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"A defense attorney's motion to force a teenager to undergo a gynecological exam to bolster her mother's defense on child abuse charges was denied Wednesday, but the judge ordered that a recently disclosed expert's report detailing an earlier exam be turned over.


It's the latest chapter in what the defense calls a parental rights case by a 39-year-old Naples mother trying to control her 13-year-old daughter, but branded a malicious act by the prosecutor, who contends the mother was angry her daughter had sex with the mother's 30-year-old boyfriend.

The mother, whose name is being withheld to protect the teen's identity due to the nature of the case, pierced her daughter's genital area to make sex uncomfortable and cut her hair to make her look unattractive. It occurred sometime between August and October 2004 and the woman is charged with two counts of first-degree aggravated child abuse, a charge punishable by 30 years in a state prison. The woman, who is free on $50,000 bond, repeatedly has turned down plea bargains because they involve a prison sentence and is to go to trial on Oct. 23.

Defense attorney Donald Day had filed a motion asking Collier County Circuit Judge Fred Hardt to order the teen to undergo a gynecological exam, a motion to compel involving discovery and a motion to hire a private medical consultant.

But Assistant State Prosecutor Steve Maresca told Hardt that the teen's guardian ad litem doesn't want her to undergo another exam; the guardian was appointed by the court system to represent the teen's interests after she was removed from her mother.

Citing case law, Maresca argued that someone should not be forced to submit to involuntary examinations without extreme and compelling circumstances. "Judge, this is three years later," Maresca added.

But Day said he only filed the motion because the state's witness list includes an expert who would testify about the teen's injuries, yet he'd never received the expert's report. "Everyone in this courtroom up to a couple of days ago was under the impression there were no records," Day said, referring to a hearing on Monday.

He asked to review those records because they're part of the discovery the state is required to turn over to him. However, due to medical privacy laws -- HIPAA, the Health Insurance and Portability Act -- he was not able to obtain the child protection records without a court order.

Hardt issued an order and denied Day's motion to order a medical exam -- without prejudice, meaning Day could file the motion again, if needed. Day withdrew his motion to compel and the judge continued the hearing on his motion to hire a private medical consultant.

In the past, Day has painted the mother as someone who had exhausted all alternatives to prevent her daughter's continuous promiscuity, from curfews, to counseling, to locking her up. So she asked someone to pierce her daughter's private area to make it difficult to have sex.

In January, that woman, Tammy Jane Meredith, of Baton Rouge, La., was sentenced to a year in jail after admitting she gave the girl a body piercing against her will, at the mother's request. Under the plea agreement, Meredith pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of child abuse and one count of operating a body piercing service without a license. Both are felonies punishable by up to five years in prison, but she was given less after agreeing to testify against the mother.

Outside court, Day said Maresca told him he was unaware of the report until now. Day questioned the timing, learning about records now in an old case approaching trial."

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What a nutcase.

Im just amazed at the things people will do to their children... your own CHILD!!!!! wow... I hope the girl is ok now.. :(

*gasp* Interesting family. WTF was the 13-year-old doing having sex with a 30-year-old man? Why didn't the mother think that the daughter could just take the piercing out? Maybe she should have strapped a Chastity Belt on her instead.

two words for the mum.............. oxygen thief