GUILTY NC - Adoptive mother charged in felony child abuse

[Kymistry35]

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/04/09/429685/apex-mother-charged-with-child.html

This monster adopted this little boy from China in November and has pretty much being abusing him ever since. He is in Duke hospital with severe brain injuries. Praying for him to heal.

 

[Mom who cares]

Grrrrrrr, when is this going to stop?????

 

[BeanE]

From the article:

Apex police have charged Michele Andi Stein, 39, of 121 Homegate Circle, Apex, with one count of felony child abuse, severe bodily injury, according to an arrest warrant filed Tuesday night at the Wake County Magistrate's Office.

Apex investigators have accused Stein of assaulting Adam so severely March 19 that the child is in a coma at Duke University Hospital. The child has a fractured skull and large bruises on the frontal region of his brain, police reported.

snip

Records also show Wake County Child Protective Services has previously investigated abuse and neglect reports concerning the child since he was adopted.

snip

When emergency workers arrived at the home, they found the child at the bottom of a staircase, Apex Police Department detective Worth T. Brown stated in the court affidavit earlier this month.

Michele Stein told the EMS workers that the child had fallen down the stairs earlier in the day while her husband was still at work, Brown stated in the search warrant application. She said she thought Adam was fine and put him down for a nap.

snip

Investigators later learned that the child had been admitted to the UNC-Chapel Hill Burn Center in January with second- and third-degree burns to both his hands.

Michele Stein told authorities that she had turned on hot water in the bathtub to give Adam a bath and had left him briefly unattended while she went to get him clean pajamas. Investigators with the county's child protective services suspected abuse, but determined the incident to be more consistent with "poor supervision and neglect," police reported.

In February, workers at the day care Adam attends noticed bruises on his back and leg. They also noticed that the child had lost weight since enrolling.

 

[tlcya]

Not to offend couples who are trying to conceive and experiencing fertility issues but perhaps, in this couples' case, there was a reason they were childless and they should have stayed that way.

 

[AutomaticAuttie]

So did it if this little guy have any other injuries of visiable bruising I wonder? I think I am going to reserve my opinion until more facts and details come out.

 

[kbl8201]

ok, am i reading this right? she says he fell down the stairs 'earlier in the day' and yet the emts found him at the bottom of the stairs.....so even if she's telling the truth, ummmmmmmm she just left him there?

 

[AutomaticAuttie]

So did it if this little guy have any other injuries of visiable bruising I wonder? I think I am going to reserve my opinion until more facts and details come out.

Nevermind, I just read an above article that says he had bruises and his back and legs. This needs to be locked up! I pray this sweet little guy pulls through.

 

[Jenni979]

...again... **sigh**

I hope that the "father" gets charged too. I just don't see how he could have been blind to that poor baby's suffering.

 

[kgeaux]

ok, am i reading this right? she says he fell down the stairs 'earlier in the day' and yet the emts found him at the bottom of the stairs.....so even if she's telling the truth, ummmmmmmm she just left him there?

Her story is that he fell down the stairs earlier in the day, she thought he was fine and put him down for a nap. And then suddenly he is at the foot of the stairs again? Her story doesn't sound too well thought out, does it? Unless she thought maybe his injuries would be more consistent with TWO falls down the stairs that day.

This little boy is three years old. I wonder if there were bonding issues and she just couldn't deal with it. Not that it makes much difference to Adam: he has been hurt so badly by the one person who should have made sure he was NEVER harmed. But maybe in cases like this, we can learn something. If a child has spent years in an orphanage before adoption, perhaps the adoptive family and child should have to go through some rather intense counseling.

I wish, wish, wish that Adam had been removed from her care when she was first investigated for the burns on his little baby hands. Poor little guy. I hope he has a chance of a true recovery. And I hope she rots in He!!.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

According to the maltreatment of children statistics an adoptive parent(s) are the least likely to abuse their children.

