Boy Taken Off Life Support After Father's Day Beating

rockin'robin

rockin'robin

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WORCESTER, Mass. — A 7-year-old boy who traveled to the state to spend the summer with his father and who, prosecutors say, was severely beaten by him on Father's Day can be removed from life support, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Juvenile Court Judge Carol Erskine delivered the ruling after a hearing in which a doctor at UMass Memorial Medical Center testified that the boy, Nathaniel Turner, didn't respond to a number of neurological tests. Dr. Scot Bateman said the hospital also got a second opinion from a Boston doctor that the boy was brain dead.

The judge gave custody of the boy to his mother for the purpose of deciding whether to donate his organs. Before ruling, the judge called the case "a heartbreaking and gut-wrenching situation," and she asked the media not to photograph any family members.

After the judge made her decision, family members could be seen crying and hugging each other as lawyers escorted them out of the courthouse.

Relatives said Nathaniel had lived with his maternal grandmother in Eufaula, Ala., before going to live with his father, Leslie Schuler, in Worcester, the second-largest city in New England, with a population of about 175,000, located just west of Boston. Schuler, 36, recently had received a court order to have summer custody of him.

The boy was physically and mentally abused by his father for about two months, police said. On Father's Day, he suffered severe injuries when his father slammed his head into a bedroom wall with such force that it left a dent in the wall, they said.

Schuler was arraigned Tuesday on seven counts of assault and battery and three assault counts. He pleaded not guilty and was held on $250,000 cash bail. His lawyer, Christopher Tully, said his client was remorseful.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said the case had become a homicide investigation, but he would not immediately comment on whether charges against Schuler would be upgraded to murder.

Schuler's lawyer requested at the hearing that the boy remain on a ventilator.

Nicholas Morana, a lawyer representing the boy's mother, said his client agreed with the hospital's assessment of her son's condition.

"She's devastated and very frustrated," Morana said. "She is angry at the father for what happened."

A spokesman for the district attorney's office said the family had requested that the mother's name not be released.

Schuler's girlfriend, Tiffany Hyman, was charged with two counts of assault and battery. Police said it appeared Hyman, 28, didn't strike the boy but could have intervened and stopped the abuse. She was held on $50,000 cash bail.

Her lawyer, Jose Rosario, said police reports contained no information indicating she touched the boy.

Massachusetts Judge Rules Boy Can Be Taken Off Life Support After Father's Day Beating - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com
 
rockin'robin said:
WORCESTER, Mass. — A 7-year-old boy who traveled to the state to spend the summer with his father and who, prosecutors say, was severely beaten by him on Father's Day can be removed from life support, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Juvenile Court Judge Carol Erskine delivered the ruling after a hearing in which a doctor at UMass Memorial Medical Center testified that the boy, Nathaniel Turner, didn't respond to a number of neurological tests. Dr. Scot Bateman said the hospital also got a second opinion from a Boston doctor that the boy was brain dead.

The judge gave custody of the boy to his mother for the purpose of deciding whether to donate his organs. Before ruling, the judge called the case "a heartbreaking and gut-wrenching situation," and she asked the media not to photograph any family members.

After the judge made her decision, family members could be seen crying and hugging each other as lawyers escorted them out of the courthouse.

Relatives said Nathaniel had lived with his maternal grandmother in Eufaula, Ala., before going to live with his father, Leslie Schuler, in Worcester, the second-largest city in New England, with a population of about 175,000, located just west of Boston. Schuler, 36, recently had received a court order to have summer custody of him.

The boy was physically and mentally abused by his father for about two months, police said. On Father's Day, he suffered severe injuries when his father slammed his head into a bedroom wall with such force that it left a dent in the wall, they said.

Schuler was arraigned Tuesday on seven counts of assault and battery and three assault counts. He pleaded not guilty and was held on $250,000 cash bail. His lawyer, Christopher Tully, said his client was remorseful.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said the case had become a homicide investigation, but he would not immediately comment on whether charges against Schuler would be upgraded to murder.

Schuler's lawyer requested at the hearing that the boy remain on a ventilator.

Nicholas Morana, a lawyer representing the boy's mother, said his client agreed with the hospital's assessment of her son's condition.

"She's devastated and very frustrated," Morana said. "She is angry at the father for what happened."

A spokesman for the district attorney's office said the family had requested that the mother's name not be released.

Schuler's girlfriend, Tiffany Hyman, was charged with two counts of assault and battery. Police said it appeared Hyman, 28, didn't strike the boy but could have intervened and stopped the abuse. She was held on $50,000 cash bail.

Her lawyer, Jose Rosario, said police reports contained no information indicating she touched the boy.

