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Mother on trial for rarely used charges of failure to protect |
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Wednesday, 30 June 2010 08:00 |
A former Houston nurse, began her trial this week for failing to prevent the death of her 4-year-old daughter, who died in June 2009. The child had a fractured skull, 80 bruises and a severed pancreas. The child's doctor had previously notified CPS that the child had an STD. The child was not removed from the home because there was no clear indication of how she contracted the disease.
Tragically, many women have children that are abused, or killed, by their boyfriends or husbands; and, most of the time the other parent is not charged. In this case, prosecutors are reported to believe that the woman was not a victim and had the ability to help the child.
Sandra Guerra Thompson, a criminal law professor at the University of Houston Law Center, told ABCNews.com 'that the prosecution of a parent, especially a mother, for causing harm to a child by omission were highly unusual.' The professor is directly quoted as saying::
"Most of the times when a child is harmed by a parent, the other parent is usually found to be also a victim of the abusive parent. Although technically, like in this case, the mother has an obligation to protect the child and report the abuse, because of her status as a victim as well and really her psychological helplessness, prosecutors generally exercise their discretion not to charge."
The prosecution of the woman's boyfriend for aggravated sexual assault begins in September. When the child died, he was already facing a child abuse charge in another county.
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