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Whisper

#byefelicia
Girl tells stories of alleged abuse
Testimony in preliminary hearing against grandmother, mother and stepfather to resume
February 25, 2006
Buoyed by a courage few will ever need, a tiny 16-year-old girl took the stand in a Carson City courtroom Friday to tell the stories of her and her brother's alleged torture at the hands of their grandmother, their mother's failed attempts at intervention and their stepfather's indifference.

Looking healthier than she did when she was found a month ago weighing 41 pounds, the immaculately dressed girl spent nearly three hours telling her story Ã￾ composed, articulate and detailed Ã￾ as her alleged captors, Esther Rios, 56, Regina Rios, 33, and Tomas Granados, 33, sat some 20 feet away in shackles and jail-house garb.
The three are each charged with two counts of child abuse causing substantial bodily harm, alternate charges of child neglect causing substantial bodily harm and two counts of false imprisonment.
The 4-foot-tall girl said, "the grandmother," was her warden.
She said she and her brother were fed "bologna, weenies and hot cereal."
But the food was never consistent and "the grandmother" often pitted the two children against each other.
"I would tell on (my brother) to try to get more food out of her or he would get on her good side to try to do the same."
She described being locked in the bathroom for good in 2001 after she ran away and how her brother was sentenced to the same fate sometime later when he tried to help her by sneaking her food.
"Who put him in there?" prosecutor Anne Langer asked.
"The grandmother," the girl said.
She said Esther Rios taunted her with food.
"She would tell me to stand in front of her and she would tease me with food," while she ate, she said.
"She would give (my brother) better food just to tease me."
[...]
"The grandmother would get up and follow me wherever I cleaned. Sometimes she would have a stick and tell me to hurry up. If I was too slow she would hit me."
[...]
"(Grandmother) would just say she hates me and she wishes to kill me," she said. "She told me the day I die she was going to cut me into little pieces."
In her hunger, she recalled, she resorted to eating paper or paint and every day, several times a day, she would regurgitate what she'd already eaten so she could eat it again.
"It just happened because of starvation," she explained during Defense Attorney Tom Susich's questioning. "I did it on purpose to get more food. I thought I could get more food that way"
"Do you recall when that started?" Susich asked.
"When I started being hungry," she said.
She said she was allowed to drink water from the sink, but since her brother was only 43 inches tall, he had to find other means.
"(He) would get from the toilet because there was no cup, and he was too short to get from the sink," she said.

She also said she and her brother were forbidden from talking.
"What would happen if you did talk," Langer asked.
"I would miss a meal, get less food, or get hit with a stick," she said.
And she told of begging to be fed after no food for three days, recalling a day in December, a month before she was discovered, when the beatings went too far.
"I was begging on my knees and she was hitting me with her black boots and (my brother) told me I blacked out when she was hitting me," she said.
She often cried from the intense hunger pangs, she said, which caused more problems.
"(Grandmother) does not like crying at all, so she just keeps hitting until you stop crying."
Throughout Friday's testimony, Regina Rios fought back tears or openly sobbed. At times, Esther Rios would react to the testimony, sometimes scoffing and other times looking confused.
During cross-examination by Esther Rios' attorney Ben Walker, Walker took a moment to look through his notes. As the girl watched him from the stand, her eyes wandered over to her mother, who with shackled hands was dabbing her eyes. The child stared for a moment, then looked down. She turned to her adult companion sitting nearby and said something. The companion appeared to reassure the girl, tenderly touching her and offering hushed words. The girl looked down into her lap again, then wiped her eyes with her hands. A bailiff walked across the courtroom and laid tissue in front of her.
...]
He showed no emotion, other than strength, she displayed during the proceedings.
She said her mother was always kind to her, smiling at her and waving. Once, she said, her mom brought her a book and a pencil.
"The grandmother wouldn't allow that," the girl recalled.
Another time when Esther Rios went out of town, Regina Rios freed the children from their confines during the day, the girl said.
"She let me out into the grandmother's room, giving me really good food like pancakes, sausage, bacon and cookies."
When Esther Rios returned, Regina Rios laid down the law, the girl recalled.
"My mom told the grandmother there was going to be a change. 'They are going to eat right, twice a day,'" she said. "It lasted for a while, until the grandmother got her way."
Through it all, she said, Granados never intervened. She said he put the deadbolt on the bathroom door, threatened to beat her with a belt for "stealing food" and told on her when she did.
Also testifying Friday was psychologist Gregory Giron, who said the children faced "an extreme level of deprivation" at the hands of the adults.
Giron said the prognosis for the children is "guarded." He said they're in much better health after a month of hospital care, have teachers and like the idea of schooling - "but they just don't have a concept of it," and may never be able to attend public schools.

