Tennessee: Couple accused of beating 13-yr-old adopted child
Tennessee: Couple accused of beating 13-yr-old adopted child
August 18, 2004
TIM MILLER
6 News
HUNTSVILLE (WATE) -- A judge in Scott County Wednesday decided there's enough evidence against a couple charged with aggravated child abuse and neglect to proceed to a grand jury.
The prosecution did not hold back in presenting evidence to show Aaron and Linda Mann beat their 13-year-old adopted daughter. They used photos and the words of the girl herself to persuade the judge to pursue the case against the couple.
Before the child at the center of the case testified, sheriff's deputy Randy Lewallen took the stand. He testified the Mann's adopted daughter had injuries on many parts of her body.
"It was obvious by looking at her that she had injuries," Deputy Lewallen testified. "She had a bruise on her chin and a big bald spot on the back of her head."
The deputy also told of bruises on the girl's right arm, a large bruise on one of her legs, and injuries to her skin. He said officers recovered a bloody PVC pipe in a garbage can, which the prosecution alleges the Manns used to beat the girl.
But on cross examination, Aaron Mann's attorney, Herb Moncier, suggested the girl was just trying to get attention and her injuries may have been caused by riding an ATV or a bike.
"Did she tell you about stealing the bicycle and riding down into the woods and wrapping it around a tree?" Moncier asked Lewallen.
"No," the deputy answered.
"She didn't tell you anything. You didn't ask her, did you. You didn't ask her any of those questions because you had already made up your mind as to what happened in this case, isn't that correct, Officer Lewallen?" Moncier continued.
Lewallen said he believed the girl was telling the truth from the start.
But the most compelling testimony came from the 13 year-old girl herself. She told the court that Linda Mann hit her on the head and arms with the pipe and Aaron Mann also beat her several times.
The girl testified that the injuries leading to her adoptive parents' arrest were at least a week old. She said that if she failed to clean the Mann's air conditioned dog house properly, she was beaten.
A doctor who examined the 13-year-old girl also testified, saying that her injuries were between six to eight-days-old.
According to the girl's testimony, Aaron Mann kicked her and beat her with a PVC pipe at the end of July. The girl said she laid on her stomach during the beating and Mann sometimes put his knee in the small of her back.
The girl said she ran to a neighbor's house the night the Manns were arrested because she feared another beating, then spent two days in the hospital recovering from her wounds, including a collapsed lung.
The girl also testified that some of the Manns' adopted children were fed more than others. She said she climbed in a window and took food from a neighbor's house, until they found out and told the Manns.
But on Moncier's cross examination, the girl said she disliked her living conditions enough that she would lie to get away from her adopted family.
The defense worked to imply that deputies who arrested the Manns didn't act in the right order. Attorneys asked the first deputy who testified several questions about a secretly taped conversation they had with Aaron Mann when he arrived at the sheriff's department to find out why his daughter was there.
Attorneys for the Manns also asked the deputy about the order in which arrest warrants and search permits were obtained. Their questions focused on whether the search was planned for the time while the Manns were in jail.
Defense attorneys even posed questions about whether the girl at the center of the charges just wanted attention.
The girl's nine year-old brother was also called to the witness stand.
After all testimony was completed, Judge Jamie Cotton decided there was enough evidence to send the case to a grand jury.
The next court hearing for the Manns will be November 12 or 19.
The Manns and their five adopted children live in a large home in Oneida. Scott County deputies arrested the couple on August 2. They were released from jail two days later after posting bonds of $200,000 each. [ couple charged ]
6 News found that the Manns have been the focus of three DCS investigations, dating from September 2001, and there have been at least four other reports alleging neglect.