Alleged abuse photos

[SoSueMe]

Those photos don't prove that the children were abused but it does not exclude abuse either. I don't like those fingerprint patterns and those bruises that look like stick marks, and I didn't like it when RC was so quick to tell us that he only abuses his children in DCF approved ways. (I'm showing my bias here, I don't hold with any kind of physical spanking as a punishment. A big tough guy like RC or any adult for that matter should be able to handle a couple of 3-5 year olds without resorting to violence, bruising or not. In my experience spanking does not solve children's behaviour problems, it causes them.) But then again if CG has got some domestic abuse issues in his past I'm not happy with Crystal's situation either.

Please find Haleigh.

I agree as to the fingerprint patterns and I especially have a problem with photo #4 of the child in a diaper. One says it is RonJr. and the other says it is Haleigh. I'm not talking about the one brown bruise line we see, but what appears to be a very red bruised leg all the way down to the knee. It could just be the coloring in the photo, it's hard to tell. My gosh, it looks like someone dropped an anvil on that child. I was also surprised that RC knew what kind of punishment DCF accepted and quickly blurted it out to the camera in such a defensive way.

Do we know that KP, Crystal's attorney is the one who released the photos? Wouldn't she have had to file them with the court and they had to release them under the Florida Sunshine Law? I think the point she was trying to make with the playground fall was that the bruises were so much worse 6 days later. They were so bad that it warranted a CT scan when the school called it a "cut" and no tests were necessary at the time of the fall. Yes, I realize bruises get darker as time goes by, but she appears to have two cuts, as opposed to one, six days later.

As for taking the focus off of finding Haleigh, perhaps Crystal is concerned her son may turn up "missing" and that is the need to for the custody hearing at this time. I'm not too sure I wouldn't be doing the same thing.

All of this is JMO.

 

[JWG]

I'd like to get a consensus about other peoples' experience with digital cameras, because I have some questions concerning the timestamp issue.

Do you have problems with the timestamp appearing on your photo prints when you don't want them to?
What actions do you have to take to correct this.

Do you find times when you do want a timestamp to appear in the prints?
What actions do you have to take with your camera to achieve this?

Do you see timestamps in the computer displayed images or only in the prints?

Have you ever tried to change a photo after it was taken so that it would (or would not) display a timestamp either in the print or in a displayed image?
How successful were you?
What did you have to do to achieve this?

It would be helpful to include the make, model, and year of the camera in question if you respond to this post.
Also, do you know what image format (file type) or formats your camera saves images to.
Do you know what format it defaults to?

I'm sure you're wondering, so I'll answer in advance. The reason I'm curious is that I do not want to jump to conclusions, but my understanding of most currently popular digital image formats is that the time/date info is contained within the image file itself, and is not affected by camera print settings, and would be transferred with that image file so that the state of the memory card at any later time would be completely irrelevant.

This info is not generally seen when viewing an image, but can be reviewed by looking at the image property characteristics. Please understand, it is not hidden or secret, merely not part of the initial display. Different image formats can contain more or less info, and there is a sad lack of standards across camera makers sometimes but it is there, and for the most popular formats (.tiff, .jpg, etc.) the standards are very clear.

I am not any sort of an authority on digital imaging, and this is why I'm curious about other peoples' experiences. Older cameras may behave in a fashion which could support the Art Harris article's explanation about timestamp data loss for these images that Crystal has made public.

I can account for only limited reasons why this data would be lost. Here are a couple, by way of example...

In a .jpg file there is image data in a standard format known as EXIF (Note: this standard is derived from the one used in .tiff files, and is similar in concept to most image formats.). Some image editors do not handle this data properly, and when an image is manipulated and the modified image is saved then the EXIF data can be corrupted and/or lost.

There are (many) utilities as well as image editors which allow the modification of EXIF data. These can be used to change or to remove it entirely if desired.

AFAIK, whether or not the time stamp appears in the picture image is unrelated to the time stamp in the EXIF file. The time stamp in a picture image is produced by the camera and is a simple replacement of image pixels with the date / time. The original image pixels are lost forever.

EXIF image data is easy to modify with the right tools. The best out there (and it is free) is "exiftool".

So for fun I ran exiftool on the image at artharris.com and found that the image was "created" by a Kodak Picture Kiosk G4 on March 18 at 3:04 PM and modified (presumably cropped) at 10:52 AM on March 19.

The problem with this image is we don't know what the source image was that fed the kiosk.

 

[cuppy199]

We must agree to disagree. Physical punishment is illegal where I'm from and it's also unnecessary. I don't have angel children and I'm no angel myself, but in my experience violent solutions make things worse, not better. I have sometimes lost my temper to the point that I've been tempted to slap my kids and it's a mistake I don't ever want to do again. No mother should ever see that fear in her children's eyes.

