commentary by Patrick H. Moore
A 13-year-old New Straitsville, Ohio girl has a steel plate in her head, a souvenir of abuse she suffered at the hands of an unidentified adult. So when this girl’s present caregiver, her 54-year-old grandmother Karen Sharpe, began to systematically abuse her and her 11-year-old sister, the 13-year old decided she wasn’t going to take it anymore. Instead, she made a video of Grandma Karen abusing her younger sister and showed it to detective Sgt. Ed Downs of the Hocking County Sheriff’s Office who immediately took the affirmative step of arresting Grandma Karen while describing her particular form of abuse as “the most disgusting, heinous child abuse I’ve ever dealt with.”
Authorities still might not know about the abuse was it not for the older sister, whom Sgt. Downs has described as “wise well beyond her years,” taking the clever and courageous step of recording her sister’s abuse. The reported provocation that spurred Big Sister into action was Grandma Karen allegedly punching her in the face. After that, it was just a matter of time until Big Sister had the opportunity to film Grandma Karen in flagrante delicto.
So what exactly did Grandma Karen do that was so disgusting and heinous?
Very simple. While cursing at the younger sister for reportedly stepping on her injured foot, Grandma Karen allegedly forced a pair of feces-soiled men’s underwear into the 11-year-old’s mouth and taped it there. When the girl vomited, Sharpe allegedly told her to swallow it.
“I’ve never seen an animal being treated this way,” Downs said.
(It’s easy, of course, to dump on Grandma Karen and she obviously mistreated her granddaughters in an egregious manner. It was revealed at sentencing, however, that the underwear were not soiled with feces although Grandma Karen told the child they were.)
According to Downs, Grandma Karen had been given custody of the two girls, who share the same biological mother. The girls have now been removed from Grandma Karen’s home and relocated by the county’s children’s services.
Sharpe has been charged with kidnapping, two felony counts of endangering children, and misdemeanor counts of endangering children, assault and domestic violence. She is being held on $1 million bond at the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail in Nelsonville. Detectives also are investigating Sharpe’s live-in boyfriend, according to Downs.
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As has become increasingly clear during the time All Things Crime Blog has been in existence, child abuse of all types may be the number one problem facing this nation (and perhaps all nations). Whereas violent crimes — including murders, burglaries and robberies –have been for the most part steadily decreasing over the past 20 years, I suspect that child abuse levels remain at historic highs and are unlikely to decrease without a major shake-up due to the fact that this type of crime for the most part hides behind closed doors and thus, in many instances, can neither be measured nor detected .
Therefore, it is extremely gratifying to see a courageous child such as 13-year-old Big Sister refuse to allow her and her sister to remains the victims of an abusive caregiver like Grandma Karen.
Part of the reason it is so difficult to protect children from abusive caregivers is because the time-honored America notion of the sanctity of the home complete with the right to substantial privacy flies in the face of any attempt on the part of “society” to monitor what goes on “behind closed doors.”
In fact, as long as private citizens have the right to shield their private matters from prying eyes, there is no way for children’s protective services to intercede on behalf of abused children until things have gotten so out of hand that the abuse becomes obvious to outside eyes.
In short, we have a problem without any obvious solution – a problem that ultimately results in untold numbers of abused children growing up to become criminals, thus swelling our already bloated prison populations.
Updated:
In June, Hocking County Common Pleas Judge John T. Wallace sentenced Karen Sharpe, 54, of New Straitsville, to three years in prison, the maximum allowable by law for the third-degree felony of endangering children, after Sharpe pleaded guilty to one count.
As part of her plea deal, Sharpe admitted abusing the 11-year-old as punishment for stepping on her injured foot.
In turns out that there was no fecal matter in the underwear Sharpe stuffed in her granddaughter’s mouth:
“There was no fecal material in the underwear. She made the child believe that (there was),” K. Robert Toy, Sharpe’s attorney, said in court. “She is remorseful, she is sorry. She did not have the best parenting skills, obviously.”
“There was, at least, psychological harm,” Judge Wallace responded. “Ms. Sharpe, the children needed you desperately. You were a safe harbor. Things didn’t work out. The sentence needs to reflect that.”
Sharpe had custody of her two granddaughters for about three years because they had been abused by their parents. They have the same mother and different fathers, Attorney Toy reported.
Sharpe herself was raised in an abusive household and endured an abusive marriage. She has health problems that include diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure, Toy and Sharpe’s daughter, Brandi Cooper, told the judge.
“She was trying to do right” by her granddaughters, but her age, illness and lack of parenting skills got in the way, said Cooper, who is not the girls’ mother.
Sharpe, who sat in a wheelchair and was tethered to the oxygen tank that Toy said she uses around the clock, wept as she listened to her daughter.
“I accept responsibility for my actions,” she told the judge. “I love my grandchildren. I apologize to them.”
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The pain, the pain! Grandma was abused. She may have abused her children. Her granddaughters were abused by their parents which is why Grandma gained custody of them. Then Grandma abused them. Will they granddaughters abuse their children or will they be the courageous ones who will find the strength to BREAK THE CHAIN. I like to think they will…