MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A Wisconsin father convicted of abuse for starving his teenage daughter down to 68 pounds was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison.
Before being sentenced by Dane County Circuit Judge Julie Genovese, the 42-year-old man read a statement insisting his daughter suffered from severe emotional and behavioral problems that he couldn’t handle, that his job as a trucker kept him away from home and that he didn’t notice how thin she had become.
“There was no master plan against my daughter,” the man said, his voice breaking at times. “I was bailing water from a sinking boat with my bare hands.”
The case came to light in February 2012 when the girl, then 15, ran away from her family’s Madison home and was picked up by a passing motorist. The girl told investigators she had spent most of the previous five years confined to the home’s basement and was denied food.
Genovese said it was clear the girl had problems and that everyone who encountered her failed her. But, she told the father, “it’s your turn to accept your part in this.”
“What I think you did was put your head in the sand. It’s your job as a dad to see it and you didn’t. Really, the buck stops with you,” the judge said.
The girl also told investigators that her stepmother beat her, her stepbrother repeatedly forced her to perform oral sex on him and she was forced to eat her feces and drink her own urine.
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MILWAUKEE (AP) - Whoever stole a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin in Milwaukee would have a hard time selling it, experts said Wednesday.
The rare violin was on loan to Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Frank Almond. The robber used a stun gun on Almond and took the instrument from him Monday night in a parking lot behind Wisconsin Lutheran College, where Almond had just preformed
A retired FBI expert told the Journal Sentinel (https://bit.ly/1egwI83https://bit.ly/1egwI83 ) he expects the motive to be similar to that of high-end art thefts.
“Throughout my career, what I always saw in the end is that it was always about making money,” said Robert K. Wittman, founder of the FBI’s National Art Crime Team and author of “Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures.”
“They are not about the pride of ownership or possessing an antique,” he said. “The ultimate goal is either getting paid by someone to take it or trying to sell it in some type of market, or it could be a situation for them to get some type of payment for it to be returned.”
Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn has said the violin is valued in the “high seven figures.” Investigators believe the instrument, known in musical circles as the “Lipinski” Stradivarius, was the primary target.
Wittman said thieves often are good at taking, but not at selling, an item of such value.
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MILWAUKEE (AP) - Authorities say an 87-year-old Milwaukee woman who was found dead outside in the cold died of hypothermia.
The Milwaukee County medical examiner’s office says Dorothy Schneider’s body was found Tuesday on the sidewalk of her backyard.
Relatives had gone to Schneider’s home to check on her after not being able to reach her by telephone.
Schneider lived alone and had a history of dementia. Her body was partially frozen and she had a body temperature of 37 degrees.
The medical examiner ruled her death accidental.
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MILWAUKEE (AP) - Milwaukee police say an officer shot and killed an armed robbery suspect.
It happened about 5:40 p.m. Wednesday. Police say the uniformed officer shot the suspect who was armed with a handgun.
The suspect died at the scene.
No other details were immediately released.
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