Joey Melendez Was Just Playin’
December 24, 2008 by Jaded
Joey Herminio Melendez (MyspaceMySpace
)
Lancasterlancaster
, PA–UnamusedCat originally posted the Joey Melendez story in our forums in late OctoberOctober reviews. Melendez was arrested for beating and burning his girlfriend’s 18-month-old son. At the time, there weren’t really many details. Now, new information is trickling out at the prelims. The excuses this asshole had for the abuse absolutely floored me.
Here’s a little background on the story: On October 28, a neighbor called police after hearing yelling, banging, cursing, and a baby crying in a nearby apartment. Neighbor Onita Barth knew the occupants of the apartment to be Melissa Lyons and her young son. Barth spotted Lyons leaving the apartment parking lot around dinner time and was relieved that Lyons removed herself from the situation. Yet, the yelling, cursing, and banging continued…as did the sounds of a baby crying. At one point, Barth heard a male voice yelling, ‘Shut up! Shut the fuck up! She’sShe reviews not coming back!’ Finally, Barth called the police at around 11:45 that night.
Police encountered 27-year-old Melendez when they arrived at the apartment. He said that he was babysitting his girlfriend’s child while she was attending night classes at a hairdressing school. He told the responding officer that everything was fine and the baby was sleeping. The officer asked if he could check on the child and Melendez allowed him into the apartment. The child was found laying in his crib with an ice pack on his forehead. His little face was red and swollen. His whole tiny body was bruised. He was unresponsive. The child was rushed to Lancaster General Hospital where ER doctors said that it was ‘the worst beating they had ever seen.’ It is said that the abuse had to have occurred over a 4 to 12 hour time period.
The child suffered injuries from head to toe. He had bruises, scrapes, burns and bites. It looked like his little feet had been crushed. He had so many injuries that it was next to impossible to describe each one. There was no way that all of those injuries were accidental. Officer’s returned to the apartment and arrested Joey Melendez.
According to a police report, Melendez, who is 5′9″ and 200 pounds, said he was the only person in the apartment at the time, and that he did hit the kid with a belt, but it was an accident. He also accidentally stepped on the baby’s foot and caused him to fall down the stairs. At his arraignment, his bail was set at $150,000 and he was committed to Lancaster County Prison. He was charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and child endangerment.
Fast forward to the present. Melissa Lyons, the child’s mother, testified in court that Melendez had moved into her apartment that day. One fucking day was all it took for this asshole to go totally apeshit on a defenseless little child. One day! Lyons testified that ‘Melendez was tired and yelled at her son to be quiet a few times, slamming his hand on the floor.’ Even after that little outburst, Lyons left her child alone with Melendez. When she left the apartment that evening, her child had a little scrape on his head from a fall earlier in the day…when she returned later that evening, cops and paramedics were swarming her apartment and her child was critically injured.
Testimony from an investigating officer revealed the lame ass excuses Melendez concocted for the abuse. The kneeing to the face? Well, that was an accident. It happened when Melendez and the toddler were hip-hop dancing in the living room. The child was accidentally hit with a belt when Melendez was ‘wiggling it around like a snake.’ The burns? Those must have happened when the toddler was playing around in an ashtray. But the bite marks. What about the bite marks? They were from a fun little past time called ‘The Biting Game.’ Come on, we’ve all played that game with our babies, haven’t we? Melendez said that he and the child were ‘nibbling on each other in fun.’ Can’t forget the crushed feet. Of course, that was an accident too. Melendez even hit the kid with a shoe!
The doctor that initially examined the child took the stand. He once again stated that it was one of the worst abuse cases he had seen in his 15 years of practice. Upon cross-examination, he did acknowledge that the X-rays and a CT scan showed no broken bones or head injuries. ‘Sometimes, those things do not show up on scans,’ he said. How that child managed to escape the brutal beating alive and without any broken bones has to be some sort of a miracle.
