Download the AOL News Toolbar
Our new toolbar integrates latest news into your Web browser and installs in seconds. Download it now!
Send Us Feedback
News Video

Find, view and share videos about news and entertainment from around the Web.
See Videos »

News Alerts

The latest updates sent straight to your inbox.

Get AOL News Alerts »

Mom Locked Toddler in Attic, Cops Say

By GLEN JOHNSON
,
AP
posted: 1 HOUR AGO
comments: 89
filed under: Crime News
Text SizeAAA
LOWELL, Mass. (Aug. 1 ) - Police responding to a report of a 3-year-old being locked in a sweltering, filthy attic were told by other children, "Mommy does this when she gets angry," a prosecutor said Friday.
Kristen Paquette, 27, was charged with reckless endangerment to a child and assault and battery on a child and was being held on $10,000 bail after arraignment Friday in Lowell District Court. Her family and attorney portrayed her as an overwhelmed mother dealing with an especially unruly child.
Skip over this content
http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,entry&id=449726&pid=449725&uts=1249158569
http://cdn.channel.aol.com/cs_feed_v1_6/csfeedwrapper.swf
News That Stunned Us
A Grisly Charge: Kristin Paquette faces multiple charges after being accused of locking her 3-year-old son inside a sweltering attic where police said temperatures reached more than 100 degrees. Paquette told prosecutors she had punished the child because he would "interrupt cleaning."
Lowell Police Dept. / AP
Lowell Police Dept. / AP
Police said the boy was naked, covered in urine and feces, and had several minor bumps on his forehead when officers acting on a tip went to Paquette's Lowell apartment Thursday. They estimated the temperature inside the attic at over 100 degrees. The door to the room was locked, and the only window inside was nailed shut, said prosecutor Dan Harren. Feces-covered child-size fingerprints were on the wall, he said.
Outside the attic was a similarly filthy mattress, surrounded by hundreds of flies, Harren said. Health officials condemned the apartment afterward.
Officers said another boy and a girl at the home told them Paquette took the 3-year-old by his arms "and dragged him upstairs to the attic." The children told officers such things happened "a lot."
Harren said the children told authorities, "Mommy does this when she gets angry." One boy told police his sibling "was bad, so Mommy put him upstairs and changed the door handle," according to the police report.
The prosecutor added in court, "When asked how long the child had been upstairs, the defendant admitted, `About an hour,' in a nonchalant manner." She said she had punished the child because he would "interrupt cleaning."
Court records show Lowell police also arrested Paquette in 2004, on a charge of assault and battery with a knife. The arrest — in the same apartment — came after Paquette allegedly cut a man with a knife; she claimed he had thrown her to the floor.
The woman's father, Alfred Paquette, attended the arraignment and said afterward that police were misrepresenting the situation. He said his daughter is a single mother who is overwhelmed by her four children — a daughter and three sons.
Alfred Paquette said the first floor of the home is clean, and the four children seem happy and never appeared abused.
"I was in the apartment yesterday morning. ... I didn't smell nothing. It just smelled like a home," he said. "My daughter isn't some evil monster that she's being portrayed to be. She's just a regular mom, and she has a child that needs special services. She's been trying to get him help and nobody's helping her."
Paquette said the boy in the attic was born three months premature, has chronic lung problems and exhibited behavioral problems despite reassurances from doctors who have examined him.
"He's like a child with ADHD on steroids. He's very hyperactive," Paquette said.
He said his daughter was raised in Lowell and is unemployed. She has been abandoned by the fathers of her boys, he said, and only has contact with the father of the girl.
He said his ex-wife is attempting to gain custody of the children and that other relatives have offered to take in his daughter.
Richard Paquette, the woman's uncle, told reporters there was nothing wrong with disciplining out-of-control children.
"You've got to try to get some kind of control. There's no abuse, no abuse whatsoever," he said.
Paquette's defense attorney, Kathleen Moore, told Judge Neil Walker, "It is clear this is a woman who needed help and didn't know how to ask for it and didn't ask for it."
Two of the other children, ages 6 and 9, were placed in state custody, as was a third child who wasn't home at the time. Alfred Paquette said he was with the child at Fenway Park, watching the Boston Red Sox defeat the Oakland Athletics.
The police report for the 2004 assault charge said Paquette told officers she cut the man "so as to fend him off." The man, 26-year-old Andrew Jackman, gave the same address as Paquette.
The report added: "At the hospital, Mr. Jackman stated that he would not be pressing charges and was very angry that Ms. Paquette was arrested."
The case was continued without a finding, although Paquette did receive probation and was ordered to attend the anger-management classes.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2009-07-31 14:49:19
GOOD READ?
26 votes

