How Could You? Hall of Shame-Ukrainian Adoptive Mom Ruthann Gneiser UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Manitowoc, Wisconsin, adoptive mother Ruthann Gneiser,31, “faces one felony count of physical abuse of a child, intentionally causing great bodily harm.”
A ” Wisconsin woman was charged Thursday with child abuse for allegedly beating and scalding her 5-year-old son who has Down syndrome”
“According to the complaint, Gneiser told an investigator she was angry and repeatedly struck the boy on his back. When he defecated in his pants, she pulled her son into the bathroom and made him stand in the shower under cold water, the complaint said. Authorities say she filled the bathtub with hot water and the boy sat in the scalding water.
The boy was screaming when he was in the cold and hot water, Gneiser told the investigator. She said she realized the water was too hot when she reached in to help her son clean his underwear and almost burned herself, the complaint said.
Gneiser said she believed the boy sat in the hot water for up to 1 ½ minutes, resulting in the boy suffering scald burns over 8 percent of his body, the complaint said.
According to the investigator, no medical attention was sought for the boy for about three hours. He was taken to a hospital Monday.
A doctor who examined the boy told the investigator that the number of his bruises were “too numerous to count,” the complaint said.
Gneiser is free on $10,000 cash bail and is due to make her first court appearance Monday. Online court records do not list a defense attorney.”
Mother accused of beating, scalding 5-year-old son[USA Today 9/25/14 by Associated Press]
“Ruthann Gneiser, 31, told investigators that she was ‘as angry as I’ve ever been.’
Medical Center of Aurora staff notified authorities after Gneiser brought the child in on Monday with ‘heavy bruising’ on his back and scald burns on more than 50 percent of his body, according to ABC 2.
The married, stay-at-home mom reportedly got angry with her adoptive son and began slapping him repeatedly on the back until he defecated in his pants.
ABC 2 reports that Gneiser made her son stand in a cold shower until he ‘got himself cleaned up.’
She then made the boy sit in hot water for up to 1 1/2 minutes only noticing that the water was very hot when she reached in and nearly burned herself, Gneiser told authorities.
The child was transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin where he underwent emergency surgery, according to ABC 2.
A probable cause affidavit reports that though the incident occurred between 1 and 1.25pm, Gneiser did not seek medical attention for her son until 4.30pm — approximately three hours later.”
“Gneiser was reportedly released Tuesday on $10,000 bail with conditions prohibiting her from seeing her children — both are five-year-old boys with Down syndrome — and from having unsupervised contact with any minor.
She was charged Thursday with ‘physical abuse of a child intentionally causing great bodily harm,’ if found guilty, Gneiser may face up to 40 years in prison, We are Green Bay reports.”
“Gneiser is due in court on Monday. ABC 2 reports that Sheriff Robert Hermann described the situation as being ‘tough.’
‘We’re investigating this at this point and still following up on a lot of information,” Hermann told ABC 2.
‘It’s tough when you’re dealing with a child that has disabilities to start with and then something so tragic happens to that child.’ ”
Woman charged for beating and scalding her 5-year-old adoptive son with Down syndrome so badly that he defecated in his pants[Daily Mail 9/26/14 by Charlene Adams]
The Gneiser’s are featured on CHASK[Christian Homes and Special kids],where they state,”Micah’s was a domestic/local adoption. He had the privilege of knowing his parents all but his first 5 days. Lucas’ was an international adoption from Ukraine when he was 2.5 years old. ” They are also featured on First Giving.
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update:“A Manitowoc County woman accused of beating and scalding her son, appeared in court this afternoon for an initial appearance.
Ruthann Gneiser, 31, is charged with felony child abuse.
Her five-year-old son was taken to a hospital last week, with bruises on his back and scalding burns.
The boy has down syndrome.
Officials say Gneiser told investigators she was angry, and repeatedly hit the boy on his back.
After he defecated in his pants, investigators say Gneiser filled the bath tub with hot water, and the boy sat in the scalding water.
The boy was taken to Children’s Hospital near Milwaukee.