Massachusetts Judge Rules Boy Can Be Taken Off Life Support After Father's Day Beating - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com
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that is one HORRIBLE nightmare...:(poor boy! why did they let the father get out on bail...thats insane..he should stay in prison!!ugh! injustice!
 
Another tragic of child abuse. I dont know how much more sad stories I can read.
 
That is one of the saddest stories I have seen recently.
 
This just pissed me off about some Judges... I have been in a situation with my ex in the past.

I begged the judge to not allow my children to have unsupervised visitation with my ex. I wanted some kind of supervised visitation. Due to our divorce was based on him physically abusing me. (the judge knew that)

The judge granted my ex visitations. I cried and cried, and told my attorney. The judge just views me as a bitter ex wife, and I told my attorney that the judge will regret his decision.

I followed the court order.. and allowed my ex to have visitation.(two weeks for vacation, out of state) Two days later... I get a call. My child calling me... telling me that the cops are there. (due to D.V. with his current girlfriend) So I told my child, I will call the cops back to find out what is going on.. At first the officer would not tell me anything. Then Told the officer.. I have custody of those kids!! They are just on visitation by court order. That is when he took action.

That is when the cops said, they did a welfare check due to a complaint, and the Social services will be called. I gave them all my info.

It was not even 5 minutes before I got another call. The County Sheriffs dept calling me back, telling me that Social services is picking up my kids. Due to the incident and the situation of where my kids were staying. The cops was trying to shame me for allowing my kids to go there. I got pissed off and told the cop he needs to tell the judge that granted the visitation. NOT ME! Then a few minutes later the Social Services calls me and tells me they are removing my kids from his home due to the D.V. and deplorable conditions of the home. I was like WTF! I was shaking and crying so hard. I could only think. My babies!! What are they going through! I never though I could be so sick on a trip.. That was the longest 8 hour trip, I ever had in my life!



Anyhoo. My current hubby drove me 8 hours to pick my kids up from the soical services. The supervisor was awesome. She stayed in the office til 3 am ... I cried and cried even more! when I saw them on the floor, sleeping on day care mats, in the office of Dept of children s and families.


I received the reports. and my attorney sent them to the judge. My ex lost visitations. If he wants to see the kids he has to come to the county we live in and have supervised visitation. Should have seen the look on the judges face and ex hubby's attorney's face.

My Ex since has not attempt to contact the kids. I as well had made no effort to contact him.

Sad.
 
Babyblue said:
This just pissed me off about some Judges... I have been in a situation with my ex in the past.

I begged the judge to not allow my children to have unsupervised visitation with my ex. I wanted some kind of supervised visitation. Due to our divorce was based on him physically abusing me. (the judge knew that)

The judge granted my ex visitations. I cried and cried, and told my attorney. The judge just views me as a bitter ex wife, and I told my attorney that the judge will regret his decision.

I followed the court order.. and allowed my ex to have visitation.(two weeks for vacation, out of state) Two days later... I get a call. My child calling me... telling me that the cops are there. (due to D.V. with his current girlfriend) So I told my child, I will call the cops back to find out what is going on.. At first the officer would not tell me anything. Then Told the officer.. I have custody of those kids!! They are just on visitation by court order. That is when he took action.

That is when the cops said, they did a welfare check due to a complaint, and the Social services will be called. I gave them all my info.

It was not even 5 minutes before I got another call. The County Sheriffs dept calling me back, telling me that Social services is picking up my kids. Due to the incident and the situation of where my kids were staying. The cops was trying to shame me for allowing my kids to go there. I got pissed off and told the cop he needs to tell the judge that granted the visitation. NOT ME! Then a few minutes later the Social Services calls me and tells me they are removing my kids from his home due to the D.V. and deplorable conditions of the home. I was like WTF! I was shaking and crying so hard. I could only think. My babies!! What are they going through! I never though I could be so sick on a trip.. That was the longest 8 hour trip, I ever had in my life!



Anyhoo. My current hubby drove me 8 hours to pick my kids up from the soical services. The supervisor was awesome. She stayed in the office til 3 am ... I cried and cried even more! when I saw them on the floor, sleeping on day care mats, in the office of Dept of children s and families.


I received the reports. and my attorney sent them to the judge. My ex lost visitations. If he wants to see the kids he has to come to the county we live in and have supervised visitation. Should have seen the look on the judges face and ex hubby's attorney's face.

My Ex since has not attempt to contact the kids. I as well had made no effort to contact him.

Sad.
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Thank goodness you at least had a sensitive child services worker that stayed with the kids until you got there instead of placing them in emergency foster care. How much more traumatic that would have been for them.
 
WTF!? How could a father like that do that to his son? Especially on Father's Day!? Jeez!
 
