Real World Stories

Child is Beaten until Brain Damaged - Jamie's Plight

Alabama Justice - A tragic tale

May 1, 1998 was a beautiful day.  I could not wait to get home and spend time with my wife and our two children, (Jamie 3 and Mary 2).  However,  when I arrived home, I was met by my wife who told me that she was taking the children, moving in with her parents, and  wanted a divorce.
 
She spent the next two days removing her belongings from the house. Sunday, she granted me a whopping 30 minutes to spend with my children.
 
Later in the day, I ran into my children and their grandparents at the local Walmart.  I carried my two babies around the store, listening to them whine about, "go live with daddy".  Little did I know that this would be the last time I would see my son healthy.

May 6, 1998 9:30 am, the call that every parent dreads came.  My son was in the emergency room and I should hurry.  A horrific sight greeted me when I was led back to see my boy.  My baby was covered in bruises, head, face, spine, legs, abdomen.  He was having seizures.  Somehow, my baby survived though approximately 1/2 his brain was destroyed.  I
stayed by his side during his fight for life, while his mother returned to work.  The day Jamie came out of ICU, my wife's first concern was how quickly we could get a divorce.

When Jamie came out of his coma, he again surprised us, he spoke.  His first words were, "I love you daddy".  Later in the week it was, "Daddy, let's go home".  The day before Jamie was released from the hospital, my wife filed for divorce and obtained a custody order.  Soon after returning to his mother's custody, my son stopped talking.  Every time I was allowed to see him, he was in a darkened back room.  Mary would constantly beg me to take her home….

Finally, her mother allowed me to take her home.  During that night and morning, we played, we walked, and we talked.  When it came time to go back to her mother, she begged me to take her to daycare, not mommy. Later in the week, my wife told me that she didn't want anyone prosecuted for Jamie's injury and being the only person that could be exonerated from hurting my boy, asked me to try and stop the investigation.  I refused.  A few days later, I was met at the door by her father and her and told I would not be allowed to have contact with my children without a court order, "to punish me for not cooperating with them"

The police are still focused on the daycare.  Even though doctor #1 says the injuries occurred before he was taken to daycare.  EVEN THOUGH by my inlaws' own statements, my son was showing symptoms of head trauma BEFORE he was taken to daycare.

Court order, no problem right?  WRONG.  Every motion submitted by my attorney is "lost" by the court.  Finally, after walking it through every step of the way, I get my "emergency" visitation order, one day a month SUPERVISED (at the request of my wife's attorney).  All arrangements to be approved by my wife's attorney.

In essence, a prime suspect in an abuse case gets full custody of the children and the one person who can be exonerated and is not under suspicion (confirmed by the investigator) gets supervised visitation.

In my search for answers, I was sat down and told the "facts of life"

1.  Judicial decisions are based upon political affiliations and the size of campaign contributions.

2.  It would not matter if I had videotaped evidence of my wife beating our son to the brink of death.  In the eyes of the court, a mother cannot harm her children.

I have described my son's fight for life on a webpage,

www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/8762

Follow the link titled Jamie's Story

Thank you

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