Austin J. Witek, 25, is facing criminal charges in a horrific case where he allegedly stomped a family’s pet rabbit and fish to death. The question is now what to do with his parental rights in terms of a permanent or temporary suspension.
Witek was having a fight with his wife when he allegedly decided to start killing pets. He is accused of slamming the family rabbit on the ground in front of his four kids and then stomping it to death. He then reportedly tried to kill their fish after busting the fish tank.
He is charged with felony domestic violence, animal cruelty, and misdemeanors of animal cruelty and interference with reporting a crime.
In such a case of such unhinged cruelty, should a court bar him from seeing his children? In most domestic violence cases, a parent can resume custody. However, in this case, you have a father who is accused of not only committing acts of unparalleled cruelty but doing so in front of his children.
Should he simply be permanently declared as an unfit parent and barred from any custody and unsupervised visits?
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20140307/LOCAL07/303079926/-1/LOCAL11
Witek was being held in lieu of $4,000 bail.
Didnt read this but Turley implies this jerk had parental rights to his bunny and fish???
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It must be the bunny that is causing this lynch mob. Can’t be the fish.
no smart a$$ remarks on this one. what O S said.
This is a dangerous guy, not to be trusted around his children. Who knows if the animals weren’t available to vent his sadistic rage on, the children may have been his victims instead.
How about 4 charges of child endangerment?
I agree that abuse of animals should be increased to a more serious level. This depraved abuse not only killed and tortured the animals, it probably scarred the children. If these facts are true, this guy should not be parenting this kids.
Hardly horrific. This guy should be watched closely.
Tough crowd.
We know that the absue of animals leads to the abuse of children. What happens when this psycho gets mad at his children? He should never be allowed to be around his children again!!!!
In my state, and I believe most others, a conviction on these charges would not alone provide legal justification for denying reunification services. Psych. evaluations indicating that this conduct is the result of a mental illness which would constitute a danger to the children and would not improve with treatment might.
syrbal, I am empathetic to folks like yourself. And, there’s a high probability you’re correct about this guy. I just need to see more evidence first.
I had a father who killed pets when angry. He held my mother at gunpoint more than once, he threatened to kill us all when he was “ready to leave this shithole”. I was relieved, as an adult and parent, that when that day came — we were a three day drive out of his way. Termination of parental rights doesn’t mean much to a man like this; he won’t stay away from his wife OR children just because a piece of paper tells him to do so.
If he’s reformable then let the parenting time be supervised….. If not…. See OSs……
Taking away parental rights is BIG deal. I would need to know much more history before agreeing to that.
Common sense dictates that the man should not be left alone with children, or any one weaker than himself. Jail time is necessary to make a societal point. Some sort of mandatory anger management education combined with restraint is obviously necessary. Mindlessly locking the man up out of anger is not much different than his anger. Mindlessly letting him out of jail and able to return to his family is a recipe for something worse than the death of a rabbit and some fish.
people like this do not ONLY stomp animals to death – he has a temper that he cannot control and a vicious streak that I would not want anywhere near my family. Basically HE needs to be stomped !
Next time one of his kids or his wife annoys him enough he will do this to them !! Keep him away from his family and in jail for a long time !
I don’t know what was involved specifically with the felony domestic violence charge so I don’t know how this would weigh in a child custody hearing. Limited information to make a solid judgement.
On the face of it, this is to me surely a depraved individual and one that I would not argue if denied his custody rights. But it should be after a hearing of sorts.
If the allegations are proven to me he is certainly deserving of consecutive sentences.
I agree with Dr. Stanley……his comment written two prior to mine.
Animal cruelty should be raised above the level of misdemeanor and this barbaric human should not see his kids unsupervised for an extended period of time……
Jonathan,
It is even more disturbing when a guy like this does it to a baby. One of the most depressing cases I ever worked on was the father who ordered his 18-month-old son to pick up his toys. Of course a pre-verbal 18-month-old toddler is not going to respond to orders and being yelled at. The father proceeded to drop-kick the kid all over the room, stomping him between kicks.
I am no big fan of the death penalty, but there are some I would not only make an exception for, but would be willing to pull the lever myself and not lose a wink of sleep.