"John" CIAMPA - 5 yo - Homosassa/St. Petersburg FL

They watched the frail child, wearing nothing but underwear in
30-degree weather, stand on the porch screaming and begging to be let
back inside the mobile home.Over the course of several months, they saw bruises and black eyes.At
least a half-dozen houses in the rural neighborhood sit within earshot
of his house. But beyond a handful of anonymous calls to an abuse
hotline giving scant details about a beaten boy, no one tried to help.Because,
neighbors said, they feared retribution from the adults in the house.
Because they couldn't prove anything. Because surely, they thought,
deputies would eventually take care of it.But because no one had told
law enforcement all that they saw, deputies couldn't help.So, neighbors
and investigators said, the abuse continued for nearly two years."I
had adults who witnessed this stuff and didn't call," said Citrus
County sheriff's Detective Kat Liotta, who later investigated and helped
place the child, now 5, and his four brothers in homes."I'm here
to tell you, if we had not sheltered this kid, he would have ended up
dead," she said Tuesday. "There's no doubt in my mind. He was hated so
much."In that home on Lima Avenue, authorities say, the boy's
mother and her live-in boyfriend locked him in a 4- by 4-foot closet for
hours at a time. They forced him, Liotta said, to eat his own feces,
drink his own urine and, once, to lick his own vomit from the kitchen
floor.Crystal Jean Ciampa and Joshua Louis Heater, both 26, were
arrested Thursday and charged with aggravated child abuse, child neglect
and tampering with a witness. She denied it all, but investigators said
Heater implicated Ciampa and confessed to nearly everything.Four
times since February 2009, investigators with Citrus County's child
protective team had responded to calls that the boy was covered with
bruises.But each time authorities went to the house, the boy
either wouldn't speak at all or whispered that his now 9-year-old
brother had hit him. His bruises alone, Liotta said, were never bad
enough to file criminal charges or take the five boys away.But in
mid February, during an unrelated Sheriff's Office investigation into
Heater, someone approached a deputy with pictures on her cell phone.The
photographs showed the 5-year-old's nose bloodied and both of his eyes
blackened. The woman told authorities about the closet and what he was
forced to eat. An investigator questioned and inspected the boy, who
again blamed his older brother and denied everything else.That
day, the investigator found about 20 bruises on him. The next day
authorities questioned him again at Jessie's Place, a child advocacy
center in Citrus named after Jessica Lunsford, who was killed in 2005
only a few streets away from Lima Avenue. They counted 42 bruises.The
5-year-old is the only child the 5-foot-11, 232-pound Ciampa is accused
of abusing. Authorities said she did it because he reminded her of his
father, her ex-husband.From then until last week, Liotta built her case.
She interviewed 12 people who said they witnessed abuse."I'm just looking
at them in horror," she recalled, "and I say, 'And you called us?' "
"No.""Why?""Well … "Most of them, Liotta said, offered little explanation.
Eventually, though, she compiled the testimonies.Even the boy told her what
Ciampa and Heater had done to him, she said.The
detective, hardened by 26 years in law enforcement, was consumed with
the case. Soon after she entered the mobile home, Liotta walked in the
closet where she said the boy was kept. She shut the door and turned off
the lights. The stench of urine was overwhelming. She wanted to know
what the boy had felt in his prison.When she noticed the closet doorknob
had been removed, she rifled through the couple's garbage until she found it.After
Liotta made the arrests last week, she interviewed Ciampa and Heater.
Liotta told Ciampa she needed to cooperate. She said the woman's
response was: "What good is that going to do me?"Heater, the
detective said, insisted he was so addicted to prescription pills that
he rarely took part in the abuse. Liotta said he admitted shutting the
boy in the closet, but noted the door wasn't always locked."If
the door wasn't always locked, the kid knew what happened to him if he
came out," the detective said. "They didn't need a lock on that door to
keep him there. Heater pretty much agreed with me on that."Liotta
said the amount of time it took authorities to stop the abuse still
haunts her. She wonders if she did anything wrong. How the system might
have failed. Why neighbors and relatives did almost nothing to stop the
torture.The last time she saw the boy, his body showed no bruises. He smiled and was proud of that.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article1166262.ece

