14 year old shoots father
Repo...@uni.com
Kansas
City Star newspaper:
By OSCAR AVILA - The Kansas City Star
Date: 05/05/99
MAITLAND, Mo. -- On Feb. 13, Nikki Manley crept into her father's room.
Before
Joe Manley could awaken, the 14-year-old shot him in the head. The
T-shirt he
kept over his head to help him sleep turned red with blood.
Nikki pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. And a judge in Holt
County on
Wednesday sentenced her to probation.
The reason: Days before she shot her father, Nikki said he threatened to
kill
her. Family members said Manley abused Nikki and them for years. Her
attorney
said Nikki's appeals to authorities went unanswered.
The sentence follows a trend of the 1990s in which young people who have
responded violently to abuse have avoided severe punishment.
Loved ones and victim advocates find themselves torn between punishing
people
like Nikki and feeling compassion for their years of abuse.
"The dilemma is drawing a clear line between sympathy for someone's pain
and
responsibility. There is a place for both," said Gail Ryan, a counselor
at Kemp
Children's Center in Denver who studies child abuse.
"We do have to hold them accountable in some way," she said.
The news about Nikki sent shock waves through Maitland, a tiny town 85
miles
north of Kansas City. Several residents idling in the nearly abandoned
business
district said violence is almost unheard of there.
The Manleys had quietly moved there early this year and occupied a small
house
on a treelined road south of the main drag.
Nikki is a quiet, slight girl with long, curly blond hair and a face
even more
youthful than her 14 years. She is a straight-A student who was friendly
to
teachers and classmates alike.
"This is a girl who has had her fair share of hard times and trouble.
It's
amazing how nice a person she is," said Tim Hastings, her middle school
principal. "You can't help but feel a little compassion for her."
Judges and juries have felt compassion for similar victims.
In Oklahoma, teen-agers Herman and Druie Dutton admitted fatally
shooting their
abusive father. A judge said the boys could remain free as long as they
stayed
out of trouble for the next two years.
Closer to home, Caroline Castleberry, 23, of Lake Quivira shot her
father after
years of sexual abuse. He was paralyzed. She received probation.
Still, some wonder if the compassion is going too far.
After the Castleberry case, Johnson County District Attorney Paul
Morrison
lamented that she didn't serve at least some prison time. He feared that
a
lighter sentence would seem to condone her actions.
Without commenting specifically on Manley's case, Morrison said
Wednesday he
fears that victims might "overuse" abuse as an excuse for violent
behavior. He
cited the Menendez brothers of California, who went to jail for killing
their
parents, as an example.
"Every case has to be looked at (individually), but generally speaking,
it's a
bad thing for people to use lethal force and take the law into their own
hands," Morrison said. "That concerns me greatly."
Nikki could have received seven years in jail, but her attorney, James
Nadolski
of St. Joseph, said people shouldn't think his client is going
unpunished.
Nikki and her mother didn't want to talk about the case, but Nadolski
and
Nikki's relatives say the teen-ager can give up any hope of a normal
childhood.
She is now home-schooled and her grades have dropped.
Nikki will be on probation for five years. If she breaks the law again,
she
could go to jail. She left the courthouse Wednesday with a shell-shocked
expression and a television camera in close pursuit.
"There are no winners here," Nadolski said. "Everyone is a victim, to
some
degree. It's a sad, sad story."
Ryan said Nikki risks a "continuing life of dysfunction." Part of her
probation
requires her to receive counseling.
Nadolksi said he hopes the system will help Nikki where it had failed
her
before. He said the girl had reported physical abuse to state child
welfare
authorities for three years but investigations had gone nowhere.
Diane Alexander, a researcher at the National Center for Victims of
Crime, said
residents should use the Manley case as a call to action.
Friends, teachers and family members should intervene aggressively when
a child
reports abuse, Alexander said. She acknowledged that it is often hard in
small
towns like Maitland where resources are far away.
And rather than seeking retribution against Nikki, she said, residents
should
try to ensure that abuse is detected early before violence erupts.
"We would never say that someone should not be held accountable for
their
actions. We do have laws. But this does point out what we are not doing
as a
society that we let people get to this point."