Physical Abuse

February 18, 2007

Jury Sees Home Videos In Murder Trial

WTVF - Nashville
http://www.newschannel5.com/
Global/story.asp?S=6096598

Feb 16, 2007

The jury in the trial of two church members continued deliberating Thursday in Georgia. Sonia and Joseph Smith worship over the internet with the Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood.

The jury came back at 8:30 a.m. Georgia time to deliberate the fate of the parents who are accused of killing their 8-year-old son.

One of the crimes the state of Georgia has charged the Smith's with is using glue sticks to punish Josef. It's a form of punishment they learned at Remnant Fellowship Church.

Four of the 14 counts the Smith's face are for aggravated assault and cruelty to children. Two of them specifically pertain to the glue sticks and others to unknown objects.

The jury wanted to know if the glue sticks could be part of all four counts, but the judge could not be much of a help.

"It is the responsibility of the jury to determine the facts of the case from all the evidence presented, so my suggestion is to say legally I am unable to comment on your question," Judge James Bodiford said.

The jury did have a second question, but it was more of a technical question that the judge didn't have a problem helping them with. Part of the evidence the jury is considering is video evidence of young Josef, what the defense calls a much happier time.

The defense team gave us a look at the videotape and the state claimed that the Smith's son was chronically abused. In video of Josef at church camp from August of 2003, they argued the boy was fun-loving and having a good time.

Defense witnesses at that church camp said they never saw or suspected abuse. In another video Easter of 2003, the entire family was in Williamson County getting baptized in a ceremony.

His mom and dad are in the back and his brother is right there to the right.

The defense said there no signs of abuse. The prosecution came back to say no one at the church camp, or the baptism saw Josef with his shirt off and they would not have a chance to see the signs of abuse. They said he was having a good time at church camp because he was away from the abusive parents.

The jury will be back at 7:30 Friday morning and planned on working through lunch.

The judge called it a day around 5:00 Georgia time.

The jury in this trial is made up of 10 women and four men.

Two alternates are now sitting in on the deliberation process.

Posted by Perry at 01:58 PM

February 09, 2007

Teen testifies in murder trial that she heard father hit son

The Tennessean
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070208/
NEWS03/702080436/1001/NEWS

Incident was at Brentwood-based church event

February 8, 2007

By DANIEL YEE
Associated Press

A Brentwood teenager testified Wednesday that she heard a child being hit by his father, now on trial with the boy's mother on charges of beating the child to death.

Laura Boone, 17, told the jury in an Atlanta suburb that she babysat Josef Smith. She had said previously the incident occurred during a Remnant Fellowship Church event in 2003.

Josef's parents, Joseph and Sonya Smith, were charged in a 14-count indictment in June with murder, cruelty to children, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. Their trial in Marietta, Ga., is expected to last through next week.

Boone said Josef was crying on the April 2003 day she went to care for him. When she asked Joseph Smith what to do, he told her to "hit him harder." Boone said she refused to hit the child.

"He took Josef in (another room) and he was still crying, and we could hear him just hitting and the son just wailing," Boone testified, according to courtroom video shown by WTVF-NewsChannel5.

In other testimony Wednesday, police said the Smiths held an online prayer session with their church, Brentwood-based Remnant Fellowship Church, while the child lay dying.

Joseph Smith told police his son frequently needed discipline because the child carved death threats on the walls that kept the family awake at night and claimed he was a foot soldier for the devil.

Prosecutors say the parents met that behavior with a tragic overreaction that led to the boy's death, his body full of bruises and other injuries, after the October 2003 prayer session.

Prosecutors say the boy was beaten by his parents, locked inside a wooden box and forced to stay in a closet for hours at a time. Ex-members of Remnant Fellowship Church say the punishments were in line with discipline advice they heard while attending the church.

Claim disputed

Church leaders dispute that claim. Gwen Shamblin, creator of the Weigh Down Workshop Christian weight loss program, told The Tennessean the church condones discipline, not abuse.