A Times Editorial

A failure, and a child's horrifying suffering

In Print: Thursday, April 28, 2011

The horrifying tale of a badly abused 5-year-old Citrus County child
has implicated more than just his mother and her live-in boyfriend. It
has also revealed an abdication of responsibility by a dozen neighbors,
not one of whom seized the initiative to vigorously insist law
enforcement authorities intervene. Because they were too feckless to
help, a child lingered literally locked behind death's door.
The public does not know the name of Crystal Jean Ciampa's youngest
son. But with her arrest and that of her boyfriend, Joshua Louis Heater,
on charges of aggravated child abuse, neglect and witness tampering,
the boy's physical trauma has come to light. The boy, whose misfortune
was to allegedly remind Ciampa of her ex-husband, was frequently beaten
and spent lengthy periods locked away in a 4- by 4-foot closest. He was
forced to eat his own feces and drink his urine.
Also revealed is that at least 12 neighbors who lived near the child's
Homosassa residence knew about and even witnessed the abuse over a
two-year period but now admit to the investigating detective that they
never called the police or child abuse hotline, where they could have
left a tip anonymously. On four occasions when deputies did respond to
vague calls, they found little evidence to warrant a further
investigation beyond some bruising. The child was rescued only when
authorities investigating Heater on an unrelated matter and discovered
the full extent of the abuse.
A civilized society requires citizens to step forward to help those in
grave distress. This child was failed first by his primary caregivers
and then by those neighbors who were aware of his nightmarish plight and
did nothing to stop it. It wouldn't have taken much. The Florida
Department of Children and Families provides an abuse hotline,
1-800-962-2873, where callers can report suspected child abuse
anonymously.
The judicial system will decide the ultimate legal fate of Ciampa and
Heater. But a lifetime of repairing the psychological damage inflicted
on a little boy denied a childhood is only just beginning.

Bond set for couple accused in disturbing child abuse case
Bond for Josh Heater and Crystal Ciampa was set at $65,000 each. Bond for Crystal Ciampa and Josh Heater was set at $65,000 each.
By Jonathan Petramala , Reporter
Last Updated: Friday, April 22, 2011
CITRUS COUNTY --

A 26-year-old Homosassa couple is in jail on aggravated child abuse charges.

Crystal Ciampa and Joshua Heater were in court for a first appearance Friday morning.

This is after two years of abuse allegations.

A former babysitter spoke about the abuse exclusively to Bay News 9. She didn't want to be identified for fear of retaliation.

"Every time I'd go over there, he'd have a different mark on his hand. He had a burn, looked like a lighter burn," the woman said.

The couples' arrest reports details a list of torture.

Investigators say the most recent report of abuse happened on February 17th. They found the boy with bruising on his face and a bloody nose.

Investigators also learned the boy spent most of his time locked in small closet in the couples bedroom. His hands had been cut by a plastic cake knife, and most disturbing of all they say he also was forced to consume his own bodily waste.

Dallas Mighell, the couples' landlord, said he can't believe the allegations.

"I didn't see any of the abuse and don't know really whether it's true or trumped up," Mighell said.

According to the arrest report, the couple is thought to have abused the boy since he was at least 3 years old. Investigators say there were five children in the home, but the little boy was the only target of the abuse. All the children were removed from the home in February.

After the arrest, investigators say Heater admitted to much of the abuse. His girlfriend Ciampa has denied any knowledge.

Bond for the couple was set at $65,000 each.

http://www.baynews9.com/article/news/2011/april/236317/Deputies:-Child-5-was-abused-for-years?cid=rss

Report: Boy, 5, kept in closet
Homosassa couple charged with abuse
By Shemir Wiles
Saturday, April 23, 2011 at 12:00 am (Updated: April 23, 12:03 am)

HOMOSASSA — The wooden door opened to reveal the confined quarters of a small bedroom closet.
Crystal Jean Ciampa faces charges of aggravated child abuse, child neglect and tampering with a victim/informant/witness.

As Billy Murray looked regretfully at the space police believe her 5-year-old grandson was forced to spend most of his life, she threw her hands over her weary eyes and began to weep, distraught over the thought that her daughter could have done such a thing.

“As a grandmother, if she’s guilty, she deserves what she gets,” Murray said. “If she didn’t, so be it.”

