Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Mother's Statement About Violent Boyfriend's Confession

This is a tough one for readers; not for analysis, but for acceptance.

Child protective advocates will bristle at these comments made by the 2 year old's mother.  Denial on steroids?

An assailant confesses and the confession is not believed by the mother/girlfriend.

How safe is this child with her?  She has custody of her other children also.

How safe are these children with her?

NH man accused of placing 2-year-old in dryer at Bangor residence remains jailed



New Hampshire resident Mike Sousa shows the distinctive burn scars left on his 2-year-old son allegedly caused by a clothing dryer.
Nok-Noi Ricker | BDN
New Hampshire resident Mike Sousa shows the distinctive burn scars left on his 2-year-old son allegedly caused by a clothing dryer.
Adam Morton
Courtesy of Penobscot County Jail
Adam Morton
New Hampshire resident Mike Sousa shows the distinctive burn scars left on his 2-year-old son allegedly caused by a clothing dryer.
Nok-Noi Ricker | BDN
New Hampshire resident Mike Sousa shows the distinctive burn scars left on his 2-year-old son allegedly caused by a clothing dryer.
BANGOR, Maine — A New Hampshire man accused of placing his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son in a clothing dryer at her Bangor home last month and turning on the machine remained behind bars Monday.
The boy suffered second-degree burns to his back and arms with a distinct pattern that matched the drum of the dryer, had blisters on his feet, bruises all over his body and cuts that matched bolts on the inside of the appliance, according to the probable cause affidavit filed in court by Bangor police Detective Tim Shaw.
Adam Morton, 27, of Berlin, New Hampshire, wascharged with aggravated assault Aug. 28 and remained in custody at the Penobscot County Jail in Bangor.
“Mr. Morton admitted that on August 2, 2014, he put [the boy] into the dryer, shut the door and turned it on,” Shaw wrote in the affidavit, referring to the injured child. “He stated that [the child] was not in the dryer for very long. He indicated that the dryer made only one revolution.”
"very long" and "indicated" should be noted in minimization.  The child was put in the dryer, and the dryer turned on.  The child was in for more than one revolution. 

Detective Josh Kuhn and Shaw went to Berlin, New Hampshire, twice to interview Morton, who recently moved there from Bangor. The second interview took place Aug. 27, which is when he allegedly admitted to the crime.
“I asked him if he ‘snapped,’ he told me he did,” Shaw wrote. “He stated he was remorseful and regretted that it had ever happened.”
Morton was charged with aggravated assault the following day and later was extradited to Maine. He remained in jail Monday, unable to post the $2,500 cash bail set by Superior Court Justice Ann Murray. She also barred Morton from contacting any children under the age of 6, including the child named in the affidavit.
It’s likely Morton will be indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury, so he was not asked to enter a plea when he had his first appearance before Murray on Friday at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
The injured boy and his three brothers are still living in Bangor with their 24-year-old mother, the affidavit states.
The mother returned from work at around 4 p.m. Aug. 2, when she found her youngest son injured and took him to the emergency room at Eastern Maine Medical Center. She told police she recently had broken up with the children’s father and only had been dating Morton for a short time but did not believe he would hurt the children.
For me, I don’t believe for a second Adam did it,” the mother said Monday, standing on the front steps of her apartment holding her scarred child. “It just doesn’t make sense to me. For me,  inconclusive.”

In her denial of believing Adam did it, note how she qualifies her stance:
1.  "For me"
2.  "for a second"
and about the evidence, "for me" is repeated. 
Next, she blames her other children: 
“Somebody had to do something to him. He was really beat up,” she said later. “He has three older brothers, and boys get crazy and play rough.”
How can these children be safe given this belief system?
The mother of four said she believes police pressured Morton into confessing.
The detective said things would go a lot smoother if he confessed,” she said. “It was weeks of pressure. It wasn’t just two interviews. I told him to get a polygraph. I told him not to confess to something you never did.”
It’s not because of my feeling for Adam. It just doesn’t make sense,” the mother said. “I can’t explain what happened. I can’t explain how he got the burns.”

Note the negative as important.  Is CPS just waiting for injuries to the other children?
Mike Sousa of New Hampshire, the father of the four boys, came to Maine the day after hearing his youngest son was injured, he said.
“It was really awful,” Sousa said Monday of the injuries to his son. “There was like a yellow pus on his really bad burn on his [right] elbow, and it stretched [across his back] to his left shoulder blade.
“He went through a lot,” he said, patting his son on the top of his head at the apartment of the boy’s mother.
The bandages were removed after about two weeks.
“He’s back to his old self,” Sousa said of his son, now that a month has passed since the incident.
Morton’s story changed several times, according to the affidavit, from him saying he just did a load of laundry while he took a shower to accusing the older boys of injuring the child to finally admitting to the felony crime that could place him in prison for up to 10 years if convicted.
Based on an analysis of the lesions, this trauma could only have occurred inside the dryer,” Dr. Lawrence Ricci, a Portland physician consulted by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services in child abuse and neglect cases, told police. “It is also likely that the child was in the dryer for a fairly prolonged period of time, and the dryer, indeed, may have been turning.”
Dr. Ricci is well known for his forensic expertise.  
Police seized the dryer and through testing determined it could reach temperatures of up to 180 degrees in just three minutes.
One revolution would not produce the high temperature.  
The charges were aggravated assault, which I kinda question,” Sousa said. “If he’s a 30-year-old man, and my son is a 2-year-old boy and he admits to putting him in a dryer. I don’t know what world we live in today, but that’s definitely … attempted murder at least.

16 comments:

mmmagique said...

