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Children Rescued
October 9, 2006 permalink
Child protectors have removed the children from a mother who used a baby as a weapon in a fight with his dad. From other sources, the battered boy's name is Jarron Troop, and child protectors removed four children from the mother.
This is finally a case of child protectors doing something right. In both press accounts and in-person interviews, good deeds by child protectors are rare. The numerous favorable stories are puff pieces glorifying overworked social workers. If child protectors could restrict themselves to dealing with truly dangerous parents, there would be no need to organize opposition.
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Woman Beats Boyfriend with Baby
Erie police are saying it`s a case unlike any they have ever seen: a woman accused of using her own baby as a weapon in a domestic fight.
Now investigators are looking into what led to such a disturbing crime.
Police have charged 27-year-old Chytoria Graham with several felony charges, including aggravated assault, simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
According to police reports, investigators were responding to a domestic disturbance at Graham`s home in the 300 block of East 4th Street early Sunday morning.
Once on the scene, police discovered Graham had been fighting with her boyfriend, DeAngelo Troop.
According to Graham`s taped statement to police, the fighting allegedly escalated from several objects being thrown, to Graham picking up the couple`s baby boy by the legs and hitting her boyfriend with the infant.
Neighbors and police are equally surprised by what happened.
On Sunday, the infant was flown to Children`s Hospital in Pittsburgh where the baby remains in a drug-induced coma with serious head and brain injuries.
Source: WJET-TV, Erie Pennsylvania
Addendum: Chytoria Graham was convicted and sentenced to prison.
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Woman Found Guilty For Swinging Baby at Boyfriend
A woman was sentenced to five to ten years in prison yesterday in Erie County Court in Pennsylvania after she swung her child at her boyfriend, fracturing the baby’s skull.
Chytoria Graham, 28, got into a fight on October 8, 2006 with her boyfriend DeAngelo Troop, after she came at home drunk. She grabbed her son, Jarron, 4 week old, by his feet and swung him, hitting Troop, the Associated Press reports.
Infant’s skull was fractured. The baby recovered and is now living with her family.
In March she pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and jeopardizing the welfare of a child. In June she withdrew the plea.
According to her lawyers, the she entered the plea on grounds of being drunk and preoccupied for the welfare of her child.
Graham told the emergency workers she had swung her child like a bat, but at her trial she testified that she didn’t remember much of what happened that night.
In October the jury convicted her of aggravated assault and child endangerment.
Graham faced a mandatory minimum of five years in prison because of child’s age, who is under 13. She also received probation for two years, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Her lawyer, James Pitonyak, said that she will appeal her conviction.
He said: "This is really a case that should have been moved out of town."
The jury selection guaranteed a fair trial, said Prosecutor Erin Connelly. She also said that Graham confessed many times, so there wasn’t any doubt that she actually swung the baby.
Source: eFluxMedia
