She wasn't feeling good that day.
Bitch. Look at that little face. How could someone harm him?
She wasn't feeling good that day.
Bitch. Look at that little face. How could someone harm him?
All morons hate it when you call them a moron. ~JD Salinger
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Day care worker guilty of murder in toddler's death
Melissa Calusinski, 25, breaks down in tears after jury verdict is read
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,3136356.storyMelissa Calusinski was found guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday in the 2009 death of a Deerfield boy at the day care center where she worked.
Calusinski, 25, who now faces a possible life sentence, broke down into sobs as she was led out of the courtroom in Lake County following the verdict. Her mother, sobbing heavily, collapsed into the arms of Calusinski's father, while two of the jurors also clutched hands and wept as the group shuffled out of the courtroom.
The parents of Benjamin Kingan, the 16-month-old who died on Jan. 14, 2009, after falling ill at Minee Subee in the Park day care center in Lincolnshire, were more subdued in their reaction. The boy's father, Andy Kingan, nodded his head slightly and cried softly.
The jury also found Calusinski, of Carpentersville, guilty of aggravated battery to a child. The announcement came after about seven hours of deliberations by the jury of eight women and four men.
Calusinski's father, Paul, vowed to appeal the verdict. He said he and his wife, Cheryl, who was crying and shaking as they left the Waukegan courthouse, had visited their daughter in jail earlier that day.
"She was calm until what happened here," Paul Calusinski told the Tribune. He also accused law-enforcement officials of distorting facts about a phone call that took place between him and his daughter just after she was interrogated for several hours by police.
Calusinski, a Barrington High School graduate, had been in jail since her arrest two days after Benjamin's death and following her statement to police that she intentionally slammed Benjamin's head to the ground out of frustration.
Calusinski's confession following a 10-hour interrogation, which was videotaped and played for the jury last week, had a central role in the two-week trial. Over the course of the interrogation — conducted without an attorney present, apparently because Calusinski never asked for one — Calusinski at first denied she had anything to do with the boy's death.
Several hours into the police's questions, Calusinski then offered that the boy might have struck his head against a chair as she was lifting him and lost her grip. Eventually, investigators from the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force asked if she got frustrated and intentionally slammed Benjamin's head to the tile floor, and she agreed that was true.
Her lawyers had said her confession was coerced — in part because of her low IQ — and that the boy had an existing injury in his brain that caused his death.
Medical experts who testified at the trial gave conflicting testimony of whether bleeding found in the boy's brain was from a pre-existing injury. Benjamin had been prone to throwing himself back and hitting his head during tantrums.
But jurors apparently believed prosecutors.
"We know that Benjamin was a healthy, happy toddler. This was not a neurologically impaired child," juror Christen Bishop said.
This story has haunted me ever since we first heard about it. I can see this sweet little guy in my head and just want to cry :-(
"Attention! Harken to my voice!"
"An insidious cult is intent on controlling your actions. I command you to avoid it at all costs! That is all."
~ My Principal, Onyx Blackman
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This story was one of my first experiences on Dreamindemon. I was so moved by it that I donated money to the Wings program, which Ben's mother works for. I believe this woman, Melissa was put into a rather difficult position (she SHOULD have had more help in the classroom) but her actions have made it clear: she will be punished and she will NEVER be able to hurt another child again.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2...ews/711169682/
A Lake County jury deliberated for about seven hours Wednesday before finding Melissa Calusinski guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated battery to a child after a two-week trial.
Calusinski, 25, faces up to life in prison when she is sentenced sometime early next year in the Jan. 14, 2009, death of 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan of Deerfield.
Calusinski was a teacher’s aide at the former Minee Subee in the Park day care center in Lincolnshire that Benjamin attended with his twin sister, Emily.
Police said she was alone in the classroom with Benjamin and seven other toddlers when she hurled Benjamin to the floor.
In two videotaped statements to police that were played for the jury, Calusinski says Benjamin was fussing as she carried him across the room, the other children present were causing a commotion and she became overwhelmed and frustrated.
Assistant State’s Attorney Christen Bishop urged the jurors to convict Calusinski of murder and to reject the defense theory that Benjamin had an undetected existing head injury that he aggravated by pounding his own head on the floor.
