WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A woman accused of strangling her daughter on a college campus apartment in Purchase, N.Y., told police she did it because the daughter was “disrespectful all the time,” according to court papers made public Thursday.

Police accounts filed with a murder indictment quote Stacey Pagli, 37, as saying that Marissa Pagli, 18, had “pushed my last button.” Police say Pagli admitted to killing her daughter and also tried to kill herself because she said they were “too much baggage” for her husband.

Stacey Pagli is accused of strangling her daughter Feb. 22 in the family’s staff apartment at Manhattanville College. Marissa was a freshman at the school. Her father, John Pagli, was a maintenance supervisor. He found his wife unconscious and his daughter dead.

According to the police account:

When police asked what prompted Marissa to be disrespectful, her mother said, “I asked her where she was going.” She said she told her daughter, “Don’t ever speak to me like that. This will be the last time you speak to me like that.”

She said she choked Marissa with her hands and knew she had killed her.

Pagli expressed regret, saying, “I wish I could take it back, but I can’t. I can’t make it better, she’s not here anymore.”

She also said she killed her daughter and tried to kill herself because they were “too much baggage” for her husband. “Me and Marissa, we ruined his life,” the mother is quoted as saying, without elaborating.

The documents are police accounts of recorded interviews at White Plains Hospital and police headquarters.

Pagli’s lawyer, Allan Focarile, would not comment on the indictment or the police accounts.

Pagli tried to commit suicide by cutting her left wrist and hanging herself on a doorknob, the Westchester district attorney’s office said. Her arraignment is pending.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (Picture): EDUINREVIEW

LEBANON, Pa. - A soccer mom who gained national attention when she openly carried a loaded gun to her 5-year-old daughter’s game was shot dead Wednesday along with her husband in what appeared to be a murder-suicide, police said.

Meleanie Hain and Scott Hain were pronounced dead Wednesday night at their home in Lebanon, a small city about 80 miles west of Philadelphia.

The couple’s three children were home at the time but weren’t hurt, police said. They were taken to stay with friends and relatives.

Meleanie Hain, 31, and Scott Hain, 33, had been having marital problems for about a week, neighbor Mark Long said. Scott Hain had left the couple’s home on Tuesday, and Meleanie Hain didn’t know where he was, but he returned Wednesday, Long said.

Autopsies on the Hains were to be conducted Thursday, coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum said.

Meleanie Hain made headlines after she attended a children’s soccer game in a park on Sept. 11, 2008, with a handgun in plain view holstered on her hip, upsetting other parents.

The county sheriff, Michael DeLeo, revoked her gun-carrying permit nine days later.

Hain successfully appealed the permit revocation, although the judge who restored the permit questioned her judgment and said she had “scared the devil” out of other people at the game.

Harassment
Hain sued DeLeo in federal court, alleging that he violated her constitutional rights and prosecuted her maliciously when he took the permit away. She said that because of his actions her baby-sitting service had suffered, her children had been harassed and she had been ostracized by her neighbors in Lebanon, which has about 25,000 residents.

A mother who murdered her two daughters as they slept has been jailed for life and must serve a minimum of 33 years.

Rekha Kumari-Baker, 41, stabbed 16-year-old Davina 37 times and 13-year-old Jasmine 29 times at their home in Stretham, Cambridgeshire.

Her ex-husband said the killings were “an act of calculated viciousness”.

The 33-year minimum sentence handed down at Cambridge Crown Court is one of the longest jail terms given to a woman in the UK in modern times.

David Baker, Kumari-Baker’s ex-husband, said he had been “robbed” of his daughters.

‘Mystery motive’

Kumari-Baker admitted killing the girls in June 2007 but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

However the jury did not believe her and took just 35 minutes to find her guilty of murder.

Sentencing her, Mr Justice Bean said the Parole Board would not consider her for release until 2040, when she will be 72.

He said she had been found guilty of two brutal murders on the basis of “clear and compelling evidence”.

“Most people will find it inexplicable that a mother could kill her own children and you have given no explanation for it,” he said.

He said she was “certainly upset” at the breakdown of her relationship with boyfriend Jeff Powell.

He added: “I think mild depression was probably combined with a wish to retaliate against David Baker and destroy the happiness in his life but to some extent your motive remains a mystery.

“Your defence of diminished responsibility was flimsy and unsubstantial. You knew quite well what you were doing and you were not mentally ill.”

The judge considered whether Kumari-Baker should ever be considered for release but concluded that the premeditation was significant but not substantial so a “whole life order” was not warranted.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by prosecutor John Farmer after Kumari-Baker was convicted, Mr Baker told of the “incalculable” loss he had suffered.

