Texas Mist
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Victim's brother tells of futile efforts to get help for long-abused, disabled woman
By Jay Tokasz
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: January 31, 2010, 12:16 am /
Published: January 30, 2010, 12:02 pm
Laura Cummings struggled with mental and physical disabilities her entire life.
A grown woman of 23, she had the mental capacity of an 8-year-old girl. She talked with a speech impediment and had difficulty swallowing food.
Worse than any of the disabilities, though, was the mistreatment she received at the hands of her mother, according to authorities and at least one family member.
.......
Erie County sheriff's investigators said Cummings covered her daughter's nose and mouth with her bare hands. By then, investigators said, the daughter had been doused in the face with a pot of scalding water by Luke Wright, 31, Cummings' son and the victim's half-brother, who was charged with first-degree assault.
Wright, wearing a Carhartt coat, oversized jeans and rubber boots, tried to tell the judge that he wasn't home at the time he was accused of committing the crime.
......
The victim's younger brother, Richard, 22, had been trying for months to get her removed from the apartment at 2052 Sherman Ave., where she had lived with her mother, half-brother and another brother, Eddie, for 18 years.
Eddie Cummings was not charged and is not considered a suspect, investigators said.
Richard Cummings, a member of the Air Force who lives on a base in North Carolina, said he had complained, on multiple occasions, to the county's Adult Protective Services unit, which is charged with protecting adults with disabilities from abuse.
"She should have been put in a different home," he said. "I knew something like this was going to happen. I'm very frustrated and very angry that she was not removed from that household."
Richard Cummings, who was back in Western New York on leave for his sister's funeral, said Adult Protective Services investigators never went into the home and merely spoke with his mother.
"My mother had lied to them, saying everything was fine," he said.
Richard Cummings became increasingly concerned about his sister last summer, when he received a text message from a younger sister who doesn't live with Eva Cummings. The message indicated that Laura Cummings' arm had been badly cut and was not being treated.
At the time, Richard Cummings asked Stevens, the town justice, to help him file a complaint with the county's Protective Services unit.
Stevens acknowledged in an interview after Saturday's arraignment that he had helped Richard Cummings with an initial telephone call to Child Protective Services, but he said he was not involved in the case beyond that.
The complaint went to Child Protective Services because Stevens wasn't sure of Laura Cummings' age. Eventually, Adult Protective Services was contacted, but the complaint apparently was determined to be unfounded.
Laura Cummings suffered from years of abuse simply because "she was mentally challenged and they didn't like it," said Richard Cummings, who left the house at age 18 and lived with neighbors who took him in.
His sister was punched, kicked and beaten with "anything they could get a hand on," he said. "It was mostly my mother."
His sister, he added, "didn't really know how to handle it. She didn't know what to do. She was confused."
......
Caroline Lee, who lives down the street from the Cummings home and took in Richard Cummings, saw Laura Cummings on a couple occasions in recent months and noticed severe facial bruising and hand injuries.
"Her whole face was bashed in," Lee said. "It looked like someone took her face and punched it."
Eva Cummings told people that Laura had fallen down the stairs. But Lee said the family home has only a couple of stairs and the severity of Laura Cummings' injuries didn't seem consistent with that explanation.
"There's no way you could fall down two little stairs and do that much damage," she said.
....
The death resulted from what had begun as a spat between Laura Cummings and Luke Wright over a mundane matter, Kenyon said.
http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/940506.html
So tell me how the town justice sleeps at night??
By Jay Tokasz
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: January 31, 2010, 12:16 am /
Published: January 30, 2010, 12:02 pm
Laura Cummings struggled with mental and physical disabilities her entire life.
A grown woman of 23, she had the mental capacity of an 8-year-old girl. She talked with a speech impediment and had difficulty swallowing food.
Worse than any of the disabilities, though, was the mistreatment she received at the hands of her mother, according to authorities and at least one family member.
.......
Erie County sheriff's investigators said Cummings covered her daughter's nose and mouth with her bare hands. By then, investigators said, the daughter had been doused in the face with a pot of scalding water by Luke Wright, 31, Cummings' son and the victim's half-brother, who was charged with first-degree assault.
Wright, wearing a Carhartt coat, oversized jeans and rubber boots, tried to tell the judge that he wasn't home at the time he was accused of committing the crime.
......
The victim's younger brother, Richard, 22, had been trying for months to get her removed from the apartment at 2052 Sherman Ave., where she had lived with her mother, half-brother and another brother, Eddie, for 18 years.
Eddie Cummings was not charged and is not considered a suspect, investigators said.
Richard Cummings, a member of the Air Force who lives on a base in North Carolina, said he had complained, on multiple occasions, to the county's Adult Protective Services unit, which is charged with protecting adults with disabilities from abuse.
"She should have been put in a different home," he said. "I knew something like this was going to happen. I'm very frustrated and very angry that she was not removed from that household."
Richard Cummings, who was back in Western New York on leave for his sister's funeral, said Adult Protective Services investigators never went into the home and merely spoke with his mother.
"My mother had lied to them, saying everything was fine," he said.
Richard Cummings became increasingly concerned about his sister last summer, when he received a text message from a younger sister who doesn't live with Eva Cummings. The message indicated that Laura Cummings' arm had been badly cut and was not being treated.
At the time, Richard Cummings asked Stevens, the town justice, to help him file a complaint with the county's Protective Services unit.
Stevens acknowledged in an interview after Saturday's arraignment that he had helped Richard Cummings with an initial telephone call to Child Protective Services, but he said he was not involved in the case beyond that.
The complaint went to Child Protective Services because Stevens wasn't sure of Laura Cummings' age. Eventually, Adult Protective Services was contacted, but the complaint apparently was determined to be unfounded.
Laura Cummings suffered from years of abuse simply because "she was mentally challenged and they didn't like it," said Richard Cummings, who left the house at age 18 and lived with neighbors who took him in.
His sister was punched, kicked and beaten with "anything they could get a hand on," he said. "It was mostly my mother."
His sister, he added, "didn't really know how to handle it. She didn't know what to do. She was confused."
......
Caroline Lee, who lives down the street from the Cummings home and took in Richard Cummings, saw Laura Cummings on a couple occasions in recent months and noticed severe facial bruising and hand injuries.
"Her whole face was bashed in," Lee said. "It looked like someone took her face and punched it."
Eva Cummings told people that Laura had fallen down the stairs. But Lee said the family home has only a couple of stairs and the severity of Laura Cummings' injuries didn't seem consistent with that explanation.
"There's no way you could fall down two little stairs and do that much damage," she said.
....
The death resulted from what had begun as a spat between Laura Cummings and Luke Wright over a mundane matter, Kenyon said.
http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/940506.html
So tell me how the town justice sleeps at night??
sounds like Laura never knew a life full of love and care
