4-Year-Old Beaten to Death by Mother's Boyfriend: Should Both Be Charged?
After a 4-year-old boy was beaten to death by his mother's boyfriend, critics have been asking whether the mother should also be blamed.
Child abuse cases are often complex, ongoing issues, and too often they can result in the death of an innocent child.
In a recent case involving Texas toddler, Dustyn Skyler Roff, critics are ask at what point should a mother be held accountable for her abused child's death?
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Roff was found dead in his mother's Houston apartment in December with two black eyes and covered in over 100 bruises, according to Mail Online.
Although the case is still under investigation, arrests have been made and both Roff's mother, 23-year-old Britni Glover, and her 21-year-old boyfriend Michael Allen Seaton, have been charged in the child's death.
Roff reportedly died from blunt-force trauma, which is said to have caused severe damage to his internal organs. Glover claims that she left her son with Seaton before heading to work, and that it was the following day that her child complained about pain before collapsing to his death, according to sources.
While Seaton has been charged with murder, Glover has also been charged with serious bodily injury and for not protecting her child.
The case is complex because the child's bruises were at different stages of healing, which suggests that he was brutally beaten over a long period leading up to his death.
The fact that Glover also claims to have returned home from work to Seaton beating her child but failed to alert authorities is another likely reason she is also being blamed for Roff's death.
Critics have questioned why Glover, who was allegedly not directly involved in the killing of her child, is being charged, arguing that Seaton is the sole culprit.
A similar case was recently present in Chicago, where another four-year-old was beaten to death on his birthday.
Like Glover, the child's mother, 28-year-old Crystal Valdez, was also charged for endangering her child even though it was her boyfriend, 34-year-old Cesar Ruiz, who was charged with the boy's murder.
In legal terms, child endangerment is usually defined as placing one's child in a harmful environment either through misconduct or negligence.
Is the matter as straight forward as the law implies? Is a mother equally to blame when her significant other beats her child to death?
