GUILTY IN - Alissa Guernsey, 16 mos, beaten to death, LaGrange, 28 March 2009

[BeginnersLuck]

http://www.wane.com/news/crime/prosecutor-wont-step-down-from-case-of-toddlers-death

According to WANE's partner in news, KPC , LaGrange County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Wible will not reopen the case of the death of a 16-month-old girl in LaGrange.

On Thursday, Wible received a certified letter from self-appointed child advocate Bernadine Buccafuri of Pennsylvania on behalf of a group called BabyAlissaCries4Justice.org requesting that Ohio attorney Kevin Rumes be named a special prosecutor in the case of Alissa’s death.

The letter sent to Wible reads, in part, “We believe … you failed in your prosecution of justice on behalf of Alissa Beth Guernsey and respectfully request that you relinquish any participation in this case.”

Wible said he shares the group’s frustration with how the case turned out, but he believes he did all he could with the case. Wible said he will not respond to the group’s request.

 

[twall]

Rspectfully BBM...because the baby couldn't tell. If an older child were presented to the doctor with the injuries Alissa had, I think most doctors would find a way to question the child to see if the stories lined up.

I have been ticking off the number of people who let Alissa down as I read through these links, and the list is long. The only truly innocent person in this case is dead, IMO. I want to know why the male caregiver was granted immunity. Only an utter dumba$$ could live in the same house while this was going on and not suspect something. Was he taking Alissa's pain meds? I understand (I mean I get it, not that I agree) the fact that he wasn't charged, but why grant him immunity? Why didn't DSS demand Alissa be produced when she missed multiple visits with her mom? Why didn't Alissa's mom do more to make sure her baby was ok? I mean, this is your child. You do WHATEVER it takes to ensure her safety and well-being. You start screaming and do not shut up until someone listens. Don't even get me started on the judge. And then there is the murderer. That is what she is, if the husband is truly not responsible for Alissa's injuries.

The ultimate sentence in this case is sickening. Wrong place/wrong time? Alissa deserved so much better than she got, and she still derserves it today. It's too late to bring Alissa back, but it is not too late to see justice done for her.

As human beings, this miscarriage of justice should sicken us all. If you allow yourself to try and imagine the misery this tiny child suffered, how can it not knock the wind right out of your soul? Anyone who would inflict this suffering on a baby does not deserve to be free in society, free to raise her own children, free to go on with her life.

The whole thing is maddening :banghead:

Amen...I live in a neighboring county of the one where Alissa was murdered.
I recall a case where a mother left her young children (a few years old and a child under one but old enough to sit up unassisted) alone in the home to run an errand while they were taking a bath together and the youngest child drowned. I can't recall what they charged her with but she pled out and the judge gave her probation...you know what his reasoning was? Because her children need her!!! :banghead: I never voted for that idiot judge again! I was so pizzed...she shouldn't of even been allowed to have her kids when she clearly neglected them but that is the way it goes around here! :stormingmad:

 

[believe09]

Melissa McKowan, a prosecutor in San Mateo CA, was sanctioned for her handling of the case of a former child psychiatrist who sexually assaulted patients over a period of about 50 years.

I bring this up because there was external documentation and testimony from the families of the victims that she willfully turned a blind eye and or lied regarding whether or not she interviewed witnesses and followed through on details of the case. Example-the defendant (who was finally convicted this year) claimed that he was trained in med school to do genital exams on his male psych patients. Ms McKowan NEVER pursued whether or not that was the case. A PI/Journalist/Victim's advocate uncovered fellow med school students and an army of physicians who refuted that notion. McKowan never used that at trial.

I would make sure in this case that someone has obtained and poured over the court transcripts and matched it as much as possible to what the witnesses in the case initially told police and in depositions etc.

Maybe that has already been done. If the weak links are the judge and the county prosecutor, then it is worth doing a very close review of their work here. JMVHO.

 

[SwampMama]

How surprised and touched i was to see this story in my local news

http://www.wafb.com/story/24337962/...r&utm_content=buffer49786&utm_medium=facebook

Balloon released in Iowa found in SC, and message travels along with it

A mysterious note tied to a balloon drops in the middle of a corn field in Cameron......

This is truly the kind of story you can't make up. ......

A message delivered by the winds was found in November by Ginger Myer Howe and her family.....

The note read: "Happy birthday baby dragonfly. Alissa was murdered at 16 months old, and her killer remains free. It says baby Alissa's Iowa Army.

It didn't take long to trace that note to the Baker family in Dunlap, Iowa, and the story behind the tragic life and death of 16-month-old baby Alissa Guernsey......

WIS Meteorologist John Farley says its nearly impossible that a regular balloon would travel more than 1200 miles from Iowa to South Carolina.

"Most of the time they're going to pop fairly quickly after you release them," said Farley. "They go up, they pop and they fall down maybe 10, 15 miles away."...

And for Ginger, who still stalks these woods listening and searching, this note has been a gift. An invitation to remember and fight for a life lost too soon.

"Baby dragonfly brought it here," she said.

 

[STEADFAST]

UPDATE:

Christy Shaffer, 35, of Topeka was sentenced to six years in the Indiana Department of Corrections for violating her probation from a case involving the death of a toddler in 2011. http://www.lagrangepublishing.com/o...obation-violation-gets-topeka-woman-six-years

http://www.lagrangepublishing.com/o...obation-violation-gets-topeka-woman-six-years

 

[ontheclock]

Sweet. I wish her sentence was even longer. Indiana's good behavior credit system is a failure IMO. I prefer truth in sentencing policies. Violating probation for such a serious crime should render her ineligible for any "good behavior" allowances.

 

[pinklilies]

This whole forum is amazing and the people on it, well, I'm speechless really what you all do.
Fancy a total stranger to little Alissa, which is Ms Facetious, refusing to let this little girls life be swept under the carpet and be forgotten. You made Alissa special and I'm sure everyone who has seen her pictures as had their heart touched by her. Posting all those lovely photos of her when she was happy yet made it known she was cruelly tortured and eventually murdered. The pic of Alissa in that chair in the blue top, her little eyes are hollow, lifeless. The saddest picture I've ever seen. Thankfully the person responsible has finally had her liberties taken away. Just not for long enough. Not long enough by far.
Thank you MsFacetious for being so caring about this unloved and tormented in life, little child.

 

[BrownRice]

Christy Shaffer was released from prison this past weekend.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/new...cle_df29aa50-1886-5c37-8c07-a14ec64e2e46.html

In December, Shaffer had asked for early release into community corrections, which Special Judge Kevin Wallace had denied, ordering her to serve out her full term. In December, the DOC had listed Shaffer's earliest release date as May 12.

........The abuse death of Alissa Guernsey raised outrage after the original judge in the case sentenced Shaffer to 10 years in prison, suspending four of them, and then ordered her released after only 77 days. When she was arrested in 2013 for allowing others to make meth in her home, it was ruled a violation of probation in the baby's death, and she was ordered in May 2014 to serve the remaining six years of the neglect sentence.

 

[AC_Lucky1]

Believe it or not, we are still fighting!

http://www.wane.com/news/crime/prosecutor-wont-step-down-from-case-of-toddlers-death