This is some what what I have been wanting seen done for quite awhile now. I am one that wants to see others that knowingly know of a child being abused and don't report to be punished as well. As a matter of fact it is part of Baby James Law, a bill I am trying to pass. If you are not familiar with Baby James Law please take a look and consider signing it.
Harold Newsom, father of 36 year old Jason Newsom, was ordered to pay 20 percent of 8 million dollars to four boys. The rest of the 8 million dollars Jason will have to pay. Harold knowingly knew his son was molesting 4 boys and never told anyone. Now what is really odd about the whole situation is Jason's parents knew at age 17 that he was molesting. They sent him to counseling for 6 months and that was end of story. Now come on how many can truely say a sex offender is going to be "rehabilitated" with 6 months counseling. What is worse is the ones he was sexually abusing was his then 5 and 10 year old stepbrothers. So this wasn't even a girlfriend fling thing he was accused of.
So then what does Harold do? Not only does he support Jason's wildlife reserve and hunting businesses in which he used to lure in the boys and gain trust with his parents; he turns around and sets Jason up with a zoo bussiness after Jason molested his step brothers. Then Harold would watch Jason take the four boys that he molested into his ranch after fishing and hunting trips. Never once did he tell the parents or even try to go with the boys to protect them from his son. The abuse went on from 2004 to 2006, three of the boys was 9 when it started the other one was 14. Apparently Harold had witnessed his son taking several boys into this ranch still doing nothing.
Jurors found Jason Newsom liable for assaulting and intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the boys and found Harold Newsom liable for endangering the boys. Jason received 20 years in a plea bargain the he is presently serving.
My views on this is exactly this. First, I think anyone who knows of child abuse and don't report it should be charged as well. However, its this how is Jason going to repay something that he is sitting in prison for? I say lock away Jason longer and sentence Harold as well.
Something else that was mentioned in the article is how Jason's attorney don't think Harold should be responsible for his adult son. First, his son wasn't adult when he molested his 2 stepbrothers and he sent him to 6 months counseling. Second, I think its time everyone is responsible for our children and protecting them. Why should it be just doctors, daycare workers, teachers, etc?
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Comments: 46
This is a law based on emotions, not logic and reality. I could not support this type of law the way it is presented, because it leaves innocent people to the whims of a legal system that is already overtaxed.
I have never nor will I ever cover for anyone abusing a child or anyone else for that matter.
They will pay all they have done believe me.
Well, maybe you "get off" on being a victim, but most of us are not glad to have to suffer through that. Your desire to willingly be martyred does not equate to a logical reason to me.
Only thing I can charge them with is harrassment and yes an attorney can get the information who it is for repeated calls.
And if you get your way with this law, you won't even be able to do that, because they will be able to hide behind the law.
Lets say you are at a supermarket and you see an adult take a child out of a cart and throw him into the car.
And what if I didn't see it, and some cop decided I did and decided to charge me? Again, your law would make not reporting the abuse a crime, and I would be in a position of having to prove I didn't know anything.
If you want to get down to it a lawyer can put it in a kids head that a doctor should of known he was being abused because of numerous bruises however the child is just clumsy. So should that doctor not be liable to report it?
A Strawman arguement. Doctors are one of the few professions required to report potential abuse, because they are actually professionally able to identify it. That doesn't equate to passing a law making people criminally liable for not reporting abuse.
The bottom line is, there are already existing laws that make one criminally liable if you willingly help hide a crime. For the extreme situations you described, the existing laws (if enforced) would apply. Your law would only create duplicate laws that could ensnare innocent people, and clog down the legal system. And while you happily think it is acceptable to put innocent individuals through the wringer to save a child, I think it is better to actually enforce the existing laws on the books and make sure the courts have the resources to protect children. A new set of laws only diverts funds, time, and resources away from the real problems.
Who's going to determine what I saw, what I knew and when? You'd be able to lock up most of America and who would determine what constitutes abuse. I have always spanked my kids and I realize it makes some folks uncomfortable, but to me its discipline, to others it constitutes abuse. Where do the lines get drawn and who gets to draw them?
Personally, I'd like to be in a world where people don't have to be forced by law to do what's right...and most do. You can report suspected abuse anonymously now, but still some do not because of a general societal apathy of not wanting to get involved in others personal affairs. There aren't enough social workers to handle caseloads now, I think a possible solution is to re-examine and refine the system that we already have in place, as suggested by Ms. Dawson.
In any event, good luck with your efforts and I do hope you achieve your goal of protecting children of abuse, it is definitely admirable.
I think you are blinded by your own rage from your childhood. Whenever something bad happens, the first thing people want to do is pass new laws. And politicians jump right on it because it makes them appear they are doing something. In reality, IT DOES NOTHING except bog down the legal system. I'm not blind. I understand the problems of the legal system. I realize that special laws do more harm than good. Here in NJ, for example, they pasted a whole bunch of domestic violence laws years ago to protect women from being battered. One man was convicted on a host of these new laws, but appealed in court. He won. He agued that the domestic violence laws did not apply in his case because HE WAS NOT LIVING WITH OR DATING the woman at the time of the abuse, and the way the laws were written he was correct.