Crystal Jean Ciampa and Joshua Louis Heater, both 26, were arrested Thursday on charges of aggravated child abuse, child neglect and tampering with a victim/informant/witness.

According to the couple’s arrest reports, detectives say for about two years, Ciampa and Heater kept the 5-year-old boy caged in the closet and he was forced to eat his own vomit and feces and drink his own urine.

Ciampa and Heater also reportedly burned the child with a cigarette lighter, cut him with a plastic cake cutter, kept the child outside during bad weather until late at night and beat the boy to the point where he was covered with numerous bruises.

At first, authorities said the boy was non-verbal and would not reveal how he received the bruises.

However, after being removed from the home, he and the boy’s 9-year-old brother disclosed the abuse and stated Ciampa and Heater told them to lie about the abuse so they wouldn’t get arrested, the reports said.

Ciampa denied abusing the boy, but Heater reportedly admitted to par-ticipating in the boy’s abuse and having knowledge of it. The report says Heater stated he was addicted to prescription medication, which “leaves him out of it.”

Friday morning, both Ciampa and Heater appeared in front of Circuit Judge Carol Falvey at the jail for first appearance. Their bonds were set at $65,000 each.

As of Friday evening, both Ciampa and Heater were still in jail.

“Even if I had $30,000, no, I wouldn’t bond her out,” Murray said Friday afternoon inside the couple’s mobile home in Homosassa.

Murray, who said she arrived at the home Wednesday from Virginia, remained dumbfounded at the allegations against her daughter.

“I would have never dreamed,” she said. “Is this a nightmare? Let me wake up.”

Murray said she was supposed to gain custody of her grandchildren, who were removed from her daughter’s home in February. Then out of the blue while her daughter was meeting with the social worker Thursday morning, deputies showed up at the home and took her daughter and Heater away in handcuffs.

Murray explained the social worker told her the 5-year-old had bruises, but she was completely unaware about the other allegations.

“If I would have known, maybe I could have prevented,” she said as she wiped away tears. “I’m more devastated than anyone. I was kept in the dark.”

She pointed out how the police took the carpet for evidence out of the closet and her grandson’s bedroom. They also took the door knobs and a lock that once was bolted outside the 5-year-old’s bedroom was missing.

Inside the couple’s bedroom, bags filled with Easter treats overflowed on the floor. Murray said there were two receipts — one for $200 and another for $300 — for the items she said her daughter had purchased to give the children Sunday.

And the children’s rooms were being repainted with their favorite colors. The 5-year-old’s room sat practically empty, with the exception of paint cans sprawled on the floor.

In the kitchen, family photos provided a possible glimpse into their life. In one photo, a young boy can be seen pushing a toy lawnmower smiling happily at the camera. A note written in marker by Heater on a dry eraser board makes mention of recent fighting and he promises Ciampa things will get better.

Another note on the nearby counter showed the couple owes $953 in back rent and are being evicted. Murray said the landlord dropped it off Friday morning and told her he didn’t believe the allegations.

But Murray said she’s not sure what to believe. Though convinced her daughter needs psychological treatment, Murray still has little compassion for her.

“She can sit there and rot. I hope the judge shows her no mercy,” she said, “because she didn’t.”

http://www.chronicleonline.com/content/report-boy-5-kept-closet

Police: Mother, boyfriend caged and starved 5-year-old boy
April 26th, 2011 by Prescott Carlson | Permalink

A Florida couple has been accused of shocking child abuse

Authorities in Homosassa, Florida, have accused a mother and her boyfriend of horrific acts of child abuse against the woman’s 5-year-old son.

Crystal Jean Ciampa, 26, along with her boyfriend, Joshua Louis Heater, 26, have been charged on multiple counts of child abuse, child neglect and tampering with a witness, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

Ciampa denies any wrongdoing, but police say Heater confessed and implicated Ciampa for severely abusing her son, who she has said reminds her of the boy’s father, her ex-husband. Ciampa has five sons with three different men, but she is only accused of abusing one.

Child services have been investigating Ciampa and Heater for over two years, but say that they were unable to act because the boy either refused to talk to them or blamed one of his brothers for his various injuries and bruises. It wasn’t until February of this year when authorities learned that Ciampa had caught the boy sneaking a can of soda without asking permission, so she forced him to “chug” the drink until he vomited, and then made him lick the vomit off the floor. After that incident, the boy and his four brothers were removed from the home.

