ATTENTION! Here's one----Gov't Wins Custody of Sex Offender's Baby

[underpants]

Government Wins Custody of Pa. Sex Offender's Son, Just 24 Hours After He Was Born

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=1233801

HARRISBURG, Pa. Oct 20, 2005 — Child-welfare officials obtained an emergency court order to seize a baby just 24 hours after he was born, contending the infant would be unsafe because his father is a convicted sex offender.

---------Background-----------------
Sex Offender's Wife in Custody Battle Gives Birth

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1233572

The American Civil Liberties Union is defending Melissa WolfHawk, 31, arguing that the county was too aggressive in monitoring her pregnancy. WolfHawk is also fighting to regain custody of her 21-month-old daughter who is now living with family in Maryland after a case that began with questions of DaiShin WolfHawk's fitness as a father.

"I am living every woman's worst nightmare that when your child is born and you close your eyes for one second, if that baby isn't sleeping on your chest, you open your eyes and that child isn't going to be there," Melissa WolfHawk told The Associated Press.

DaiShin WolfHawk, who is unemployed, said he lives about 20 miles from the home Melissa shares with her father. He says he is the chief of the Unole E Quoni, an American Indian tribe, which he says has 175 families in eight states, but is not recognized by any state or the federal government.

[medeak]

1. don't know who is wrong here but saw interview with parents

The Dad is a creepy looking dude and although he says he's chief of an Indian tribe (albeit an unrecognized one) he looks nothing like he's Indian.

[underpants]

2. Yeah this one has several issues and lots of weirdness

to go along with the sick creepiness of the father.

Literally a can of worms that one is.

[philosophie_en_rose]

3. I bet there's more to this story.

If the state is taking the effort to intervene, there must be cause. I don't mean to sound Pollyanna-ish (I don't trust the government either), but babies are the most vulnerable because they can't communicate.

There are special rules for Native American children, so I wonder how those laws will play out for Mr. WolfHawk.

[Bridget Burke]

25. His tribe is not recognized by the government.

In fact, a Google search finds only references to this story. I know there are Native American groups trying to be recognized, but they were not made up out of thin air.

[KingFlorez]

4. I'm glad this happened

Sex offenders should not be allowed to raise children.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

6. Except for one thing. If you read the article, the mother doesn't live

with the sex offender father. Unless the mother is deemed unfit, I can't understand why the took her baby away from her.

[seabeyond]

23. the 19 year old that had sex with the 17 year old two decades

prior should never be able to raise kids.

i think i would need way more information and go case by case. not making a blanket statement with a responsibility so great as deciding who can bare children, and who cannot

[Walt Starr]

5. The father is a sex offender who is prohibited from being around children

The mother made her choice and the state is intervening under the standard of "best welfare of teh child".

[neebob]

8. If he's prohibited from being around children,

doesn't that include his own? I don't think it's okay for the state to swoop in and take a woman's child away, unless she had helped him violate his probation by providing access to the child. And even then it would bother me, because of the likelihood of being abused in the foster care system.

[Walt Starr]

9. Really, the woman had a choice

The child raper or her child.

She chose the child raper.

[neebob]

10. How did she do that, Walt?

I tried to read the article but am dinoputerly challenged, with an out-of-date browser.

[Walt Starr]

12. All she had to do is guarantee the child would never be exposed to

the baby raping father.

[LoZoccolo]

17. I can't find where it says the father was a baby raper.

It says he was convicted of rape and sodomy but I don't know that it was a sex offense against a child, unless you've seen another article about this story.

[sandnsea]

15. Where does it say that?

I don't see anything in those articles that says he is prohibited from being around children. They did say they got involved because of HER drug use. Seems to me they're using his 20 year old rape conviction as an excuse.

[Verve]

7. Here's another post on the article

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5113516&mesg_id=5113516

[CoffeeCat]

11. For one, "Child Welfare" is looking out for the welfare of this child...

If the mother banned this man from every seeing her child--then she is a fit parent and she should be able to raise her child.

However, if she is like many women out there--who do not adequately protect their children from sexual predators, then the child should be given up for adoption to a family who can provide the baby with the safety and care he deserves.

If a woman knowingly allows a convicted serial pedophile to be alone with her child, or to develop a relationship with this child--then that woman is guilty of child abuse, reckless endangerment and child neglect. She's an accessory to child rape, if she permits these things to happen.

Child Welfare did the right thing--if this woman has no plans to cut this man out of her life forever. She should have petitioned the court to terminate his parental rights before the child was born.

