Case news

by Karen Brown

PEORIA, Ariz. – A Peoria couple are accused of abusing the children they adopted.

Police said over the last five years, the four girls, ages 7 to 13, had been fostered and then adopted by Johann and Kimery Jorg.

When Peoria police went to the home last week, they said they found a list of the punishments used on the two older girls, which allegedly included making the 13-year-old live in the backyard off and on since Christmas naked without even a bathroom.

The teen and an 11-year-old were extremely malnourished and emaciated.

"There's no words," neighbor Brittany Balog said. "I'm just sick right now."

Balog was stunned when she found out what Peoria police said her neighbors allegedly have been doing to their two oldest adopted daughters.

"The 13-year-old daughter was put in the backyard in what they call 'deep prison,'" Peoria police spokeswoman Amanda Jacinto said. "She would live in the backyard. She would be forced to wear a diaper or sometimes not even a diaper. They would have bathroom facilities out there that involved a bucket. She would live out of a tent."

By Associated Press

Police in suburban Phoenix have arrested a married couple on suspicion of child abuse, accusing them of severely malnourishing two adopted daughters and forcing them to sleep in a backyard tent either nude or only in a diaper.

According to Peoria police, the 13-year-old and 11-year-old girls also were subjected to strict punishment that included hour-long running sessions and memorization of Bible verses.

Kimery Lynn Jorg, the girls' 53-year-old adoptive mother, said that the abuse was intended to 'train' the girls and teach them to be 'loving and nurturing'.

Kimery and her husband Johann Glenn Jorg, 61, appeared Thursday night before a judge who set bond at $100,000 each.

Child Protective Services visited the home May 30 and alerted authorities after finding both girls emaciated.

Officials said the 13-year-old, who was 4 feet 11 inches, appeared to weigh only 60 pounds. Aside from being underfed, the teen had abnormal growths on her legs and blisters on her feet from excessive exercise.

By Steve Stout

PEORIA, AZ (CBS5) -

A Peoria couple face felony child abuse charges after two of their adoptive daughters outlined a pattern of ongoing physical and psychological abuse at the hands of their parents that began five years ago as an attempt, the mother said, to "train" the girls to be "loving and nurturing."

Johann Glenn Jorg, 61, and his wife, Kimery Lynn Jorg, 53, were arrested Thursday afternoon at their home in the area of the Loop 101 Agua Fria Freeway and Bell Road in Peoria. Each face four charges of felony intentional child abuse with intent, according to a police statement.

The Jorgs are the adoptive parents of four girls, ages 7, 8, 11 and 13 years old.

The 11- and 13-year-olds were found by police to be severely malnourished and emaciated, according to the statement.

By Daphne Duret

WEST PALM BEACH — Prosecutors have agreed to give attorneys for Jorge Barahona more specifics on charges he faces in Palm Beach County related to the Miami killing of his 10-year-old adopted daughter. Barahona and his wife, Carmen, face the death penalty in Miami for the murder of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona. Jorge Barahona also faces attempted murder charges in Palm Beach County for a case connected to Nubia’s twin, Victor, who was found in 2011 clinging to life near Nubia’s body inside Barahona’s pesticide truck on Interstate 95 in Palm Beach County. Both sides agreed Tuesday to the exchange of additional information. The trial, scheduled to start last month, has been delayed until at least fall.

As reports of child abuse and neglect rise locally, the stakes are huge – for the children and for the community. The Eagle takes readers inside two cases to examine how the system works and to show the extent of the problem.

BY DEB GRUVER

The girl said she knew parents must discipline their children.

But the way the people who fostered and then adopted her allegedly punished her was not discipline, according to a doctor’s diagnosis introduced in court.

It was torture.

The adoptive mother beat the girl with a white stick or cut-up curtain rod, the girl’s brother told a school counselor. He also said their parents kept her in a locked room in the basement, made her drink hydrogen peroxide, punished her with hot showers and often fed her just bread for dinner.

At age 14, she weighed 66 pounds.

By Rachel Kytonen

A case filed in September 2011 involving accusations of child neglect has resulted in three guilty verdicts after a 12-day court trial and a ruling by the presiding judge.