Police corroborated the allegations in 12 separate interviews, detailing extremely disturbing child abuse acts such as locking the boy outside in 30 degree weather in only his underwear, burning him with a cigarette lighter, cutting his hands with a cake cutter, and caging him in a closet where they starved him and the boy says he was forced to eat his own “poop” and “pee.” Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Kanter called the acts “unfathomable.”

Ciampa’s mother, Billie Murray, is having trouble accepting her daughter is responsible for such a level of abuse, telling a reporter, “You’d have to be more than an animal to do this. I couldn’t imagine that my daughter could…”

She trailed off, in tears, finally adding that she will seek custody of her five grandchildren and hopes to raise them, saying, “They didn’t ask to be brung into this world. They deserve to have a beautiful life.”

Police also say Ciampa and Heater were trafficking prescription painkillers from the home.


http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2011/04/26/police-mother-boyfriend-caged-and-starved-5-year-old-boy/

St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
April 26, 2011 Tuesday
FIVE SONS, ONE TARGET
JOHN WOODROW COX, Times Staff Writer
HOMOSASSA

A young mother of five boys is accused of singling out one for horrid mistreatment.

When Billie Murray flicks on the lightbulb and stares into that closet, she wants to believe it's just a closet.

Not her grandson's prison.

Not a 4- by 4-foot cell where, authorities say, a now 5-year-old boy with dark eyes and wispy blond hair was locked away for hours. Where he was starved. Where he was forced to drink his own urine and eat his own feces.

She wants to believe her daughter, Crystal Jean Ciampa, could not have committed such horrors against her own son.

"You'd have to be more than an animal to do this," she said Monday. "I couldn't imagine that my daughter could ..."

Murray stopped, unable to push the words out. Tears trickled down her cheeks.

The 26-year-old and her live-in boyfriend, Joshua Louis Heater, also 26, were arrested by Citrus County sheriff's deputies Thursday on counts of aggravated child abuse, child neglect and tampering with a witness. She denied it all. But Heater implicated Ciampa and confessed to nearly everything, investigators said, though Heater insisted he was so addicted to prescription pills that he rarely took part in the abuse.

Ciampa's five sons, fathered by three different men, had lived with the two in the mobile home on Lima Avenue until authorities removed them all in February. But the woman is accused of abusing only one. Because, she used to say, the little boy reminded her of his father, her ex-husband.

She punished him - tortured him - for nearly anything, authorities and neighbors say. For sneaking chocolate candy bars or sharing his toys. Once, a report says, Ciampa caught him taking a soda without her permission. She made him chug it until he threw up.

Then, she made him lick the vomit up from the floor, the report says.

Neighbors recall him standing outside in 30-degree weather once this winter, dressed only in his underwear. He begged his mother to let him back inside. Other times, he was locked outside during rainstorms, authorities say. People hundreds of yards away could hear his screams through the night.

Investigators have accused Ciampa of striking the little boy until his eyes were black and blood streamed from his nose. They say the couple burned him with a cigarette lighter, sliced his hands with a plastic cake cutter and, once, beat him so badly his body was covered in 42 bruises.

Since early 2009, Citrus authorities had received reports about Ciampa and Heater abusing the boy. But every time they investigated, the boy refused to talk or blamed his older brother. The bruises were concerning, investigators said, but they were never bad enough to file charges or take the kids away. Then, in mid February, authorities learned of the vomit incident and saw the boy wrapped with injuries, so all five boys - ranging in age from 2 months to 9 years - were removed and placed in either foster care or with relatives.

Since then, sheriff's Detective Kathleen Liotta conducted 12 interviews with people who corroborated the allegations. Even the boy, eventually, detailed the atrocities committed against him and admitted he was compelled to lie before. Many times, the boy said, he was forced to consume his own "poop" and "pee."

"It's unfathomable," said sheriff's Sgt. Mike Kanter, "that parents or caregivers would do that to their kids."