“This is not an accident, this is not reckless, this is not a bump on the head and this is not Benjamin throwing himself backwards,” Bishop said. “Benjamin Kingan was not a ticking time bomb who exploded on her watch.”
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http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2...ews/711169682/
A Lake County jury deliberated for about seven hours Wednesday before finding Melissa Calusinski guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated battery to a child after a two-week trial.
Calusinski, 25, faces up to life in prison when she is sentenced sometime early next year in the Jan. 14, 2009, death of 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan of Deerfield.
The conviction on the most serious charges came in spite of a last-minute move by Calusinski's defense team that persuaded Lake County Circuit Judge Daniel Shanes to allow the jurors to consider two lesser offenses.
Shanes agreed to tell the eight women and four men on the jury they could convict Calusinski of involuntary manslaughter or reckless conduct in the event they did not believe she was guilty of murder or aggravated battery.
The consequences could have been significant for the Carpentersville woman, who could have been sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter, while reckless conduct in this case would have been punishable by up to three years in prison.
Benjamin's parents were in the courtroom when the verdicts were read but left without comment.
“We will appeal everything,” defense attorney Paul DeLuca said upon leaving the courtroom. “Melissa is devastated, just devastated, and I think the combination of a child's death and a confession were too much to overcome.”
Calusinski was a teacher's aide at the former Minee Subee in the Park day care center in Lincolnshire that Benjamin attended with his twin sister, Emily.
Police said she was alone in the classroom with Benjamin and seven other toddlers when she hurled Benjamin to the floor.
In two videotaped statements to police that were played for the jury, Calusinski says Benjamin was fussing as she carried him across the room, the other children present were causing a commotion and she became overwhelmed and frustrated.
Assistant State's Attorney Christen Bishop urged the jurors to convict Calusinski of murder and to reject the defense theory that Benjamin had an undetected existing head injury that he aggravated by pounding his own head on the floor.
“This is not an accident, this is not reckless, this is not a bump on the head and this is not Benjamin throwing himself backwards,” Bishop said. “Benjamin Kingan was not a ticking time bomb who exploded on her watch.”
Bishop and the other prosecutors called several physicians to testify during the trial who said Benjamin was a normal healthy toddler until the day that he died.
Dr. Eupil Choi, who performed the autopsy on Benjamin, testified that the boy hit the floor with a force equal to that of a fall from a two-story building.
Calusinski's defense had doctors as well who said Choi's autopsy was flawed in several ways and that he failed to detect numerous signs of the previous injury.
Attorney Paul DeLuca suggested the injury may have been inflicted the October before Benjamin died, when the staff at Minee Subee sawith a bump on the back of his head just before a regularly scheduled doctor visit.
“Two days later, he is in the doctor's office and there wasn't a CT Scan, there wasn't an MRI,” DeLuca said. “Maybe it would have detected something, but we will never know.”
DeLuca also asked jurors to disregard his client's admissions to police, saying they were the result of professional interrogators who exploited Calusinski's low IQ and inexperience in dealing with police.
“These guys are good, they are pros,” DeLuca said. “By the time they were done with her, Melissa Calusinski thought she was going home; that is how messed up she was.”
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Melissa Calusinski, Daycare Provider Convicted Of Killing Toddler, Says Confession Was Coerced
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1183595.htmlA Carpentersville woman recently convicted of killing a toddler at a Lincolnshire day care center is seeking a retrial, arguing that the confession that solidified the case against her was false and coerced.
Melissa Calusinski, 25, was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated battery on Nov. 16 in the Jan. 14, 2009 death of Benjamin Kingan, a 16-month-old from Deerfield who was in her care at Minee Subee, a childcare facility in the Park center in Lincolnshire. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 23, and the Chicago Sun-Times reports that she could face a life sentence.
But Calusinski's attorneys say that the trial that convicted her was rife with errors, and cited 34 specific incidents in a request for a retrial they submitted to Lake County Circuit Judge Daniel Shanes Monday, according to the Daily Herald. Their request hinges in part on a recent appellate court ruling that reversed murder and sexual assault charges against Juan Rivera. Rivera was convicted by the same court system and served nearly 20 years in prison based on a disputed confession, in spite of DNA evidence that excluded him from the crime scene.