Defense attorney James Gratton asked the state to drop the aggravated assault charge because, ‘there was no evidence of serious bodily injury.’ What the hell is that guy smokin’?
Magisterial District Judge Maynard Hamilton, after hearing testimony and viewing photos of the abused child, called bullshit on the whole accident theory and ordered Melendez held for trial. ‘No reasonable person could look at the photos and think the injuries came from an accident,’ Hamilton said. ‘I believe this was malicious conduct.’ I’ll be keeping an eye on this one and will update when new information becomes available.
It is believed that Melissa and Joey may have begun their relationship on Myspace. Previous comments suggested that the two had been involved in a long-distance relationship for quite some time…it seems that they had met in person a couple of times. On October 5, she commented about how excited she was that he was finally going to be moving in with her. 23 days later, he moved from Connecticut to Pennsylvania to be with her. 23 days later, she felt comfortable enough to leave him alone with her child.
Melissa has since removed herself and her comments from Joey’s Myspace page. A quick search revealed a new profile for her. The default picture shows her and her son together, smiling…looking happy. Her extended network banner states: ‘Striving for the Best Staying strong, moving on, and getting ahead for my babies and me!’ I wish nothing but the best for Melissa and her child. But, I hope that this makes her a little more cautious. This whole thing could have ended very badly. I have to assume that her son doing OK now. I haven’t seen any follow-up on the effects of the abuse inflicted on him.
8:59 am on December 24th, 2008
Wow!!! I’m speechless for once. I don’t see why the mom isn’t charged with something – how could she possibly leave that POS alone with her baby? Somebody she met online? She should be charged with ignorance and stupidity and get sterilized. I’m glad the neighbor finally called the police, but wish she had done it a lot sooner.
Oh, by the way – Merry Christmas everybody!!!
Heal quickly little guy.
9:23 am on December 24th, 2008
Wow! I really hope this woman learned her lesson, She was lucky this time and I hope the baby is doing good and have no mayor problems from this incident. Merry Christmas all.
9:41 am on December 24th, 2008
Dude looks like Zippy the Pinhead, and Mom doesn’t sound much brighter. He’s in there going apeshit and she decides it’s cool to leave the kid there with him? Like the kid’s going to be able to protect itself? Jesus Christ.
1:05 pm on December 24th, 2008
First of all I would have never left my child with someone I barely know…23 days…yeah, real poor judgment. Secondly, HAD this been me, and I say it only in hypothetical, this pieceofshit bastard would have a far more interesting mug shot….
I would have kicked his face in and beat him close to death!
The mother and child are very, very fortunate. This easily could have ended with that
poor baby dead….strongly little one…kisses, recover completely.
1:21 pm on December 24th, 2008
This is exactly the kind of situation that parent coaching could help alleviate. This mom was going to school, and she had a home for her child and herself. She wasn’t out doing drugs or partying, and she didn’t support the bf’s BS excuses. (Granted, she didn’t have the chance to turn the other cheek since LE was involved that day, but since she appears to have testified against him and cut off contact, which is more than many mothers featured here do.) She made a CRITICAL mistake, but I don’t see that she has a pattern of making them, or that her lifestyle was party-party-party, from what was said here.
One of the hardest life lessons is that other people are not like you. We have a tendency to assume that others have the same values, perspectives, and ideas of right and wrong, and the fact is, they don’t. That’s why cheaters are so suspicious. they do it, and you aren’t any different, so you would do it too! And that’s why many basically good people can not see the evil in others..because they could never imagine intentionally hurting someone else. Wisdom comes with experience, and young people simple have less experience to draw upon. That’s why I think mentoring is so necessary for young parents.
2:54 pm on December 24th, 2008
Hmmm, BigBad Joey seems to have Swollen-Nostril Syndrome in the mug shot. Good drugs or *fingers crossed* bashed in the schnozz with arresting officers billy club?
Poor judgement penis loving Mother needs to thank Dog daily that the neighbor finally called the police!
