everybody knew that. As her illness progressed to the next morning being comatose . . . it just is very, very surprising, shocking that she wasn't allowed medical prevention (attention).

"She had a disease that was treatable and her death could have been prevented," Falstad said.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=hfMsAgNdGno]

The Neumanns are represented by their attorney, Gene Linehan, who declined to comment on the charges. However, it seems as if the Neumanns knew that their daughter was very sick but they were determined to heal her through prayer. Leilani Neumann said in a written statement to police that she never considered taking the girl, who was being home-schooled, to a doctor, even when her husband Dale made such a suggestion:

"We just thought it was a spiritual attack and we prayed for her. My husband Dale was crying and mentioned taking Kara to the doctor and I said, 'The Lord's going to heal her,' and we continued to pray," she wrote.

The Neumanns did reach out to the Unleavened Bread Ministries, founded by David Eells. In an email they requested that Eells pray for their daughter to be healed, which he did. Like the Neumanns, Eells says his church does not believe in medical intervention. Eells also wrote that the Neumanns have posted testimonials on their Web site but are not "'under' our ministry."

Falstad, the district attorney, said the case is likely to be precedent-setting in Wisconsin.

"There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the availability of a 'religious defense' in this case," Falstad said in a prepared statement to announce the charges. "In our nation, we have a constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion. We also give parents leeway in matters of child rearing. However, neither is absolute. In this case, it was necessary to weigh freedom of religion and parenting rights against the state's interests in protecting children."

Wisconsin state law appears to allow an exemption from child abuse charges for parents who engage in treatment by spiritual means through prayer. But the exemption applies only if the use of prayer alone is the basis for charges. Prosecutors say that exemption does not extend to homicide cases.

Austrian "Horror House" Discovered

Josef Fritzl, 73, of Amstetten, Austria had 14 children, seven by his wife, Rosemarie, 69, and seven by his daughter, Elisabeth, 42. Josef is now behind bars in what the Austrian press describe as the case of the house of horrors.

It all began 24 years ago in 1984 when Josef, an electrical engineer, kidnapped, drugged and imprisoned his 18-year-old daughter in the basement of their home in Amstetten, an industrial town 75 miles west of Vienna. He then told his wife that their daughter had run away from home. He kept her locked in a 540-square-foot prison of underground rooms, which he had previously built, some barely large enough to stand upright in. He had planned the dungeon meticulously and it was well soundproofed. The door to the prison was concealed behind shelves and secured with an electronic lock to which only Fritzl had the code.

While in captivity, Elisabeth Fritzl gave birth to the seven children by her father, one of whom died shortly after birth, which Josef disposed of in a furnace. Each time Elisabeth became pregnant, Fritzl delivered the children himself. Of the six remaining children he took three of them - Lisa, now 16, Monika, 14, and Alexander, 11 - out of the cellar after birth and came up with an elaborate charade to explain their sudden appearance to his wife. The other three children - Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, and Felix, 5 - were left to be raised by Elisabeth in his home-made dungeon.

Josef's 18-year imprisonment of his daughter came to an end when Kerstin became seriously ill and had to be taken to hospital. Medical authorities at the hospital became suspicious and called the police. Josef was picked up, and later under questioning, revealed the existence of the basement prison. Police freed Elisabeth Fritzl and the two other children, all of whom were quickly put in the care of medical and mental health experts. Elisabeth, although "greatly disturbed", agreed to give them a full statement - on condition that they made sure she would never have to see her father again. She claimed that she had been sexually abused by him since age 11. Fritzl appeared briefly in court and was sent to jail to await trial. He faces a15-year sentence if convicted of rape.


Senior police officer, Dr Franz Prucher, says the criminal case has shaken the force.

"We're being confronted with an unfathomable crime," Austria's interior minister, Günther Platter, said as the details began to unfold. "This case is one of incomprehensible brutality and horror, the most shattering and serious case of its kind that has ever come to light in Austria."

Questions were being asked by everyone from commentators and parents to psychologists and politicians, as to how what the Austrian press has dubbed the "house of horrors" case had come to happen in the small town of Amstetten.

"There are pressing questions raised by this monstrous crime which need to be put to a rich, self-satisfied society in which during a quarter of a century what was happening in the immediate vicinity went apparently unnoticed," Petra Stuiber wrote in a commentary in the Austrian liberal daily Der Standard.

"How is it possible that no one ever heard or saw anything, how can it be that no one ever asked questions?" she wrote. "What does it say about neighbors, relations, acquaintances and not least about authorities who had anything to do with the family, that the perpetrator succeeded in 'deceiving' everybody?"