“It’s a very serious case,” said Jacalyn LaBre, Manitowoc County’s district attorney. “We look at all the information including the information from the doctors and physicians and try to handle it as appropriately as possible.”
“She wants to get her family back together as soon as possible and I’m confident we’re going to do that,” said Richard Hahn, Gneiser’s attorney.
Gneiser is due back in court on Thursday to discuss the conditions of her bond. She is currently out on a $10,000 cash bond.”
Manitowoc County mom charged with child abuse appears in court[FOX 11 9/29/14]
“Ruthann Gneiser, a 31 year-old woman living just outside Manitowoc (WI), a few miles from Lake Michigan, fundraised in 2011 for the adoption of her second child, a toddler with Down syndrome from the Ukraine who would be named Lucas. A friend, Michelle Zoromski, lauded her on her blog for her original fundraise method: she etched glassware and sold that (since deleted). Her first child, a child with Down syndrome as well, was adopted as a baby in 2009 domestically and went by the name Micah. Both kids are 5 years old.
The Gneisers seem in rural Mid-Western terms a regular couple. Husband Mark is a salesman in the agribusiness, Ruthann stay-at-home mom. She and Mark are members of a Yahoo support group for parents with children with Down Syndrome, they walk the annual Down Awareness Walks in Neenah (WI) and are devout evangelical Christians. On the website of the organization through which they found Lucas, CHASK, they wrote: “Further than special needs, all children are special and precious, created for God’s glory.”
All might have seen well from the outside. And then USA Today reported last Thursday, September 25:
“MANITOWOC, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin woman was charged Thursday with child abuse for allegedly beating and scalding her 5-year-old son who has Down syndrome. Ruthann Gneiser, 31, of Manitowoc, faces one felony count of physical abuse of a child, intentionally causing great bodily harm. According to the complaint, Gneiser told an investigator she was angry and repeatedly struck the boy on his back. When he defecated in his pants, she pulled her son into the bathroom and made him stand in the shower under cold water, the complaint said. Authorities say she filled the bathtub with hot water and the boy sat in the scalding water. The boy was screaming when he was in the cold and hot water, Gneiser told the investigator. She said she realized the water was too hot when she reached in to help her son clean his underwear and almost burned herself, the complaint said. Gneiser said she believed the boy sat in the hot water for up to 1 ½ minutes, resulting in the boy suffering scald burns over 8 percent of his body, the complaint said. According to the investigator, no medical attention was sought for the boy for about three hours. He was taken to a hospital Monday. A doctor who examined the boy told the investigator that the number of his bruises were “too numerous to count,” the complaint said. Gneiser is free on $10,000 cash bail and is due to make her first court appearance Monday. Online court records do not list a defense attorney.”
It is a horrific story, which seems to emerge out of nothing. Maybe there is a ‘something’ in a remark last August on a chat site where Ruthann speaks about the low white blood count of both kids, which can be the result of chronic stress. But it is a devastating story anyway. And alas not an isolated one. Behind this crime hides the larger story of the evangelical involvement in adoption, and specifically special needs adoption. The Gneiser drama gives some clues.
CHASK, Christian Homes and Special Kids, the organization the Gneisers used, is not an adoption agency, but a ‘matching service’ which ‘points birth moms with special needs children to possible adoptive families’. For CHASK adoption is the answer to abortion: ‘We feel strongly that choosing life instead of genetic termination for special needs children is the Lord’s way.’
Since the Gneiser story broke the website is sanitized from earlier references to the ‘success story’ of that family. Activist Katie Fowler took a screenshot just in time. Also removed is a section on the re-homing services the organization offers. Re-homing is the disturbing and profoundly criticized practice of replacing or readopting kids from disrupted adoptions. Megan Twohey reported extensively on this in evangelical circles commonly used method to deal with children with difficult behaviors:http://www.reuters.com/…. Last but not least the name of CHASK director Tom Bushnell is deleted. Supposedly he doesn’t dare or doesn’t want to take a public stand in this situation.
Tom Bushnell is however also on the Board of Directors of NATTHAN, the National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network. That is a deeply conservative evangelical club for home schoolers of special need kids, with on their site this statement of faith: “We believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God and is His completed and final revelation to man. The Bible, in its original autograph, is without error in whole and part, including theological concepts as well as geographical and historical details as well.”
