Boy to be taken off life support [Archive]

VC2

06-25-2009, 02:00 PM

This is so sad and i want to know WHY he was still there if they knew he had been abused for 2 months.

Relatives said Nathaniel had lived with his maternal grandmother in Eufaula, Ala., before going to live with his father, Leslie Schuler, in Worcester, the second-largest city in New England, with a population of about 175,000, located just west of Boston. Schuler, 36, recently had received a court order to have summer custody of him.

The boy was physically and mentally abused by his father for about two months, police said. On Father's Day, he suffered severe injuries when his father slammed his head into a bedroom wall with such force that it left a dent in the wall, they said.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528995,00.html

momof6

06-25-2009, 02:26 PM

This story made me cry. Its so sad to think of the mental and physical pain some children suffer through.

I bet the judge feels bad for letting his dad take him.

cantstandnuts

06-25-2009, 03:58 PM

This is so sad and i want to know WHY he was still there if they knew he had been abused for 2 months.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528995,00.html

From what I've heard, they didn't know at the time it was happening. It was after seeing the boy in the hospital and finding injuries in various stages of healing, that they realized the father's day beating wasn't all there was to the abuse.

I will look for some links to more stories and post them here. I work in the hospital where the boy is and I used to work with the father's girlfriend. Horrible, disgusting and preventable tragedy. I will never understand why Tiffany didn't get help for that poor little boy before it was too late. There is no excuse for that. :crying:

cantstandnuts

06-25-2009, 04:06 PM

SKARDYKAT

06-25-2009, 04:14 PM

cantstandnuts

06-25-2009, 05:04 PM

Sheesh, didn't anyone have contact with this boy when he went to his dad's? Seems sad that he couldn't confide in anyone. would he have said something if gramma or mom called to say hi?
Surely, Tiffany knew.......

She knew. And she didn't do anything. I don't and won't ever understand that. I don't believe she herself could hurt a fly, but in doing nothing, she beat this child to death along with the father.

There is another telegram article somewhere about the weekend visits with the bio mother being cut off by the father at some point and that when she went to see Nathaniel, she wasn't allowed to. I don't know what/if anything she did about it, but it seems she just accepted it. A call to the authorities for a well being check (at the very least) was warranted imo after the father stopped letting people see the boy.
I'll go try to find that story.

cantstandnuts

06-25-2009, 05:24 PM

LisaM22

06-25-2009, 05:53 PM

I am so sick of hearing people abuse little children because the child "disrespected" them, talk about crazy, look at this guy, doesn't even have the decency to shave his face, trying to look tough even in court and that cute little boy, what a needless death, all because this man felt the boy was "disrespecting" him :(

VC2

06-25-2009, 06:17 PM

here it is:

The birth mother was taking care of the child on weekends while he was in the city, but Mr. Schuler did not allow her to see the boy recently, according to the family.

Police said the boy also was recently not allowed to leave his father's home.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090624/NEWS/906240410/0/FRONTPAGE

alk about a red flag! It's not clear if she reported this to authorities, but if she had, surely it would have been followed up on, so I'm guessing she just accepted it.

The press have been all over the hospital today, speaking with relatives and hanging around outside. It's hard to concentrate on anything but this little boy and this horrible tragedy. :crying:

just remember that depending on education and experience level she may not have realized she could do anything or dad could have threatened that he would take all custody and she believed him.

After a number of people were outraged about the little baby in a shoe box bc there are safe haven laws, i was in town and stopped to talk to a group of young women watching the train. i would say 18-22 in age. Anyway something made me think of it so i asked them if they knew what the safe haven law was. the best guess was a womans shelter for women beaten by their husbands. these were pretty intelligent seeming women too. When i told them what it was and most communities had a version they were wowed. one even said it cant be true, its just said that you can so then they can arrest you!!!!