We do not allow people to beat up adults; it's called battery and assault. Why should we allow people to beat up innocent little children?

It is a far cry between a spanking and a beating. Spanking a child is not meant for pain. A spanking doesnt hurt the childs body it more our less hurts there feelings. I have spanked my children maybe 2 times in their lifes. But I had darn good reason to do so. My daughter ran in the street and scared the crap out of me. You bet your panties she got a tap on the butt. And she most certainly never did that again. My son played with fire when he was 5 almost burnt my house down. You bet he got a tap on the butt and never did it again. I have two beautiful respective well mattered adult children today. There is nothing wrong with spanking if it is done properly.

 

[MvD]

I dont believe in spanking AT ALL either... Never spanked my son... I dont believe in even smacking a childs hand.. For MY own child.. from the get go.. I always found that taking the time to explain on their level..why something could or couldnt be done... was effective.. and respectful to him..

that being said...
Even for parents that do think spanking on the butt is okay.. WHO the heck would spank a BABY still in diapers??? And WITH A STICK??????? Im sorry... hitting a kid with a stick is child abuse in MY opinion... That just makes me soooo angry I wanna cry for the child...

 

[Donjeta]

I have to reprogram the time data in my camera every time I replace the batteries. Sometimes I don't bother and they're all wrong.

 

[texasmommy39]

I find it odd that CS had in her opinion substantial photographs of abuse that she and a relative who works for a Pediatrician documented in November of the injuries Haleigh received and failed to mention before now or the morning she arrived in Satsuma on 2/10/09. I feel this crusade to show abuse was planned. Think about it for a moment. Everything that has been presented has been followed with I wasn't aware or I didn't know but obviously she was taking pictures to build a case to prove abuse. I can't understand really how she thinks that everyone is going to be so gullible. Her Attorney is a joke and needs to do her homework.

 

[Tichad3]

I find it odd that CS had in her opinion substantial photographs of abuse that she and a relative who works for a Pediatrician documented in November of the injuries Haleigh received and failed to mention before now or the morning she arrived in Satsuma on 2/10/09. I feel this crusade to show abuse was planned. Think about it for a moment. Everything that has been presented has been followed with I wasn't aware or I didn't know but obviously she was taking pictures to build a case to prove abuse. I can't understand really how she thinks that everyone is going to be so gullible. Her Attorney is a joke and needs to do her homework.

I couldn't agree with a person more. Very well said.

 

[Busylady]

I do not want to get into a spanking debate, but there are alot of adults age 35-40 running around who were spanked as children and did not grow up with any harmful emotional or physical scars from it. There is a big difference between beating and a swat on the behind. IMO discipline methods are a very personal choice if time out works for you and your children great, if a swat on the behind works great not every discipline method works for every child.

Hate to see anyone that swats their childrens behind for misbehaving labeled a child abuser.

 

[Busylady]

We have no proof whatsoever that Ron used a stick to spank RJ.

I dont believe in spanking AT ALL either... Never spanked my son... I dont believe in even smacking a childs hand.. For MY own child.. from the get go.. I always found that taking the time to explain on their level..why something could or couldnt be done... was effective.. and respectful to him..

that being said...
Even for parents that do think spanking on the butt is okay.. WHO the heck would spank a BABY still in diapers??? And WITH A STICK??????? Im sorry... hitting a kid with a stick is child abuse in MY opinion... That just makes me soooo angry I wanna cry for the child...

 

[fortytwo]

I would think the reason he knows what the guidelines are is that his "ex" reported him to authorities for abuse. When DCF investigated her claims, the decision was made that Ron's methods of discipline were NOT abuse, that the method he used was within acceptable behavior.

(snip)
(bold above by me)

Sorry, I don't have references to cite, but I recall from somewhere that both Ron and Crystal have attended some sort of state sponsored parenting classes.

I expect that his statement about knowing the difference between acceptable discipline and abuse is a result of that.

Perhaps others can help with finding references. I can't recall if the circumstances that resulted in their taking the classes would shed any light on this discussion.

 

[kgeaux]

We do not allow people to beat up adults; it's called battery and assault. Why should we allow people to beat up innocent little children?

I respect your opinion, and I certainly agree that it would be horribly wrong to beat up innocent little children. I hope ALL of us agree on that!

A spanking doesn't equate a "beating" though, and if it did, DCF would certainly consider a beating to be outside of the bounds of acceptable discipline.

The bruises on the child's legs "could have" been caused by a stick. But they could have been caused by any number of other innocent childhood accidents. Bumps and bruises happen.

