Federal Judge Rules That Mom Can Sue U.S. Army for Child's Death

After her 5-year-old daughter Talia was beaten to death on a Hawaii Army base, a federal judge granted Tarshia Williams the right to sue the U.S. Army for its negligence, ABC News reports. The mother, who resides in South Carolina, is charging that military personnel failed to protect her daughter from obvious signs of abuse at the hands of her father and stepmother. Although the Army has contended that the government does not have a duty to report or act on claims of child abuse, federal Judge Alan Kay stated that he believed there was enough evidence to go to trial. Court documents revealed that even an Army general had admitted that there was "a series of missed opportunities to potentially prevent the death of the child." Talia's stepmother pleaded guilty and received 20 years in prison in exchange for testifying against her husband, Naeem Williams, who faces the death penalty.

Tarshia Williams' attorney spoke with ABCNews.com and gave the following statement:
"There was instance after instance after instance in which the appropriate investigation would have revealed how at-risk this child was," said Mark Davis, Williams' attorney. "The system just repeatedly failed."

ABC News reports that the autopsy report from the little girl's death said she suffered from "battered child syndrome."

HOW TERRIBLE. How on earth could someone, anyone, beat their own child to death?????

Of course we are left to wonder why the biological mother did not have custody of the girl.

Source:
ABC World News. Federal Judge Rules Mother Can Sue U.S. Army in Child's Beating Death. April 14th, 2010.
[Image courtesy of www.findmissingkids.com]