Strollerderby : charges

Elderly Man Resues Abandoned Baby

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:00:00 GMT

An 81-year-old man from a quiet Boston suburb stepped out to pick up the mail yesterday and was surprised to find a tote bag sitting on his doorstep. He was even more surprised by the contents of the bag: a newborn baby girl, sleeping peacefully. After John Tuckerman put his hand to the infant’s cheek and she stirred, he hurriedly called 911.

The baby was rushed to the hospital and is in excellent health. She had been cleaned and dried before she was abandoned, although her umbilical cord was still intact. Whoever abandoned her also left a pillow, a blanket, and a note asking that the baby be well cared for.

Newton police are trying to find the baby’s parents and hope that anyone with information about the newborn will come forward. This seems unlikely to me, however, since the parents could potentially face child abuse charges if they were identified.

Some are arguing that this case underscores the need to publicize Massachusetts’ Baby Safe Haven Law, which makes it legal to abandon an infant who is seven days old or younger at a police station, a firehouse, or a hospital. The parents or mother who abandoned this baby girl clearly cared about her welfare. It’s likely that they would have left her at one of these “safe havens” had they known about the law.

Fortunately, in this case the baby is unharmed and will go to a loving home.

Does Batman Hit His Mom?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:30:00 GMT

Christian Bale’s professional career may be at all an all-time high, but his family life certainly leaves something to be desired. Although Bale has remain tight-lipped about allegations that he assaulted his mom and his sister, a source close to the Dark Knight star has shed some light on the charges.

Bale has not exactly been tight with either his mom Jenny or his sister Sharon since his parents’ divorce over a decade ago. Christian sided with Dad; Sharon sided with Mom. (Apparently, no one explained the whole making-your-kids-pick-sides-in-a-divorce-causes-irreparable-psychological-damage phenomenon to Christian’s parents). But just before the Dark Knight premiere, Sharon and Jenny reached out to Christian, and he reluctantly agreed to meet them in his hotel room

Turns out they were hoping Christian would front them some cash for a business scheme they’d cooked up. Christian got mad and ordered them out of the room, allegedly pushing his mother out of the door. Sharon and Jenny went to the cops, who questioned Christian and then released him. He has not been formally charged yet.

Photo: Chicago Sun-Times

But that hasn’t prevented his mother from trying to sell her assault story to the media. Perhaps she won’t need her son’s financial assistance after all…

MySpace, Naked Photos, and a Dumped Teenager: A Cautionary Tale

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:36:00 GMT

The plight of Alex Phillips offers a good lesson in how NOT to respond to a break-up. The 17-year-old Wisconsin teen (pictured) faces up to 16 years in prison for publishing naked photos of his ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. If this sounds like the doings of a puritanical, punishment-happy society, wait till you learn a bit more about this lovely Alex character.

After Alex “dated” (which is probably a very tame way to put it) a 16-year-old girl for a while, they broke up and she started seeing someone else. Alex decided to teach his ex a little lesson about who she was dealing with—and about being a bit more cautious when she emailed photos in the future. He allegedly pasted on his MySpace page two nude photos that the girl had emailed to him during happier times. Suffice it to say that, according to the police report, one of the photos was a close-up that was not of the girl’s face.

Under this photo, Alex eloquently described his broken heart this way: “Yo tell me this bitch desurves this!!!!!....TF gets my leftovers….” I’ve included the ellipses to indicate references to the girl’s anatomy (or, more specifically, to what Alex did to said anatomy) that are best left to the imagination.

Unfortunately for Al, he took a similarly aggressive stance when police phoned him and asked him to remove the photos. “Fuck that,” he reportedly said. “I’m keeping them up.” Once he was brought in to custody and charged with child porn, defamation, and sexual exploitation of a minor, Alex conceded that he was simply “venting,” but he “probably should not have done this.” The girl told police she was “very upset.”

In a best case scenario, boys such as Alex Phillips would have some really good therapy for years before they were allowed any more contact with women. And 16-year-old girls would not email photos of their anatomy to boys like Alex. And teenage boys would not call girls bitches, and would know how to spell the word “deserve.” Considering that this is clearly not a “best-case scenario” world, what do you think of Alex Phillips: vicious pervert deserving of criminal prosecution or confused teenager who simply took these things a bit too far?

Photo: The Smoking Gun