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Michael Jackson’s 2002 baby dangling incident comes to mind.
Then the word LOSER.
A South Side Chicago father, Andre Curry, aged 21, who allegedly posted a Facebook photo of his 22-month-old daughter bound and gagged with blue painters tape “feels awful” about it but was only joking around, a relative said in recent days.
Curry is facing up to seven years in prison if convicted of felony aggravated domestic battery. Cook County Circuit Judge Laura Sullivan ordered him held on $100,000 bond and forbade him from having contact with his daughter or any other children. He was also barred from using the Internet while the charge is pending.
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According to the Chicago Tribune article, a woman answered the phone at the family home, but would not give her name, but identified herself as Curry’s grandmother, said he loves his daughter and would never do anything to harm her. “He’s so playful, always laughing,” the woman was quoted as saying. Everyone who knows him saw the photo and laughed, too … He was only joking.”
She also said he knows what he did was a mistake and he “feels awful,” especially now that the photo has gone viral on the Internet.
I’ll bet.
Curry, who has no criminal background, but apparently suffers from a severe lack of brains and/or common sense, Curry, told police that when playing with his daughter earlier in the month he used blue painters tape to tie her ankles and wrists and gag her mouth. He then took a picture of her and posted it on Facebook, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti.
Even more disturbing are the words he wrote on top of the picture: “This is wut (sic) happens wen (sic) my baby hits me back,” according to prosecutors and police reports. A winking emoticon followed the message.
Chicago police said they began investigating Dec. 14, after the photo was brought to their attention. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which was brought into investigate the incident, said it had no prior contact with the family.
Anand Sundaran is Curry’s attorney. He said the child was never harmed or in danger. He said DCFS had already intervened, placed the girl with her mother and granted Curry supervised visitation. However, DCFS would not confirm those details.
“Unfortunately due to the Internet, this case has been blown out of proportion,” Sundaran was quoted as saying. Sundaran was unable to get Curry released on electronic monitoring, more commonly known as house arrest. What a shame.
Curry works at an Applebee’s, and is a 2007 graduate of Chicago Vocational Career Academy.
The goal of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is to protect children by strengthening and supporting families. The organization’s mission, per information at its website, is to protect children who are reported to be abused or neglected and to increase their families’ capacity to safely care for them, provide for the well-being of children in the organization’s care, and provide appropriate, permanent families as quickly as possible for those children who cannot safely return home, support early intervention and child abuse prevention activities, and work in partnerships with communities to fulfill this mission.