Defense attorneys contested Calusinski's videotaped confession even in pre-trial proceedings, alleging it was a product of "psychological and mental coercion," according to Fox Chicago. The teacher's aide's father, Paul Calusinski, told Fox his daughter confessed only after "she couldn't take no more and she wanted out of that room."
Calusinski's defense team claims there are six facts cited by medical professionals who examined Kingan and testified in her trial that contradict details in her confessions, evidence that her admissions to throwing the toddler and causing the injuries that led to his death are false, the Daily Herald reports. Paul Calusinski has consistently refuted a police officer's claim that his daughter said "Daddy, I did it," while on the phone with him shortly after her arrest, a key component in the prosecution's case.
Calusinski's parents maintain her innocence and set up a website that tells her side of the story, and solicits donations to help fund her defense.
The retrial motion will be heard in court during her scheduled sentencing hearing in February, according to the Tribune.
"Attention! Harken to my voice!"
"An insidious cult is intent on controlling your actions. I command you to avoid it at all costs! That is all."
~ My Principal, Onyx Blackman
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Former day care worker gets 31 years for killing Deerfield toddler
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,7479051.storyCalling it a tragic case of "needless, senseless violence," a Lake County judge Thursday sentenced a former day care worker to 31 years in prison for killing a Deerfield toddler in her care.
[...]
But according to trial testimony, Calusinski told police that she intentionally slammed the boy's head to the ground out of frustration at the now closed Minee Subee in the Park day care center.
Before Circuit Court Judge Daniel Shanes sentenced Calusinski, Benjamin Kingan's mother, Amy, read a statement that drew tears from many in the crowded courtroom.
"One of the most traumatic memories we have is when we had to say goodbye to our son," she said. "We sat in a rocking chair with Ben's cold, lifeless body, hugging and kissing him one last time — trying to comfort him. We prayed through our tears he would wake up and we could take him home."
Calusinski's defense team has asked for a new trial, arguing that her confession to police was coerced during a 10-hour interrogation.
Calusinski told the toddler's parents she was sorry for their loss.
"My statements were false, but I had no choice but to admit those things," she said. "I was so scared I did not understand what the detectives were telling me to say. I knew I had to go along with them or I would never get out of the room."
"Melissa is innocent," defense lawyer Paul DeLuca said outside court. "This is only the top of the third inning. We've got a great appellate team," led by high-profile attorney Kathleen Zellner.
"I'm telling you, my daughter was coerced into a confession," added her father, Paul Calusinski.
"Rescuing one animal may not change the world, but for that animal their world is changed forever!" - Unknown
For every murdered child
We fly with all prevailing winds of change,
For any quirk of fate we may arrange.
We are not "meek" or "mild";
Don't turn your back when twilight dims the sky -
We'll haunt the perpetrators till they Die
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...0,206479.storyThe owner of a day care center where a boy was murdered in 2009 died Sunday, the day before she was to stand trial on obstruction of justice charges today.
Judith Katz's attorney, Jack Carriglio, confirmed her death. He would not elaborate how Katz died, though he had said in court that she had been ill with cancer. She was 67.
Katz, in a wheelchair and with a nurse on hand, had just appeared in a Lake County courtroom on Friday for a final pretrial appearance. Her lawyer lost an 11th-hour bid to have the charges against her dismissed.
Katz, who lived in Arlington Heights, was the owner of the former Minee Subee in the Park day care center in Lincolnshire when a toddler from Deerfield suffered a skull fracture there and died. Katz was accused of lying when she allegedly told parents and employees that two staff members were in the room when the boy, Benjamin Kingan, was injured. Authorities said there was only one staff member present, in violation of state rules.
Melissa Calusinski, a former worker at the day care center, was convicted last year 2011 of first-degree murder in Benjamin’s death and was sentenced to 31 years in prison. Authorities said she confessed to slamming the child’s head to the ground in frustration.
[...]
Had Katz been convicted, she could have faced up to three years in prison.
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Katz' face looks like she used orange peel for a foundation. Yeow!
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. ~Will Rogers
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Sure as hell not the first coerced confession, I don't usually agree with the defense lawyer
But those asshole cops sure do know how to fuck people over, they want a notch on their belt as bad as some DA's
and don't really give a dam if your innocent or guilty, just put another gold star in my file
and people wonder why an innocent person would lawyer up
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