Girl, 9, Says Foster Mom Used Bat to Beat Her
Posted on: Friday, 16 June 2006, 06:00 CDT
By Theresa Conroy, Philadelphia Daily News
Jun. 16--When the 9-year-old girl walked into the Family Court waiting room - her cheeks shining and her braids bobbing above her tangerine-colored top - her gaze fell on Dawn Walker, her former foster mother.
The child froze in her tracks - her stare fixed - and slowly backed out of the room.
The little girl was so frightened yesterday that Common Pleas Judge Frank Palumbo determined during a closed-door hearing that she could not testify in open court. Instead, a police detective read from a brief interview she had had with the girl in April.
The girl told Detective Tanya Newbill that Walker had beaten her with a baseball bat.
"I had got a call from school," the girl told Newbill. "She [Walker] said she was going to jack me up when I got home."
After discovering that her broom was broken, Walker grabbed a baseball bat and hit the child in the arms, legs and chest, the girl told police. The girl then ran away from her West Philadelphia home.
The girl had bruises on her legs but no serious injuries, said prosecutor Cheryl Yankolonis.
After Newbill's brief testimony during a preliminary hearing yesterday, Palumbo ordered Walker, 37, to stand trial for aggravated assault.
Defense attorney Brian McMonagle yesterday said he doubted the child's allegations. He said she has made similar allegations against four or five other foster parents during the last year.
"I'm greatly troubled by the fact that we didn't get the opportunity to test these allegations in court" by cross-examining the child, he said.
No trial date has been set.
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Copyright (c) 2006, Philadelphia Daily News
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Source: The Philadelphia Daily News
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