Dr. Todd Gray, a pediatric dentist, said the girl's regurgitation of her food caused many of her teeth to rot. Gray added that without costly dental work, estimated at $50,000, the girl's teeth will have to be pulled.
Investigators said the girl had not attended school since her family moved to Carson City from Los Angeles in about 2000. Her brother also had not been enrolled in school here.
On Jan. 19, police were called by a state worker, Sarah Koerner, after she spotted what looked like a small boy pushing a shopping cart on a street. When sheriff's deputies arrived, the girl told them she had just escaped from her home. Officers went to the apartment and found the boy hidden under a bed.
Three healthy children living in the home and leading outwardly normal lives have been placed in the custody of the state.
After nearly a month in the hospital, the two victims have been placed with a foster family together in Carson City.
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20060225/NEWS/102250061
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Esther Rios talks with her lawyer during a preliminary hearing Friday. Rios, her daughter Regina Rios, at rear, and her daughter's husband, Tomas Granados, have all been charged with felony child abuse, child neglect and false imprisonment for allegedly locking Regina Rios' 16-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son in the bathroom and starving them for several years.​
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Court officials bring Tomas Granados into a preliminary hearing​

Feb 5 2011
CARSON CITY, Nev. — It's been five years since Jasmine Perez was discovered pushing a shopping cart full of food and clothes down Carson City streets. A passer-by called police to report a 6-year-old child wandering unsupervised.
What police discovered was much more horrifying.

Jasmine — just 4 feet tall, weighing 41 pounds — told them she was 16. She and her 11-year-old brother, David, had been held captive in the bathroom of the family's Como Street apartment for years, starved and tortured at the hands of their grandmother, Esther Rios.
Wha started as a punishment of an hour or two in the bathroom turned into six years of imprisonment while the rest of the family — Rios, the children's mother Regina Rios and her husband, and three other siblings — lived a relatively normal life in the apartment.
[...]
Then on Jan. 19, 2006, Jasmine had a dream.

"It sounds crazy," she said, looking back on that day. "It's hard to believe myself."
In the dream, she saw her grandmother coming home from work early, giving Jasmine the opportunity to get away without her mother or siblings home to stop her.
Rios did come home from work early that day. She sent Jasmine and David to wait in the bedroom while she used the bathroom. At first Jasmine dismissed the dream, but as her grandmother lingered in the bathroom, Jasmine realized it was her time to act.

She slammed the door and turned the deadbolt that had been installed on the outside of the door.
ith her grandma shrieking threats and insults from inside the bathroom and David begging her not to go, Jasmine grabbed as much food, clothing and money as she could and fled.

"My plan was to live on my own and just be free," she said.
Looking back, she knows it could have backfired. Years of being locked away left her with limited lung capacity, making breathing difficult. Spending most of her days on the bathroom floor, coupled with beatings to her legs, had atrophied her muscles, and she could barely walk.

She also risked the chance that no one would stop to help. Out of all the cars that drove past her that day, only one person called police.
Then there was her grandmother. In first grade, Jasmine told her teacher she was being abused. She had run away before. Both times, Rios convinced authorities that Jasmine was mentally handicapped and prone to lies.

But she was successful that day.
"I think God was on my side," she said. "He kept his eyes on me and his hands underneath me."
After police found her in a parking lot near the community center, they drove her home, where Rios again told police that Jasmine was delusional and anorexic.

But then 11-year-old David, who at 36 pounds was the size of an average 3-year-old, was discovered hiding under a bed.Jasmine said Deputy Daniel Gonzales dropped to his knee in front of her. Taking her hand, he told her he was sorry for what she had been through.
"He said, 'I don't even know you, but I love you.'"
It was the first time anyone other than David had ever told her that, she said.
"That's when the love started," she said.
That day marked the end of captivity for Jasmine and David, who has since moved to California to live with his father.
He called Jasmine last week.
"He said, 'Happy anniversary, Jasmine,'" she said. "'You saved my life.'"

But freedom has taken some time to find.
There was an outpouring of support and donations from the community, but Jasmine didn't know how to handle it.
"When I learned there was so much attention focused on us, it was really overwhelming," she said. "I knew someone was going to hurt me."
And she worried for those offering help. From police to counselors to social workers and foster parents, she feared they would be punished for their compassion toward her.