Anne Marie Hinrichs, 50, with previous addresses of Ogilvie, Minnesota and Freeport, Illinois, was charged in Isanti County District Court with four charges relating to child abuse, neglect and malicious punishment.

Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick presided over Hinrichs’ court trial earlier this year, Jan. 21 to Feb. 5.

Fitzpatrick’s ruling filed May 7 found Hinrichs guilty of felony neglect of a child that results in substantial physical harm or harm to their emotional health, gross misdemeanor malicious punishment of a child and gross misdemeanor criminal neglect. She was found not guilty of gross misdemeanor criminal abuse by a caregiver for a vulnerable adult.

Isanti County Attorney Jeff Edblad explained under the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines, a presumptive sentence would be a stayed one year and one day with the potential of fines, jail and other penalties. A sentencing date hasn’t yet been scheduled by the court.

DUBLIN, Ohio - A mother in Dublin is fighting to get her newborn baby back after giving him up for adoption.

Carri Stearns said she was emotionally distraught, and in a drug-induced state when she signed over her son to a Columbus adoption agency, but the agency couldn't disagree more.

Stearns' 7-week-old son, Camden, is in limbo, living with another family as the battle continues between his biological mother and the adoption agency.

After an affair, Stearns, a mother of five, gave birth to Camden on March 31 at Riverside Methodist Hospital.

"I was ashamed. I was hiding it from people," she said.

Four days later, Stearns signed documents turning over her son to Adoption By Gentle Care in Columbus.

But in a petition that was filed on May 9 to get her son back, Stearns said her decision was made in emotional turmoil, triggered by the death of her father, the affair, and the threat when her live-in boyfriend refused to raise another man's child.

By Anne Parker

LUBBOCK, TX-- Typically, kids in the foster care system are removed from their biological parents after they've been abused or neglected.

The idea is to, then, place them into a loving and safe environment.

Dave and Wonda Dixon, a Lubbock couple adopted 10 special needs children ages 5 to 14, out of the foster care system.

But, last October, everything changed when the Dixons were arrested on charges of child abuse.

Eight months later, they're still in jail.

In an interview we did with the Dixons five years ago, they told us how rewarding giving foster kids a new life can be.

And now, they face charges of injury to a child.

Investigators say Child Protective Services responded to a complaint last August, finding one child so severely malnourished, she was removed from the home immediately and needed hospital care.

They believe the Dixon's were withholding food and water.

The other nine were removed shortly after after accusations of more extreme punishments.

By Brent Weisberg

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN 6) — The mother at the center of a high profile medical abuse case asked that her bail be lowered so she can be released from custody, but after a judge’s ruling, her attorney said she will not be able to post the bail and will remain in custody pending trial.

Katherine Parker, who is also known as Kate Parker, appeared before Multnomah County Circuit Judge Eric J. Bloch Wednesday morning for the first time since her April 4 arraignment on a 43 count grand jury indictment stemming from alleged medical child abuse.

“Medical child abuse occurs when a care provider falsifies or fabricates a child’s medical history, symptoms or condition to the degree that the fabricated illness is perceived as real to the treatment providers,” Deputy District Attorney Susan O’Connor wrote in court documents. “Medical child abuse then results in the victims undergoing painful examinations, surgeries and treatment.”

By Jason Grant

— Army Maj. John E. Jackson and his wife, Carolyn, both pleaded not guilty today in federal court to charges that they abused their foster and adopted children for years through beatings, breaking their bones, failing to get them medical help, depriving them of drinking water and training their biological kids to take part in the mistreatment.

Appearing at an arraignment about one week after U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman announced that both parents were facing 17 counts – including numerous charges of assault and endangering the welfare of a child – the Jacksons sat quietly at a defense table. They did not speak during a 25-minute hearing in Newark before U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden, during which they waived the reading of the charges against them, said a spokeswoman for Fishman. Their lawyers entered the pleas for them.

By FOX 12 Staff

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - A medical child abuse case could impact the campaign of a prominent candidate for U.S. Senate.