Same thing happens in cases like this. They have no idea what they can do, often their only experience with cps or LE are bad ones - rightly or wrongly if you have no good experience you don't think they will help you. They believe what they are told, because its what they think too.

jmo

Kip

06-25-2009, 06:50 PM

Two months of abuse and no one noticed?:scared:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528995,00.html

Just heartbreaking. :sad:

This was a court-ordered visitation with the father. Please don't tell me that this is another case where the father had previously abused the child and the court still went ahead and ordered visitation.

cantstandnuts

06-25-2009, 07:01 PM

just remember that depending on education and experience level she may not have realized she could do anything or dad could have threatened that he would take all custody and she believed him.

After a number of people were outraged about the little baby in a shoe box bc there are safe haven laws, i was in town and stopped to talk to a group of young women watching the train. i would say 18-22 in age. Anyway something made me think of it so i asked them if they knew what the safe haven law was. the best guess was a womans shelter for women beaten by their husbands. these were pretty intelligent seeming women too. When i told them what it was and most communities had a version they were wowed. one even said it cant be true, its just said that you can so then they can arrest you!!!!

Same thing happens in cases like this. They have no idea what they can do, often their only experience with cps or LE are bad ones - rightly or wrongly if you have no good experience you don't think they will help you. They believe what they are told, because its what they think too.

jmo

I have a ton of sympathy for this mom and you have a good point, but I still can't help but think of the missed opportunity to save this little one, had she called someone when she wasn't allowed to see him. She's probably going through all the what ifs too, that poor woman.

Reportedly, they will harvest his organs and then stop life support. What an unbelievable tragedy, but at least his organs will help some other little child who is fighting for life.

R~O~S

06-25-2009, 07:20 PM

Two months of abuse and no one noticed?:scared:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528995,00.html

Lots of inaccuracies in that story. The boy had only been with his father, whom he'd never met before, for about a month. The waste of skin showed up in AL and told the grandmother he had a court order, but no such order exists. He took the child without permission of the court or the mother and claimed he had a court order.

Once he got him to MA he took him off his ADHD medication telling his mother that "he" could handle him.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/06/25/dad_accused_in_fathers_day_beating_sought_visits/?page=1

But relatives say Taylor told them she had been ordered by a court to allow Schuler to take the boy for the summer.

Massachusetts court officials say no such order exists, a frustrating and confusing revelation for those left to wonder whether the child's death could have been averted.

He was a beautiful child, this man had never met him, yet he went there and took him under false pretenses and killed him within a month, on Fathers day to boot. The darkest corners of hell are too good for this man who had this to say to his attorney after suggesting he was "sorry" for not taking him to the hospital:

"He said, 'I hope he's all right. Is there any way you can find out?'" Tully said.

LisaM22

06-25-2009, 07:39 PM

I have a ton of sympathy for this mom and you have a good point, but I still can't help but think of the missed opportunity to save this little one, had she called someone when she wasn't allowed to see him. She's probably going through all the what ifs too, that poor woman.

Reportedly, they will harvest his organs and then stop life support. What an unbelievable tragedy, but at least his organs will help some other little child who is fighting for life.

yep, from the sound of it the mom made him fight to get visitation and tried to check up on him during visitation, I am sure she wishes she had done more, but hindsight is 20\20

R~O~S

06-25-2009, 07:50 PM

He lied, he told the grandmother he had a court order ordering visitation but there is no such order:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/06/25/life_support_for_boy_in_fathers_day_beating_expect ed_to_be_removed/

The case has raised questions about just how the boy ended up in the care of a father who was a stranger to him. Court officials yesterday said they have yet to uncover any judge’s orders giving the father visitation or custody for the summer.

(skip)

Probate and Family Court Chief Justice Paula M. Carey said yesterday that she reviewed the entire case file and concluded that the probate courts did not grant Schuler either visitation rights or custody.

“There is nothing in our file anywhere that shows that Dad was given visitation,’’ Carey said.

He never bothered meeting this child before, his sister knew he had a child but she'd never met him. He took the child off his ADHD medication telling his mother the "he" could handle him.

