Miami Woman Accused Of Child Abuse, Failing To Get Medical Care For Sick Child Who Died
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Gina Emmanuel stood before a Miami-Dade County judge Wednesday afternoon and heard the disturbing child abuse allegations against her.
According to a police report, inside a Northeast Miami-Dade apartment, Emmanuel abused three sisters that she adopted in 2017. The girls were 12, 7 and 6 years old.
The investigation came to light late last year after the 7-year-old girl got sick and died.
The arrest report says "(Emmanuel) did not seek medical care for (deceased victim's) symptoms, which subsequently worsened into pneumonia and sepsis, and eventually caused her death."
During a death investigation, police noticed "suspicious injuries" on the dead child and began looking into the case further. They heard horror stories from the surviving sisters.
Miami Dade Police say Emmanuel "beat them (and the deceased victim) with belts, a brush, and a back scratcher for punishment, made them stand for hours at a time, tied their hands and bodies to furniture in the home when they were no longer able to stand, tied socks around their eyes, made them sleep on the floor when they wet the bed and burned their hands and fingers on the stove."
In one instance the girls told police they awoke in the middle of the night and were hungry but when they ate food reserved for Emmanuel's biological son, Emmanuel abused them. The arrest report says she "…held both victims hands down on the hot stove repeatedly until they were burned."
"The defendant did not seek medical care for either victim" and "their hands were permanently disfigured as a result."
A prosecutor told a judge they wanted Emmanuel held on a significant bond.
"The facts of this case are sickening," a prosecutor told the judge. "It's hard to imagine the pain and suffering these children endured at the hands of this defendant."
Emmanuel's attorney pointed out that she has no prior arrests and a police report indicates that she is a registered nurse. Emmanuel is being held in jail on a bond of more than 120-thousand dollars. She faces 3 counts of aggravated child abuse and 3 counts of child neglect.
CBS 4 News reached out to the Department of Children and Families to find out about this family's history with the agency and if the other two sisters have been removed from Emmanuel's care.
The allegations of ongoing child abuse are so severe that Emmanuel got a strict warning from the judge.
"Ma'am let me make this perfectly clear to you — you are to have absolutely no contact whatsoever with your two children," the judge said.
