Decisions

> Child beating, one of the ugliest crimes, is difficult to prove, difficult to prosecute. In many states doctors are legally required to report suspected abuses, but they rarely do. A recent case in California may change this situation.

In April 1970 five-month-old Thomas Robison of Arroyo Grande was admitted to Sierra Vista Hospital in nearby San Luis Obispo, where Xrays showed that his skull was fractured from ear to ear. The boy's 17-year-old mother, who was living with an AWOL soldier, said he had fallen off a bed, and the child was returned to the mother three days later. Twice within the next month he required further hospital treatment for injuries that included whip welts on the back, puncture wounds in the neck, and burned fingertips; the last time he had strangulation marks and was not breathing. Before respiration was restored, he suffered so much brain damage that he had to be confined to a home for the mentally retarded. Now three, he has an IQ of 24 and may never weigh more than 35 Ibs The mother's boy friend was convicted of child beating and sentenced to from one to ten years in prison (the mother herself was not charged with anything). Meanwhile, the child's father brought a $5,000,000 suit against four doctors, for failing to report the attacks, and against the city and police chief of Arroyo Grande, for failing to investigate adequately when another doctor did make charges. In a settlement said to be the first of this kind, the doctors and police agreed to pay $600,000 into a trust fund set up for the boy so that no one else can get at the money.

> When Republican John Lewis replaced a Democrat as secretary of state in Illinois in 1970, he fired 1,946 employees, later charging he had acted "because of the laxity, inefficiency and confusion prevailing in the office." They were duly replaced by good Republicans. The dismissed employees, who were not protected by civil service regulations or union contracts, brought a class action alleging that their constitutional right to freedom of political belief was improperly costing them their jobs. Courts have for the most part left the spoils system alone, but the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a summary dismissal of the suit by the trial judge and ordered that the case be heard. It was impermissible, said the court, to discharge "a nonpolicymaking employee [solely because of] his political allegiance." The court conceded that its ruling might mean increased litigation, which could compromise "the state's interest in the efficient administration of its affairs," but the 2-to-1 majority felt that "the Supreme Court has repeatedly decided that the value of individual liberties is well worth the cost."

> Winston Moseley is serving a life sentence for the killing of Kitty Genovese, the New York girl whose death in 1964 became celebrated because her screams for help were ignored by at least 38 neighbors. In 1968, while out of prison briefly for minor surgery in a Buffalo hospital, Moseley escaped from his guards and hid in a vacant house Neighbors telephoned Mr. and Mrs Matthew Kulaga, relatives of the owner, who came to investigate. Moseley captured the couple at gunpoint, raped Mrs. Kulaga and beat up her husband. Moseley was subsequently recaptured. The Kulagas sued--not Moseley, who hardly has assets to pay damages-- but the state. Moseley's escape, they charged, was the result of negligence. A lower court was unimpressed, but the New York State Court of Appeals agreed; the state must now pay the Kulagas $60,000.

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