IMO this was his plan, why would he claim to have a court order when he didn't, take the child and kill him within a month. The FOX story is inaccurate, he only had him for a month, he was in school before that and planning to go to summer camp when his father showed up. Grandma let him go believing she was avoiding legal trouble and believing he had a court order.

cantstandnuts

06-25-2009, 09:13 PM

This whole story just gets worse and worse.

There was a comment left on one of the links I posted that intimated that such a court order for summer custody did exist but that it disappeared to protect the judge in that matter. I don't believe it. I believe he lied and the grandmother bought it.

The pain in this 750 bed hospital is palpable. It's as if Nathaniel is the only patient here. It's so incredibly sad.

I hope justice is served in this case. I know Tiffany and I liked her once, she was bubbly, kind and upbeat, but I hope she pays as well, because she was that boy's only hope and she didn't have the guts to stand up for him. Such a rotten shame.

openminded

06-25-2009, 09:21 PM

Such a sad, sad story. That precious little boy.

SKARDYKAT

06-25-2009, 10:04 PM

Oh, good grief !
Thanks you guys for the info. In catching up, I just got sadder and sadder.
I guess you do have to recognize everyone's frame of reference is probably different from your own. Me? I'd have said, order or not, go away. but...this stuff just keeps going on. :shrug:

cantstandnuts

06-26-2009, 11:14 AM

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090626/NEWS/906260398/1116

The father's attorney had asked to keep the child on life support, I'm assuming to avoid the murder charge.
But, if the boy is brain dead, would keeping him on life support prevent a murder charge? I don't understand how that works.

Good to know his little organs are going to help some other little children.

RIP Nathaniel.

Jayne

06-26-2009, 12:38 PM

Two months of abuse and no one noticed?:scared:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528995,00.html

OMG...but they are holding the girlfriend for not interveining...good choice. This is horrendous.

That article said there was a court order...I'm confused.

cantstandnuts

06-26-2009, 03:49 PM

the article from Fox was filled with inaccurate information. the boston and telegram links make more sense.

Amy

06-27-2009, 01:20 PM

From what I've heard, they didn't know at the time it was happening. It was after seeing the boy in the hospital and finding injuries in various stages of healing, that they realized the father's day beating wasn't all there was to the abuse.

I will look for some links to more stories and post them here. I work in the hospital where the boy is and I used to work with the father's girlfriend. Horrible, disgusting and preventable tragedy. I will never understand why Tiffany didn't get help for that poor little boy before it was too late. There is no excuse for that. :crying:

In the link on the first post, the girlfriend's lawyer says they can't prove she touched him or something to that effect. Well, to be a part of the abuse, you don't have to do the touching--the crime is in not intervening or stopping, or reporting. Even if she was afraid to intervene, the very first time she could certainly have notified authorities.

Seems that, once "daddy" realized having custody of his son wasn't going to be a picnic on the beach, he could have called grandma to come get him, or taken him back home. Anything.

Amy

06-27-2009, 01:34 PM

Pics of the father and girlfriend in link below

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090624/NEWS/906240410/0/FRONTPAGE

Pics of biological mother

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090624/NEWS/906249960

Hope the links work.

Lawyers can say incredibly stupid things. The ventilator is sustaining his life. BUT HE IS BRAIN DEAD, Mr Lawyer. The ventilator is sustaining some organs, but without the brain working to send off impulses for him to breathe, his heart to beat, etc, it is all for naught. I know, a defense lawyer wants to have the victim "alive" (and the term is used loosely here) so his client is not charged w/murder.

Amy

06-27-2009, 01:42 PM

Just heartbreaking. :sad:

This was a court-ordered visitation with the father. Please don't tell me that this is another case where the father had previously abused the child and the court still went ahead and ordered visitation.

When I was reading the articles, I got the impression that, until he recently prove paternity thru DNA, he might not have had much contact? But, then, there is the blurb (I think the link saying it's the bio mom's pic) where her little girl (with the last name of Schuler) died in a fire in the family home.