Oh how I wish Adam could have had adoptive parents who would treasure him all of his life and give him nothing but love, affection and nurturing.

So many of our poor little babies are going through hell on earth.

May this child pull through and be given to someone who will never ever harm him but spend their entire lives showing him how much they care.

imo

 

[Kymistry35]

http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/7399717/

The monster is out on bail and poor baby Adam is still in critical condition. He went through surgery and there have been complications I'm praying for you baby boy.

 

[Belinda]

It continues to amaze me that for every child that has been reported to CPS, that I have seen, the reports are always "unsubstantiated". My recollection from another case, can't remember which one, leads me to believe these reports aren't even checked out. Just marked "unsubstantiated" and filed away. What are these people doing, besides twiddling their thumbs, while at work?

 

[tlcya]

It continues to amaze me that for every child that has been reported to CPS, that I have seen, the reports are always "unsubstantiated". My recollection from another case, can't remember which one, leads me to believe these reports aren't even checked out. Just marked "unsubstantiated" and filed away. What are these people doing, besides twiddling their thumbs, while at work?

Abuse can be dificult to prove. Kids play, kids fall, kids get bruises. If anybody inspected my two monkeys, there would probably be a report made on me. My kids are very outdoorsy, running, climbing, jumping. It is the norm for my kids to be covered in bruises. Particularly when it is nice outdoors.

Barring black eyes and bruises to the buttocks abuse can be hard to gauge just on a report of bruises, and even those more obvious types of "red Flag" bruises can, and do happen through play sometimes.

I think DCF is overwhelmed. I also think a lot of times, people fall into the old trap of buying into appearances. Nice home, good jobs, yaddi yadda and tend to do a "cursory" investigation of those types of homes. When investigating a parent in a mobile home with six or seven dirty unkemp kids two in soiled diapers and no food in the fridge - abuse is a little more obvious.

 

[CHICANA]

It continues to amaze me that for every child that has been reported to CPS, that I have seen, the reports are always "unsubstantiated". My recollection from another case, can't remember which one, leads me to believe these reports aren't even checked out. Just marked "unsubstantiated" and filed away. What are these people doing, besides twiddling their thumbs, while at work?

Anybody can make a hotline call. If there's a report that the kid has lotsa bruises and they investigate and mom explains the bruises and her account is consistent with the injuries, what can they do ? Most two year olds don't have the memory or vocabulary to give the whole story.
Unless they had evidence that mom was actually hurting the child, they did their job.

 

[kgeaux]

http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/7399717/

The monster is out on bail and poor baby Adam is still in critical condition. He went through surgery and there have been complications I'm praying for you baby boy.

I am going to 'fess up right at the beginning that I am a woman who had a child at age 16 and was pushed into giving him up for adoption. We have reunited now, he is an adult, and I am so blessed to know him.

I would have just died if I had even imagined that his adoptive parents might be "bad" or even "abusive" parents.

I was told that in USA there is close followup with the adoptive family for at least a year after they take custody of the child. (I was lied to so much that I'm not really, really sure this is true, but I sure hope it is.) My question is, is there followup in adoptive families that adopt from a foreign country?

I find it so unbearable that this little boy has suffered so horribly, and that he wasn't removed from that home when his little hands were burned.

 

[kgeaux]

Anybody can make a hotline call. If there's a report that the kid has lotsa bruises and they investigate and mom explains the bruises and her account is consistent with the injuries, what can they do ? Most two year olds don't have the memory or vocabulary to give the whole story.
Unless they had evidence that mom was actually hurting the child, they did their job.

What you say is true. But this little boy was burned on his hands, and the story the mom told was "ify." Maybe there should be followup even if the mother can "EXPLAIN" the injuries.

 

[Rayemonde]

Michele Andi Stein was sentenced to 8 years 1 month for child abuse. Her projected release date is: 11/21/2017

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi/offendersearch.do?method=view