MOM DRAWS 20 YEARS IN DEATH OF ADOPTED SON; JUDGE RULES WOMAN'S OWN ABUSE AS CHILD DOESN'T EXCUSE ACTIONS

Author: DEBORAH COOMBE

A Brick Township woman portrayed in court as a former child abuse victim was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison for beating to death her 3-year- old adopted son.

Kathleen Kelly Golebieski, 38, must serve 10 years before she would be eligible for parole under the terms of the sentence imposed by Superior Court Judge James N. Citta in Toms River.

In attempting to get a lesser sentence, public defender Robert Tarver told Citta of Mrs. Golebieski's troubled childhood, during which she suffered physical and emotional abuse and was sexually assaulted by two male relatives. But while noting it was "unrefuted" that Mrs. Golebieski was a child abuse victim, Citta said he did not believe her past should excuse her adult conduct.

Mrs. Golebieski called police to her home 2:42 p.m. July 30, 1993, reporting her son, Kyle, was unconscious. He died the next morning to Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune.

An autopsy report indicated Kyle died from blows to the head and had bruises in various stages of healing on his face, legs, back, arms and hands.

The judge expressed his amazement that "someone with all the psychological baggage this defendant has gets approval to adopt a child in the first place."

Citta read portions of Mrs. Golebieski's pre-sentence report in which she is quoted as saying, "I can't stand the crying spells for eight hours at a clip." Mrs. Golebieski said Kyle would cry when his father left for work. She would "spank him on what she thought were his buttocks, but sometimes would miss," the judge read.

Her husband told authorities Mrs. Golebieski would discipline the boy outside of his presence and would call him at work three or four times a week to say the child had fallen and injured himself.

Joseph Golebieski pleaded guilty last May to a charge he failed to report signs the boy was being abused and agreed to testify against Mrs. Golebieski. He faces a four-year sentence.

A younger child, Ryan, has been placed in foster care, and there were no allegations that he had been abused.

Ocean County Assistant Prosecutor Stephanie M. Wauters told the judge Mrs. Golebieski had several opportunities to learn that "disciplining" Kyle by hitting him, especially in the head, was dangerous.

Relatives and neighbors told her to "back off" Kyle. Although the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) was called three times to her house, they found no sign of abuse. Acknowledging that the child was known to "whine a lot," Wauters suggested Kyle whined because he was in pain from having so many bruises.

"This child suffered greatly at the hands of his mother," Wauters said and added, "Discipline is always the justification that's raised in child abuse cases."

Mrs. Golebieski, who cried through most of the proceeding, told Citta she did not "mean for anything to happen" to Kyle.

"I really tried the best I could to be a good mom. I really did. I tried. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Mrs. Golebieski said.

Tarver said medical problems rendered her incapable of having children, and Mrs. Golebieski first attempted to privately adopt a baby in the United States before traveling to Honduras in July 1992 and paying more than $35,000 to adopt two brothers, ages 1 and 2.

"You don't make that kind of outlay without the best intentions," Tarver said.

The attorney told Citta Mrs. Golebieski was not emotionally equipped to handle the pressures of being a new mother, a new wife and moving into a new house.

Because she was so "wired," Mrs. Golebieski stopped taking prescribed estrogen pills that may have caused her to have a hormonal imbalance.

"She was not psychologically or medically equipped. She went over the line," Tarver said.

Mrs. Golebieski pleaded guilty Aug. 18 to an amended indictment that downgraded a murder charge to aggravated manslaughter and a charge of endangering the welfare of a child.

When the boys were adopted the Golebieskis lived in Shrewsbury, where neighbors reported abuse of the older boy to DYFS. They moved in June 1993 to Brick Township, where neighbors told police they had seen Mrs. Golebieski abuse the boy on the street a week prior to his death.