DA: Mother Forced Mentally Disabled Daughter Laura Cummings to Eat Feces and Die

BUFFALO, N.Y. (CBS/AP) Laura Cummings lived a short, tortured life filled with unspeakable abuse at the hands of her mother and half-brother, Eva Cummings and Luke Wright, according to a grand jury indictment returned Feb. 26.

Eva Cummings, 51, and her son face a total of 15 charges in the January 2010 suffocation death of 23-year-old Laura Cummings. The indictment reads like a macabre list of torture and abuse.

Police allege that over the last few months of Laura's life, Eva Cummings and her son Wright, 31, shackled Laura to a metal chair with a sack over her head, brutally sodomized her with a broomstick and at times shoved her face in her own feces.

"Starting in November, there’s a significant escalation of her debasement as a human being," Senior Trial Counsel Thomas M. Finnerty of the DA’s Office said. "It was happening on a daily or nightly basis."

Finnerty, who has prosecuted a number of heinous crimes in his 17 years in the DA’s office, called it "the worst case I’ve ever seen."

"It’s sadistic, and it’s allegedly sustained over a long period of time," he said.

The Cummings household, in North Collins, N.Y., and prior to that in Olean, both just outside of Buffalo, was well-known to Child Protective Services, Patricia Wright, 27, Laura's half sister, told the Buffalo News.

She said she reported abuse to Erie County Child Protective Services and Erie County Family Court more than a decade ago. Patricia Wright said she, herself, was physically abused for years, resulting in a broken ankle and cracked vertebrae in her back.

"Chaos. Almost like a living hell. No child should ever have to go through what we went through," Patricia Wright, told CBS affiliate WIBV when asked what the apartment was like.

Mother and son also are accused of unlawfully imprisoning Laura Cummings because of her mental disability — an elevated hate crime charge.

Eva Cummings could face a possible sentence of 83 years to life on five charges, while her son could face 142 years to life on 10 charges, prosecutors said.

Woman Put Feces In Child's IV Feeding Tube

(CBS)- A mother arrested for repeatedly putting fecal matter down her daughter's feeding tube was released from jail for the second time on Wednesday. Investigators said they're shocked that 23-year-old Emily McDonald is free on the streets.

According to an arrest affidavit, McDonald’s daughter was being treated at Dell Children’s Medical Center for serious infections caused by unusual organisms.

Doctors ran a blood culture and found fecal matter in the girl’s bloodstream, authorities say.

In the last 24 hours, McDonald was taken into custody, released, then rearrested and released again. Two judges at the Travis County Justice Complex said a computer glitch made one revoke the other's decision.

Austin District Judge Charlie Baird released McDonald Tuesday on her own recognizance, despite a magistrate's initial bond set at $100,000. Baird said he believed his ruling was justified because he did not feel McDonald was a flight risk and she has no criminal record.

“Since she had no criminal history, had never been in trouble with the law before, the uniqueness of this situation and that CPS was involved, I didn't think there was any risk to anyone else being harmed,” Baird told CBS 42’s Katherine Stolp about his decision.

McDonald's case was then assigned to Judge Julie Kocurek who did not want to go on camera. She ordered McDonald to be rearrested Wednesday afternoon because of the seriousness of the offense.

Video surveillance was set up in the girl’s room and McDonald was allegedly caught on camera taking fecal matter from her daughter’s soiled diaper and placing it in the cap to an intravenous central line that ran into the girl’s bloodstream.

Police were shocked when KEYE's Rebecca Taylor broke news of her release.

"I don't know why he made the decision that he did. The outcome -- that she's out, we don't know where she is and we had to find out through you, is shocking," police Cmdr. Julie O'Brien told CBS 42. "This is shocking to us. That somebody charged with injury to a child -- a first degree felony and a heinous crime that would shock this community has already been released on a PR (personal recognizance) bond."

But after meeting with the District Attorney and Bob Phillips who's representing McDonald, Judge Kocurek decided to follow court policy and honor Baird's decision. So, McDonald was released again from jail. Judge Kocurek did say she would have never issued a personal bond for McDonald, if the decision was originally up to her.

“Whatever misunderstandings and clerical problems have now been cleared up and now we're back on track where this case should be,” said Attorney Phillips, who represents McDonald.

Sgt. Wayne Vincent with the Austin Police Association said investigators are outraged that a mother charged with a major crime is back out on the streets.

“There's something wrong with the system when we are jeopardizing an ability to make someone accountable for what they do and let them walk out,” he said.

McDonald’s personal bond does come with some conditions tied to it. First, she's under close supervision by the court. McDonald is also staying with her parents and must wear an electronic monitoring device. Also, APD issued a police protective order that prevents McDonald from seeing any of her three children for 30 -60 days.

Dell Children's Medical Center set up the surveillance cameras that reportedly caught McDonald smearing fecal matter from her daughter's diaper onto her feeding tube. Representatives released this statement: "The Seton family of hospitals has many security and safety procedures in place to protect our patients. If we suspect possible injury to one of our patients, we take legal and necessary steps to protect their health and safety."

McDonald's first appearance in court is July 9th.


Seton Healthcare Network, which runs Dell Children's Medical Center, offers the following statement:

“It is our duty to protect and honor a patient’s privacy. It is also federal law.

In addition to privacy is the issue of patient safety. The Seton Family of Hospitals has many security and safety procedures in place to protect our patients. If we suspect possible injury to one of our patients, we take legal and necessary steps to protect their health and safety.

Because of these security and privacy issues, we cannot comment on any of the details of this case.”

Teen Soils Self After Deputy Surprises Him

This brings on the lols!
CENTERVILLE — A teenager suspected of car burglary was so surprised when he opened a car door to find a police officer sitting inside that he messed his pants, police said.

It happened about 1 a.m. Saturday as Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy Chad Taylor was returning to his Centerville home from working a shift.

"I was in my personal vehicle, but I was in uniform," Taylor told the Deseret News Monday. "I'd pulled in my driveway and was on the phone with another deputy when I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw this guy trying to get into my wife's car."

Taylor watched the teen then move up toward his car.

"Right as his hand goes to check my handle, I kick the door open," Taylor said. "I said, 'You'd better stop right there! Police!' I'm not kidding, it was quiet as can be, and I heard …"

The 16-year-old boy turned and ran, chased by Taylor, who called 911 as he ran after the teen through the neighborhood. The boy was scrambling so fast, Taylor said, he lost his shoes. Centerville police responded to help catch the teen.

"One officer spotted him with night-vision goggles going into a house," Centerville Police Lt. Paul Child said.

The boy dashed into a friend's house, where a party was going on, police said. Officers were let into the house where they found him — and discovered that he had soiled himself, Child said.

"You could smell him," Taylor said. "He told us, 'Yeah, I crapped my pants.' "

Police said the teen implicated a friend whom Taylor saw trying to break into cars across the street from his home.

"He gave up his friend," Child said, pointing to another 16-year-old who was also arrested in the burglary investigation. Police believe the two had been working together, burglarizing cars in the neighborhood. Child said officers recovered some cash and CDs they believe had been taken from cars. The two boys were booked into the Farmington Bay Youth Detention Center for investigation of vehicle burglary and theft.

Detectives were trying to determine if the teens were involved in a rash of weekend car break-ins.

"We've had some more reports over the weekend that we're sure they're suspects in," Child said.