Woman accused of shocking daughter with a cattle prod
1/26/2008
By SHARON MONTAGUE
Salina Journal
The shock she received from a cattle prod at the hands of her mother was so powerful, it caused her to fall from a chair and onto the floor, Christina Thompson testified Friday in Saline County District Court.
"It was sharp, and it went through my body," Thompson said, as she testified in a preliminary hearing for her mother, Connie Thompson-Dupes, 52, Gypsum.
Testimony in the preliminary hearing is to continue at 9 a.m. Feb. 22. At the conclusion, District Judge Jerome Hellmer will determine whether Thompson-Dupes should face trial for one felony count of child abuse.
Thompson said her mother shocked her with the cattle prod -- an electric shocking device used to move cattle -- about six times on the leg, arm and side the night of Feb. 14, 2007. Each time, she said, the shock caused her to fall from her chair, and her mother ordered her to sit back on the chair.
But Thompson said that neither the shocks nor the falls left bruises or red marks on her body, and she was in no pain after the incident.
Thompson testified that her mother was angry with her because she had gotten home at 11:30 p.m. on a school night. She had been at a Valentine's Day party at the Starlite Skating Center in Salina. She had told her mother she wouldn't be home until midnight, she said, because she thought the party would be over at 11:30 p.m. However, the party got over half an hour earlier than she expected.
Mom 'wouldn't do that'
Thompson said she didn't tell friends, school officials or anyone else about the shocks right away.
More:
http://www.saljournal.com/rdnews/story/Girl_says_mom_shocked_her_with_cattle_prod_1_25_08I'd sure love to find a photo of this monster to post.~~~~~~~~~~~~~Cattle prod used to discipline girl
2/11/2009
By ERIN MATHEWS
Salina Journal
~snip~
Thompson-Dupes acknowledged, during the taped interview played for jurors, that she used the cattle prod on her daughter, Christina Thompson, on one occasion on or near Feb. 14, 2007. An emotional Thompson-Dupes was heard telling Lt. Brent Melander of the Saline County Sheriff's Office that Thompson had attended a Valentine's Day party at Starlite Skating Rink in Salina and had not returned home until the following day.
Melander told Thompson-Dupes during the interview that the girl told sheriff's officers she didn't know why her mother had used the cattle prod on her. Thompson claimed that she had returned home half an hour earlier than expected -- at 11:30 p.m. instead of midnight.
Thompson-Dupes told Melander she told her daughter to get the cattle prod, which was hanging in the hall, and then instructed her to sit in a chair and shocked her five to seven times on the left thigh. The red, fiberglass, three-foot long, two-pronged cattle prod was usually used to move the family's cattle, she told Melander.
"It is labeled 'Keep away from children,'" Hanley said during her opening statement.
Melander asked Thompson-Dupes what her daughter did when she was shocked.
"When you're wrong, what do you do?" Thompson-Dupes asked on tape. "You take your punishment. At least when I was growing up you did."
More:
http://www.salina.com/News/Story/cattleprod-2-10