We have the word of Crystal that Haleigh told her that Ron hit JR. with a stick. Crystal also accused Ron of abuse when Haleigh had a playground accident at school. She is a parent suing for custody, and believe me, information is deliberately skewed when parents battle over their children. The fact that DCF cleared him makes me think that Ron did not beat JR. nor did he hit him with a stick.

I just don't see anything on those children that speaks to me of abuse. They look like kids who run and jump and play and sometimes fall.

I dont believe in spanking AT ALL either... Never spanked my son... I dont believe in even smacking a childs hand.. For MY own child.. from the get go.. I always found that taking the time to explain on their level..why something could or couldnt be done... was effective.. and respectful to him..

that being said...
Even for parents that do think spanking on the butt is okay.. WHO the heck would spank a BABY still in diapers??? And WITH A STICK??????? Im sorry... hitting a kid with a stick is child abuse in MY opinion... That just makes me soooo angry I wanna cry for the child...

I'd be crying a bucket of tears if I thought JR. had been spanked with a stick. But I believe hitting a child with a stick would be outside the acceptable means of discipline, and that the DCF findings would have been quite different if such a thing had TRULY occured.

I find it odd that CS had in her opinion substantial photographs of abuse that she and a relative who works for a Pediatrician documented in November of the injuries Haleigh received and failed to mention before now or the morning she arrived in Satsuma on 2/10/09. I feel this crusade to show abuse was planned. Think about it for a moment. Everything that has been presented has been followed with I wasn't aware or I didn't know but obviously she was taking pictures to build a case to prove abuse. I can't understand really how she thinks that everyone is going to be so gullible. Her Attorney is a joke and needs to do her homework.

I don't think the pics. were taken to prove abuse. I think they are just pics. that were useful to her when she wanted to accuse Ron of abuse. (She lost custody of those kids, I don't know why, but I do know the courts already had decided Ron was the more capable, stable parent. That must make her FURIOUS. Especially now that the whole world knows.)

She is making the photos public now because she thinks it will help her to get JR.

And, yep, her attorney is a joke. Quite a ham, too.

 

[Tom'sGirl]

Whether or not you personally believe in spanking a child is of no value to discussion, so stop with debating back on forth. Further such posts will be deleted. Discuss the case, not your beliefs, we all have them.

Thanks!

 

[debs]

I find it odd that CS had in her opinion substantial photographs of abuse that she and a relative who works for a Pediatrician documented in November of the injuries Haleigh received and failed to mention before now or the morning she arrived in Satsuma on 2/10/09. I feel this crusade to show abuse was planned. Think about it for a moment. Everything that has been presented has been followed with I wasn't aware or I didn't know but obviously she was taking pictures to build a case to prove abuse. I can't understand really how she thinks that everyone is going to be so gullible. Her Attorney is a joke and needs to do her homework.

"How did Haleigh get all those bruises on her face????"
"She fell at school. Why, you think I'm beating her or something?"

Crystal did the right thing to take a picture of the injury. Even if it is substantiated by the school, Crystal has no way of knowing that for certain, other than taking Ron at his word. These charges aren't baseless, but that doesn't mean that there was severe abuse. Since arriving in Satsuma, people have been telling her things that SHOULD be investigated. Crystal is doing the RIGHT thing in at least having them investigated. This case has gone high profile, so those who would have hoped she would do this quietly seem to forget that everything they do right now is going to be in the media. Could the lawyer have kept the images off the website and out of the media? Sure. But frankly, I have never seen DFS jump in to investigate a case quite so quickly. Crystal has made claims before and she is doing so again. I never got a media alert for those other claims. That's because THERE WAS NO MEDIA COVERING IT.

 

[radio]

"How did Haleigh get all those bruises on her face????"
"She fell at school. Why, you think I'm beating her or something?"

Crystal did the right thing to take a picture of the injury. Even if it is substantiated by the school, Crystal has no way of knowing that for certain, other than taking Ron at his word. These charges aren't baseless, but that doesn't mean that there was severe abuse. Since arriving in Satsuma, people have been telling her things that SHOULD be investigated. Crystal is doing the RIGHT thing in at least having them investigated. This case has gone high profile, so those who would have hoped she would do this quietly seem to forget that everything they do right now is going to be in the media. Could the lawyer have kept the images off the website and out of the media? Sure. But frankly, I have never seen DFS jump in to investigate a case quite so quickly. Crystal has made claims before and she is doing so again. I never got a media alert for those other claims. That's because THERE WAS NO MEDIA COVERING IT.

bold mine

My email is in melt down with news alerts on this abuse allegation stuff. I bet Crystal Sheffield has long believed no one cared about her, no one would help her. Ronald has never abused a lover, never abused his children, never/doesn't do drugs, whatever has happened isn't his fault.. Remember that old tv show - Queen For A Day???