Defense attorneys for the couple say Josef did not die from the injuries, and that the county medical examiner failed to perform crucial tests that would have found the actual cause of his death.

Wednesday, the prosecution showed jurors emergency room photographs of what appeared to be bruises on the boy's head, shoulders, torso and legs. The 10 women and four men showed no reaction as they examined the pictures.

"You can see the bruises and injuries, which appear to be in various stages of healing and occurrence," said Steven Gaynor, who was a Cobb County police detective at the time of Josef's death. Gaynor works for the department's special operations unit.

After the boy's death, Joseph Smith told police investigators that he frequently disciplined the boy with a glue stick, a foot-long piece of flexible material used inside a glue gun.

"He said he on occasion struck young Josef with a belt, but most of the time they struck him with the glue stick, and that was for discipline. In the past, they had used a switch, but that didn't appear to be very effective," Gaynor said. "He said he knew Josef had all these abrasions on his body because he had treated some of them."

The father told detectives they stayed up at night after their son carved death threats against the family on walls of the house and that the child claimed he was "Legion, soldier of the devil," Gaynor said.

"I pictured it as (in the movie) The Exorcist, when you change your voice and become a different person. He said that young Josef would ... make note he wanted to kill everybody in his family," Gaynor said.

"Because of the activities that young Josef was reportedly doing, the family was extremely tired. He (Joseph Smith) indicated it was very stressful for the family to have to take all these actions."

Firefighters responding to a 911 call at the Smith residence also testified Wednesday that the boy was covered in what appeared to be bruises.

Police and emergency medical personnel went on Oct. 8, 2003, to a home in Mableton, 12 miles northwest of Atlanta, after a report that Josef was unresponsive. He later died at a children's hospital.

The boys' parents told authorities he passed out and never regained consciousness after the family gathered in the kitchen to participate in a prayer session with their church via the Internet.

Authorities raided Remnant Fellowship Church in June 2004 as part of the investigation of Josef Smith's death.

"There was some indication that possibly the church was involved, but nothing solid was ever determined," Gaynor said Wednesday.

Posted by Perry at 06:23 PM

Doctor Testifies In Remnant Church Members' Murder Trial

WKRN - TV, Nashville Tennessee
http://www.wkrn.com/nashville/news/
doctor-testifies-in-remnant-church-
members-murder-trial/76688.htm

February 9, 2007

Graphic photos were seen a doctor’s testimony heard in the murder trial of couple accused of beating to death their eight-year-old son.

Joseph and Sonya Smith are affiliated with Brentwood-based Remnant Fellowship Church and prosecutors believe the church's teachings played a role in the alleged abuse.

“We get concerned not when we see one bruise, but when we see multiple bruises in very concerning patterns in different parts of the body... They're very hard to explain from an accidental injury.”

The ER doctor who treated the boy shortly before this death testified, the boy, Josef Smith, was in extremely critical condition when he arrived with extensive bruising that hinted at a long history of abuse.

He said, “The extent of the injuries he had, the pattern of the injuries that he had, the nature of the injuries that he had, in that several of his injuries were fresh, several were old, several were in the later stages of healing. Those injuries are injuries that we see classically in cases of child abuse.”

The accused couple sat and quietly took notes while prosecutors showed the jury graphic photos of Josef’s injuries.

The trial is expected to last most of next week.

The Remnant Fellowship Church, founded by GwenShamblin, has been criticized in years past for the way it teaches discipline towards children.

Posted by Perry at 06:13 PM

Detective: Indication of church involvement, but nothing "solid"

The Tennessean
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070207/
NEWS06/70207079

February 7, 2007

By DANIEL YEE
Associated Press Writer

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) -- Josef Smith's father told police his 8-year-old son frequently needed discipline because the child carved death threats on the walls that kept the family awake at night and claimed he was a foot-soldier for the devil.

