commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Brittany Ruck
It seems like things are getting out of control in the Keystone State. Today, I have two cases of appalling child abuse in good old Pennsylvania, the traditional home of those peaceful Quaker folk. In Beaver County, Brittany Ruck, a “frustrated” 25-year-old mother, pulled her 6-year-old daughter’s hair so hard when she couldn’t count to 12 that the child’s scalp actually separated from her skull resulting in internal bleeding leading to “raccoon eyes”. Nasty!
In the second case, a Washington County alleged abuser, Rana L. Cooper, 46, has been arrested on a litany of charges including trying to sew her 16-year-old daughter’s mouth shut and forcing her to eat cat litter.
Sebastian Murdoch of the Huffington Post writes that Ms. Cooper, “a mother of seven children, has been the focus of an investigation that began at least six months ago. In a criminal complaint obtained by The Huffington Post, Cpl. Robert Copechal of the Pennsylvania State Police details a long list of abuses the teen suffered at the hands of her mother.”
What is particularly upsetting in this case, in addition to horrific nature of the abuse, is the fact that the authorities believe “that the abuse may have started as soon as the child was adopted in 2008.” Furthermore, the child’s adoptive father was allegedly aware of at least some of the abuse.
Note:
Before we go any further, it must be pointed out that one of the suspect’s seven children, 24-year-old Ronnie Cooper, has informed local station KDKA that the allegations were all false.
“Nothing, none of that happened. Like, I’m here every day, like, none of these [allegations] are true.”
Wow! Are the authorities crazy or is Ronnie resorting to the Big Lie in an attempt to protect his mother?
In any event, please read no further unless you have a strong stomach, because the alleged victim’s allegations are quite extreme, and she has laid out a detailed account of what she claims she endured.
According to the child, Mom employed a sort of “tit for tat” “let’s keep score” approach to discipline (which as we know is not unusual among abusive parents):
- She was not allowed to eat, drink, or even use the restroom until “points” were earned by cleaning the home. This resulted in her often soiling herself and not drinking for days.”
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When she was allowed to eat, it was only after the rest of the family was finished. In order to spice up the gustatory process, Mom allegedly forced food into the child’s mouth, inducing vomiting. On one occasion, the child was allegedly compelled to eat cat litter. In what can only be described as extreme nastiness, the child claims Mom would force her to “go into the bathroom and scrape her finger around the rim of the toilet and eat what was on her finger.”
- The police report alleges allege that Mom once tried to sew the child’s mouth shut with a needle and thread, but stopped after piercing the child’s lower lip with the needle. If the child is on the level, Mom appears to have combined actual physical abuse with terrifying scare tactics. An example of this is Mom regularly threatening to cut out the child’s tongue.
- Alleged eye gouging and sticking Q-tips into the child’s ears causing bleeding and partial deafness are also among the claims.
As if all this were not enough, the child claims that on two occasions, Mom choked her until she blacked out, most recently about a month ago. According to the police report, the child said Dad was present on one occasion when Mom was choking her and that although Dad told Mom to stop, Mom refused to stop and Dad did nothing as the choking continued.
One especially nasty tactic of abusive parents is to blame the victim child for the couple’s marital problems. In this case, the police say that Mom blamed the child for the fact that Dad apparently said he wanted a separation on Easter Sunday two years ago. Mom reportedly punished the child on this occasion by twisting her neck, biting her nose till it bled, throwing her to the ground, and punching her in the face.
Although it’s hard to know how much of this to take at face value given that the child appears to have every reason to “lay Mom out to the best of her ability”, combined with the fact law enforcement sometimes engages in a certain amount of “factual hyperbole”, two facts support the notion that Mom truly is guilty of AWFUL ABUSE.
The first piece of evidence is the fact that the investigation has been ongoing for six months. The second bit of evidence is extremely damning and comes “straight from the horse’s mouth”.
“In September (while under investigation), Rana Cooper admitted to police that she once submerged her daughter’s head under water “for approximately 3-10 seconds,” according to the complaint.
This, if we take it at face value, is truly awful. No responsible parent would ever under any circumstances shove their child’s head under water for any period of time. They just wouldn’t.
Mom is charged with recklessly endangering another person, simple assault, and endangering the welfare of a child. She apparently does not yet have a lawyer which I presume means that she is likely to be assigned a public defender. Imagine being called upon to defend Mom in a case like this. Defense attorney have guts; there’s no two ways about it.
Mom has a preliminary hearing set for Nov. 6.
Thankfully, the child no longer lives with the Cooper family.