Illinois denies parental role to notorious Florida mom
By Compiled from Times wires
Published May 7, 2003
JERSEYVILLE, Ill. - An Illinois judge ruled Tuesday that a mother convicted in her son's brutal potty-training death 14 years ago in Florida is unfit to raise another child.
Judge Thomas Russell severed Sheryl Hardy's parental rights to her 2-year-old son, saying Illinois law gives parents who kill their children "no opportunity to show rehabilitation ... even if a lifetime of years has passed."
The decision means the boy, who has been with a foster family since August, will remain there pending another ruling on where he will live permanently. Sheryl Hardy, who was then Sheryl Coe, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1989 in Lakeland after admitting she watched as her ex-husband, Thomas Coe, rammed her son head-first into a toilet to punish him for soiling his pants.
The boy, Bradley McGee, also 2, died of head injuries. The case sparked an overhaul of Florida's child protection laws and sent Thomas Coe to prison for life.
Sheryl Hardy's husband, Randy Hardy, 47, has said he wants to raise his only child even if his wife is barred from the boy. On Tuesday, his lawyer, Todd Parish, said Randy Hardy faces a tough choice.
"He's being asked to decide whether to remain married to his wife, or be a single parent and father to his child," Parish said.
The Hardys now see their son twice a week in visits supervised by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Tuesday's order doesn't change that.
Sheryl Coe was set free after nine years in prison. She returned to her Illinois hometown, married Hardy and had another child - the 2-year-old whose future is before the courts now.
Cubans ditch boat, refuse rescue, wade to shore
MIAMI - Three Cuban migrants waded to shore Tuesday after jumping from their rickety wooden boat about 2 miles offshore and refusing help from the U.S. Coast Guard.
A fourth migrant, who gave up at sea and was taken aboard a state wildlife commission vessel, was later offered asylum by the government of Panama.
Upon reaching land, the three men raised their arms in victory and walked gingerly into the mangroves near the Ocean Reef Club on North Key Largo.
They were soon taken into custody by the Border Patrol and were being taken the Krome Detention Center in west Miami-Dade County for processing, said immigration spokeswoman Ana Santiago.
Cuban migrants who reach U.S. soil generally are allowed to stay, while those intercepted at sea usually are repatriated.
The fourth man was identified by family in Miami as Jorge Parrado Martinez, a former Florida resident who was arrested in Cuban waters and recently finished serving a 12-year prison sentence there.
Panama's Consul General Manuel Cohen said Tuesday night that the Central American nation was offering political asylum to Parrado, if he requests it. In Washington, a State Department spokesperson said there would be no immediate comment on the offer.
The men were first seen by a Coast Guard jet about 2 p.m. and two small patrol boats were sent to the area, Petty Officer Ryan Doss said. The migrants swung their oars at the boats to keep them at bay, he said, then jumped overboard.
Model for shaken-baby poster dies of injuries
TITUSVILLE - The child whose injuries from abuse made him a poster child for Shaken Baby Syndrome has died, and the imprisoned father may face murder charges.
Christian Joseph Dubisky, 6, suffered blindness, painful seizures and cerebral palsy in the years following the Oct. 5, 1996 attack. A poster with a photograph of then-4-month-old Christian, tied to tubes in a critical care unit, helped create awareness of the syndrome with the slogan, "Never, never shake your baby."
Respiratory failure and complications associated with the syndrome were the causes of the May 1 death, according to the Brevard County medical examiner and the State Attorney's Office.
Christian's father, Michael Dubisky, is serving a 15-year prison sentence for aggravated child abuse. "We are ... giving serious consideration to pursue a murder charge," Assistant State Attorney Michael Hunt said Monday.