CHASK is an offshoot of NATTHAN. Bushnell’s personal connection to adoption is visualized in a picture on the website http://www.nathhan.com/…. It shows the modern evangelical huge blended multiracial, often transnational family with biological and adopted kids, many of them with special needs.
The Bushnell’s are obviously leaders in their evangelical Christian community and are without doubt role models for many of its members. They were, one can imagine, a role model for the Gneisers as well. But maybe role model is not the right term: to define the relation between leaders and followers the expression ‘peer pressure’ might be more applicable, since adoption – and the adoption of special needs kids – is a core mission for the US evangelical community. The web is full of sites, and blogs and chat boxes with adoptive parents who implicitly boast about the amount of kids they adopted and about the severity of their needs and about how they are fulfilling God’s will. Kathryn Joyce in her study The Child Catchers wrote authoritatively about this evangelical adoption fever – and the many accompanying cases of abuse and infanticide.
There is one more connection, not exactly to the evangelical community but very close to that brand of Christianity, and that line goes through Ruthann’s friend Michelle Zoromski from the first paragraph. Zoromski works as Grants & Operations Manager for Reece’s Rainbow (http://reecesrainbow.org), an adoption grant foundation working with foreign children with Down Syndrome and other special needs, based in Gaithersburg (MD). Their website shows a listing of children with pictures and paypal links and – big – with the amounts the kids raised with their faces and their stories. Lincoln is good for $3,700, but poor Gretchen only has raised $316 as of today. Not exactly everyone’s idea of promoting special needs children adoption. Reece’s Rainbow is an important resource for evangelicals adopting special needs children from other countries.
The Gneisers may not have adopted their first US born child with the help of Reece’s Rainbow – but met and made friends with Michelle Zoromski anyway – they pretty sure adopted their second Ukrainian kid with its support, and that is for those who know the history of that organization not a good sign. The Gneiser abuse was preceded by other Reece’s related cases like the one of Nicolai Emelyantsev (http://poundpuplegacy.org/…), who was killed by his adoptive mother in 2008, and by at least five more fatal cases in recent years: the deaths of these children are by many adoption activists regarded as severe incidents of abuse and neglect or downright infanticides. The Gneiser case fits the Reece’s Rainbow reputation very well.
Serious screening of prospective parents is not part of Reece’s Rainbow business. If Michelle Zoromski had seen a certain disturbing behavior in her friend Ruthann, she definitely didn’t wave the red flag. And since CHASK is not vetting their clients either, somebody else must have been responsible for the homestudies for both kids. The question is of course who? Does that social worker, his or her agency or the unavoidable adoption lawyer take any responsibility? Whoever was responsible, he or she did a terrible job with dark consequences, and should be indicted in the criminal case as well.
The mix of inadequately vetted parents with the evangelical peer pressure to adopt special needs kids turned out again to be toxic. The Gneiser story is one in a by now endless series of well documented tragic and violent adoption stories in the evangelical world. How many kids have to be abused or have to die before the adoption practices of the evangelicals will be officially examined? It is time that Ambassador Susan Jacobs, the Special Advisor for Children’s Issues in the US State Department takes action.
Thanks to Katie Fowler for her help”
Adoption, Special Needs, Child Abuse, Evangelicals. Yet Another Case[Daily Kos 9/29/14 By Frank Ligtvoet]
Update 2:“A Manitowoc County judge will not allow a woman charged with child abuse to see her children.
Ruthann Gneiser, who’s accused of beating and scalding her 5-year-old special needs son, asked for the no contact provision of her bond to be rescinded.
On Thursday, the Clerk of Courts office said that Judge Jerome Fox denied the motion.
Court documents reveal that Gneiser admitted to authorities that she slapped her son repeated on his back. Gneiser said the boy defecated in his pants, so she put him in the bathtub that was filled with scalding hot water for about a minute. She claimed she didn’t realize the water was too hot until she put her hand in it.
The boy was treated for bruising and burns that doctors at Children’s Hospital in Wauwatosa say cover about 8 percent of his body. Investigators had previously said the burns covered more than half of his body.
