Mom gets prison time for ignoring daughter's infection from pierced bellybutton

A mother whose 13-year-old daughter nearly died from an infection caused by a bellybutton piercing was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in prison for failing to seek medical attention for several weeks as the child grew sicker.
The girl wrote to the judge seeking leniency for Deborah Robinson, who was convicted this month of wantonly or recklessly permitting substantial bodily injury to a child under 14. She could have received five years.
"My mom is not in the least a criminal," wrote the daughter, who is not being identified by The Associated Press to protect her privacy.
Prosecutors said Robinson watched as her daughter dropped from 115 pounds to 75 pounds and became incontinent and weak from an infection that began after she reinserted a belly ring she had removed months earlier. When EMTs arrived at the family's Boston apartment on Aug. 3, 2005, the girl was emaciated, wearing an adult diaper and couldn't get off the couch.
The teenager suffered extensive organ damage from the infection but has made a full recovery. She testified in her mother's defense, saying Robinson urged her to eat, gave her orange juice and adjusted the temperature in the apartment to make her comfortable. The judge suspended one year of the sentence, and Robinson has already served more than 14 months in jail. Defense laywer Janet Macnab said she already should be eligible for parole.
During her trial, Macnab said Robinson was a struggling single mother of two who didn't realize how sick her daughter was. Robinson's son also wrote to the judge seeking leniency for her.



~*~That's totally cruel. If something gets too infected, you should at least take your child to the clinic. I think the time she has in jail is fine. But she should have known something was wrong in the first place! But I guess if the kids want her out earlier, that's probably what would happen. I mean, I wouldn't want my mother in jail for that long.... would you??? ~*~

Dog saves owner from fire, dies trying to rescue cat

After a disabled woman's cat started a house fire, her specially trained dog came to the rescue, then died trying unsuccessfully to rescue the cat.
Jamie Hanson said her 13-year-old dog Jesse brought her artificial leg and a phone she used to call 911.
"She got me outside and then she heard the cat upstairs and she went up there to get the cat, and she wouldn't come back to me," Hanson, 49, said at a news conference Monday at Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center, where she was being treated for her injuries.
She received third-degree arm burns in the fire Sunday night at her home in Rhine, south of Elkhart Lake. Both pets died.
Hanson, who lost a leg in a car accident three years ago, said she was on the couch watching television when the cat ran over the back of the couch.
"And he jumped onto a table that had a candle on it and tipped it over and lighted the artificial plants on fire," she said.
Hanson said she fell off the couch and was unable to get her artificial leg from the table, "so my dog got my leg for me and went and got the phone and brought the phone to me so I could call 911."


*~*This is incredible! Like oh my gosh! I think it's amazing how people train dogs to do those kinds of things! I'm really sad that the animals died, but at least the woman was okay. *~*

The Rapper, "Fabolous", Got Shot

Rapper Fabolous was shot early Tuesday as he stood at a Manhattan parking garage, spurring a sequence of events that left him both hospitalized in stable condition and under arrest, police said.
The 28-year-old rapper, whose legal name is John Jackson, was shot once in the thigh when a male with a gun approached him and three others and opened fire, police spokesman Sgt. Mike Wysokowski said.
The four jumped into a vehicle and fled, attracting the attention of police when they ran a red light. Officers stopped them and discovered two loaded guns in the vehicle, both of which were apparently unlicensed, Wysokowski said. All four men were arrested, and charges were pending.
The rapper was taken to a hospital. Police were searching for the shooter.
Police did not identify the three men arrested with the rapper, saying only that they are 18, 23 and 29 years old.
The Brooklyn native's hits have included "Breathe" and "Can't Deny It," and his songs cover topics ranging from romance to street life and violence. He recently took part in the taping of the VH1 Hip Hop Honors, which were to air Tuesday evening.

combintation of drugs killed anna nicole smith's son

Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son died from a lethal combination of methadone and two antidepressant drugs, a U.S.-based pathologist who conducted a private autopsy said Wednesday.
Toxicology tests showed Daniel Smith had methadone, Zoloft and Lexapro in his system when he died September 10 in a hospital room in the Bahamas where his former Playboy Playmate mother was recuperating from giving birth to a daughter, according to Cyril Wecht.
"The fact that we have these drugs and the levels of the drugs overwhelmingly and most logically point to this being a tragic, accidental, drug-related death," Wecht said from his home in the Pittsburgh area.
Wecht said Smith apparently died from a "classical" combination of the drugs which had a lethal "cumulative effect on the central nervous system."
"Coroners working around the country, we see this in people taking two or three drugs or more," he said.
Smith had been reported to be suffering from depression in the weeks before he went to the Bahamas to visit his reality TV star mom and his newborn half-sister. Zoloft and Lexapro are antidepressants commonly prescribed for patients with anxiety and panic disorders.
Methadone, a pain-reliever, is also commonly used by people recovering from drug addictions.
"It is used for people who have been on heroin or morphine," Wecht said. "I have made those inquiries. I can only say to you no one has suggested anything having to do with drug addiction in this boy."
Wecht said he would share his results Thursday with the pathologist who conducted the official autopsy in the Bahamas, but did not know whether they would issue a joint report on the death.
In Nassau, Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez said he has not yet received official toxicology results, which will determine whether or not a jury inquest into the death is necessary.
Smith's body remained at a Bahamas funeral home hired by the family Wednesday.
Howard K. Stern, a lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith who was in the hospital room when Daniel died, told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Tuesday that he is the father of the 3-week-old baby girl, Dannie Lynn Hope. (Watch Stern claim he is Dannie Lynn's father -- :54 )
But photographer Larry Birkhead, a former boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith, told Us Weekly magazine that he's the father and is seeking a DNA test to prove it.
Stern said he plans to marry Smith "at some point."
"Right now we have to somehow get through what we're going through," said Stern, adding: "And I'll tell you, our baby is the one ray of hope."
Daniel Smith, who appeared several times on the E! reality series "The Anna Nicole Show," was the son of Anna Nicole and Bill Smith, who married in 1985 and divorced two years later.
Anna Nicole married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year and she has since been involved in legal disputes over the estate.

School Investigation

School Investigation

Holmen Middle School and the local police department are investigating an incident that has some parents on edge.Principal Lisa Snyder tells us that school officials are looking into threats that a student allegedly made while attending the high school football game Friday night.Neither the school nor police department will confirm what the threats were. But over the course of the day on Sunday, News 19 received tip calls saying one of the threats involved the student threatening to bring a gun to the middle school on Monday.Once again though, the school is not confirming that. What the school will confirm is that the student in question, an eighth grader at Holmen Middle School, is now on administered leave.Administered leave means that school officials, while they're investigating, have asked the student to stay home for the safety of all students.