November 20, 2009
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Child abuse case delayed
Angela Rathman remains in custody; husband faces 2nd-degree murder charge
Angela Rathman remains in custody; husband faces 2nd-degree murder charge
Angela Rathman, 36, leaned forward in the jury box, resting her elbows on her legs as she bounced on the balls of her feet.
She kept that up for more than a half-hour Monday in Buchanan County Circuit Court, completing the portrait of a nervous and impatient defendant awaiting her time before the judge.
But Ms. Rathman will have to wait another week in her child abuse case.
When Ms. Rathman’s time finally came, her public defender, H. Mitchell Jenkins, requested the preliminary hearing be set over for a week until Nov. 10, which judge Ron Taylor granted. Mr. Jenkins told the judge he had his client examined by a doctor and wanted to evaluate the results before proceeding with the case.
The prosecutor’s office alleges that Ms. Rathman squeezed her infant son, causing bruising around his rib cage, under his arms and legs. Police arrested Ms. Rathman on Sept. 9. However, the child, Donald Rathman, stayed in the home with his father, Ronny Rathman.
Police arrested Mr. Rathman on Oct. 8 after Donald died that evening. According to court documents, the victim’s father allegedly struck the 7-week-old infant’s head multiple times and knocked it into a table. Mr. Rathman is charged with second-degree murder and remains in jail in lieu of $100,000 bond. Ms. Rathman faces a class C felony abuse of a child charge and still is in custody on a $45,000 bond.
The one-week delay in Ms. Rathman’s case frustrated county prosecutor Dwight Scroggins, who showed up Tuesday ready for a preliminary hearing.
“The thing that is frustrating is that none of that is relevant for a preliminary hearing,” Mr. Scroggins said of the doctor’s report. “It’s just another delay.”
Mr. Scroggins planned to call on Trenny Wilson, a detective with the St. Joseph Police Department, for the preliminary hearing.
Mr. Jenkins declined to comment on why his client underwent the evaluation, what relevance it had to Tuesday’s proceedings or anything else about the case.
R.J. Cooper can be reached at rjcooper@npgco.com
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the prosecutor's office has no business griping about delays in a case when they botched chris kerns case, and delayed my daughters case because they had the date wrong on the charge. and again, why is this man only being charged with second degree murder, he endangered the life of a child, and he abused this child which resulted in his death. the victims need to contact mr. scroggins and ask this question. believe me, the additional charges make a difference as to how they are sentenced.
This made me cry. How horrible; this poor little boy had to suffer.
This little boy was only 7 weeks old!! How horrible!
and no one is doing anything to find out why the people investigating the abuse charge against mom, didn't investigate the home this child was in. dss was at the home the morning this little angel died. 7 deaths of infants or toddler's in 4 years AFTER a bill was introduced to change things. As far as i am concerned, the gov office should send in a team for a seperate investigation as to why buchanan county is number on in child deaths in the northwest region. it's not something i want our county to be known for. missouri is 5th in the nation in child deaths, something needs to change now, not in a couple of years. emergency legislation should be passed. no one will do anything or say anything until another child dies. it is so sad to think why we believe it is acceptable for a child to die, and for it to take years for legislation to be passed to change things, but you can have a highway or a special day named after someone in a matter of months.
This trial should not be postponed for such a ridiculous reason. She needs to be on trial right now. To heck with a doctor’s report on HER. Are they planning to claim insanity? Pure Evil is what she is. That is what they both are!
She wasn't worried about the doctor report on her son when she and her husband were abusing and killing this poor baby. I say to both of them.......NO MERCY!
what a sad state of affairs.why do we kill our children?why do we abuse our children? why do we not love our children? they meant more to me then life itself when i was an acting father. nothing was denied them that i could afford. i could not afford to spoil them but was still accused by others that i did. show a child the time of day and you will have a trusted friend for life. this abuse has to stop. when will we all learn to not hurt a child? look inside of yourself and you will know that there is love in your heart. let us all be guilty of this! dont hurt children, if you do, you should be hurt ten fold. through the book at all that do., no mercy for sure.