But prosecutors say the parents, Joseph and Sonya Smith, met that behavior with a tragic overreaction that led to the boy's death -- his body full of bruises and other injuries -- after an October 2003 prayer session.

The parents were charged in a 14-count indictment in June with murder, cruelty to children, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. Their trial is expected to last through next week.

Prosecutors allege the boy was beaten by his parents, locked inside a wooden box and forced to stay in a closet for hours at a time before he died.

Defense attorneys for the couple say Josef did not die from the injuries, and that the county medical examiner failed to perform crucial tests that would have found the actual cause of his death.

On Wednesday, the prosecution showed jurors emergency room photographs of what appeared to be bruises on the boys head, shoulders, torso and legs. The panel of 10 women and four men had no visible reaction as they examined the pictures. The panel includes two alternates, who Superior Court Judge James Bodiford has not identified.

"You can see the bruises and injuries which appear to be in various stages of healing and occurrence," said Steven Gaynor, who was a Cobb County police detective at the time of Josef's death. Gaynor currently works for the department's special operations unit.

After the boys death, Joseph Smith openly told police investigators that he frequently disciplined the boy with a glue stick, a foot-long piece of flexible material used inside a glue gun.

"He said he on occasion struck young Josef with a belt but most of the time they struck him with the glue stick and that was for discipline. In the past they had used a switch but that didn't appear to be very effective," Gaynor said. "He said he knew Josef had all these abrasions on his body because he had treated some of them."
The father told detectives they stayed up at night after their son carved death threats against the family on walls of the house and that he claimed he was "Legion, soldier of the devil," Gaynor said.

"I pictured it as (in the movie) 'The Exorcist' when you change your voice and become a different person. He said that young Josef would ... make note he wanted to kill everybody in his family," Gaynor said. "Because of the activities that young Josef was reportedly doing, the family was extremely tired. He (Joseph Smith) indicated it was very stressful for the family to have to take all these actions."
County firefighters responding to a 911 call for help at the Smith residence also testified Wednesday that the boy was "covered" in what appeared to be bruises across his body.

Police and emergency medical personnel went on Oct. 8, 2003, to a home in Mableton, 12 miles northwest of Atlanta, after a report that Josef was "unresponsive." He later died at a children's hospital.

The boys parents told authorities he passed out and never regained consciousness after the family gathered in the kitchen to participate in a prayer session with their church via the Internet.

"While first arriving on the scene, I noticed a slight mark _ it looked like an older mark on his right arm," said firefighter Jeremy DeJames. "Once in the hospital, I saw multiple marks on the child ... lots of bruising, possibly some burn marks, that started from his lower back down to his ankles, and they were covered."

But DeJames admitted after questioning by defense attorney Manubir Singh Arora that he did not know for certain that the marks were bruises. A second firefighter, Andrew Rustin, also said he saw bruising and even what appeared to be burn marks on the boy's body.

"I've got an 8-year-old and he plays and falls ... but he doesn't have the bruising that we saw," Rustin said.

The Smiths are members of the Franklin, Tenn.-based Remnant Fellowship Church, which grew out of church leader Gwen Shamblin's Weigh Down Workshop, a Christian diet program she created in 1986. Authorities raided the church in June 2004 as part of the investigation of Josef Smith's death.

"There was some indication that possibly the church was involved but nothing solid was ever determined," Gaynor said Wednesday during the trial.

Posted by Perry at 05:46 PM

February 05, 2007

Parents charged in child’s death go on trial Monday

Daily Report
http://www.dailyreportonline.com/
Editorial/News/new_singleEdit.asp?
individual_SQL=2%2F5%2F2007%4013510
_Public_.htm

February 5, 2007

By DANIEL YEE, Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) - A man and woman accused of killing their 8-year-old son — in a case that led authorities to look into the practices of a Tennessee church — is expected to begin Monday in a suburban Atlanta courtroom.

Joseph and Sonya Smith have been charged with murder in the October 2003 death of their son, Josef. They are accused of confining him and fatally beating him, according to a Cobb County Superior Court indictment.