Local social services told the Austrian Press Agency that there appeared to be nothing suspicious about the family and that Mr Fritzl managed to explain "very plausibly" how three of his infant grandchildren had turned up on his doorstep. Even his wife, Rosemarie Fritzl, "had no idea" what was going on, according to the police, and was devastated to hear of her husband's alleged crimes. She apparently accepted her husband's explanation that Elisabeth had run off to join a religious cult at the age of 18 - and that over the intervening years dumped three babies on their doorstep with notes saying she could not cope.

Amstetten's local governor, Hans-Heinz Lenze, told Austria's public broadcaster ORF that the children had had regular visits from social workers, who never heard any complaints or noticed anything to arouse their suspicions. He said they were well-behaved at school and fitted in well with their classmates. The three were apparently unaware of their mother's existence, let alone that their siblings Kerstin, Stefan and Felix were living below them. Mr Lenze also told ORF that Mr Fritzl had telephoned him last week and thanked him and the social services for looking after his family during his granddaughter Kerstin's illness.

Josef Fritzl, who does have a criminal record, is believed to have spent time in prison in the 1960s for the assault and also has at least one other conviction, for arson, according to Austrian police. Prosecutors are understood to be trawling through court records to find details of his previous offences to see if they shed light on what they have described as his "unfathomable" actions to his own family. The revelation he already has a criminal record will increase the anger that his behavior could have gone undetected by social services for almost a quarter of a century. It also indicates his wife Rosemarie must have been aware - at least to some degree - of her husband's sinister side.

Investigators are also desperate to determine how his victims could have been hidden away for so long from their neighbors and everyone else in the town, which has a population of just 23,000. They are said to be examining the padded walls of the cellar to work out whether the children's screams could be heard by neighbors.

Meanwhile, residents refuse to believe Fritzl could have acted alone, while others cannot believe that the "normal" family were hiding such a horrendous secret.

Anita Fabian, a teacher in the town, said: "How is it possible that no one knew anything for years? This was not possible without accomplices."

Guenter Pramreiter, who owns a bakery down the street from the Fritzls' home said the couple were regular customers.

"They appeared normal, just like any other family," he said. "I'm totally shocked. This was next door. It's terrible."

8-Year-Old Girl Seeks A Divorce

When it comes to women's issues, there are 2 institutionalized cultural practices in some countries that I think are just plain wrong. One is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the other is Pedophilia. Both of these are practiced in Yemen. The following story is about an 8-year-old Yemeni girl who was "married" to a 28-year-old man with the blessing of her father.

8-year-old Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself on Wednesday, April 2, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her two months ago to marry Faez Ali Thamer. Even though she was too young under Yemeni law to bring charges, she found a sympathetic ear in judge Muhammed Al-Qathi. She also asked the judge for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse.

“My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage,” Nojoud Nasser told the Yemen Times. “I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’ So this is what I have done,” she said.

Nasser said that she was exposed to sexual abuse and domestic violence by her husband.

“He used to do bad things to me, and I had no idea as to what a marriage is. I would run from one room to another in order to escape, but in the end he would catch me and beat me and then continued to do what he wanted. I cried so much but no one listened to me. Whenever I wanted to play in the yard he beat me and asked me to go to the bedroom with him. This lasted for two months," added Nasser. "He was too tough with me, and whenever I asked him for mercy, he beat me and slapped me and then used me. I just want to have a respectful life and divorce him.”

After hearing the child's story judge Muhammed Al-Qathi promptly ordered the arrest of both her father and her husband. At the ensuing trial the courtroom was packed with members of the press and human rights activists, who are using the case to highlight the need for more child protection in Yemen.

Her unemployed father, Mohammad Ali Al-Ahdal told the court he felt obliged to marry off his daughter after receiving repeated threats from the would-be husband and his entourage. He said was frightened because his oldest daughter had been kidnapped several years earlier and had been forced to marry her abductor.

Faez Ali Thameur told a judge that he married Nojoud with her consent and her parents', and that the marriage "was consummated, but I did not beat her."

"Yes I was intimate with her, but I have done nothing wrong, as she is my wife and I have the right and no one can stop me," he said. "But if the judge or other people insist that I divorce her, I will do it, it's ok."

In issuing his ruling, the judge said he was terminating the marriage because the girl "had not reached puberty." A provision in Yemeni law allows parents to sign marriage contracts for children younger than 15. However, the article states that a husband can only consummate the marriage when the wife reaches puberty. He annulled the marriage instead of granting a divorce, to stop the husband trying to reinstate the wedlock. He also ordered that the girl be removed from the control of the father who forced her into the wedding. In addition he ordered the girl's family to pay $250 in compensation to Faiz Ali Thamer. There were no provisions for any punishment for the husband, Faez Ali Thamer.

