Soldier gets 28 years for sexually assaulting her son

[The Straight Story]

An Army sergeant who recorded herself sexually assaulting her 3-year-old son has been sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Kimberly Epperson, 25, stationed at Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio, Texas, at the time, sent photos and videos of the child to then-Army Sgt. Wade Perkins via text message and e-mail using her phone, according to court papers. Perkins, 26, was her boyfriend at the time.

Epperson was sentenced Friday after she pleaded guilty Sept. 20 to federal felony production of child pornography.

...

"Instead of doing what you should have done (as a mother), you provide this sacrificial lamb of your son," Biery said. "Because of your own needs, you were willing to make a sacrifice of your son."

In October, Biery sentenced Perkins to 30 years for his role in the assaults after Perkins pleaded guilty to production of child pornography.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/02/sergeant-child-pornography-son/4288709/

[Agschmid]

25. Huh?

[gopiscrap]

35. what?

[riversedge]

2. Horrible thing to happen to this boy--by his own mother.

[Le Taz Hot]

3. As one who's stayed out of the gender wars,

I'm seeing a pattern here with you. It's a shame because it just encourages the hair-on-fire group and it degrades you as a poster. Please reconsider this little jihad of yours. It's silly and it's a waste of time.

[RC]

5. Ah, yes.

Because we must let the shit stirrers hair-on-fire group, come out of their protected group onto the Home page and General Discussion and do their thing, unimpeded and without objections. We get it, we get it.

Subjects like this OP, can be expected and be called part of the 'push back' in response to what in reality is bullying by a small group of people. There was a long thread yesterday, showing proving the petty vindictiveness of some members. Never mind the OP itself was quite benign.
This web site is a discussion board and is kinda, more or less a Liberal web site and Left leaning people, as a rule, don't like to be told what to think, how to think and even not to think by self-appointed authoritarians, especially when they are pushing the boundaries of and violating the TOS.
The best way to handle bullies is to stand up to them and call them on their BS. And that is what some of us here are doing. The alternative is to let them take over and control the discourse here, which would be counter to why DU was founded in the first place.

[leeroysphitz]

9. +1

[Le Taz Hot]

10. You define this as standing up to bullies,

I define it as tit-for-tat which is juvenile. Or, as I've been known to say irl, "Two wrongs don't make a right, they make a mess." It just gives the "bullies" something else to howl about. And I say this as a lifelong feminist who has walked the walk -- literally as a Planned Parenthood Escort beginning in 1975.

[RC]

14. Two wrongs would be to let some group or another have the run of the place, unimpeded.

We all have a right to voice our opinions here, even if some self-appointed doesn't like that opinion and thinks they have a right here to silence dissenting options.

[Le Taz Hot]

20. OK, now you're being stupid.

". . . a right to silence dissenting options (sic)." I was trying to appeal to the OP's better side. You can distort that to whatever you want Oh wait, you just did.

[lumberjack_jeff]

34. Two wrongs don't necessarily make a right.

but one unanswered wrong is a defacto consensus view.

I wish the gender war would dial back a bit too, but I think it's misplaced blame to lay it at the feet of only TSS and none of the posters to whom he is reacting.

[oldhippie]

16. Well said ...

This web site is a discussion board and is kinda, more or less a Liberal web site and Left leaning people, as a rule, don't like to be told what to think, how to think and even not to think by self-appointed authoritarians, especially when they are pushing the boundaries of and violating the TOS.

[Bobbie Jo]

29. Yet....

I see you posting right up in the middle of virtually all of these skirmishes. Why is that?

Your righteous indignation, at least in this instance, seems a bit imperceptive.

[RC]

30. Read though to the end.

The best way to handle bullies is to stand up to them and call them on their BS. And that is what some of us here are doing. The alternative is to let them take over and control the discourse here, which would be counter to why DU was founded in the first place.

[Bobbie Jo]

36. I read it through to the end

the first time.

There are a number of "control" issues at work here, particularly of the self-appointed variety.

IOW....There are "bullies" on both sides of this thing.

I've seen repeated passive-aggressive references and jabs that serve or no other purpose than to feed the flames.

There are no righteous innocents here.

[Katashi_itto]

32. Bravo!

[MattBaggins]

37. I never thought you would call out the MRA group.

Well done.

[sibelian]

38. ...

....

[seaglass]

11. I'm sorry you had to name call but other than that I would agree with your point. I would also

recommend that feminists on DU not respond to TSS's threads. Other than this post, I will not.

[kcr]

12. You claim to stay out of the gender wars

and wag your finger at the op. Then turn right around and refer to other DUers as the hair on fire group.

[Le Taz Hot]

19. Far from wagging my finger at the op

I thought I was being pretty respectful. I thought the use of the term "hair on fire" group was a better choice than "uber-feminists" but I could always change my mind.

[The Straight Story]

15. You see what you choose. It seems though I post a variety but only some things get

replies.

Perhaps that is all some people care to reply to on DU.

[Le Taz Hot]

18. Honestly, I usually don't pay attention too much as to

who is posting what. I'm sure over the years I've responded to your posts that have been on other subjects. If nothing else I think the law of averages would bear that out.