Sadly, if they had just went after him with the normal laws against assault, he would be sitting in jail. But because everyone wanted to "look tough" on domestic violence and "send a message," he ended up going free.
And that is the point. Our courts get bogged down for years over these things, when we should be enforcing the existing laws already in place.
Now as far as domestic violence. I don't know the situation so I won't discuss it I will attach the definition according to www.domesticviolence.org
Domestic violence and emotional abuse are behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other. Partners may be married or not married; heterosexual, gay, or lesbian; living together, separated or dating.
I won't argue about what I feel is right no more then what you feel is right. You don't believe in it then fine don't sign it. It won't keep me from fighting for what I feel is right. However, don't tell me why I feel the way I do. You don't know me you can't determine that. I don't go by just my years of abuse. I have personally talked to parents that their baby died from abuse, that their grandson is basically mentally and always will be the age of a 1 year old at the most as well from abuse, I see children suffering with anger again from abuse. I am as well raising very happily a son that his mother has abused that now has episodes we are trying to help him overcome at the tiny age of 2. Lets not forget the aunt I have spoken with that her nephew more then one time was taken to a hospital with bruises to be sent back home, same child fell in a fire pit to be returned home, same child brought back after that fire pit almost took his life with another situation to not leave the hospital. I have spoke with adults that tell me time and time again if only people would of spoke out they wouldn't of been near as bad as they are now. It is time people take a stand and even if you don't I will.
My children told me about a child who was being abused when they were young. I saw this child often and had no clue. They knew. But although all of them are grown now, they were children at the time and didn't know what to do.
Honestly, I have trouble believing it of this person, now. I might not have believed it then.
Especially if my younger son would have told me. He used to go around hollering 'child abuse' about everything. He had no clue what it was to be abused. He just knew that I hated having to discipline them and he played the "make mama feel guilty" card for all it was worth.
True, there are many people who do know about abuse and do nothing. And then there are people that don't know or aren't sure. And that is why it is so difficult to legislate.
Every person who deliberately turns their eyes aside is guilty. It's just knowing who is and who isn't that's the problem. It's like racism. It's there, it's ugly, but it's hard to know for sure.
And while innocent people are being branded as something that they are not, the money and time spent on this could be better spent prosecuting those we know are guilty.
One more question for everyone here, is there a price on a child? If it was your child wouldn't you sell everything to save that child's life?
One more thing you said Bethany is ....
My children told me about a child who was being abused when they were young. I saw this child often and had no clue. They knew. But although all of them are grown now, they were children at the time and didn't know what to do.
Honestly, I have trouble believing it of this person, now. I might not have believed it then.
Maybe that child wasn't being abused but lets say they were. Lets say because you didn't report it that child was severly injured or worse. I am saying honestly if my child was telling someone I was abusing them and I wasn't. I would want them to report it and then I would want to get them some kind of help as to why they thought they was being abused. That is the perfect time to educate a child on abuse.
I was not there for that case you are talking about but, I know that I am going to say something you may not like.
Yes, the father knew when his son was young that he was a molester.
And, he did get his son some help.
Then, his son grew up.
I am assuming that his son moved away from home.
And, if this is the case, how does his father truly know that his son was abusing these kids? Was he there in the same room while his son was doing this?
If so, how can we truly say that he knew?
You can see something such as young children going with a once abuser and not think anything of it.
The father was probably in denial anyway. That happens sometimes.
Or maybe he was just plain neglectful, who knows.
I do agree that the guilty should be punished.
But, at what cost?
What about those kids who suffer from diseases of brittle bones?
These kids have bones breaks constantly and it can appear to be abuse.
Should these parents be punished for this?
I don't think so.
There are just so many shades of gray that I am afraid that the innocent will pay as well as the guilty.
I wish there were a way that we can weed that out.
I know in the Boy Scouts of America, the leaders are required to report even just suspected abuse. All leaqder has to see is one of the signs of abuse. If a leader doesn't report it and it gets proven later that the leader did know something well, he coudl land in big time trouble.
I think the parents should be held accountable in this case. They knew what was going on and didn't report it.
but for your law, i do not agree with what you are saying.. I agree that if you know for sure that a child's life is in danger, being molested or physically abused... you do need to call CPS...
the thing I dont understand is why you dont care if cps visits you all the time... even if they are false calls... I know people that have had CPS come in and take their kids without questioning the adult on basis of false accusations... that is why i dont agree that calling on every little things is really right... sometimes the seperation of a parent is more harmful that what the child is actually going through.. im not talking about children who are severly beat, molested and the likes of them...
but I would not call on a parent who looked like they may have set the child in a car seat a little too hard... throwing to where the child could actually be hurt would be another thing... but i believe in spanking a child for discipline where others are totally against it... I just dont like the fact of giving CPS the ability to come to my home at any given moment based on accusations on someone not knowing the full story of what is really going on..
Did other people know? Sure, how about the neighbor who had to break the door down to rescue me from a beating one time? How about the two old ladies sitting on their stoop, could they hear every time I was being beaten with a razor strap. Even relatives knew what was going on, but no body came to my rescue.
Now if your law had been in effect all those people would be in jail. I don't blame the neighbors, it wasn't their business. But I do blame the relatives that knew what was going on, and did nothing about it. I just wanted to weigh in on this.