reposted for further comment
Charbel and Teresa Hamaty
Raleigh, NC Parents Cleared of Sex Offenses
This story has so many interesting angles that I started not to blog it. Then I realized that that was a good reason to blog it.
The story in a nutshell is that a father in North Carolina drops off some pictures at a local Eckerd Drugs for developing. An Eckerd employee turns the pictures over to police, and dad is arrested on charges of child abuse and sexual assault.
In a batch of impromptu party pictures, a few showed a naked Kristoff, then an infant, being kissed by his half-sister, Victoria, and proud father Charbel.
“You see the back of the baby, and like if someone is kissing the baby’s belly button,” said Teresa Hamaty.
Instead, police saw the worst and also arrested Teresa Hamaty for taking sexually explicit photos.
Teresa Hamaty was released on bond, but waited months to reunite with her children. Charbel Hamaty sat in jail six months before the district attorney dropped charges after an expert’s report showed no criminal intent.
I understand how cultural differences can create chaos. I also understand all too well that children need to be protected. My question is: Why did it take a year to get this resolved????
Cultural differences????
Was this caused by ‘cultural differences’ or by a severe lack of good old, plain, common sense that seems to run rampant through the US?
I think I remember having photos of me naked when I was less than a year old, and having this small, soft, parfumed and just washed little backside of mine kissed by someone in the family… My dad, my mom, my sister… Who cares, I might even have giggled back then, and everyone smiled…
Don’t you guys do that in the US? Or do you do it and then are ashamed of it?
C’mon! We’re talking about normal, healthy people who love their kids – don’t you do that sort of stuff? Kissing your kids, innocently playing with them? Do you immediately assume people who do that are wackos? Is that caused by too much TV? Then abolish TV… It’s better…
“Why did it take a year to get this resolved????” MONEY!!!!
So much for the right to a speedy trial.
The usual reason is officialdom incompetence.
Within the realm of likelihood — ignorant, self-righteous fools who know they haven’t a provable case; but, “let’s show ’em, anyway!”
Kind of like our foreign policy.
Unreal! I suspect that the police/prosecutors realized early on that they had made a mistake and were trying to find a way to “save face” while the father remained in jail. Link from the story page to an earlier story says there was a plea deal made where the father was charged with neglect and the mother charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. And the father was still in jail because of questions about his immigration status. Typical! Original charges are bogus, so authorities scurry about trying to find other charges. I wish the parents would file a lawsuit for libel, defamation of character, and wrongful imprisonment.
People use information and leave out what they don’t like. I see this sort of manipulation on the Internet and here at Dvorak Uncensored. So what happens is you don’t get the whole story, because some smart ass is trying to be funny or something. Then you drop the hammer and the facts just crush people. It can be expensive too! People have political agendas and somebody can get caught in the crossfire. You can get into trouble without criminal intent because of the zealots. These people like to craft stories with selective facts. It’s no way to build a criminal case or prosecute one. This whole thing could of been avoided if more people bothered thinking instead of play we got you now. These people should sue if in fact it can be established that they did nothing wrong. You just can’t put people through a year of living hell and then say, oh sorry about that and go on with life.
Typical knee jerk reaction. With all the child abduction/murders in the news, law enforcement is now over reacting to the littlest of things. It the same reason why 80 year women are strip searched at airports.
Eckerd Drug is owned by The J.C Penny Company, if anyone wants to complain.
Miguel,
The defense attorneys are the ones who invoked that it was a “cultural misunderstanding.” (http://tinyurl.com/7gumn)
But you nailed it on the head. I think the defense offered that explanation only because they could not stand up in court and say that the authorities were a bunch of incompetent buffoons.
The part I don’t understand is.. why is Eckerd Drugs now not on the hotseat? Whatever happened to the concept of “consider the source,” and holding the source accountable.
Expect the continuing boom for digital cameras and high-quality home printers!
By the way! How come they look so good on this picture??? Try to google for Charbel Hamaty and look and the photos. They both look like convicts! Now look at the photo here, she looks like a cool chick and he’s shed some fat, too. I demand the name of this superstar photographer to be revealed, so I can get nice shot for my next CV.
I would also like to know if Eckerd Drug is on the hotseat. What about invasion of privacy? If I take MY photos to be developed I don’t believe I sign over any privacy rights to the drug store. I also would like to know why the immediate reaction of the Eckerd Drug store employee is “guilty”. What happened to assumed innocence or believing the best in others? I don’t believe part of the film developing process is supposed to entail screening prints for legality or maybe it is now in this “country gone to hell”.