"I thought, 'My grandma is going to come kill you.' But they never gave up."
She admits she and David were difficult to deal with. She hoarded food and lied about it. She lashed out. They both threw things. She ran away.

David and Jasmine went through several foster families, and she continued to have nightmares of her grandmother coming back for her.
But there were those who stuck with her and she started to open up.

"It's a struggle," Jasmine said. "I was told you're ugly, you're evil, and I believed it for so long. I think I've had to learn to accept myself and love myself."
Five years after her escape, her appearance now masks her tragic past.
She's a normal height, 5 feet 4 inches. David, she said, is taller.

Her teeth, damaged from years of malnutrition and regurgitating what little food she had to eat, were fixed by local dentist Dr. Jonathan Bauter.

Physical therapy and corrective surgery restored her ability to walk, and she even plays sports.
She wears her tenacious spirit with a skull belt buckle, green faux hawk and silver studs in her bottom lip. Her smile is clear and wide, but her soft brown eyes betray vulnerability.

Fixing the inside, Jasmine said, has required even more work.
"It's just like being in a coma," she said of those six years with no education, no stimulation from TV, books or friends. "I went in at 10 years old. Found at 16, but still 10."
She'd attended second grade before her family moved from California, but was never enrolled in school in Carson City.

At 17, she entered the fourth grade at Fritsch Elementary School.

"M friends say you must have been so out of place there, so much bigger," she said. "But I was one of the smallest in my class."
At 21, she's now a senior in high school with plans to pursue a career in teaching after graduation. Her goals are to find a job and buy a car.

"I'm doing well," she said. "I've never given up, and I don't plan on giving up anytime soon."
She visited her mother, Regina Rios, a few times in prison, where she is serving 22 to 55 years on two counts of child abuse and one count of false imprisonment.

But when her mother tried to relay a message to her from Esther Rios, who received 28 to 70 years in prison on two counts of child abuse and two counts of false imprisonment, Jasmine stopped visiting.
"I really didn't want to know what my grandma had to say," she said.
Her mother's husband, Tomas Granados, was sentenced to 14 to 35 years for child abuse and false imprisonment.
Looking back, Jasmine is sometimes awed that she lived through it all.
But, she said, she holds no anger or hatred for her abusers. Instead, her focus is on enjoying the life she fought to preserve.
[...]
http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/9042052b148648aabf5d91841ad1c7b7/NV--Jasmines_Freedom/
 
Oh, mother night.
I had forgotten about these 2.
I wish I hadn't opened this thread. Glad I did.
Such strength.
 
Adults get max in starvation case: Judge offers no breaks to trio for locking children in bathroom for years
November 30, 2006
CARSON CITY - Six inches taller and twice the weight she was when she escaped the confines of her family's Como Street apartment nearly a year ago, a Carson City girl asked a judge Wednesday to lock her grandmother up until she was 85 years old.
"Because of you, instead of driving a car, going out on dates, looking and feeling like a regular teenager, I am now a 17-year-old in fourth grade, learning what I should have learned a long time ago," the 98-pound Jasmine said breathlessly but unflinchingly to her grandmother, Esther Rios, 57. "I am 4 feet, 6 inches tall. I still can't walk or run right. My teeth are badly damaged. I need glasses now. I really don't know who I am or where I belong because of you."

The judge didn't let Jasmine down. For two counts of child abuse and two counts of false imprisonment, Esther Rios will be in prison until she is at least 85. The ringleader of the five years of abuse against Jasmine and her brother David will likely die in prison. The judge gave her a maximum of 70 years.

"Ms. Rios, I think you're the reason why we are all here. I have no idea why you'd treat your grandchildren like you did. What happened to these kids is absolutely grotesque," said District Court Judge Bill Maddox. In his decision he rejected the defense argument that Rios and her daughter Regina were trying to protect Jasmine from an eating disorder. "I'm not sending any mixed messages here. I want to make it real clear that we have to protect our children."
Maximum sentences

