Recently in Child Abuse Category

Bernie Fine’s third accuser has stepped forward claiming that the Syracuse assistant basketball coach molested him as a teen in 2002. In an interesting twist, the accuser, Zach Tomaselli, is himself facing criminal sexual assault charges of a minor and those closest to him cast doubt on his story.

Bernie Fine has been accused by two step-brothers -- Bobby Davis and Mike Lang -- who say that Fine sexually abused them when they worked as ball boys in the early 1980s. The newest allegations by the now 23-year-old Tomaselli would have occurred almost 20 years later.

What is going on in this world? Another major university and sports program is now being investigated in connection with a child abuse sex scandal that could involve multiple victims.

Bernie Fine, the long-time Syracuse University assistant basketball coach under Jim Boeheim, is being investigated by Syracuse police for sexual molestation. The Bernie Fine sex abuse scandal could involve several victims.

The mom in school fight reportedly may lose her child as the Suffolk County Child Protective Services is investigating the incident for child abuse.

Earlier this week, we wrote that Daphne Melin drove her 12-year-old daughter to a Long Island school yard to fight her classmate. Apparently, the daughter was involved in drama at school over a boy. This caused some 13-year-olds to make comments about Melin's daughter on Facebook and also challenge the daughter to a fight. Fueled by the social media website, several children showed up at the school yard to gawk at the fight.

Parents are supposed to be the voice of reason. But that wasn't the case with one Facebook fight mom, who drove her daughter to a fight, egged it on, and then joined the fight.

Daphne Melin, a 32-year-old Suffolk County mom, drove her 12-year-old daughter to William Floyd Elementary School over the weekend to participate in a Facebook-induced fight, reports the New York Post.

Queens mom Regina Cooper, 31, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars for dropping her 3-year-old son into a bathtub filled with scalding water. Apparently she was angry that her son had soiled his diapers, according to the New York Daily News. Richard Buchter, the Queens Supreme Court Justice on this case, reprimanded Regina Cooper for taking out her anger on a child “who just wanted to be loved.”

Barkim Owens, Regina Cooper’s son, endured the assault by his mother in January. He spent six weeks in a coma and suffered burns that had spread to 20 percent of his body. Doctors had to cut off all ten of Owens’ toes and removed one of his ribs, inserting it in his throat to help open up his airway. The incident has left the young boy experiencing nightmares as he avoids getting into a tub.

Here's an update in a case that New York criminal defense attorneys will likely be following.

A 33-year old woman was charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child after an alleged suicide attempt.

The woman, Devi Silvia Dominic of Upper West Side, was strolling with her eighteen month old daughter on the pier at West 70th Street when she apparently threw herself into the water, after throwing her daughter, Jessica Catherine Prithiviraj, into the water.

A woman was plucked from the Hudson River on Tuesday, after sources claim she jumped in to the water.

The incident is being investigated as a murder-suicide. The woman allegedly jumped in with her toddler.

A New York City woman is facing the maximum sentence for beating and starving her three month old baby to death. The woman, Jovanniee Florestal, 26, received a sentence of 25 years to life.

The gruesome 2004 incident involved her three month old son, Colesvingtong. The baby's body was found in a Harlem shelter for the homeless with a fractured skull and shaken baby syndrome. At the time, the three month old weighed nine pounds.

Although child abuse laws are sometimes in conflict with the rights of autonomy of a parent to raise their child, the laws generally aim at protecting children from neglect. The child abuse laws therefore strike a delicate balance between the consitutional rights of parents and the criminal laws that protect the children.

A former teacher has pleaded guilty to attempting to disseminate indecent material to a minor, or in other words, sending a minor an X-rated video and trying to seduce her.

In actuality, Alexander Kravitz really sent the video to an undercover cop who was posing as a 14-year-old girl. The New York Daily News reports that NYPD officers arrested him at a motel where he thought he was going to make a porn movie with the minor.

In addition to all of this, child porn was found at his home.

The scariest thing about this case is that Kravitz was a teacher at William E. Grady Vocational High School. It is frightening to think that a man like this was around children so often.

New York as well as other states may be influenced by one Delaware lawmaker.

The AP reports that Rep. John Atkins, is trying to introduce several proposals that would increase the punishment that sex offenders might face from life sentences to special license plates.

Due to the severity of one of his penalties, the candidates must meet all of the following requirements: male, high-risk, repeat sex offender, over 21 years old, and the intended target was under 12 years old (AP).

If this proposal becomes the law, then anyone who matches that description might have to undergo chemical castration in his state.

In an article by the Washington Post titled, "Can Castration By a Solution for Sex Offenders?" chemical castration is described as when "drugs are injected to lower the testosterone level, which in tern reduces sex drive." This is different from a surgical castration because the testes are not removed.