Parents arrested after dad accused of 'waterboarding' daughter

[Dennis Olson]

Parents arrested after dad accused of 'waterboarding' daughter

Published August 09, 2012

| FoxNews.com

GEORGETOWN, Del. – A Delaware couple has been arrested after their daughter claimed her father, a doctor who reportedly has appeared on "Oprah" as an expert on near-death experiences of children, "waterboarded" her while her mother stood by and watched.

MyFoxPhilly.com reports Dr. Melvin Morse, 58, and Pauline Morse, 40, are facing abuse charges stemming from alleged incidents against their two daughters, ages 5 and 11.

Dr. Morse was initially arrested after police received reports he had grabbed his 11-year-old by her ankle and dragged her across a gravel driveway July 12.

The girl then told detectives that over a two-year period she was disciplined by her father using a method he called "waterboarding." She alleged her father, on at least four occasions, held her face under a running faucet, causing the water to go up her nose and all over her face. The alleged incidents occurred between 2009 and 2011, MyFoxPhilly.com reports.

DelawareOnline.com reports the child said her father told her once he “was going to wrap her in a blanket and do it so that she could not move.” Another time she said he told her she "could go five minutes without brain damage." The child told investigators she never knew what she had done to deserve such a punishment.

The child's mother is accused of witnessing the incidents but not doing anything to stop her husband.

DelawareOnline.com reports Dr. Morse has been employed by a local pediatrics practice for the past two-and-a-half years, but was only working one day a week. An attorney for the practice says Dr. Morse has not been working at the practice since May, when he asked to take the summer off to spend time with his mother.

Dr. Morse in the author of two books about the near-death experiences of children, called “Closer to the Light” and “Transformed by the Light." He claims on his website to have appeared on “20/20” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to talk about his research, DelawareOnline.com reports.

Dr. Morse was initially arrested for the first incident, and charged with two endangerment and assault counts.

He was re-arrested and now faces seven counts of reckless endangerment, child endangerment and conspiracy. He remains in jail on $14,500 bail.

His wife faces the same seven counts, but has been released on a bond of the same amount.

Click for more from MyFoxPhilly.com.

Click for more from DelawareOnline.com.
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[JUNGLEBILL]

Is this for real.Got to be more.Why cant he post 14.5k bail?

[NoName]

Hope he meets "big Moe" during his lil stay.

[mzkitty]

The father is a creep and so is the mother.

Picture of them at this link:

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/192...rding-daughter

[ejagno]

Why such a low bond for such a hanneous crime against juvenilles is my question? They both need to be put away for a very long time with no bail since it's evident they are a danger to children.

[Flippper]

Wow, Kris Kristofferson is a doctor?

Hope they throw the book at him.

[FREEBIRD]

My first thought was the potential link between the abuse and his expertise on "near-death experiences of children"---was he looking to watch her reactions?

[L.A.B.]

Late night George mentioned this last night. IIRC or IIHC he was a former guest on late night radio.

I don't need sick in my late night weird radio listening!

[HeyU]

I am usually slow to believe stuff like this. When I was working in a shop about 15 years ago I overheard two young women talking. I was working maintenance and I was where they couldn’t see me, behind a machine. One was getting a divorce and she was telling the other girl she was told by her attorney to say she thinks the father may be doing stuff to the kids. They will give the mother custody during the investigation and will find nothing but since she already has the kids it would be traumatic to move the kids to the father so it almost guarantees her custody. I guess I see everything as an angle now. Maybe the dad was water boarding the daughter or maybe the daughter is mad because she has been denied some privilege. Kinda like the preacher who was accused of hitting his daughter over going to a party at 130 in the morning or whatever it was. The removing of parental rights and respect from the home by the all powerful government has set the kids against the parents and the parents are the bad guy. It just takes a story. You don’t even need evidence. Another time I was told by a guy I know who was divorced that his daughter called children s services. Said her dad wasn’t being fair bla bls bla. Long story short the girl was upset she wasn’t being able to go to a teen night club. This came out after they sent a 21 year old case worker. The case worker even said he diddnet see the problem in the girl going to the nightclub. The dad ask him how old he was. (21) ask him how many kids he raised (0). Showed him her bedroom nice, clothes nice, house, Clean, kitchen, stocked with healthy food. The father told him to get out and not come back without the police. That was 20 years ago. Now days the swat team would blow your front door off shoot your dog and drag you off for daring to question a 21 year old punk who probably lives with mom and dad as a kid himself. Sorry for the rambling rant but there are a lot of players out there. And I need more information before i pound the guy.