Paul….our country has gone to hell.
Criminals are allowed to waltz about the country. Corporations can do whatever they want. Police, mostly, are just a collection arm of the cities (tickets are way up, and so are fines…and you can’t “get a day in court” since most tickets are now “citations”, so you must pay the whole fine before you can appeal it in court, and MAYBE get something back…but few do, there’s no way to collect if the city has some new thing like “no refunds of less than 30 dollars” Of course the judge only awards relief for 28 dollars….gotcha!). It’s long, time consuming, and very difficult to do anything in the court system — and with all the very specific filing rules (not on the record, exactly…stuff like if you file a pleading that is NOT on recycled paper, they can reject it) and maddening court clerks and insane filing fees and obscure court days off (in California, SOME courts take…Caezar Chavez’s birthday off). The short of it……. the citizens are essentially powerless.
Now, with eminent domain our land can be seized for corporations. Our bankruptcy laws are greatly watered down….but the credit reporting agencies and the credit practices havent’ been muzzled. It’s not illegal for a company to offer negative amortization mortgages. It’s not illegal for a health insurance company to find any reason..including delaying posting of a payment (sometimes by several weeks) to cancel the insurance, to force a person to “re apply” and therefore get rid of the grandfathered in benefits of that older policy. In fact, a health insurance company can now raise their rates….whenever, whatever. (One major carrier in California raised their rates by 10 percent, then 30 percent, then another 20 percent…over 6 months!!! No warning, just raised them.)
Our country has gone to hell…and few seem to care.
Seems a Digital camera would have been nice..
A little common sense on the behalf of the Police and Film processing folks would have been nice as well.
The sad part is, this isn’t just in North Carolina… I’m going through a similar legal battle now, no evidence, i passed all the tests, and has been proved of lying many times. Its been over a year and I’ve barely got anywhere.
The legal system is about money, they will drag this stuff on for as long as they can to make a few extra bucks and make it look like they’re doing something. If an innocent person goes to prison, or goes broke trying to prove his innocence… oh well.
AS one other poster said..go digital and screw this big brother nonsense.
Here in Japan, most parents bathe with their children. Imagine that in the US…40 year old Daddy and 2-year-old Susie playing in the bathtub together. The guy would be crucified as a molester and sex offender. Sheesh. I have plenty of complaints about the bizarre facets of Japanese life–don’t get me started–but they pale in comparison to the frightening concatenation of police powers, crushing bureacracy, vengeful and righteous public “servants”, idiots, Christian fundamentalists, finks, and ignorant destruction of civil rights. I may never go back to the land of Freedom!
The final insult: I have to pay taxes there, even though I’ve lived abroad for 10 years.
I disagree that the drug store should be penalized. They are not trained professionals. As required, they reported what they thought COULD be a case of child abuse. The Police, on the other hand, have the duty to investigate and discover if indeed there was any child abuse. Don’t shoot the messenger because you don’t like the message. It was the police and prosecution that failed on this one.
I use to work at the Eckerd’s photo lab in North Carolina back in the 80’s while going to college. Basically, rolls of film are spliced together to form a batch. Together in reels these are developed and inspected. There are several inspection stations each operated by an employee who scans through countless photos in an evening. At the time I worked there they would occassionally put stickers on bad quality photos stating the possibility was incorrect focus, bad lighting, etc. to help the customer. The inpection station operators were also instructed to look for “Code 10s” which are photos of nudity. Sometimes they would not even cut them out as the supervisor would pass them if he/she was nearby. Other times these photos would end up in the supervisor’s office at the end of the shift where the supervisor would decide the next step. I was in the splicing portion of this so I rarely had the opportunity to “Code 10s”. On the most part photos of nude bodies (alone) eventually passed and the consumer did not know about it, sometimes I believe form letters were placed with the pictures. I do know any pictures of intercourse or oral sex did not pass and were not returned. People today look at things differently but I haven’t seen the photo so I can’t say why. But essentially the operator pulled/flagged the photos, the supervisor took it to the next step which was most likely the manager who probably discussed it with the supervisor and contacted the police. It is then out of their hands and is up to the police and other authorities. Please keep in mind Eckerd’s has laws to follow also and the percentage of “Code 10’s” which go to police are few. If the photos were done inhouse at the Eckerd’s store then a similar policy applys. How strict this policy has changed since I left
You also be surprised on how many people forget which container has the film and which one has the marijuana and send in the wrong one.