Bubbaworld

Never let it be said that in Oklahoma we spare the rod and spoil the child.
Sometimes however, the child is “spoiled” in spite of liberal use of the rod.
“Spoiled” to the point of blindness.
What follows is one such case of “Child Discipline Okie Style”

On 9/16/02, William D. Hagen, age 38, and his wife Sherry Hagen, age 39, of Tecumseh, Oklahoma were charged in Pottawatomie County District Court with one count each of child abuse, enabling child abuse and child neglect in a case where it was alleged the couple hit a 10 year old girl in the head so hard that she was blinded. William D. Hagen is the girl’s father. Sherry Hagen is her step-mother.

The Hagen’s trial began with jury selection and opening statements on 3/04/03. Witness testimony began on 3/05/03.

During the course of testimony it was revealed that following the beating which resulted in the child’s blindness, the Hagens took the child to a hospital emergency room with a complaint of “blurred vision”.

Doctors at the hospital discovered more than 150 bruises on the girl’s body.
During the prosecution’s case, Assistant DA Alisa White presented pictures revealing these bruises on the child’s back, chest, abdomen, buttocks, the back of her legs, and inner thighs.

The defense maintained that the bruises depicted in the photographs were not from any one point in time and that the girl was active in playing softball, jumping on a trampoline and riding a bicycle.

On 3/10/03 the case went to the jury for deliberations. After five hours the jury returned with the verdict.

On the most serious charge, felony child abuse, both defendants were found “not guilty”.
On the counts of enabling child abuse and child neglect both defendants were found “guilty”.
The jury recommended a $4,000 fine and two weeks in the county jail on each count for each defendant.

Following the announcement of the verdict one courtroom spectator was heard to loudly comment, “That’s a small price to pay for a child’s blindness.”

On 3/27/03, District Judge Paul Vassar held formal sentencing for the Hagen’s and followed the jury’s recommendation, sentencing each defendant to 2 weeks in the county jail and a $4,000 fine on each count.

The official court records on William D. Hagen are Available Here

The official court records on Sherry Hagen are Available Here

The young victim of such brutality now attends a school for the blind and is in the custody of her grandmother on weekends.
During her parents trial the child testified that the only thing she can see is a spot of light.

Commentary and Opinion

We can only speculate as to what went through the jury’s “collective mind”, assuming such even existed, during their deliberations.

How anyone in their right mind could find the defendants guilty of “enabling child abuse” and not find them guilty of committing that abuse in a case such as this is beyond this writer.

By finding the defendants guilty of enabling child abuse the jury said “yes, the child was abused”.
If the abuse was not at the hand of one or both of the accused then who did it?

In the opinion of the Bubbaworld editors, both the verdict and the sentences in this cases demonstrate very clearly that child abuse under the guise of “discipline” is not only alive and well in Oklahoma, it is widely accepted as “the way things ought to be”. It is also the option of this writer that the jury’s actions are nothing more than a “wink-wink and nod-nod” to that mentality, while trying to appear to “do something”about a child blinded for life.