Tag Archive | "single mother"

Mom Convicted After She Withheld Cancer Medications


A mother from Massachusetts who withheld chemotherapeutic drugs was convicted Tuesday. Those were supposed to be given at home from her autistic son who also has non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She was convicted of attempted murder after jurors dismissed Kristen LaBrie’s claim that she thought side effects of those drugs could kill her son.

LaBrie was decided guilty of child endangerment, as well as battery and assault for not giving her son, Jeremy Fraser, 5 months worth of cancer medications. The boy was diagnosed with cancer in 2006 and died three years later at the age of 9.

LaBrie said that she deliberately stopped her son’s cancer treatment because she was seeing his son get really sick from the medicine’s side effects. Prosecutors see this as her way of running away from her responsibilities as a single mother to Jeremy.

One of the jurors Paul Holladay said that it was easy for them to reach a decision on the minor charges but had a really difficult time discussing LaBrie’s attempted murder case. He further said that when the trial started, they did not think they’d find her guilty and neither did they want it to end up that way.

However, Holladay also said that as more pieces of evidence were reviewed, the more they were pushed to the conclusion that the single mother is guilty. LaBrie was aware of the implications and importance of the treatment for her son but continued to deprive him of it.

LaBrie became teary-eyed while the verdict was read but consoled her sister who was then sobbing in the front row. When she was led away, she mouthed “I love you” to her family.

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Female Police Chief in Mexico Seeks Asylum in United States


A college student who recently became the youngest female police chief in Mexico received death threats and is currently in United States to seek for asylum, an advocate for human rights reported on Friday.

Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, an official of the Human Rights Commission in the state of Chihuahua, said that Marisol Valles Garcia had received phone call threats last weekend.

According to a family member, the death threats came from a criminal group that forced her to work for them.

Valles, a 20-year-old single mother, took over the police chief position in the small town of Praxedis in October when two other candidates turned down the offer after the death of the town’s mayor and his son.

The rights activist said Valles was accompanied by a local official when she went to the international bridge between El Porvenir and Fort Hancock in Texas.

However, other media sources said the female chief of police went to United States with two relatives to seek asylum. But, officials in Praxedis G. Guerrero denied the speculations.

Meanwhile, Jose Flores, spokesperson of the city council, said Valles Garcia asked for a leave of absence, but she planned to come back to work on Monday.

Both de la Rosa Hickerson and Flores said they have attempted to contact Valles Garcia since Thursday, but she was not picking up her phone.

Pradexis G. Guerrero is a town with about 8,500 people. It is located southeast of Ciudad Juarez. Drug violence has turned it from a quiet farming community to a violent land.

Valles Garcia’s departure camejust a few months after Erika Gandara, the 28-year-old sole police officer of Pradexis’ nearby town Guadalupe, was kidnapped in December. Her whereabouts is still unknown.

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Oprah Winfrey Reveals News of Half-Sister


Oprah Winfrey revealed on Monday that she has a half sister and that she only discovered this late last year. She said the news left her speechless.

She welcomed Patricia, a single mother of two to an emotional reunion during her daytime talk show. Winfrey disclosed that her mother Vernita secretly gave birth in 1963 and handed the baby up for adoption.

Now 56-years old, Winfrey said she was only nine years old when her mother got pregnant. She said she was really shocked when she found out at the end of October that she has another sister living just 90 minutes away.

Winfrey believed that nothing more could surprise her, but she told her viewers she was wrong.

Patricia’s last name was not revealed. She said that she had grown up in foster homes since the age of 7. She found out in 2007 that Winfrey is her half sister, but she concealed the truth since it would cause big talk in the media.

Winfrey explained Patricia never thought to go to the press or sell her story.

Winfrey’s life has been thoroughly documented. She was born to an unmarried parent in Mississippi and was cared for by her grandmother during early childhood. She was swapped between parents during her teenage years and was a victim of abuse. She got pregnant at the age of 14, but her son died after birth.

Even so, Winfrey became the most influential woman on U.S television. She is hosting a talk show now in its 25th year.

She asked her mother why she had given Patricia up for adoption. Her mother said she had felt unable to take care of her. However, Vernita thought it was a terrible thing for her to do.

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