Ciampa and Heater, deputies told Murray, trafficked drugs from the house. A September report says two men, armed with a gun, stole 45 Somas and 110 oxycodone pills from them. Neighbors say they've seen dozens of cars pull into the driveway where Ciampa would meet them and sell prescription pills.

After hearing last week that the children had been taken, Murray quit her job managing a hotel in Virginia and drove down to Homosassa. Recently, she was told her grandson had been locked up after he looked at his presents before Christmas. She spoke to him Sunday about living with her. "'Grandma, I'm not going to get into the presents, so you don't have to put the lock on the door,'" she recalled him saying. "I just had to pause and cry."

The house is strewn with contradictions. Toy trucks, blocks and everything SpongeBob SquarePants is piled in one room, just feet away from 12 bottles of Jagermeister atop a cabinet. On a wall is the boys' "Job Chart": take out the trash, pick up toys and take showers. On a marker board tacked nearby, in Ciampa's handwriting, is a reminder to call a "child protection investigator."

The couple had bought three big-screen TVs, one 6 feet across, but Murray has spent nearly $3,000 - all that she has - covering Heater and her daughter's unpaid rent and electric bill.

Though she's 54, with diabetes, she intends to raise her grandchildren, if she gains custody.

"They didn't ask to be brung into this world," she said. "They deserve to have a beautiful life."



http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020423&docId=l:1405853211&start=4

by Chelsea Hoffman
A Disgusting Case of Child Abuse Finally Over
April 28, 2011 04:05 AM EDT
It took two years of constant abuse heard by several neighbors before police finally removed a child from his abusive parents in Homosa County. In a rural part of Florida, Crystal Jean Ciampa was arrested for possibly one of the cruelest cases of child abuse police have seen in the area. Her boyfriend, go figure, was also involved.

Sources document the level of abuse that this poor 5-year-old boy faced for several months, and possibly for years. Neighbors could hear the boy scream on the front porch of his mother's mobile home in 30-degree weather, wearing nothing but underwear at all hours of the night. It was a part of abuse dealt out by Crystal Jean and her live-in shack mate. The neighbors that did call the police on the family, did so anonymously, fearing repercussions from Crystal and her boyfriend. Finally, police arrived and found out just how horrific of a life this poor child was forced to endure.

Crystal Jean Ciampa locked her 5-year-old son in a closet, and forced him to eat his own feces, drink his own urine, and sit in filthy darkness for hours at a time. When he wasn't being forced to do this, and eat his own vomit, he was beaten; given black eyes and fattened lips on a daily basis. What drove this mother to torture and degrade her own flesh and blood? Could it be drugs, or could it be that some people should be sterilized at birth? Crystal Jean Ciampa goes down in history as one of those people who should never be given the right to breed again.

http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979270788

Child-torturing mother arrested in Florida
Tue Apr 26, 2011 4:48PM
Florida authorities have arrested a mother of five and her live-in boyfriend on charges of starving and torturing one of her children.
Police said Crystal Jean Ciampa of Homosassa, Fla., is accused of locking her five-year-old son in a closet where he was forced to drink his own urine and eat his own feces, The St. Petersburg Times reported Tuesday.
Ciampa and her boyfriend, Joshua Louis Heater, 26, were arrested by Citrus County sheriff's deputies last week on charges of aggravated child abuse, child neglect and tampering with a witness.
Her five children, fathered by three different men, were removed in February.
Authorities said Ciampa is accused of abusing only the one child who she said reminded her of her ex-husband.
Neighbors told police she once forced the boy to stand outside in 30-degree temperatures dressed only in his underwear.
Investigators said the couple burned him with a cigarette lighter, sliced his hands with a plastic cake cutter and once beat him so badly that his body was covered with 42 bruises. UPI
FACTS & FIGURES
In 2008 alone, more than 1,740 children were killed by their abusers. upstate.edu
Physical abuse can cause physical injury, brain damage or disability and may lead to children developing emotional, behavioral or educational problems. healthyplace.com
In 2008, approximately 122,350 children were officially counted as victims of child physical abuse. preventchildabuse.org
Parents comprised the largest group of abusers, at an overwhelming 80 percent. Of this 80 percent, 9 out of 10 abusers were the child's biological parents. Three-quarters of the parents were younger than 40-years-old. suite101.com

http://www.presstv.com/usdetail/176865.html