Jury pins suicide on a sloppy mom

kdet

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Jury pins suicide on a sloppy mom



By TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A Connecticut mom who kept her home like a pigsty was convicted yesterday of contributing to the suicide of her 12-year-old son - who was bullied at school for poor hygiene.
In a landmark verdict, Judith Scruggs, 52, was found guilty of putting her child, Daniel, at risk but cleared of a cruelty charge and a medical neglect charge.

Scruggs faces up to 10 years in prison when she's sentenced in Superior Court next month. She refused to comment but her attorney was outraged.

"I hope the public will have an outcry that someone could be convicted of any charge in association with the suicide of her child," defense lawyer Reese Norris said.

During a week-long trial, prosecutors charged that after Daniel hanged himself in his closet with a necktie in January 2002, authorities found a scene of squalor.

The Meriden home was cluttered with boxes, dirty clothes and debris. The bathroom was filthy, the sink piled with dirty dishes and there was a rank smell.

Daniel had body odor and bad breath and was mercilessly picked on at school, yet his mother failed to get medical help or counseling for him, they charged.

The boy was so tortured he often slept in his closet with knives and a homemade spear for protection - an image that resonated with the jury.

"I definitely didn't think she did enough," juror Vinny Giardina said of Scruggs after the verdict. "You just don't let things go."

Friends of Scruggs who testified in her defense said prosecutors exaggerated the messiness of the home - and questioned why they would try to jail a grieving mother.

"I think there's been a terrible injustice here - to tell somebody they're guilty because their house is dirty," Kevin Murphy, 47, told the Daily News. "She's suffered so much, and now to have this branded on is terrible."

But William Durrin, 32, who is married to Daniel's half-sister, said he believes the jury let Scruggs off too easy.

"It's the sympathy factor. Everybody is feeling sorry for her, and figures since she lost her son why should she be put through more torture?" he said.

Durrin said he has no doubt that Scruggs' neglect of her son sent him into a suicidal tailspin, and he fears the judge will give her a no-jail sentence.

"I think about Daniel every day," he said.

"Fishing was my passion but since he's passed away, I've only gone fishing three times because I know when I go, all I'll think about is Daniel."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/124392p-111658c.html
 

jayswife29

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Maybe the house being messy wasn't the crime, but when her child suffered because of it, well in my opinion that is a crime. Everyones house gets messy, but when your child is getting tortured because of his hygiene (or lack of it) then that to me is neglect on the part of the parents.
 
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Fiat

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I heard about this story on the Christian radio station the other day. My heart goes out to this boy who had suffered and had been treated so terribly. As far as the grieving mother stuff.....where was she when this child was sleeping in his closet? being picked on for poor hygeniene? A bar of soap, toothpaste and toothbrush doesn't costs that much.
 
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Durango

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There were many others at fault concerning the way this child was treated and none of them were charged with any wrongdoing.

And I would venture to say that the others had much more to do with this boy's thoughts of suicide than his mother's poor housekeeping.
 
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the_malevolent_milk_man

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When your kid is sleeping in a closet with a home made spear for protection you can't help but think that you're doing something wrong... Hope she gets nailed with endangerment and neglect.

There's a difference between a messy house and a messy house that drives your child insane, causes him to be a social outcast due to poor hygeine, and finally take his own life.
 
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HeatherJay

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Well, I agree that she neglected her child. But where were his teachers? If he was getting picked on at school, then this muxt have been obvious. Isn't it the responsibility of the teacher to report signs of neglect? Where was child services? I'm not saying the mother was not at some fault here (I have no clue how a mother's first responsibility is not the welfare of her child) but I agree with the others who say there were others who should have stepped in long before it got to that point. It's a tragedy.

Love, Heather
 
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Durango

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MERIDEN, Conn., Oct. 6 — It was easy to push J. Daniel Scruggs around, to throw him off gym bleachers and send him hurtling down school staircases. A slip of a boy, he was short, and at age 12, just 63 pounds. At Washington Middle School here, where he attended seventh grade until he killed himself in January 2002, he may as well have been invisible. And in many ways, he was.

"Like he was nothing," said Melissa Smith, a 14-year-old student at the school, when asked how teachers and classmates regarded Daniel. She testified for the defense in the trial of Daniel's mother, Judith Scruggs, who was convicted Monday in connection with his suicide. Ms. Scruggs was charged in April 2002, two months after her intent to sue the city had been filed.

Indeed, most school officials did little to halt the grim parade of attacks and indignities foisted upon Daniel. A report after Daniel's death by the state's Office of the Child Advocate, which oversees state agencies serving children, said he "seemed to be held responsible for his circumstances."

The advocate's report describes a boy who had failed to navigate the byzantine corridors that are middle school. His classmates and teachers said that his clothes were not right, that he smelled bad and that he had virtually no friends.

The Meriden police, who investigated his death, described a house knee-deep in clutter, garbage and unwashed dishes. They charged his mother with misdemeanor cruelty and two felony counts of putting her child at risk. She was found guilty of one of the felonies, creating an unhealthy and unsafe home environment.