“Having them taken away from me in such a brutal way and by the woman who was their mother… has had an incalculable effect,” Mr Baker said in his statement.

“I am haunted by the horror of the events of that night and probably will remain so for a very long time.”

His statement continued: “She tore them from us all and life can’t be the same for those who remain.”

Prosecutors had said Kumari-Baker was trying to “wreak havoc” on her ex-husband.

Asda knives

During the two-week trial, jurors heard that she attacked the girls in the early hours of 13 June.

The court heard evidence showed that Davina - whose body was found kneeling on the floor - had struggled. Jasmine was found dead in bed.

The prosecution said Kumari-Baker bought the knives she used to attack the girls at an Asda supermarket two days earlier.

She argued that she had been suffering from a mental disorder and mounted a “diminished responsibility defence”.

Source (article): BBC

Source (picture): BBC

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Usually, it’s an empty threat: “If you kids don’t stop fighting, I’m going to stop this car right now and leave you here!” But a mother from an upper-crust New York suburb went through with it, ordering her battling 10- and 12-year-old daughters out of her car in White Plains’ business district and driving off, police said Tuesday.

A judge on Wednesday modified a temporary order of protection against 45-year-old Madlyn Primoff and her two daughters. Her lawyer, Vincent Briccetti, said Primoff is no longer barred from living or talking with her children.

Primoff, a partner in a Manhattan law firm, pleaded not guilty to a charge of endangering a child on Monday.

Briccetti would not comment on details of the case. But he said, “Madlyn is a great mother connected with a great family, and she is grateful for the outpouring of support from friends and family.”

There wasn’t much support from strangers, however. Mothers interviewed near the scene said they couldn’t imagine doing what Primoff did, though some understood the urge.

Iris Gorodess, 49, of Mahopac, who has four children ranging from 10 to 19 years old, said she sympathized with Primoff’s actions, right up to the point where she pulled away.

“I used to pull over and make the kids change seats. Also, I make sure the kids have their iPods and their games. And I have a minivan, so they’re not up my neck all the time.

“But I can’t see pulling away. That has to be too scary for the children.”

‘Good Samaritan’ finds one girl
White Plains police said Primoff ordered the arguing girls out of the car Sunday evening as they were driving home. She left them at Post Road and South Broadway, an area of shops and offices 3 miles from their home, then drove off, the police report said.

The report does not say whether the girls had cell phones.

Police would not say if Primoff ever returned to look for the girls, but they said, without explaining how, that the 12-year-old eventually caught up with the mother. The 10-year-old was found by a “Good Samaritan” on the street, upset and emotional about losing her mother, police said.

The girl gave police her mother’s name and their address in well-to-do Scarsdale, and they asked Scarsdale police to check Primoff’s $2 million house. Shortly afterward, Primoff called Scarsdale police from home to say the 10-year-old was missing, said Scarsdale Detective Lt. Bryant Clark.

He directed her to White Plains police headquarters, where she was arrested.

Dr. Richard Gersh, director of psychiatric services at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services in Manhattan, said Primoff’s behavior was not appropriate.

“It is a traumatic situation for a child to be abandoned by a parent like that. You can imagine what emotional issues might arise,” he said.

Source(article): MSNBC

Source(picture): MSNBC

New Zealand police are investigating whether a woman abandoned her baby after giving birth aboard a flight to Auckland from Samoa, officials say.

Initial reports say the woman, believed to be a 30-year-old Samoan, left the baby on the plane upon landing.

The baby was found by an airline worker in a toilet compartment more than an hour later, local media reported.

Mother and child have since been reunited and are being cared for in hospital, an airline statement said.

“A female guest gave birth on board our flight DJ94 from [the Samoan capital] Apia to Auckland this morning,” according to the Pacific Blue airline.

The flight - carrying 150 passengers - arrived at 0520 on Thursday (1620GMT on Wednesday), it said.

“We are relieved to have been informed that both mother and child are reunited, are well and are now being looked after in hospital,” it said.

Advanced pregnancy

The woman was trying to exit the airport but had misplaced her passport, New Zealand TV quoted airport sources as saying.

When she sought the help of the authorities, they noticed she was pale and her clothing was blood-stained.

The newborn was found shortly afterwards by an airline worker. One source said the baby was found in the toilet rubbish bin.

It was not immediately clear whether any of the other passengers or crew on the flight were aware that the woman was in labor.

Pacific Blue says passengers who are more than 36 weeks pregnant must have medical clearance to fly.

Police said they were investigating whether the airline had been advised the woman was in an advanced stage of pregnancy.

Source (article): BBCNEWS

Source (picture): ABCNEWS