Related Articles

  1. See More Related Articles and Blog Posts
(89)
Sort by:

1 - 10

guardian ryu

05:37 PMAug 01 2009

in america our childrien are at risk for things beyond there control. they have parents that work 2 to 3 jobs just to make ends meet. culture diiferences in school they might not even succed there because they are pushed right in the beginning of there lives. when they grow older they are subjected to things young people should not be doing (drugs,sex talk of drugs talk of sex.) it is too much for a child and will be over whelemed the only way if a child can surive now is if they have a level head and parents that are not like this filithy M.O.F.O Mom

AVG RATING:
(0)

Leatherman1457

05:37 PMAug 01 2009

there has been an epidemic of mother killing there childern. Thank god this one did not happen that way. all of the childern need to be removed from the house and that women need to be sterlized so that she can never have childern spend some time in prison to get off drugs(yes she has to be doing drugs) and than need to have close supervision on probation for 5 years afterwards. but she will go in fromnt of a republicon judge and be slapped lightl;y on the hands her childern will be given back and withing a year we will hear how this woman murdered her childer and all of you republicon idiots will be shocked how a mother could have done this when it could have been prevented by just taking her childer away from her and fixing her to never have kids again.

AVG RATING:
(0)

JBBROWNING

05:36 PMAug 01 2009

okay, maybe you should not have 4 children from 4 different men by the time you are 27 years old! should the working taxpayers be responsible for everything?

AVG RATING:
(0)

Mrsgabbert527

05:35 PMAug 01 2009

Agh what the hell is wrong with people these days? Perhaps that little boy would not be acting out so badly if his shit-for-brains Mother would have treated him like a human instead of some type of animal!

AVG RATING:
(0)

Nvdesertdreamer

05:30 PMAug 01 2009

Where is the father of these children? Gone like the coward he is.

AVG RATING:
(1)

Nylaet03

05:29 PMAug 01 2009

This woman's father isn't stupid. "His daughter didn't abuse her children". She a good mom too, isn't she? Yeah, father has guaranteed he definitely won't have to take responsiblity of his daughter's children.

AVG RATING:
(0)

NordicChicMN

05:29 PMAug 01 2009

Genefmllr WROTE: "This is what happens when the liberals take over. "This poor girl just needs help." Whatever happened to a sense of self, and being responsible for one's own action?"...........................<< No, this is what happens when Republicans preach no birth control & no abortions & don't fund public schools. This is also what happens when MEN do not take personal responsiblity for where they put their d*cks. Why didn't the 4 fathers get VASECTOMIES if they did not want to support their children or marry their children's mother? She is a no-good sl*t, I'm certain of that, but it has nothing to do w/ "liberals" & the fathers of these kids are just as much no-good sl*ts as she is.

AVG RATING:
(2)

Laurarvail1

05:28 PMAug 01 2009

MandilinRaindrop - on what PLANET does anyone get 400 dollars for food? No way! I'm on Food Stamps, getting ready to go back to work (I was hit by a car, so I apologize for using your tax dollars to feed my kids) - and for me and my kids we get $200 a month. My two oldest sons could eat $200 worth of food in a few days... as far as being unemployed; I'm not, I do have a real job, but my office is on the third floor of my building and my wheelchair won't go up steps... This sorry excuse of a female, however, just keeps spitting them out, then gets mad... and mistreats her kids (well, at least one of them - she must REALLY dislike his father)... she needs a Depo injection then, if she doesn't have anymore kids, let her staple papers together in some State Office, to EARN her money... she should be able to handle a job description like that....

AVG RATING:
(2)

M Vigi

05:24 PMAug 01 2009

There is an epidemic of dead-beat fathers in this country who assume absolutely no responsibility for the children they bring into this world, leaving women like this burdened beyond their capacities.

AVG RATING:
(1)

Morosco99

05:23 PMAug 01 2009

MJ still alive, and this sad tale proves it. Just think about it.

AVG RATING:
(2)

1 - 10 of 89

{ JOIN the CONVERSATION }

YOU'LL BE ASKED TO REGISTER OR LOGIN BEFORE POSTING A COMMENT.

News Makers

NewsmakersMichael Phelps becomes the first swimmer to finish the 100-meter butterfly in under 50 seconds. 1 of 8

News Makers

 

All Good News, All The Time

GNN

The Savings Experiment

The Savings Experiment


* Want the latest Hot Seat polls delivered to your Vista desktop? Hot Seat Vista Gadget »

 

Politics Daily

Sports

Money

Technology

Health

Entertainment

Police responding to a report of a 3-year-old being locked in a sweltering, filthy attic were told by other children, Mommy does this when she gets angry, a prosecutor said Friday.