I didn't see what time frame that was. So, they had a girl, who was given his last name? But the boy had HER last name. Wonder who was the older baby. Wonder if they lived together (it says the girl died in the family home) and for how long?

Amy

06-27-2009, 01:49 PM

Lots of inaccuracies in that story. The boy had only been with his father, whom he'd never met before, for about a month. The waste of skin showed up in AL and told the grandmother he had a court order, but no such order exists. He took the child without permission of the court or the mother and claimed he had a court order.

Once he got him to MA he took him off his ADHD medication telling his mother that "he" could handle him.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/06/25/dad_accused_in_fathers_day_beating_sought_visits/?page=1

He was a beautiful child, this man had never met him, yet he went there and took him under false pretenses and killed him within a month, on Fathers day to boot. The darkest corners of hell are too good for this man who had this to say to his attorney after suggesting he was "sorry" for not taking him to the hospital:

I notice his lawyer makes sure people hear that his client has "remorse." Well, a little too little, too late, "dad." Remorse would have been believable if he had taken Nathaniel back to his mom or grandma the minute he realized that removing toys and such wasn't going to work, and he first put his hands on Nathaniel. Oh, I guess that would be saying he couldn't control the boy as he so macho-ly claimed he could do, without the boy's medications. Couldn't have "dad" admitting he had no idea how to take care of a 7 y/o boy with ADD (or ADHD.)

Amy

06-27-2009, 01:56 PM

He lied, he told the grandmother he had a court order ordering visitation but there is no such order:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/06/25/life_support_for_boy_in_fathers_day_beating_expect ed_to_be_removed/

He never bothered meeting this child before, his sister knew he had a child but she'd never met him. He took the child off his ADHD medication telling his mother the "he" could handle him.

IMO this was his plan, why would he claim to have a court order when he didn't, take the child and kill him within a month. The FOX story is inaccurate, he only had him for a month, he was in school before that and planning to go to summer camp when his father showed up. Grandma let him go believing she was avoiding legal trouble and believing he had a court order.

So, what in the world made this POS decide all of a sudden that he wants to take charge of this child he had never seen? And, it would only make sense that, IF there had been an order, it would have started out with short visits, letting the boy get to know him a bit, and him to get to know the boy.

Did he really think, this is my kid and I'm going to raise him? Was he having to pay child support and didn't want to?

Annie143

06-27-2009, 05:16 PM

I am sure that this guy will get the standard 'kill a child and get 10 years' that the Worcester DA typically hands out!!! Just look at the father of Timothy Muise from Harley Drive and the father of Dominic Bodie from Shawmut Street. These fathers killed their sons and got 10 years each!!! Talk about a joke!!!!
-Shame posted on one of the newspaper boards. I agree.

This case is all about ignorance and evil. the grandmother was very easily duped into letting this child go and the mother didn't step in either.

That basxxxx probably decided when paternity was proven that HE, big man, was going to exercise his paternal right and straighten this kid out........I hope he gets the death sentence and then spends 15 years or so contemplating his death.....she should get many, many years, as well. She (the gf) could have stopped it. She is just as guilty.

cantstandnuts

06-27-2009, 07:46 PM

posted on one of the newspaper boards. I agree.

This case is all about ignorance and evil. the grandmother was very easily duped into letting this child go and the mother didn't step in either.

That basxxxx probably decided when paternity was proven that HE, big man, was going to exercise his paternal right and straighten this kid out........I hope he gets the death sentence and then spends 15 years or so contemplating his death.....she should get many, many years, as well. She (the gf) could have stopped it. She is just as guilty.

There is no death penalty in Massachusetts. LWOP is all we can hope for.