[Elza]

I am usually slow to believe stuff like this. When I was working in a shop about 15 years ago I overheard two young women talking. I was working maintenance and I was where they couldn’t see me, behind a machine. One was getting a divorce and she was telling the other girl she was told by her attorney to say she thinks the father may be doing stuff to the kids. They will give the mother custody during the investigation and will find nothing but since she already has the kids it would be traumatic to move the kids to the father so it almost guarantees her custody. I guess I see everything as an angle now. Maybe the dad was water boarding the daughter or maybe the daughter is mad because she has been denied some privilege. Kinda like the preacher who was accused of hitting his daughter over going to a party at 130 in the morning or whatever it was. The removing of parental rights and respect from the home by the all powerful government has set the kids against the parents and the parents are the bad guy. It just takes a story. You don’t even need evidence. Another time I was told by a guy I know who was divorced that his daughter called children s services. Said her dad wasn’t being fair bla bls bla. Long story short the girl was upset she wasn’t being able to go to a teen night club. This came out after they sent a 21 year old case worker. The case worker even said he diddnet see the problem in the girl going to the nightclub. The dad ask him how old he was. (21) ask him how many kids he raised (0). Showed him her bedroom nice, clothes nice, house, Clean, kitchen, stocked with healthy food. The father told him to get out and not come back without the police. That was 20 years ago. Now days the swat team would blow your front door off shoot your dog and drag you off for daring to question a 21 year old punk who probably lives with mom and dad as a kid himself. Sorry for the rambling rant but there are a lot of players out there. And I need more information before i pound the guy.

I absolutely agree with you, my friend.

It amazes me how many people on this board decry the sorry reporting methods of today’s “journalists”. All they care about is sensationalism and selling their newspapers. Journalists today are lucky to write a coherent sentence much less have any of the facts straight and are brought to task on a regular basis by the patrons of this site.

Yet, those very same people are willing to summarily execute someone based on these very same reporters! It all depends upon the subject and their personal views. Bad cop reports and child molestation are at the top of the list of hot button topics.

Consider this as an example:
A three-year-old says that Grandpa ‘tickled my privates’. Someone hears this and call CPS. CPS shows up with the cops and Grandpa gets hauled off to jail. Can you imagine the sensationalistic outcry from the media? Grandpa would be tried and convicted before the ink on the booking forms was dry. How many people here would be ready to ‘pull the switch’ on the guy based only on the rantings of a reporter?

Now for the real story. I (surprise) took the vibrator out of my old recliner before hauling it to the dump. It was lying on the floor next to my new chair waiting to be installed. My granddaughter saw it and asked what it was. I told her and proceeded to plug it in so she could feel it run. I ran it down her back and ended up on her butt. She giggled and said “It tickles my privates”. I chuckled and thought no more about it until I related the story to her dad. It hit us both at the same time; what if someone else heard her statement? I could be in a world of hurt having done absolutely nothing wrong. Could I have proved my innocence? I have no doubt as our granddaughter is intelligent and articulate well beyond her years. Even a cursory investigation would have put the situation to rest. Would I have been able to get rid of the stigma from an arrest? I seriously doubt it. It would have followed me for the rest of my life based strictly on what people wanted to believe. And people generally want to believe the worst.

So before anyone starts tying a hangman’s noose I suggest we wait until the facts are in. And the wild rantings of a newspaper reporter don’t count as fact in my book.

Thought for the day: What if the article had involved owning a few guns and some ammo and the newspaper raved about ‘having an arsenal’ in his home? Whose side would you take then?

[Mountain Man]

Welcome to lower, slower DE. This is a sad story and I believe most, if not all is true. But the truly sad part is we seem to have a story like this every week or so. A couple of weeks ago we had a mother and father charged with child sexual abuse involving their 5 yr. old daughter. After more investigation, it turns out the mother was producing child porn and selling it on the internet.
I really don't think we here in DE are that much different than any where else in the US, but boy, it makes you wonder. The southern part of the state has always been somewhat poorer than the rest of the state but there are lots of good people here. The only reason I mention a poverty link is that most of these types of crime around here seem to be committed by the less well off of our citizens.

[LittleJohn]

What?!?

No one here is going to say the teenager probably needed it? Because I've sure known some that did...

You guys are getting soft..




LittleJohn