How sad, on Father's day this incident had to happen.
 
"I plead not guilty"? Yea right...showing that he's trying to hide his guilt from even killing his own son.

He thinks he is all high and mighty using his powers to give fear and threat against others...but once he have already killed someone especially his own son, he is already in Hell.
 
Babyblue said:
This just pissed me off about some Judges... I have been in a situation with my ex in the past.

I begged the judge to not allow my children to have unsupervised visitation with my ex. I wanted some kind of supervised visitation. Due to our divorce was based on him physically abusing me. (the judge knew that)

The judge granted my ex visitations. I cried and cried, and told my attorney. The judge just views me as a bitter ex wife, and I told my attorney that the judge will regret his decision.

I followed the court order.. and allowed my ex to have visitation.(two weeks for vacation, out of state) Two days later... I get a call. My child calling me... telling me that the cops are there. (due to D.V. with his current girlfriend) So I told my child, I will call the cops back to find out what is going on.. At first the officer would not tell me anything. Then Told the officer.. I have custody of those kids!! They are just on visitation by court order. That is when he took action.

That is when the cops said, they did a welfare check due to a complaint, and the Social services will be called. I gave them all my info.

It was not even 5 minutes before I got another call. The County Sheriffs dept calling me back, telling me that Social services is picking up my kids. Due to the incident and the situation of where my kids were staying. The cops was trying to shame me for allowing my kids to go there. I got pissed off and told the cop he needs to tell the judge that granted the visitation. NOT ME! Then a few minutes later the Social Services calls me and tells me they are removing my kids from his home due to the D.V. and deplorable conditions of the home. I was like WTF! I was shaking and crying so hard. I could only think. My babies!! What are they going through! I never though I could be so sick on a trip.. That was the longest 8 hour trip, I ever had in my life!



Anyhoo. My current hubby drove me 8 hours to pick my kids up from the soical services. The supervisor was awesome. She stayed in the office til 3 am ... I cried and cried even more! when I saw them on the floor, sleeping on day care mats, in the office of Dept of children s and families.


I received the reports. and my attorney sent them to the judge. My ex lost visitations. If he wants to see the kids he has to come to the county we live in and have supervised visitation. Should have seen the look on the judges face and ex hubby's attorney's face.

My Ex since has not attempt to contact the kids. I as well had made no effort to contact him.

Sad.
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Very stupid of the judge failing to understand how dangerous your ex was and should've put in supervised visitation in the first place.
 
:shock: Gosh! What a horrible story. I hate child abusers!!

During those two months have the mother ever talked to her son over the phone to see how he is doing or something? It's so hard to believe during those two months the boy had suffered physically and mentally abused by his father and nobody knew the boy's well being until the day he was taken to the hospital on Father's day. I for one a mother I always make the time to call my sons and check up on them when they are with somebody, including the father. *sigh* I believe that's very important to know what's going on with your kids even if you think they're okay, but still a phone call makes a differences.
 
BabyBlue, so glad that it all worked out okay with your kids. That sucks that the judge couldn't see that at first.
 
That's really sad. I can't imagine causing so much harm to a 7 year old.
 
I am horrified, why would anyone do such a thing to a child let alone their own? Yet he pleads not guilty? I hate my fellow human kind more and more each day when I read stuff like this. I also think that both parents should be fried-she is just as repsonsible as the person who did the job. When you a parent or legal guardian you are responsioble for that child and she should have put a bullet in his head ending his misreable and pathetic life before he had the chance to do this. Anyone here on this site witnessing physical abuse of your child or someone elses, take note-report it-don't ignore it. You are just as responsible as the perpatrator.
 
Really horrible!...If I knew that my ex was abusive towards my child....but the judge still granted visitation rights.........I would take my child and run!

This has happened before when a mother "pleaded" with the judge that her ex husband was molesting the child......still the judge gave the father visitation rights because the molestation could not be proved and the child was around 3-4 years old..........the grandparents "hid" the child, and the mother went to jail....
 
cdaigle430 said:
I am horrified, why would anyone do such a thing to a child let alone their own? Yet he pleads not guilty? I hate my fellow human kind more and more each day when I read stuff like this. I also think that both parents should be fried-she is just as repsonsible as the person who did the job. When you a parent or legal guardian you are responsioble for that child and she should have put a bullet in his head ending his misreable and pathetic life before he had the chance to do this. Anyone here on this site witnessing physical abuse of your child or someone elses, take note-report it-don't ignore it. You are just as responsible as the perpatrator.
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I agree...I had to take a short child abuse/neglect workshop for my summer teaching job today and the speaker said that anyone who is aware of a child being abused but doesnt report nor do anything about it is just as guilty.
 
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