Gneiser is due in court for a preliminary hearing on October 15.”
Judge rules Ruthann Gneiser cannot see her children[WTAQ 10/2/14 by Jeff Flynt]
Update 3: “A woman accused of child abuse for allegedly putting the child in a scalding bath pleaded not guilty.
Ruthann Gneiser waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday and pleaded not guilty, according to online court records.
No trial date was set. A plea hearing is scheduled for Feb. 11.
She’s accused of beating and scalding her five-year-old son, who has Down syndrome. According to court documents, she admitted to slapping the boy repeatedly on his back. She’s also accused of making the boy sit in a bathtub filled with scalding water. Gneiser said she didn’t realize the water was too hot.
A judge previously denied Gneiser’s request to see her children. The issue of supervised contact was raised again Wednesday. The judge will hear arguments on that at a hearing Tuesday”
Manitowoc County mom pleads not guilty[Fox 11 10/16/14]
Update 4: A search of Wisconsin’s court records shows that a plea hearing in on schedule on July 16, 2015.
Update 5: Ruthann Gneiser was convicted!
A Search of Wisconsin’s court records shows that “State files an Amended Information charging 1 ct. Physical Abuse of Child, contrary to Section 948.03(3)(c) and 1 ct. Physical Abuse of Child – Intentionally Cause Bodily Harm, contrary to Section 948.03(2)(b). No contest pleas to the amended charges. Convicted. Court orders a pre-sentence investigation report to be completed by DOC. Sentencing hearing is set for 09-10-15 at 2:30 p.m. Report to be filed by 08-31-15. Court orders defendant to submit a DNA sample. “
Update 6: A Search of Wisconsin’s court records shows that”Sentence Withheld. Defendant is placed on probation to DOC for three (3) years. Conditions of probation: 1) Spend six (6) months in the county jail, under the Huber Law, on count 1 only, commencing on 10-10-15 at 8:00 a.m.; 2) Assessment, treatment, counseling as deemed appropriate by the Departments assessment process; 3) Defendant is to comply with all terms of the CHIPS orders in case no: 14 JC 53 and 14 JC 54; 4) Pay court costs of $873.00. Cash bail applied; 5) pay supervision fees in an amount to be determined by DOC. Defendant has credit for 1 day if revoked. The Court orders the sentencing memorandums of both parties along with all attachments and photos to be sealed.
Reece’s Rainbow’s Michelle Zoeomski helped Ruthann adopt BOTH boys and hasn’t yet scrubbed her “advocacy” from her website:
http://goo.gl/zHYZJZ
Thanks! I thought Reece’s Rainbow might be involved!
Didn’t take long – the post is now gone.
Well, she has now. I don’t suppose you saved a cached version?
Michelle Zoromski also hasn’t updated her blog in nearly a year. Reading between the lines (or rather, in the photographs), it seems that Lilya needs to be carefully supervised around the youngest biokid Dax.
http://zoromski.blogspot.com/2012/11/daxy-is-10-months-old_12.html?m=0
http://zoromski.blogspot.com/2012/10/lil-dax.html?m=0
http://zoromski.blogspot.com/2012/09/first-day-of-school-yesterday.html?m=0
Mentions of Lilya dropped off dramatically in the last few months before the blog went silent. I suspect that she’s been disrupted by now.
Suspect away. Lilya is very much a part of the family and doing well.
That’s good, if true.
So you are speculating. I’m giving facts yet you are basically accusing me of lying. OK.
Yes. There are a number of disruptions with any type of adoption. I’m not sure if the rate of disruptions is higher in the Reece’s Rainbow community but whether or not it is, not all RR families disrupt. Some of us are quite happy.
Natalie,
I repeat: I’ll by happy if Lilya is still with the Zoromskis, but you’ve given me no reason to think that you have any inside knowledge about their affairs.
Yes, I’m speculating, but my speculation is based on things that I’ve seen– or rather haven’t seen– on the family’s blog. Michelle was quite detailed about Ruby and Dax’s doings, and to a lesser extent about Braden’s, but said almost nothing about Lilya’s. In short, the same pattern Renee Garcia showed before disrupting Kellsey.
