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February 28, 2008
Police: Woman Warned, Left Girl With Sex Offender
Topics: GeneralPolice have charged Vanessa Marie Laster, 20, with felony child neglect, accusing her of leaving a 1-year-old girl in the care of a convicted sex offender.
The child – now 2 years old – is in hospital care for treatment of genital warts, according to an arrest report. A further exam indicated she had been sexually molested.
Laster, of 3014 E. Sligh Ave., was arrested Tuesday and remains in Falkenburg Road Jail. Bail was set at $7,500.
Police say that beginning in October 2006, Laster left the baby with a man, even though she'd been warned by police in 2005 that he was a convicted sex offender.
In Laster's arrest report, police did not accuse the man of molesting the child. A check of state and local records by the Tribune found no charges filed against him in connection with the child.
Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.
Posted by admin at February 28, 2008 7:43 AM
Comments
PASS ALL THE LAWS YOU WANT; SPEND ALL YOU MONEY ON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS TO PROTECT CHILDREN; LAW ENFORCEMENT CAN TELL YOU YOUR CHILD IS IN DANGER and you leave a two year old child with a sex offender. Is it because you are stupid? Is it because you have such low esteem that you are afraid this piece of work will leave and you will never find a man? Folks our hands are full trying to protect children, mostly from their parents.
The problem, as I see it, is the people who need to be educated, never read a paper, watch a news report of child abuse but live in their own small world of self pity and ignorance.
WMF
Posted by: Bud at February 28, 2008 7:56 AM
Sometimes it is simple economics. These women don't have the education to work a job that will make them self sufficient so they keep these low lifes around to help pay the bills. If Miss Hartman had not been out strolling for someone to replace her money maker and seen the money that Crain was flashing around she may not have let him into her life. At the time her long term boyfriend was in jail for domestic violence and she needed his income to support her drug habit and maintain her household as humble as it may have been. The difference in her and the lady above is I truely believe that if she knew of Crains past she would not have let him near Amanda. She had her faults but she did love Amanda and would not knowingly put her in harms way. This lady was told by law enforcement that this idiot was a sex offender so I am not sure what she was thinking.
Posted by: Sylvia Brown at February 28, 2008 7:40 PM