asmine, her brother David and two healthy siblings testified along with three doctors during the day-long sentencing hearing for Esther Rios, Regina Rios and Regina's husband, Tomas Granados.
Though the prosecution offered Regina Rios and Granados pleas to lesser charges, the judge's sentences didn't reflect any additional mercy. They, too, received the maximum.
Regina Rios received up to 55 years in prison on two counts of permitting child abuse and one count of false imprisonment. Granados received up to 35 years on one count of permitting child abuse and one count of false imprisonment.
[...]
On Wednesday, looking like a 7-year-old, a now 12-year-old David was dressed smartly in a suit and tie, with glasses resting on his nose. He took the stand for the first time and spoke directly to his mother and grandmother.
"Grandmother, why did you lock me up? Why did you beat me and my sister and make (another sister) bust open my head? You didn't feed me for three days. You were mean to me and my sister," the 4-foot-tall boy said as he glared at Esther Rios. "I should be in sixth grade, but I'm in third because you wouldn't let me go to school. I'm short because you wouldn't feed me. I can never see mommy again because of what you did."
Nearly a year later, David has gained 14 pounds and is able to walk. A speech impediment, making his speech hard to decipher 316 days ago, was barely noticeable after months of therapy.
"Mommy, I miss you. Why didn't you let us out? Why did you listen to Grandmother?" The boy sobbed as he looked at his weeping mother, Regina Rios, 34. "I forgive you for everything, but I can't trust you anymore."
His emotion was contagious. Maddox was seen wiping his eyes, as was the court reporter.
"Do you have anything to say to Tomas Granados?" Chief Deputy District Attorney Anne Langer asked David.

"Yes," the boy said staring angrily at his stepfather. "You're ugly."
David's 18-year-old brother, whom the judge said could not be named, read a statement in which he talked of the family's fear of being separated and how now a year later he can see how bad it was.
"I thank my sister, the only one who broke out of the fear and became the hero of our family," he said. "My mother, grandmother and stepfather were good people who each had their own problems. They were good people who made a very stupid and bad decision."
http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20061130/NEWS/111300055
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Regina Rios reacts as one of her children testifies in court Wednesday. Rios received a maximum sentence of 22 to 55 years for felony child abuse and false imprisonment charges after locking two of her children in a bathroom for years​
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Tomas Granados, right, and his attorney Paul Giese listen to Granados' 12-year-old stepson reading a victim impact statement​
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Esther Rios reads a statement to the court Wednesday afternoon​
.​
 
I recall news stories when the girl was first found.
I don't recall hearing anything past the grandmother's arrest.
 
How can you lock 2 kids in a bathroom for 5 years and yet think it will go un noticed??
Did they never plan on the kids living long enough to grow up and fight back??
Was it their plan to eventually kill them to keep from getting caught??
I over think things alot and this is one of them maybe I just have no clue what the long range plans were
 
I don't think there were long range plans. Was probably a fluke they didn't die. Strength.
And stunted growth like that... Ugh. I'm sure to have nightmares, but at least I can wake up. These two didn't have that luxury.
It also said there were two healthy siblings. Why Jasmin and Daniel...
 
Jasmine said Deputy Daniel Gonzales dropped to his knee in front of her. Taking her hand, he told her he was sorry for what she had been through.
"He said, 'I don't even know you, but I love you.'"

That just broke my heart because it is what I wish I could tell ALL the abused and neglected children. ALL OF THEM. It is the least that they deserve.

I cannot fathom what these people were thinking. Why would you single out 2 of the 5 kids? How could you watch as they wasted away? As they cried for food? Beat them?

I am glad all three of them are going away for a very long time. I wish we could torture them for what they have done. They ruined these childrens' lives and destroyed so much of their potential and their futures.
 
Disgusting beyond words...

And, as I look at the trial photos of the defendants, I cannot help but notice that all three of these adults are obese.
I doubt if any of them have missed a meal in their entire lives.

It takes a special kind of depravity to feed yourself to the brink while watching another human being starve to death.
Would you be able to look at photos of people--random strangers-- starving to death in some third world country, and be able to enjoy your meal? I know I couldn't...

My mind simply cannot bend around the fact that, the mother and grandmother of these kids, were able enjoy three years worth of meals (and then some, judging by their body weights) while they starved in the bathroom a few feet away.
The grandmother could even eat, and openly taunt her starving granddaughter while looking into her eyes, apparently!
What punishment could possibly fit this crime???
 
These 2 seemed to be fucking themselves away from the dinner table and didn't like it! Grandma is an evil cunt! It certainly wouldn't have hurt any of these 3 adults to do with a little less food to feed these babies.
 
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That just broke my heart because it is what I wish I could tell ALL the abused and neglected children. ALL OF THEM. It is the least that they deserve.

I cannot fathom what these people were thinking. Why would you single out 2 of the 5 kids? How could you watch as they wasted away? As they cried for food? Beat them?

