Child Abuse Case Bound Over To Grand Jury

August 26, 2004

HUNTSVILLE - The 13-year-old adopted daughter of Linda and Aaron Mann says she was forced to clean the couple's expansive, air-conditioned dog house every day with water and bleach, and was beaten with a section of PVC pipe when she didn't complete the job, causing injuries that included, among others, a collapsed lung. She also says she was so hungry that she sometimes broke into neighbors' homes to steal food.

That's according to testimony given by the girl at Wednesday's (August 18's) preliminary hearing before Judge James L. (Jamie) Cotton, Jr. in Scott County General Sessions Court.

After more than six hours of proceedings, which included testimony from both the 13-year-old girl and her nine-year-old adopted brother, Judge Cotton determined there was enough evidence to bind the case over to the Scott County Grand Jury, which convenes on November 15. The couple's bail remained unchanged at $200,000 each.

The Manns were charged with aggravated child abuse earlier this month following an investigation by the Scott County Sheriff's Department and the Department of Children's Services. The investigation began after the 13-year-old girl ran away from the home and sought help at a neighbor's residence.

During her 91 minutes on the stand Wednesday, the girl testified that she had ran away from the Manns' residence, an expansive home located on Skyline Drive just off Coopertown Road in Oneida, because she thought that she ws "going to get a beating."

She testified that she was "supposed to clean the dog house with water and bleach every day." When she didn't complete the job as expected, she said, she was beaten with a section of PVC pipe.

She said that she decided to flee the Manns' home on August 2 after Linda Mann "checked the dog house" and it wasn't cleaned right. "It still smelled like dog," the girl said.

She testified that Mann called her husband, Aaron Mann, on her cell phone and told him to "take care of it when you get home." The girl said that meant she was going to get a beating.

She said that she was given a beating, which she said Aaron Mann called "back-diggings," whenever she didn't properly clean the dog house. She said that she would be taken to a storage room in the basement of the residence, where Mann would take a section of PVC pipe, which she described as being approximately two feet in length, and would beat her across the back, and would also use the end of the pipe to "poke" at her back, which she said left the many scrapes and abrasions on her back that were later photographed by detectives from the Scott County Sheriff's Department. She testified that the beatings were conducted as she lay on her stomach in the floor, and that Mann would sometimes place his knee in the small of her back to hold her down.

Detective Randy Lewallen testified that during his search of the home, he found an area of carpeting that contained what appeared to be blood. Initial results from the laboratory "quick test," he said, confirmed that the substance on the carpet was human blood. He also testified that he found a damaged place in the wall of the room. The girl said that the damage was caused when Aaron Mann "threw" her against the wall.

She testified that the last beating she received came about one week before she ran away. On that occasion, she said, she had also failed to clean the dog house properly. She said that when Mann got home, "I had to go down to the house and got a beating."

She also testified that Linda Mann sometimes hit her with the PVC pipe as well, and sometimes also used a "steel broom handle." She siad that her back hurt so bad after the last beating that "I couldn't lay on my back," and that the Manns treated her "like I wasn't even their kid and that I deserved to be beat all the time."

The girl also testified that she was never given enough to eat by the Manns. She said that she was never given breakfast and was only sometimes given lunch. She testified that she snuck through the unlocked kitchen windows of two nearby residences on several occasions to take food, which she would take back to the dog house, which is located just up the road from the Manns' residence. Sometimes, she said, she would share the food with her 12-year-old adopted brother, who she said also went hungry on many occasions.

The girl further testified that she wasn't allowed to sleep in her bed, but instead slept in Linda Mann's bedroom on the floor. She said that three of the other children also slept on the floor in Mann's bedroom. Her 12-year-old brother, she said, had to sleep in a locked closet in Aaron Mann's bathroom so he "didn't try to get loose and go get food." She added that another of her adopted brothers, 11-years-old, would be forced to sleep in a locked closet whenever he "wet his pants."

Detective Lewallen had earlier testified that a deadbolt lock was found on the outside of one closet inside the residence and that another closet had a door knob that locked from the outside.

Herbert Moncier, attorney for Aaron Mann, insinuated on several occasions during the hearing that the girl's injuries were caused by a bicycle wreck. While Detective Lewallen was on the stand, Moncier asked him, "did she ever tell you about stealing a bicycle and riding it into the woods and wrapping it around a tree?" When Lewallen answered "no," Moncier said, "she didn't tell you anything. You didn't ask her, did you? You didn't ask her because you had already made up your mind as to what happened in this case, isn't that right, Officer Lewallen?"

Moncier also asked the girl if she had ever been under the care of a psychiatrist, to which she answered that she had been for some time. She said that Linda Mann had told her that she "would have to be placed in a mental institution if things didn't change," and that Mann "would say stuff about that (placing her in an institution) just about every day."

Moncier asked her if she had ever told the psychiatrist that she sometimes had trouble telling the truth, to which she answered that she had.

Moncier asked the girl, "do you ever tell stories?" The girl answered, "yes."

"Is it okay to tell stories?" Moncier asked.

"Sometimes," the girl answered.

"You want out of those living arrangements pretty bad, don't you?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"Bad enough to lie?"

"Yes."

The couple's nine-year-old adopted son also testified, confirming parts of his sister's testimony. He said that his sister had fled the residence to "get help for us all." He said that Linda Mann told the children "to say that she had met a boy in the woods behind the building and she got beat up and she beat him up."

The boy said that all of the children were beaten from time to time. He could tell when his sister was being beatne, he said, because "I could know by the crying." He said that he heard Linda Mann say, "'Good, I hope (she) gets more.' Then she asks us if we want one and we said no."

Dr. Robert Lloyd, a surgeon at Scott County Hospital, also took the witness stand on Wednesday, testifying as to the extent of the girl's injuries. The injuries, he said, were consistent with trauma and appeared to have happened "between five and 10 days ago." None of the injuries, he said, were life-threatening. A collapsed lung, he testified, could be life-threatening, but was not in that particular case.

During a harsh cross-examination of Detective Lewallen, Moncier concentrated on what he suggested were missteps by the Sheriff's Department. Of particular, Moncier concentrated on the couple's arrest warrant, which he said - and Lewallen confirmed - was signed by Chief Detective Robby Carson and was not dated until August 4, two days after the Manns were arrested, Moncier said, and one day after a search warrant for their home was signed.

He also scrutinized the department for not audio-recording their interviews with the child, and Lewallen particularly for secretly recording a conversation with Aaron Mann when Mann showed up in the parking lot of the department while his daughter was being interviewed.

During his closing comments, Moncier said that the investigators in the case were "so outraged and blinded by their own prejudice that they've never looked at the other side."

Ralph Harwell, attorney for Linda Mann, added that "you've got to go some to believe that these injuries were caused by these acts as presented.

But Assistant District Attorney John Galloway said, "this kid was beat up. There is no other explanation on record. If these injuries were caused by some other reason, why wasn't she taken to the hospital a long time ago?One could understand why these children would lie under these circumstances if it were necessary. But it isn't. The truth shall set them free."

The Grand Jury will hear the case against the Manns when it convenes in November. If the couple are indicted on the charges, they will face trial in criminal court at a later date. In the menatime, all five of the couple's adopted children are in foster care. Additional charges are pending against the Manns, according to the District Attorney's office.

news@ihoneida.com

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