2:44 pm on December 25th, 2008
This story just made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
4:07 am on December 26th, 2008
neighbor said mom left around dinner time.
the police called 11:45
ER doc says injuries happened over a 4-12 hour period
does not state there were older injuries
This guys pix is freaky me out ….. wayyyyyyy to close and wayyyy too much skin .. eeeeeeeew nastyass.
5:36 pm on December 27th, 2008
Melendez said he was just “playing”? I don’t think it’s playing if he went ahead and beat the kid up and then burned him.
If he was “rough-housing” with the child, that is one thing, but he beat this poor little child up too? Sheesh.
Suhani
10:43 am on December 29th, 2008
Ahhhhh my ‘hometown’ finally makes the pages…and I don’t know any of these people involved. Somehow I am not surprised after a MySpace meeting/relationship and this is what happened! People are real assholes when it comes to meeting others online and then involving them in their lives, thus the kids’ lives too…dangerous and careless.
8:51 am on January 2nd, 2009
I dont wish the best for anyone but the poor child. The mother is a selfish bitch… And fuck Melendez, he’s a repulsive dead beat… I hope inmates have their way with him. And I wouldnt be offended if he were hung on public television, hows that for humiliation?
Are you kidding me? Reward her for getting out of that situation? Thats what should have been done from the start. No loving mother walks away from her child while it is being beaten. She should have killed the bastard that was inflicting pain on her child, called law enforcement and offered comfort and medical attention to her poor child. Protecting your young is a natural instinct of mothers. But she didnt….Shes either ignorant or shes a coward! Either way she does not deserve to be a mother!
9:03 am on January 2nd, 2009
I agree and disagree to a certain extent. Yes, we are not all alike..thats very true. But as a society we need to have a set of “guidelines” of socially accepable and non acceptable actions. Beating your child is not acceptable and knowing and watching someone beat your child is not acceptable. Making excuses for the mother gets us no where. Bottom line is that she knew what was going on and “removed herself from the situation”. As a parent, she has the responsibilty to protect her child… and walking away is not protecting your child. Granted, yes she may not show a pattern of such actions, and yes she is trying to further her education and no, she doesnt go party and drink and do drugs, but she made a decision that could have resulted in the death of her child. When it comes to parenting, you get one chance. You make decisions that are best for your child. One wrong choice and you lose them. And she very well could have. By god’s grace this innocent child survived, but would you have the same opinion if the child had died?
7:59 pm on January 2nd, 2009
Omfg. I just stumbled on this site today and I must say I’ve been sick all day because of it. I would gladly and proudly strip this piece of shit of every bit of his skin before I set his ass on fire. What idiot leaves their baby with a man she just met! Jesus people, get some god damn sense. It sickens me that people in this country take better care of their cars then they do their children.
4:33 pm on January 6th, 2009
@ bahaley4e
For what it is worth, it would appear that he hadn’t actually lifted a hand to the child when she left, – “only” banged the floor loudly and yelled a couple of times. While this should probably have been a warning, she did not behave in the manner you are suggesting.
And younger people have a completely unrealistic idea of how much you can learn from people from knowing them over the internet. She may have thought she knew him, when she did nothing of the sort. I would bet she thanks her lucky stars she still has her baby and that she will get to see him grow up. I hope the child never looks back and cautiously predict that we never have reason to see him or his mother on here again.
10:34 am on April 24th, 2009
[...] Joey Melendez Was Just Playin’ (dreamindemon.com) [...]
10:44 am on April 26th, 2009
I’m still hoping for laws that forbid single parents to allow strangers to move into their homes once a “Domestic Dispute” charge has been filed on them. It won’t save every child, but it will put a huge dent in this type of abuse. Children are just as much at risk of harm when at the mercy of an irresponsible parent as they are an abusive stranger; in fact, irresponsible parents are how most of these ’strangers’ get access to them.
8:34 pm on April 26th, 2009
[...] Joey Melendez Was Just Playin’ (dreamindemon.com) [...]
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