Jury selection is expected to begin Monday in Marietta, Ga., 17 miles northwest of Atlanta.

The Mableton, Ga., couple has been charged with four counts of murder, five counts of first-degree cruelty to children, three counts of aggravated assault and two counts of false imprisonment, according to a 14-count indictment issued in June.

The Smiths are members of the Franklin, Tenn.-based Remnant Fellowship Church, which grew out of church leader Gwen Shamblin's Weigh Down Workshop, a Christian diet program she created in 1986. Authorities raided the church in June 2004 as part of the investigation of Josef Smith's death.

Although Shamblin's office did not immediately return a phone message for comment Friday, she said in an interview in July 2004 that the boy's death was accidental and that the Smiths were being abused by law enforcement, anti-cult experts and the media.

"It's an unfortunate taking advantage of the tragic death of a child so they can whip Remnant Fellowship and Gwen Shamblin," Shamblin told The Associated Press in the 2004 interview.

On Oct. 8, 2003, police and emergency medical personnel went to the couple's home to respond to a report of an unresponsive 8-year-old child — Josef Smith — who later died at a children's hospital, according to a criminal warrant filed in the case.

Authorities found "an enormous amount of different injuries on the back side" of the child's body and "a recent bruising and swelling to the head and shoulder area," the warrant said.

Investigators in the warrant said the child had been struck with a glue stick "causing blood to show through the 8-year-old's underwear" and that he had been locked in a closet and made to pray to a picture of Jesus on the closet's ceiling. They said in the warrant that despite acknowledging the bloodied underwear, the Smiths had deprived the child of medical care.

District Attorney Pat Head's office declined to comment Friday on the upcoming trial. Defense attorneys John Hesmer and Manubir Singh Arora did not immediately return phone messages for comment Sunday.

Former Remnant members have suggested to investigators and reporters that church teachings on discipline include corporal punishment.

Shamblin previously said the church leaves discipline to parents but believes in spankings as a last report. She also said critics fooled former Remnant members into believing they were part of a cult.

Posted by Perry at 04:31 PM

January 12, 2007

Child Abuse And Neglect Associated With Increased Risk Of Depression Among Young Adults

Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/
2007/01/070102092229.htm

January 3, 2007

Science Daily — People who were abused and neglected during childhood have a higher risk of major depression when they become young adults, according to a report in the January issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Child abuse has been linked to depression in clinical populations and community surveys, according to background information in the article. But few prospective longitudinal studies have examined the relationship between abuse or neglect in childhood and depression in adulthood.

Cathy Spatz Widom, Ph.D., then of the New Jersey Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, and now of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, and colleagues conducted a prospective study to determine whether abused and neglected children were at elevated risk of major depressive disorder (MDD) and psychiatric illness, compared with matched control subjects, when followed up into young adulthood. The study included 676 children with substantiated cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect before the age of 11. They were matched based on age, race, sex, and approximate family social class with 520 non-abused and non-neglected children. All were followed up into young adulthood (average age: 28.7).

"The current results show that childhood physical abuse was associated with increased risk for lifetime MDD," the authors write. "We also provide new evidence that neglected children are at increased risk for depression as well."

Child abuse and neglect were associated with a 51 percent increased risk for current MDD in young adulthood. Children who were physically abused had a 59 percent increased risk of lifetime MDD. Those who experienced multiple types of abuse had a 75 percent increased risk of lifetime MDD. The risk of current MDD was 59 percent higher for those who were neglected.

Childhood sexual abuse was not associated with an elevated risk of MDD. "However, childhood victims of sexual abuse reported significantly more depression symptoms than controls," the authors point out.

"In addition, these findings reveal that onset of depression began in childhood for many of the children," they write. "Our age-at-onset findings reinforce the need to intervene early in the lives of these abused and neglected children, before depression symptoms cascade into other spheres of functioning."

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by JAMA and Archives Journals.

Posted by Perry at 07:39 PM