So, let’s say you have a newborn. Let’s say you give the newborn a zerbert. (Funny little farty noise when you blow on their belly.) Let’s say you take a picture of said zerbert. Super, now everyone has a nice little memory, right? In a sane world, maybe. In Raleigh North Carolina, apparently you get 6 months in jail and have your kids taken away from you:
Parents who were charged with child abuse last August have been exonerated and reunited with their children.
Charbel Hamaty was charged with sexually assaulting his newborn son, and Teresa Hamaty was arrested for taking sexually explicit pictures.
The couple describe the ordeal as a “nightmare” that started over a roll of film that Charbel Hamaty dropped off at a north Raleigh Eckerd.
The photo that raised alarms shows a naked Kristoff, now 16-months-old, getting a kiss from his father on the belly button, Teresa Hamaty said.
When the photos were shown to the police, the couple was arrested, and Kristoff was put in protective custody, while his half-sister, Victoria, was handed over to her birth father.
Teresa Hamaty was released on bond, but wasn’t allowed contact with her children for months.
Charbel Hamaty spent six months in prison before the charges were dropped because of a report submitted by an expert saying there was no criminal intent in the photos.
Maybe there is something else going on that makes this something other than jaw-droppingly insane. But, if not, this would seem to be the flip-side of the Aiyana Gauvin tragedy. On the one hand, you have the sadistic torture and death of a 4 year old girl that possibly could have been prevented. On the other hand you have a hypervigilance that encourages parents not to have any physical contact with their children at all.
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