Recently in Child Abuse Category

The good thing about the Internet is that it allows your children to have the world at their fingertips. The bad thing about the Internet is that it allows your children to have the world at their fingertips.

Online safety for kids is a hot topic because kids are increasingly exposed to harmful and criminal material over the Internet. Ever-younger children are going online, and unfortunately, there are predators waiting to bully or take advantage. For example, students have killed themselves over Facebook bullying, young children have been victimized by sexual predators, and minors have been exploited by those who prey on the innocent.

Brian Annoreno will spend his next 40 years in prison after being sentenced for his child pornography crimes. Last year, Annoreno pled guilty to a variety of crimes relating to child pornography after he was arrested for molesting an infant and live-streaming the act over the Internet reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

According to the Sun-Times, Annoreno took part in a worldwide child pornography ring on Internet chat rooms like “Kiddpics & Kiddyvds.” In these chat rooms, Annoreno was accused of swapping thousands of pornographic images and videos with people around the world.

West suburban Chicago mother Jamie L. Riley was arrested Saturday afternoon after witnesses told police she was carrying her 3-month-old infant "as if she had a football under her armpit," the Chicago Sun-Times reported. It's not her first run-in with the police over child endangerment, as Jamie Riley's statement to the police illustrates:

"I was drinking vodka earlier, celebrating with my husband because DCFS dropped their investigation."

Gurnee police officer Jay Simon faces up to five years in prison after he was convicted of molesting a 10-year-old girl in his home, the Chicago Daily Herald reported. But he may also be eligible for probation in his conviction on charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

He was ordered held in jail until his next court date on Oct. 12, where his sentence will be determined. There were minor difference in detail between the two witnesses, who were present the night of the abuse, which Chicago criminal defense attorney Torrie Newsome said cast doubt on the charges:

"Anyone can get up here and say what they want to say. But look at the details of what they said and ask yourself 'Does this make sense?'"

April Bainter and Joel Ballard, the 18-year-old parents of deceased infant Joel Bainter, were charged last Sunday with one count each of aggravated battery of a child and endangering the life of a child, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The young parents' Chicago criminal attorney was not named nor cited in the local press but any attempt to defend his or her clients by describing the ordeal as an accident, in the absence of further evidence, might not go over so well.

An autopsy by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office concluded that the 3-month-old child died of multiple injuries caused by blunt force trauma specifically as a result of child abuse. The baby's death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner's office.

The Coal City Courant reported that Timothy T. Scholtes was sentenced to 50 years in a federal prison for receiving and manufacturing child pornography. The 46-year-old former youth soccer coach denies any wrongdoing despite pleading guilty to the charges.

Through his Illinois criminal defense attorney, Timothy Scholtes has stated his intention to appeal the sentence.

Timothy Scholtes not only was convicted on charges related to child pornography, but also was proven by federal prosecutors to have molested at least six boys under the age of 12. They also proved that he had planned or attempted to molest other children.

A 37-year-old West Side woman was charged with child endangerment after her one-year-old grandson ingested small amounts of cocaine and PCP from pieces of aluminum foil in her home, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. After family members noticed the boy was lethargic he was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where doctors founded traces of the drugs in his system. 

Yolanda Beck, who has a long history of drug arrests, faces one misdemeanor count of endangering the life and health of a child, according to police.

Just about anyone with functioning reproductive organs can become parents. Making the baby, at least initially, is the easy part (often done with no intention of actually making a baby) but parenting is difficult, infinitely humbling work. Still, being a horrible parent is not necessarily against the law.

Leaving your two toddlers at home alone while you go out on a Friday night (Sun-Times)? Yeah, that's not only uncool but also quite illegal.

One of two children allegedly left home alone by their mother, both between the ages of two and three, was seen by a neighbor crying on an outside deck of an apartment. The neighbor called the police and the mother, 24-year-old Far South Side resident Loran Guzman, was charged with two felony counts of endangering the life and health of a child.

A 76-year-old Naperville man, Daniel G. Hernandez, faces a possible deportation after his trial on sexual molestation charges, regardless of the outcome in court (Sun-Times). He has been accused of sexually abusing one of his grandchildren last December.

Hernandez remains in DuPage County Jail on a $17,500 bond, although US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents issued a "no bond" hold on the defendant, which means he's to be held until ICE officials can work out a bond for his deportation proceedings.

Anyone who's seen the 1990s film "Trainspotting" remembers the gruesome scene in which an otherwise healthy infant dies from days (weeks?) of neglect because her drug-addicted parents were constantly nodding-off from hard narcotics.

That was a work of fiction, but the humanity-draining qualities of heroin and similarly hard drugs are very real.