Shatha Ali Nasser who represented Nojoud Mohammed Ali before the court said:

"We are grateful to the judge" she explains. "Had it been someone with strong traditional views, Nojoud could have been sent back home."

Instead, Nojoud is now living with her maternal uncle, Shu'ee Salem Attabi'ee who said: "Nojoud is living happily with me and my eight other children. She is looking forward to going back to primary school as soon as possible." Nojoud wants to have no further contact with her father. According to her uncle, after Muhammed Nasser, the girl's father, lost his job as a garbage truck driver in Hajjah, he became a beggar, and soon after suffered from mental problems.

Shatha Ali Nasser confirmed that item number 15 in Yemeni civil law reads that “no girl or boy can get married before the age of 15." However, this item was amended in 1998 so parents could make a contract of marriage between their children even if they are under the age of 15. But the husband cannot be intimate with her until she is ready or mature,” said Nasser.“This law is highly dangerous because it brings an end to a young girl’s happiness and future fruitful life. Nojoud did not get married, but she was raped by a 30-year old man.”

Sex Tourist John Armstrong Sentenced

John Dickens Armstrong, 51, a registered sex offender, found out the hard way that certain crimes perpetrated in foreign countries can and will be prosecuted in the U.S.

Armstrong was living in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico when the Mexican police found him in the company of a 15-year-old El Paso girl. The teenager, a U.S. citizen, lived in Juarez with her grandmother at the time. She told the police that she had sex with Armstrong for money and crack cocaine. Upon further investigation it was discovered that Armstrong had solicited under-aged girls in a bar. He offered them $40 to have sex with him. He was also reported to have provided them with crack cocaine. Ciudad Juarez police officers arrested him for engaging in sexual conduct with underage girls.

When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) learned of Armstrong's arrest they conducted their own investigation and obtained an arrest warrant for him. When Mexico deported him, I.C.E. was waiting for him at the border. He was taken into custody and charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place, a federal offense.

A federal judge sentenced the 51-year-old man to more than nine years in prison (110 months) after he pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual activity with teenage girls in Juarez. In addition, Armstrong also received 10 years of supervised release after he's released from prison. He must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). He was already a registered sex offender in Arizona for a 1978 rape conviction.

"So-called sex tourists such as Armstrong are in for a rude awakening," said Roberto G. Medina, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in El Paso. "ICE and its law enforcement partners on both sides of the border are vigilant to this crime. Although we cannot restore innocence to those who sexual predators have exploited and abused, we make sure that justice is served on their behalf."

Beth Modica Pleads Guilty

Beth Modica, 44, a former prosecutor and mother of four children, admitted in court that she had sex with two teenage boys in her Sloatsburg home during the summer. She now faces a maximum of 2 years in state prison. Modica was indicted in January on five felony sex counts, five misdemeanor counts of third-degree sexual abuse and 25 misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The endangering counts involved the providing or sharing of alcohol and marijuana with the two boys and five other minors during July and August. She did not plead to those counts. See more on Beth Modica here.

Based on her guilty plea, Modica also faces 10 years post-release supervision, registering as a sex offender and paying about $1,300 in DNA testing and court fees. She also will be disbarred. The judge ordered Modica held in Rockland County jail until her June 13 sentencing. Jail officials transferred Modica to an upstate facility for her own protection.

Standing with Gerard Damiani of New City, her lawyer, Modica admitted that in July she had intercourse with a 15-year-old boy in her bed and gave oral sex to a 16-year-old boy in the bathroom of her home. Modica admitted she knew that both Suffern High School boys - who were friends with her eldest son who is 16 - were underage when she had sex with them. She had been accused of providing oral sex to the 15-year-old on several other occasions.

Damiani still hopes to persuade acting state Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bartlett to sentence Modica to county jail time or probation. He said Modica suffered what psychiatrists would call "disassociation." He has cited her civic works and life as a mother and as a prosecutor and municipal lawyer, jobs she lost because of her actions. A presentencing hearing has been scheduled for June 4.

"Her conduct was an aberration," Damiani said. "She has acknowledged her responsibility since the beginning. She didn't want to put her family or any of the quote unquote victims through a trial. We hope to convince the judge to give her a more reasonable sentence," he said.

Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said that the state prison sentence was the harshest he knew of for such a case. He said he considered Modica a child predator and the teen males victims, even if they and some other people in society don't. He noted the law doesn't distinguish between gender.

"The fact that the victims are males as opposed to females is irrelevant," Zugibe said. "The psychological impact on the male victim is not always known. I am certain there are long-term effects on the kids."

As she pleaded guilty, Modica's mother and brother listened in the courtroom. So did her estranged husband, Spring Valley Police Chief Paul Modica, who sat on the other side of the courtroom from Modica's mother with his hands clenched in his lap. See TV reports of her guilty plea here.