[LisaL]

13. I saw an interview with her. She doesn't want to give up this guy,

apparently.
I mean, what is the state to do? Some women are so dumb. She wouldn't be the first one to let a child molester near her children, and a lot of these things don't end up well. I am glad the child is removed from her.

[CoffeeCat]

19. Sadly, this is typical....

...and a pattern found in child sexual abuse.

Many men who want to rape children, understand very well that if they are to get away with their crimes, they must pick a mother that is dysfunctional in some way. Usually, pedophiles pick women who are unhealed victims of their own sexual abuse.

These women are in such denial about their own trauma, that they totally ignore the blatant signs of sexual abuse in their own children.

Women who have been sexually abused tend to pick abusive men as partners. These men often turn out to be domestic abusers as well as sexual abusers. These predators pick unhealthy women--to get at the children.

I feel for these women. They are victims, drowning in their own childhood abuse. But by God--you protect your children! If the state welfare office comes to help protect your child--you snap out of it and face reality. You don't fight the state, to win the right to expose your child to a man who would rape that child!

I understand denial. HOwever, I do NOT understand this woman who insists on placing her child in danger--in danger of being raped!!--when there are agencies and professionals willing to help her keep her children safe.

This woman sounds dangerously imbalanced. Just as dangerous as the pedophile. If she's insisting that this molester have time with her child--then she is just as sick as he is--and she has no right to call herself a mother!

[sandnsea]

14. A 20 year old rape

I am as harsh a critic of sexual offenders as there is. But according to the article, the man has never molested a child. He's got one 20 year old conviction. If this is all there is, this is WAAAAY out of bounds.

[Heddi]

16. Again, you're wrong

he pled guilty to raping and sodomizing TWO TEENAGE GIRLS. That is not just rape, but it's also rape of a child. So please stop with this 'Well, at least he didn't rape a child" stuff. He DID rape a child. Two of them, to be exact.

oh and he sodomized them, too.

again--rape and sodomy of TWO TEENAGE GIRLS. That is considered a "child" in the eyes of the law because they're not of the age of majority. Unless you want to further argue that it's still not as bad because they weren't 2, but 14 (which is the age I heard on TV the other day) :eyes:

Oh oh...and as someone who has been raped and molested as a child, and raped as an adult, I can tell you that rape and child molestation are just as horrible as the other. There is no differentiation in the eyes of the victim. I say this not only as my own experience, but from the stories of hundreds of women who I sat through therapy with who, like me, were victims as children and as adults.

[sandnsea]

18. I said different

Not that one wasn't as bad as the other. I said there is a difference between rape and child molestation, and there is. Different psychologies, they aren't the same. Meaning a child might be just fine in the home of somebody who had committed one rape in his life, 20 years ago. But, since you pointed out that he had also molested his child, that makes it a different situation.

I am an advocate of locking up sexual offenders for life, so don't presume I'm not horrified by sexual assaults. But I also take each case individually. At first glance, this case did not look as if the children of this man would be in any danger, due to only a 20 year old rape conviction.

[nonconformist]

20. He also sexually molested his own DAUGHTER

In addition to raping two teenage girls.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBF8RZ91FE.html

[sandnsea]

22. Already said I missed that n/t

[progressivebydesign]

24. Geez. they sound like real winners. She's a druggie? He's a rapist.

Like the great line in the film, Parenthood. You need a license to drive a car, but any asshole can have a kid.

I worked in a home for abused and/or neglected kids. Until you've met a 5 year old girl that has already attempted suicide because she was sexually abused by her father, then you really can't appreciate why some agencies try to remove the kids.

From what I've read. These kids are better off the further away they can get from those two.

[friesianrider]

26. Who is this mother who thought he'd be a prime sperm donor?

My God...now I am definitely siding with the state.

The sad part is, she'll probably just run away with this child rapist and have another kid with him. What a sick world we live in.

[Giant Robot]

21. I didn't read the entire article so bear with me

but I can share with you that despite cultural mythos to the contrary, taking a child away is the very LAST thing PS wants to do. First of all that takes a lot of paperwork and court time. A judge has to be convinced that this is a good thing. And as I said, there will be a whole hell of a lot of explaining and paperwork that will need to be done by the worker who removes the child. Oh, and if a child is placed in foster care, the state has to pay the foster family. And then there are assorted costs to PS for to do this. The last thing the state wants to do is spend more money. Especially on social services. So I feel comfortable in saying that there probably was a good reason for this to happen.