Mother accused of abuse

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Lindsey Collom

The Arizona Republic

Tina Lynn Tatum said she was changed after her baby boy was killed at the hands of a live-in boyfriend.

Court records showed Tatum wanted a better life for her surviving son and didn't want any harm to come to him. Authorities in 2006 seemed to agree she could provide that security.

Now that same woman is charged with beating her child at a Wal-Mart.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced Thursday that a direct complaint against Tatum had been filed in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Tatum, 29, is facing two counts of child abuse, which carry a minimum prison sentence of 4.5 years combined.

Witnesses on Sunday told police they saw Tatum hitting, punching and dragging her bloodied 10-year-old son inside a Mesa Wal-Mart.

Images of the attack were captured on cellphone cameras, police said.

The boy has since been placed with family members.

Thomas said he was disturbed that Tatum even had custody of the child. The boy's 3-month-old brother was shaken to death by Tatum's live-in boyfriend in 2003, and Tatum was accused of failing to prevent or report the acts.

She pleaded guilty in 2005 to attempted child abuse and was sentenced to a year incarceration and lifetime probation.

"It just confounds me that a woman with this past had custody of a second child," Thomas said. "The current system for protecting children from violent parents and live-in adults is not working."

Thomas said Child Protective Services or law enforcement should have intervened long ago.

CPS spokeswoman Liz Barker said no one reported concerns about the child. Until Sunday, the last contact the agency had with the family was October 2005. That was when support services for relatives caring for the now 10-year-old came to an end, Barker said.

"In general, it has been our experience if there are concerns, those concerns are reported to CPS and we provide whatever information or assistance is requested," she said.

The court does not consider attempted child abuse to be a dangerous or repetitive offense.

In a memo to the court dated May 5, 2006, Tatum's probation officer wrote there was no indication that she should not have contact with her surviving son. That officer noted that Tatum had obeyed all the terms of her probation, attended domestic-violence classes and was set to begin parenting classes that June.

Because of her progress, the officer allowed Tatum to return to her father's home to live with him and her son.

Her father had custody of the boy during her incarceration, and the court did not object to the officer's decision.

Court documents showed that Tatum had "changed her life" after her baby was killed.

"She devotes all her time to her other child and does not take him for granted anymore," a pre-sentence report read. "The defendant loves her children and did not want her son to die. She now wants to give everything to her other son and does not want him to hurt at all."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0817walmart0817.html

[Sinergy 3]

I want to kill women like her

[almaty 19]

the #######...........terrible....