She was acquitted of the cruelty charge and the second felony charge that she put her son at risk by failing to get him proper help when he showed signs of trouble. Although the child advocate's office found repeated instances of Daniel's being assaulted at school, the school is not the subject of a criminal investigation. State prosecutors said there were no plans to file criminal charges against it or any of its students.

A Meriden police detective, Gary Brandl, said the police had investigated claims that Daniel had been bullied at school, but he said investigators had been assured by school officials that any "known instances of Daniel's being bullied were addressed." Daniel complained of being picked on at school to his mother, to a social worker for the state child welfare agency and to a probation officer assigned to investigate his truancy problem, but few believed him.

According to the report and testimony in court, a teacher made him clean off his chair when another classmate spat on him, and there were few repercussions when he was picked up by a student and spun like a top in gym class. No school officials would comment on the case.

Almost two years later, students said that there was less bullying at Washington Middle School, but that it was far from over. "Kids get pushed around and shoved into lockers," said Tyler Hoffler, an eighth grader at the school who said he had once known Daniel. "Teachers don't see a lot of things."

One Meriden mother said that in 2002, her son had been punched so hard by a classmate there that he was sent to an emergency room. The woman asked that her name be withheld; her son had been beaten after a local newspaper published it.

Daniel's suicide prompted the passage of anti-bullying legislation six months after his death. The law requires every Connecticut school district to establish a policy to combat bullying that includes filing reports, which can be anonymous or signed, and publishing lists of each incident.

Investigators said Daniel's mother, a single parent who worked at Wal-Mart and the school, should have done more, particularly when he had been late or absent 74 out of 78 school days. He had been moved to a trailer behind the school designated for children who had trouble fitting in with other students.

"Occasionally a teacher would tell students to stop, but they wouldn't listen," said Ms. Smith, who recalled instances of Daniel's being bullied that ranged from being pushed off gymnasium bleachers and having "kick me" signs stuck to his back.

Thomas Fitzgibbon, his gym teacher, testified that Daniel had been spun about by a classmate. He reported it to administrators, but recalled that no disciplinary action was taken.

Mr. Fitzgibbon described his onetime student as childlike. "He was a young sixth and seventh grader, and most of his classmates were into more mature pursuits, like dating and gossip," he said.

Almost one month before his death, Daniel told a social worker he did not think he could go back to his old school. He could not deal with the other children, he said, and the harassment had escalated. What was more, he told her, his Game Boy had been stolen at school and no one had done anything about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/07/nyregion/07BULL.html
By the time he killed himself, he had missed 44 days of class. He was so frightened of being bullied that he had taken to defecating and urinating in his pants, presumably to get out of school, witnesses said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/07/nyregion/07MOM.html?pagewanted=2

After reading what this poor boy went through at school, the bullying and no one listening or doing anything about it, is it any wonder he kept those knives in his closet? Were they to protect himself from his mother? I don't think so, this child feared for his life because of the bullying.

He told the social worker a week before his suicide that he felt he couldn't return to that school because he was so afraid. Couldn't this social worker pick up on the boy's desperation? What about the school officials and teachers? Couldn't they see his desperation? Why weren't all these peopl hauled into court? Blame it all on the mother? Sure, she played a role in it, no doubt, but it seems to me the school officials and social services were the ones ultimately responsible for relieving this child of his desperation.
 
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HeatherJay

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That's just horrible. And after reading that article, it sounds to me like the state only brought charges against the mother because she was about to go after them. Bullying is such a huge problem in schools and you'd think after all the school shootings and tragic deaths such as this one that school and state officials and parents would start to wake up and take this seriously. It breaks my heart that this little boy was crying out for help and NO ONE, not even the people whose job it was to do so, was listening to him. It just makes me want to go and grab my girls and tell them how much I love them. We should all pray for the children who are crying out for help, especially those who aren't being heard.

Love, Heather
 
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the_malevolent_milk_man

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That still does not excuse the mother, who obviously did a horrible job of raising her child. His hygeine was the source of him being mistreated and this is linked back to the mother. Schools aren't able to police children, it's rather easy to get away with anything. I can understand the counselor and school missing the early signs but when you have a kid wetting himself so he can get out of class that's a pretty clear sign of a serious problem. How the school handles these situations needs to be revised, however I doubt there is any legal way to punish them other than order reform and fire the inept teachers/counselors who ignored the situation.
 
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Fiat

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After reading Duragao's article, I am even more convinced that the mom is to be held responsible. What kind of mom does nothing while her kid comes home and tells her he is being bullied? Get real! A mom is to protect her kid...if my kid came home and told me that you can be sure I'd be up at that school raising h*ll. I would not sit and allow my kid to be bullied or hurt. She could have removed him from that school and placed the child in another school if she was not satisfied with what the school was doing to protect her child, but instead she did nothing. ARGH!!!!!!!
 
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