[The Straight Story]

22. Since Wednesday

These are all the OP's I have posted (and what most have in common? They come from "The Local" which covers 6 countries or the BBC. Both of which I read at certain times of the time and post things I didn't see already posted):

Soldier gets 28 years for sexually assaulting her son
Drug dealer begs for jail to escape nagging wife
FDA Weighs Restrictions, Possible Ban On Menthol Cigarettes
Swiss Greenpeacer: I'd do it all again
Who really created Wolverine and why didn't he make any money from it? Answers within:
Norway tightens law after late abortions revealed
Fiat to buy full control of Chrysler
Fighting to make ends meet
People Made Famous by the Internet in 2013
Judge nixes Florida’s welfare drug testing
James Avery -- the beloved dad on "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" -- has died at age 65
New year from Grumpy the Cat
Swedish ice-cream truck to be silenced, melody to be replaced by text message
France says DIY stores can open on Sundays
BBC Newsnight takes viewers inside Femen boot camp

On Mon/Tue:

Educators can't distinguish between childish games and real threats.
R.I.P. Joseph Ruskin
Pregnant nurse: I was fired for refusing flu vaccine
Netflix plans 50 pct pay hike for CEO Hastings
John Fortune, satirical comedian, dies aged 74
Arbitrator Gives Job Back To Fired Ohio Trooper
The 2014 calendar that wasn't
Study suggests we're all susceptible to false memories
(Sweden) Nicotine poisoning rockets mid e-cig battle
(Italy) Paedophile let off because (11 yr old) girl was 'in love'
'We want a real black king for Christmas'
Marines: Most Female Recruits Don't Meet New Pullup Standard
Israel to fund all abortions for women 20-33 starting next year
Newly Discovered Sea Slug Named After Game of Thrones Character
Mom poisoned family in attempt to kill them on Christmas
French star sparks row with 'Nazi-style' salute
A Campus More Colorful Than Reality: Beware That College Brochure

I would think that since I have covered both men and women one could not accuse me of being a benevolent poster Two stories on abortion (I am pro-choice so I tend to post stories about that when I run across them), 2 about women who did 'bad' things (because I don't think I should treat women different when I post crime stories and these were particularly egregious cases I have come across while reading). One about Femen (though I did have several more including the incident at the church altar, which I didn't post - the local covers them all the time).

Some may think I sit around plotting what to post. I have a 3 hour radio show I do a week, my own message forum to worry about, and I come across a lot of news and if it piques my interest and I think it might folks here I post it.

Notice in those posts which ones on DU get the most replies and who it gets them from?

I can't help what people reply to - and since some only reply to certain threads that is probably why all they see is people posting certain topics (especially when those stories get kicked up constantly and the others sink).

[sibelian]

33. I think you need some lines of code to exactly replicate ^^^ THIS POST ^^^

With the thread titles aggregated from your previous day's DU work.

But that's probably a but obsessive...

[The Straight Story]

23. PS - Sort GD by user name and look at what others on this thread posted this week

[NaturalHigh]

43. Really LTH?

Do you seriously think that this isn't news? It's in freakin USAtoday. Come on now.

Just because a certain sub-group gets really defensive sometimes doesn't mean that legitimate news stories shouldn't be posted to GD.

[Arcanetrance]

4. I'm glad her and her boyfriend went to jail

Sexually assaulting anyone is unforgivable

[In_The_Wind]

6. I feel sorry for this child.

[PeteSelman]

7. Hang them both.

What a heinous thing to do. Irredeemable sick motherfuckers.

[Lost_Count]

8. Pretty much..

There's no coming back from that...

[HappyMe]

13. Horrible, sick thing to do.

That poor kid.

[aikoaiko]

17. These kinds of calculated abuses should get life

There is no reason to think that any law or moral consciousness will prevent them from doing this again. And certainly the crime is heinous enough.

[The Straight Story]

39. There are probably drug users who will get more time than they did

I vote we sweep out non-violent offenders and victimless crimes from the prisons to make more space for people like this (will save money in the long run and the real people we should be worried about will be behind bars).

A hundred years from now students will be reading history books about the US and wonder what the hell our justice system was thinking.

[NaturalHigh]

42. Yeah, we still throw pot growers in prison...

even though a couple of states have legalized it. Who knows how many real criminals got probation to lock up these villains?

My home state has a special distinction; the last time I checked, we were locking up more females than any other state, mostly for non-violent drug offenses.

[Kaleva]

21. Reading the article, it appears that the man (Perkins) was the driving force behind this.

"The prosecutor agreed in court that Perkins, not Epperson, was the initiator.

"This isn't who she is. It wasn't her idea," Thompson said. "He found her, and he used her, and he easily manipulated her to get to her son. ... But she holds the keys to this little boy's safety, and she failed him. And for that she should be punished.""

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/02/sergeant-child-pornography-son/4288709/

[justiceischeap]

26. Sadly, the mother had the option to say no and refuse

to allow her son to be abused in this manner. I mean, she gave a girl child up for adoption to keep her "safe" but then proceeds to create child pornography using her son as the "star." I don't feel sorry for this woman at all.

[sibelian]

27. Yes, it's interesting that she chose to protect the female child.

I'm not sure if there's any general principle that can be extracted from that observation, but it's certainly interesting that she did the "right thing" in one instance and not the other.

[Kaleva]

28. I don't feel sorry for the woman at all either but it was the man who instigated this.

[treestar]

24. How awful nt

[polly7]

31. That poor little boy:(

[Douglas Carpenter]

40. crimes like this completely confound my mind.

[NaturalHigh]

41. Just damn...

I don't understand how people can be this sick. Maybe just a head full of bad wiring. I don't know.

I do know they need to be locked away from society, though.