 

[Shelby77]

I disagree...when I look at the pics (especially #1 and #6) it appears as though these pics were random snapshots and were not taken to document abuse.

It looks like they went through pics and cropped any of them that appear to have a bruise. In # 6 JR is getting a piggy back ride from someone, it's not a pic meant to document abuse IMO


Also, I have had a really hard time following this case, could someone please answer a question I saw posted several weeks ago? Did Crystals mom ever report her to CPS?

Totally agree with you on them going thru the pics and cropping them, that's what I see too.

To answer your question as to Marie reporting Crystal to CPS, I know that Marie contacted CPS when the proceeding were still ongoing because she wanted the home approved or whatever to have the kids living there. Crystal lived with her mom and her mom took the initiative to make that step (shocker I know). When she brought up the home being oked by CPS she offered up that she made the call, even when the judge told her it was not necessary for her to admit she called herself. That's about all I remember off the top of my head and I'm not sure if that's the incident you are referring to. I believe you may find the info I read about it Crystal's thread #3, I know Busylady posted the link there to some of the custody docs, maybe you can just search her posts? It was a few days ago. Hope that helps

 

[fortytwo]

AFAIK, whether or not the time stamp appears in the picture image is unrelated to the time stamp in the EXIF file. The time stamp in a picture image is produced by the camera and is a simple replacement of image pixels with the date / time. The original image pixels are lost forever.

EXIF image data is easy to modify with the right tools. The best out there (and it is free) is "exiftool".

So for fun I ran exiftool on the image at artharris.com and found that the image was "created" by a Kodak Picture Kiosk G4 on March 18 at 3:04 PM and modified (presumably cropped) at 10:52 AM on March 19.

The problem with this image is we don't know what the source image was that fed the kiosk.

Thanks for your reply.

I don't know anything about kiosks because I have never used one. Could this have something to do with why the image was erased from the memory card?

 

[harleysnana]

The bruises on the child's legs "could have" been caused by a stick. But they could have been caused by any number of other innocent childhood accidents. Bumps and bruises happen.

We have the word of Crystal that Haleigh told her that Ron hit JR. with a stick. Crystal also accused Ron of abuse when Haleigh had a playground accident at school. She is a parent suing for custody, and believe me, information is deliberately skewed when parents battle over their children. The fact that DCF cleared him makes me think that Ron did not beat JR. nor did he hit him with a stick.

I just don't see anything on those children that speaks to me of abuse. They look like kids who run and jump and play and sometimes fall.

I agree 100% with your post and wanted to address the part I have
put in bold.
I'm not sure how old Haleigh or JR were at the time that CS said
Haleigh made the comment.
But when I read the bold part I instantly thought of my 2
granddaughters that are sisters...
I wouldn't put it past the older one to actually hit the younger one
with a stick or something and then say that someone else did it just so
she wouldn’t’ get in trouble!
Kids do that all the time and for all we know IF Haleigh said Ron hit
JR she could have just said it so that CS would be mad at daddy instead of her ...

 

[MADJGNLAW]

I am confused by this article. Are they referring to previous allegations from the other's? From what CS attorney states, it's other's that are coming out of the wood work with allegations as well. I am curious to find out if LE is referring to those allegations or CS's?

According to the sheriff’s office, they were aware of the allegations of abuse, but did not have the proper paperwork to begin an investigation into the matter.

http://www.examiner.com/x-1168-Crime-Examiner~y2009m3d18-Allegations-Ronald-Cummings-neglected-and-abused-Haleigh

 

[debs]

I am confused by this article. Are they referring to previous allegations from the other's? From what CS attorney states, it's other's that are coming out of the wood work with allegations as well. I am curious to find out if LE is referring to those allegations or CS's?

According to the sheriff’s office, they were aware of the allegations of abuse, but did not have the proper paperwork to begin an investigation into the matter.

http://www.examiner.com/x-1168-Crime-Examiner~y2009m3d18-Allegations-Ronald-Cummings-neglected-and-abused-Haleigh

I'm just really impressed with the embedded gizmo in your post!!!

 

[interested_in_facts]

Ok so I dont have time to read all the posts right now but after seeing those pics here is my thoughts, I have 4 boys ages 3-10 and my kids are very very active boys. I have seen worse bruises on them from playgrounds and our own front yard than what jr had. i for one dont believe those came from being abused. As for her bruises, if mom really thought she was being abused why not report it when she took the pics instead of now? To me it just looks like she is thinking well now is my chance to get the kids from him and using whatever she can find to do it. She needs to be more focused on finding her daughter rather than throwing mud on him.