And then there’s the nonverbal evidence of their carefully making sure that Dax and Lilya are never alone in the same photo together OR there’s a pane of glass between Lilya and Dax. There’s also the scared look on Dax’s face (and the unhappy look on Ruby’s) in the photo where Lilya’s arm is outstretched.
If Lilya’s issues with Dax have been cleared up– or if he’s grown big enough and strong enough that her inability to moderate her strength to accommodate a baby is no longer a factor– Wonderful! I take no pleasure in disruptions.
I just wish the advocates of Rescue Adoption would STOP URGING potential adoptive parents to pursue the kind of high risk adoptions likely to result in disruptions. Such as out-of-birth-order adoptions, and two-at-once-unrelated adoptions.
Is that really so unreasonable?
Lil is in the home. She has not been disrupted. I cannot speak to the relationship between the children, or Lil’s behavior, but she is in the home.
Lilya is the sweetest girl, calm and kind, she has never been a threat to anyone. She is beloved and adored. When her brother was an infant, she was completely uninterested In him. Once he was older and mobile she liked to play with him… And still does. Why create drama where there is none? There’s enough real pain in the world; stop picking on this gentle endearing little girl.
Cuz Reece’s Rainbow kids end up a used, rehomed, dead or dumped in foster care way too often.
Drama Llama,
In what way am I “picking on Lilya” in any way, shape, or form?
According to the profile on CHASK, Ruthann is 22 years younger than Mark. Since they were 52 and 30 at the time of the writeup, and they were said to have been married “more than ten years”, that means that Ruthann was AT MOST 20 when she married a 42 year old. She’s also described as being “still new to her faith” while Mark is “strong in his faith”. The power dynamics involved sound very creepy.
And this couple couple managed to pass TWO home studies?
There have been times where I have been “as angry as I’ve ever been” with my achild. Akids, especially those with special needs, are whole different ballgame and they bring challenges that biokids just don’t. Sadly, this situation highlights how the orphan rescue mentality does NOT work. Everyone loses, especially the poor kids.
What’s EXTRA scary and horrifying is that the kid she abused was adopted as a BABY.
Five. Days. Old.
Ruthann took the kid home from the hospital. Yes, of course, a baby who loses his first mom MISSES her, feels the loss acutely… but kids adopted at birth, as newborns, are significantly LESS likely to be abused than kids adopted at older ages.
Where are you getting this information from? It has not been released WHICH child was involved in this case.
Both boys are five years old. Both were adopted.
One was a newborn domestic adoption and one was two years old when he was adopted from the Ukraine through RR.
I would bet money the boy who this case involved is NOT the domestically adopted newborn!
Actually, it HAS. Ruthann abused her FIVE year old son, the one she adopted as a NEWBORN:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2770960/Woman-charged-beating-scalding-5-year-old-adoptive-son-Down-syndrome-badly-defecated-pants.html
The kid she did not abuse is the one adopted from Ukraine.
Actually they both are 5. I did not see where that article stated is was the newborn.
The abused child is from Ukraine. He was in an orphanage for over two years with a revolving door of caregivers. Because of this, he has a sever case of Reactive Attachment Disorder, making him destructive, manipulative, and unmanageable. The mother should have sought help, but could not afford it, so was trying to make it through life. The other child was adopted as an infant and has no problems.
Dear No Name,
Read the DSM definition of RAD– it does NOT include being “…destructive, manipulative, and unmanageable…”. That comes from the junk science of Nancy Thomas other so-called “attachment therapists”. There is no peer-reviewed research showing that any of her claims about RAD are true– especially the claims that her methods are helpful.
Yes, kids adopted as older kids show a lot of behavior problems that are extremely frustrating for APs to cope with. That doesn’t mean these problems are caused by RAD (assuming the child even suffers from it.) RAD is just a fancy way of saying a child can’t bring themselves to trust anyone completely due to past abuse and/or abandonment. That’s all.
Hitting kids doesn’t lead to their learning to trust– that’s just inflicting more of the treatment caused them to develop RAD in the first place! The same applies to sticking them in a ice-cold shower for soiling themselves.
