Letters to the Editor
Parson Jim
Published Letters: 566 Editor's Choice: 7
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Iowa Mom Gets Probation for Attempting to Sell 4-Year-Old Son to Pay for Wedding Dress
[Read the article: Roundup: Do these punching bags encourage female violence?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Iowa Mom Gets Probation for Attempting to Sell 4-Year-Old Son to Pay for Wedding Dress
Friday , December 07, 2007
AP
DAVENPORT, Iowa —
A Davenport woman received five years of probation Thursday for attempting to sell her 4-year-old son to help pay for a wedding dress.
Marcy Gant, 32, was convicted in October of purchase or sale of an individual and could have been sentenced up to 10 years in prison.
Gant was arrested in October 2006 after offering her son to a retailer to settle a $200 bill for the dress. Police said Gant offered the trade at least twice.
Gant's sons, ages 4 and 10 at the time, have been removed from the home by Iowa Department of Human Services.
Prosecutor Julie Walton requested prison time for Gant, citing "out-of-control behavior" fueled by alcoholism.
Lauren Phelps, Gant's attorney, requested probation.
"She's making better choices," Phelps said, saying she is keeping in touch with her children and maintaining a stable residence. "She's doing things she needs to do."
Gant will have to follow several special provisions, including bans on alcohol and contacting the prosecution's main witness in the case. Gant also will have to submit to random tests for drugs and alcohol, follow the advice of mental health professionals and attend two Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a week, Scott County District Judge James Kelley ruled.
Gant could be sent to prison for up to 10 years if she violates the order.
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Phys ed teacher won't serve jail time for sex with 13-year-old student
[Read the article: Roundup: Do these punching bags encourage female violence?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Tuesday December 4, 2007
Phys ed teacher won't serve jail time for sex with 13-year-old student
by The Associated Press
KINGWOOD -- A former West Preston Middle School physical education teacher will avoid jail time for a sexual encounter with a 13-year-old student.
Twenty-eight-year-old Lana Jo Rinehart of Terra Alta has agreed to a deal in which she'll serve two years' supervised probation and surrender her teaching license.
Preston County Prosecuting Attorney Melvin C. Snyder III said Monday that the deal, known as a pretrial diversion, was done at the request of the victim and the boy's mother.
Rinehart was charged in 2006 with third-degree sexual assault and sexual abuse by a custodian. According to court documents, the incident happened in September 2005, about two months before Rinehart resigned from the school system.
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Story of woman raped twice by same man false, S.F. police say
[Read the article: Roundup: Do these punching bags encourage female violence?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Story of woman raped twice by same man false, S.F. police say
Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, December 8, 2007
(12-07) 13:51 PST San Francisco - -- Last month's report of a woman raped by the same man twice in five days was fabricated, San Francisco police said Friday, and composite sketches the woman helped generate of her alleged attacker have been removed from the department's Web site.
The 27-year-old woman first told police that on Nov. 10 she was assaulted on the street during a purse snatching and again five days later after the assailant apparently learned her address and attacked her at her home. She did not report the first attack until after the second one supposedly occurred.
The woman told police that she was first raped about 5:30 p.m. Nov. 10 as she walked from the Glen Park BART station toward Bosworth Street. A woman who was with the male assailant yelled at the victim, demanded her purse, then slapped her and pushed her to the pavement after grabbing it, she told police.
The man then pushed the woman down again and raped her, police said.
On Nov. 15, the woman told police, she was driving up to her home when the man reappeared, this time with a gun, and followed her into the garage. He then raped the woman a second time, she told authorities.
Sgt. Steve Mannina, spokesman for the department, said the woman admitted to police she made up the account of the attacks.
"It turned out after further investigation, that it never occurred," Mannina said, but declined to elaborate on what led police to discover that the account was fabricated.
"We plan on conferring with the D.A.'s office on whether criminal charges will be filed for making a false police report," Mannina said.
"When someone comes forward and reports a crime, we have a moral responsibility and obligation to investigate it," Mannina said.
Now that the investigation is complete, he said, "We hope that the dissemination of this information that this didn't occur will set this community's mind at ease."
E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/08/BA9CTQAMA.DTL
This article appeared on page B - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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Stinky Joe
[Read the article: Roundup: Do these punching bags encourage female violence?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just wanted to balance the misandry of the clippings in this "roundup".
I noticed you made no mention of that......sad.