I don't see much of a sentence for the girlfriend...she will likely say she was deathly afraid of the the guy and get the court to take pity on her.

cantstandnuts

06-27-2009, 07:56 PM

In the link on the first post, the girlfriend's lawyer says they can't prove she touched him or something to that effect. Well, to be a part of the abuse, you don't have to do the touching--the crime is in not intervening or stopping, or reporting. Even if she was afraid to intervene, the very first time she could certainly have notified authorities.

Seems that, once "daddy" realized having custody of his son wasn't going to be a picnic on the beach, he could have called grandma to come get him, or taken him back home. Anything.

I don't believe she would hurt him herself, she isn't that type of person. She was always very kind to people, at least at work. Maybe she had two sides to her, but I don't think so. I think she was scared of what her boyfriend would do to her if she intervened.

But, that doesn't make her innocent. She is guilty as hell. That little boy needed someone to stand up for him and she didn't. That is so disappointing, considering the type of person she is. And she went to work every single day, she wasn't a prisoner. She had the opportunity to get some help for that boy. If only she had, she wouldn't be where she is right now and the little guy would be okay. So sad.

R~O~S

06-27-2009, 09:03 PM

There is no death penalty in Massachusetts. LWOP is all we can hope for.

I don't see much of a sentence for the girlfriend...she will likely say she was deathly afraid of the the guy and get the court to take pity on her.

Don't be so sure of that. Massachusetts doesn't have the death penalty so the feds took over the case of Gary Sampson who committed murder in the process of carjacking. He killed two Massachusetts men then crossed state lines & killed a man in New Hampshire. Gary Sampson got the death penalty in Massachusetts:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/20/us/national-briefing-new-england-massachusetts-capital-carjacking.html

Even his own family wouldn't speak for him, he confessed and only went through the sentencing phase of trial.

http://www.nhpr.org/node/5663

On the same day that New Hampshire got the news about a federal prison, state officials also learned the state had been chosen as the place to execute a convicted killer.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled that Gary Sampson will be executed in the Granite State for a killing spree that left three men dead.

But New Hampshire hasn't put anyone to death in 65 years.

As I see it, the case can be made he abducted this child & took him across state lines to kill him. I'd be willing to lead the campaign to get it done. Just point me in the right direction.

FWIW, Gary Sampson still sits on Death Row, New Hampshire didn't have the methods available to put him to death, he was moved somewhere else and they put a moratorium on executions. I'd rather they spend their natural lives in prison, the DP is too easy, but I have no problem with them having it hanging over their heads.

R~O~S

06-27-2009, 09:06 PM

So, what in the world made this POS decide all of a sudden that he wants to take charge of this child he had never seen? And, it would only make sense that, IF there had been an order, it would have started out with short visits, letting the boy get to know him a bit, and him to get to know the boy.

Did he really think, this is my kid and I'm going to raise him? Was he having to pay child support and didn't want to?

No, I think now that paternity was clear, he was afraid he'd be ordered to pay again. They had suspended his child support payments when he tried to get visitation and argued that he should be able to see him if he was paying support.

cantstandnuts

06-28-2009, 10:51 AM

Don't be so sure of that. Massachusetts doesn't have the death penalty so the feds took over the case of Gary Sampson who committed murder in the process of carjacking. He killed two Massachusetts men then crossed state lines & killed a man in New Hampshire. Gary Sampson got the death penalty in Massachusetts:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/20/us/national-briefing-new-england-massachusetts-capital-carjacking.html

Even his own family wouldn't speak for him, he confessed and only went through the sentencing phase of trial.

http://www.nhpr.org/node/5663

As I see it, the case can be made he abducted this child & took him across state lines to kill him. I'd be willing to lead the campaign to get it done. Just point me in the right direction.

FWIW, Gary Sampson still sits on Death Row, New Hampshire didn't have the methods available to put him to death, he was moved somewhere else and they put a moratorium on executions. I'd rather they spend their natural lives in prison, the DP is too easy, but I have no problem with them having it hanging over their heads.

Interesting, thanks for this bit of education. I wonder if anyone has begun to think of going this route.