Katherine "Kate" Parker, of Grants Pass, is accused of lying to doctors so her children would get unnecessary medical procedures. She appeared in Multnomah County court in early April to face dozens of charges, including criminal mistreatment, assault and child abandonment.

Parker's alleged victims include three of her children, a son and two daughters. Court documents allege the criminal mistreatment began in 2007.

A grand jury witness, a former friend of Kate Parker's, confirms that Dr. Monica Wehby is one of the many doctors who treated Parker's son, who has a brain abnormality.

Tiffany Reed, who met Parker when her son was in the hospital with Parker's son in 2011, told Fox 12 Wehby performed multiple operations on Parker's son.

In April, Reed told Fox 12, "[Parker] always had to have the worst and the rarest things going on, the rarest conditions and her kids didn't respond to treatment."

Man to serve eight weeks jail for torment and sexual abuse of foster daughter
KAREN MATTHEWS GEELONG ADVERTISER MAY 02, 2014 1:00AM

A FOSTER father, who betrayed the trust of the child who called him ‘Dad’, by repeatedly sexually assaulting her over a long period, has been jailed for two months.

The offender, who has fostered at least 70 vulnerable children in the Geelong area, pleaded guilty in Geelong Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday to 15 counts of committing an indecent act on a child under 16.

The maximum sentence for each count of indecent assault on a child under 16 is 10 years jail however in this case the offender will get to serve just four days per charge.

The court heard the foster father, who cannot be named due to a suppression order, sexually assaulted the child on a regular basis, with his offending becoming more exploitative as time went on.

Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Brooke Shears said, that when arrested, the offender admitted to committing many more indecent assaults on the child than those disclosed by her.

His lawyer said her client had been ‘candid’ and ‘co-operative’ with police.

Foster carer to be sentenced over underage sex assault
KAREN MATTHEWS GEELONG ADVERTISER MAY 01, 2014 8:45AM 3

A GEELONG foster carer has fronted court charged with the repeated sexual assault of one of 70 vulnerable children placed in his care over a number of years.

The foster carer, who cannot be named due to a suppression order, pleaded guilty in Geelong Magistrates’ Court yesterday to 15 counts of committing an indecent act with a child under 16.

The offender was supported in court by his church minister, who spoke in glowing terms of how the man had helped organise mentoring programs for high school students and arranged youth camps for the church.

The police prosecutor, Sergeant Brooke Shears, said the victim was aged 12 when her foster father began cuddling up to her when he put her to bed.

Sgt Shears said the offending started with giving the child “kisses all over” and then became more exploitative.

Sgt Shears said that for years the offender repeatedly fondled the child, touched her intimately and committed indecent acts on her.

By Julia Reynolds

SALINAS - For the second time, new charges have been added to the prosecution of two Monterey County women accused of chaining an 8-year-old girl to a wall and denying her food.

A torture charge, which carries a possible seven-years-to-life sentence, was filed Wednesday against Eraca Dawn Craig, 31, and Christian Jessica Deanda, 44.

The pair already faced a felony child abuse count after their arrest on March 14. Two misdemeanor child endangerment counts concerning two boys were later added, as well as a felony false imprisonment charge in connection with the girl.

Craig and Deanda faced up to six years and eight months on those charges, prosecutor Sarah Ma said.

Ma said an amended complaint filed this week added the felony torture count as well as an enhancement of causing great bodily injury to the felony child abuse charge, which could add an additional three years in prison.

By Daphne Duret

Lawyers for the man accused of killing his adoptive daughter in Miami want his related attempted murder trial moved out of Palm Beach County.

Jorge Barahona, along with his wife, Carmen, already faces a potential death penalty for the alleged February 2011 murder of their 10-year-old adoptive daughter, Nubia Barahona.

Nubia’s decomposing body was found in Jorge Barahona’s pesticide truck along Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach just feet away from her twin brother Victor, who suffered severe chemical burns but survived his injuries.

Jorge Barahona is expected to stand trial next month in Palm Beach County on attempted murder charges in connection with Victor’s injuries, but on Thursday, his lawyers asked Circuit Judge Sandra McSorely to move the case to Miami.

McSorely asked lawyers on both sides of the case to give her more information before she rules.