And just for the record– crying when you’re hurt or scared is NOT being “manipulative”. Nor is relaying completely true accounts about being hit, molested, or “creatively” punished to mandated reporters.
This article says Ruthann Gneiser abused her five year old:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wisconsin-woman-accused-of-beating-scalding-disabled-son/
A profile of Ruthann, that includes their birth years, is here:
http://www.downsyn.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=513654&sid=cfbe758e1161ec2261350e8d90f364a8
“Ruthann
Wife to Mark
Mom to Lucas (1/09; adopted from Ukraine 6/11) and Micah (4/09; adopted locally at 5 days old) ”
Micah is 5, he was adopted at 5 days old AND abused by Ruthann.
Not the 3 yo Lucas, who was from Ukraine.
I still don’t get it.Lucas was born on 01/09 and Micah on 04/09. That makes them only 3 months apart. The Cbs Article doesn’t say which kid was abused.
CHASK, First Giving and Michelle Zoromski all took down their references to this child abuser — as did Reece’s Rainbow, who removed links to Ruthann’s blog.
Screenshots are available on twitter, via my girl @katiexfowler,if you’re interested!
OT: In acknowledgement of the power of the internet to counter toxic memes, PLEASE act to protect Net Neutrality!
https://www.battleforthenet.com/comcast/?org=fff&t=dXNlcmlkPTU1MTg1MTc4LGVtYWlsaWQ9OTE0Mg==
Please also share this link on other sites you participate on.
Ruthann turned 31 in March. Mark will turn 55 in November. The ages used in the CHASK article were given to mislead people into thinking the age difference isn’t as bad as it is. They were married 5 months after Ruthann turned 18. Yes, it is creepy and yes the relationship started much earlier. Mark has 2 adult biological children from a previous marriage.
Judge 10/03: Gneiser cannot contact children http://fox11online.com/2014/10/02/judge-gneiser-cannot-contact-her-children/
Ruthann absolutely DID have resources available to her. I cannot speak more on that topic, but I am sure it will come out in court.
She could have had relief within half an hour of making a phone call.
And it has not been released as to which child was abused! They are the same age. When I spoke to Ruthann, L was the one she was having a difficult time with. She was VERY bonded to M, who was a domestic infant adoption. She was struggling with her attachment to L, who was adopted from the Ukraine at the age of two.
You can ASSUME which child it was, but not even those of us in her Ds community know which child was abused! And until I see his name or defining specifics in regard to WHEN or WHERE he was adopted from, all we can do is assime.
According to one news story, “…A Lieutenant with the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department went to the home where the alleged beating and scalding took place. He tested the water temperature for the bathtub where the boy allegedly was scalded. The thermometer showed with hot water running the temperature was 140-141 degrees. With the hot water turned 3/4 open, the temperature was about 126 degrees. Somewhere between the 126 and full hot, the Lieutenant could only hold his hand in the water for a count of 2 one-thousand….”
http://www.wearegreenbay.com/1fulltext-news/d/story/update-mother-burns-special-needs-child/13509/0R5JKM89v0KPnkVJDzsp0A
So the scalding itself could have been honestly accidental.
The “cold shower punishment” may relate to a toilet training “technique” recommended by Michael Pearl in ‘To Train Up a Child’: Taking a child who’s soiled himself outside and turning a garden hose on him to “clean” him. Pearl writes approvingly of parents who do this when the weather is chilly is chilly.
http://thewartburgwatch.com/2011/03/23/child-%E2%80%9Ctraining%E2%80%9D-pearl-style/
I don’t know if all states classify this as child abuse, but I do. Talk to someone who’s taken the Ice Bucket Challenge.
The beating which led to the child defecating in terror was unquestionably abuse by any standards.
On 7/16/15, Ruthann was convicted of “Physical Abuse of Child” and “Physical Abuse of Child – Intentionally Cause Bodily Harm”. Her sentencing is on 9/10/15. There are no publications of this story. I found it searching through the court records.
Has she lost custody of her other adopted 5 yo with DS? Because if she abused one, she is likely to harm the other too!