[blaze915]

This woman’s children were tortured, a judge said, physically and emotionally.

They were injured and coerced — for years — to lie about the things happening in their home. They didn’t tell social workers that a man ordered not to have contact with their mother was living with them, and was hiding in the basement during visits.

They didn’t tell doctors and day care workers the truth about bruises that appeared on themselves and their siblings. They didn’t tell police what really happened on Feb. 4, 2014, when the youngest of the three was so badly injured that she nearly died.

On Wednesday, when Kenosha County Circuit Judge Mary Kay Wagner sentenced Heather Hediger, 28, of Kenosha, to 20 years prison for child abuse causing great bodily harm, only one of those children had a voice.

The youngest, the one Hediger nearly killed, was in the courtroom for the entire hearing, strapped into her wheelchair, Hello Kitty backpack slung over the push bars, her voice providing a constant undercurrent to the proceedings.

The 4-year-old girl is a paraplegic. She has limited vision in the one eye and may be blind in the other. She wears braces to keep her body in the correct positions, because she is unable to hold herself in any position. She will wear diapers the rest of her life, and is unable to swallow food.

She doesn’t speak, and her foster parents said she primarily cries to communicate her needs. But they know she can hear her own voice, and she used it throughout the hearing, her vocalizations audible below what everyone said.

Those foster parents provide care for the girl 24 hours a day, and in their statement, read in court by someone else, said they expect to do so for as long as they are able — and that they hope one of their sons will do so when they are no longer capable of providing the care she needs.

Events remain a mystery

No one knows exactly what happened to the girl. Hediger has never provided an account that explains the girl’s injuries, which included a brain bleed, massive brain injury, lacerated liver and extensive bruising on her face, abdomen, pelvis, thighs and chest.

The original explanation was that she and her older sister tumbled off a couch while jumping on it. Later, the sister said the injuries were caused by their mother. Hediger more recently ackowledged she kicked the girl, but said it was not intended to cause the injuries it did.

But none of those account for all the injuries, including one the judge said looked like a shoe print on the girl’s pelvic area.

“We have a strong belief she should not have access to her children or anyone else’s children,” the foster parents’ statement read. “She caused so much harm it borders on the attempted murder of her own daughter.”

Assistant District Attorney Carli McNeill said the youngest daughter bore the brunt of Hediger’s anger with the girl’s father. The other children were witnesses to the February incident and others, but had been coached to give alternate stories — ones with no adult aggressor — to authorities.

Child’s account

That changed in January, McNeill said, when during a therapy session the older girl explained what happened. She said Hediger had kicked her sister “very, very hard in the head,” and went on to describe the abuse and its aftermath.

“It was disturbing for her to have to talk about and see,” McNeill said.

The girl described how her sister was unconscious and went rigid, and how she and her brother were made to get ice and rub it on her to wake her up.

McNeill said that rather than immediately getting medical attention, Hediger put the children in the car and drove to the closest hospital — Kenosha Medical Center — but turned around and went to Aurora Medical Center when she saw a police car outside the hospital.

Defendant’s apology

Hediger apologized in court, reading a lengthy statement aloud.

“I’ve taught my children about responsibility and respect and tried to lead by example,” she said. “My actions betrayed everything. Words will never be enough. My conduct was inexcusable.”

She said she prays for her children every night, and begs for forgiveness from them and her family, hoping they will “see I’m not a monster.”

Judge’s view

Wagner had no sympathy for Hediger. She held up photographs of the girl before her injury, showing her smiling into the camera, curls framing her face. And she held up pictures of her injuries, including a red shoe-shaped mark.

Wagner asked about what caused those injuries, and in every case, McNeill had to say she didn’t know.

“You taught your children to lie,” Wagner said to Hediger. “When you say you spent your life trying to be an example and to teach you children to be good person, the most important thing you taught them was to lie, and to their own detriment.”

Had the children told the truth during earlier incidents, Wagner said, it may have helped authorities take the steps necessary to have prevented further injuries to them.

“These kids were tortured for years,” Wagner said. “All the services you had didn’t prevent you from being able to nearly murder that child.”

Other children’s scars

Wagner said the other children bear the scars inside of the abuse they were forced to witness.

“I don’t know what can repair you,” Wagner said. “I don’t want you to never repair yourself. I want you to repair yourself. But it starts with the truth.”

That is something they don’t yet have in so many ways in this case.

“We don’t know the truth yet of these children living for years in horror,” Wagner said. “These kids are going to get the best treatment they can. There is outside damage (to the youngest girl), and there is internal damage to those other two kids that equals what is wrong with her.”





http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/keno...483541286.html

[TheCreeperBEATNGU]

Horrid cunt!

[blaze915]

Crying cuz she's in trouble..

[tbone79]

Somebody should set some fireworks off in her flapper...

[Kelseecat65]

Only 20 years.

[mrm1109]

She was booked back in 2011 for abuse of a child.

Why weren't her kids taken away then?

http://www.kccjs.org/jail/inmate_sea...787I&idSfx=003

[OhJstFkOffAlrdy]

Originally Posted by mrm1109 ↗

She was booked back in 2011 for abuse of a child.

Why weren't her kids taken away then?

http://www.kccjs.org/jail/inmate_sea...787I&idSfx=003

Because then social services has three less justifications for next year's budget.

I mean, seriously, they couldn't even send over someone who could be bothered to check the goddamn basement.

[kellyhound]

evil bitch. she will be popular in jail

[alyjo07]

I'd love 10 minutes with that bitch!!!! Just 10 minutes.... ������

[jesse]

Pure evil. She should be in prison the rest of her life. Let her rot.