I am glad all three of them are going away for a very long time. I wish we could torture them for what they have done. They ruined these childrens' lives and destroyed so much of their potential and their futures.

I know I had a hardtime reading that too
Thats why I highlighted that area b/c not many people would do what he did I think most would be in a state of shock and not know what to say
So I am very happy it was him and he thought to say that,was probably very comforting to her to hear that after not being believed so many times
 
I'd like to see pictures of the two, and yet I'm terrified.
The whole situation reminds me of the french movie Martyrs.
 
I looked and looked and couldnt find any maybe someone else would have better luck but they may not have any out there to protect their privacy a little bit
 
...But, she said, she holds no anger or hatred for her abusers. Instead, her focus is on enjoying the life she fought to preserve.
....I thank my sister, the only one who broke out of the fear and became the hero of our family," he said. "My mother, grandmother and stepfather were good people who each had their own problems. They were good people who made a very stupid and bad decision."
Their hearts are golden. What remarkable children. I don't know how they survived and how it is they can move on with out deep hatred for these vile things they call family. Strong, beautiful children. They say what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Still, sometimes it kills you inside. These children are survivors who will hopefully grow in to outstanding adults, far better than the sum of the adults who tried to break their bodies and their spirits. Lead good lives little ones....that's the best they can do to show their tormentors they didn't steal from them the essence of life, the life they "fought to preserve".
 
This makes me wonder how many other children are living hidden lives of pain and torture with no love, no comfort-

Just imagining another little Jasmine out there right now, locked away, scared, hungry.....the thought is unbearable and too real.
 
This makes me wonder how many other children are living hidden lives of pain and torture with no love, no comfort-

Just imagining another little Jasmine out there right now, locked away, scared, hungry.....the thought is unbearable and too real.

You know anyone with kids that carry on about how hard they have it(not littles but preteen and teens) save this and make them read it and how lucky they are
If that doesnt work next time they piss you off tell them to go measure the bathroom lol maybe it will click in
 
Thank you truly for posting that interview. That was one of the most inspiring,touching and moving things I've ever seen. That girl has a soul as old as the hills, a will of steel and a heart of gold. I can't say enough good things about her but all the people with the WWJD bumper stickers could take a page out of Jasmine Perez's book. I've never met her either but I love her too.
 
I am so, so happy to hear these two children have been able to grow up and get their educations. I am amazed that their growth was not permanently stunted and that their mental capacity has been undamaged enough to allow them to continue school, maybe catch up, and give them both the opportunity to live good, fulfilled lives.

I can't even express my relief that the court gave those POS good long sentences!
 
OMG this is like some kind of real life Flowers in the Attic!!

These poor kids!!

Glad the monsters got the maximum sentence.
 
That video is absolutely chilling. When she says "if she wants me she's going to get me" it made shivers crawl up my spine.

While we see a morbidly obese crippled pathetic sack of flesh Jasmine sees whatever anyone of our worst nightmares is. It's just so incredibly awful that she was put through the hell she had to survive.
 
[MENTION=4917]Farce scape[/MENTION]
Generally I chew people out when I see or hear them making fun of fatties. However, looking at these monsters, I agree. They are obese. Surely it must be more than a glandular or gene problem.
No, I don't feel you were making fun of them per se, you were just stating a fact.
These two children are too small. So that tells me its not genes making these people fat... Its food that could have gone to the kids.
 
That just broke my heart because it is what I wish I could tell ALL the abused and neglected children. ALL OF THEM. It is the least that they deserve.

I cannot fathom what these people were thinking. Why would you single out 2 of the 5 kids? How could you watch as they wasted away? As they cried for food? Beat them?

I am glad all three of them are going away for a very long time. I wish we could torture them for what they have done. They ruined these childrens' lives and destroyed so much of their potential and their futures.

According to one of the sisters they were all abused, just in different ways.
Posted by: raven Location: Carson city on Jan 26, 2011 at 09:47 PM

im jasmines sister, and for the correct info we were all abused in different ways.you cant expect 10 and 11 year olds to go against what is "normal to them"im proud of my sister and she is my hero nd i love her with everything
http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/114021374.html
 
Put a bullet in each one of their f****** faces. I wonder how these kids made out. Such heartfelt statements and pleas to the judge. To the judge I am more than happy. This was a dispensing up justice under the law that was right and frankly righteous with Mercy more so than I would have given. May they all die behind bars
 
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