Both the mother and the boyfriend should be in jail. The father of those children should be fighting for custody right now.

John Mc Gowan said...

OT

Holly Bobo's Remains Found: Skull In Woods Is That Of Missing Tennessee Student

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/09/holly-bobo-remains-found-skull_n_5789688.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000021

Doty said...

mmmagique--why should the mother be jailed?

Anonymous said...

And this so-called judge should be put in a hot dryer herself if she can't do any better than setting a $2,500 cash bond and restricting this bully-monster from having contact with children under the age of six; while he blames them for the injuries he inflicts. THIS will continue with mamas' blind-eye blessings.

This poor child could have permanent scars and be traumatized for the rest of his pitiful life; and there he sits with a stupid mother who doesn't have sense enough to protect him; as do the other little boys.

What is WRONG with these stupid weak and gullible women who leave their pathetic helpless children at the mercy of a boyfriend who means nothing but to sex her while her children suffer gross mistreatment at their hands? They have no hope in this life as long as she has custody of them.

While she makes excuses for him and refuses to believe the truth, this bully abusive b'stard boyfriend can get right back into the home and continue his abuse against any child 'over the age of six', while mommie dearest continues to take his side.

Does this idiot judge actually think that any child over the age of six would be able to defend themselves against this evil monster? This is what she is saying.

Actually, this judge and all others like her should be stoned to death.

mmmagique said...

Doty...did u read what I said? If so USE your fucking mind! You idiotic piece of chimp dung!

Anonymous said...

This poor child has been wronged in many ways. First, the evil boyfriend. Then the mom,for not believing this monsters confession, then the judge, for only setting bond at $2500.00.

Do they hate kids in Maine?

trustmeigetit said...

I am so angry! If I started dating someone and he hurt my child...I really think he would be a "missing person". But then I would not just leave my child with someone I just started dating.

This "mother" clearly is more concerned with the boyfriend than her child. What a horrific thing that poor little boy endured. My cat crawled in our years ago and I heard her after a couple rounds and I ran and pulled her out.....I was in tears over that. But if that was my child that man better turn himself in or momma is gonna take care of you.

If you are a parent you need to put your child's needs and safety first.

There is a reason I am all for spaying and neutering people. Some have no place being parents.

This is another example of why!


trustmeigetit said...

Regarding Holly Bobo..





"Two men found a skull Sunday not far from property owned by the family of Zachary Adams, who has been charged with Bobo's kidnapping and murder. He has pleaded not guilty.







Sure will not help his “not guilty” verdict.


Please let more truths and bodies be found! Been a busy week of this. We need every missing person found one way or another and justice. I know it will never be everyone but the more that can be found and justice served the better.



And I especially wish for Justice with Gerry and Kate Mccann. Suing people for what you did wrong and getting paid….



Katprint said...

Growing up, one of my sisters was a climber as a toddler. She climbed up everywhere -- up bookcases, on top of dressers, onto the closet shelf above the clothes racks, on the kitchen table, on top of the refrigerator, etc. My mother was constantly trying to anticipate / prevent her dangerous climbing, like planting thorny blackberry bushes next to the chainlink fence across the rear of our backyard to keep my sister off of it. When my sister climbed on top of the stove (fortunately she did not manage to turn it on), my mother took all the knobs off of all the cabinets so they couldn't be footholds anymore. My sister managed to open and climb into the oven so my mother took the control knobs off of the oven so that it could never be turned on by accident if my sister was inside.

As far as I know, my sister never climbed into the dryer. If she ever had, my siblings and I would have tried to rescue her, not turned on the dryer. The boyfriend trying to blame this on the victim's siblings is lame. My bet would be that the children share a sense of "common enemy" towards the boyfriend.

And the mother not having a problem with her toddler getting beaten up by her boyfriend or his siblings or whoever else might be inflicting those bruises? I sure hope the dad sues for custody ASAP -- although it may turn out that he has issues as well. Birds of a feather tend to flock together.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the judge sat the bail so low because of Morton's mental capacity, the other children available to take some of the blame (I shut the door, I pushed the on button).

Morton is 30 and the father is correct. However, he may be slow.
The mother may be loney since she is recently divorced and can't go it alone. She doesn't want to be alone no matter what which blinds her vision of what may or may not have happened.

The dryer most likely turned slowly with the weight and perhaps not tumbled him but hit him in the back each time he almost got to the top and fell back down. He wouldn't have had to be in there long for burns at his tender age. Maybe 4 or 5 spins would have done it. Not long at all.

Anonymous said...

Really? Ugh. :(

Anonymous said...

The first 2 paragraphs were hard to get through. :( How awful! That poor boy. I pray his father will step up. Someone has to! It's obviously not going to be the mother. The first 2 paragraphs, then the mothers statements were just as hard. Almost unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

The detail that stands out to me in this story:

$2500 bail? Seriously? For putting a 2-year-old child in a dryer and turning it on?

I can't help but think if it had been a puppy or a kitten, the bail would have been higher.

Good grief!

Trigger said...

The mother allowed her boyfriend into her home where he used her dryer to torture and injure her child.

When she sees her injured child, she takes him for medical care.

When confronted with the facts, she sticks up for the monster who did this to her son!

This woman is a danger to her children and other children.

I hope the father of these boys can do a better job than the mother.

mmmagique said...

As anyone who reads here regularly knows, that response to Doty was not actually from me.

Doty, the reason I say she should be in jail are for two reasons:

1. failure to protect
2. sticking up for her son's abuser.

Anonymous said...

Mom is 24 years old, and already has 4 kids? I wonder if Child wet himself. New (Slow) Boyfriend may have tried to "dry" him.