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Girl's mother surrenders in taped beating©Associated PressSeptember 22, 2002 MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- A mother turned herself in to police Saturday to face a child battery charge, eight days after a nationally televised videotape depicted her shaking, slapping and punching her 4-year-old daughter in a store parking lot. Madelyne Gorman Toogood, 26, and her lawyer met police at an undisclosed location and arrived at the police station late Saturday afternoon, Lt. Jeff Giannuzzi said. The daughter, in the company of her father, Johnny Toogood, grandparents and other relatives, was being examined at a hospital, prosecutor Chris Toth said. "She's safe. We just have to, at this point, make sure there are not any deeper physical injuries," Toth said. "She's a sweet, wonderful girl. Physically she looks fine." An arrest warrant issued Friday charged Toogood with battery to a child, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison. Earlier a judge set her bail at $5,000, although prosecutors had requested a $50,000 bail because of her transient history. Toogood will be booked at the county jail, and would be released after posting bail, Toth said. Child Protective Services was determining whether the girl could leave with her father. Police had been searching for Toogood and her daughter since the Sept. 13 incident, caught on video by a surveillance camera outside a Kohl's department store in northern Indiana. Authorities said the mother had left the store angry because she was refused a cash refund for goods. The woman is then seen putting her daughter in the back seat of a sport utility vehicle, then pummeling, slapping and shaking her for nearly a half-minute. Authorities feared the girl, Martha Toogood, might have been seriously injured. Rosen said Toogood's family members and friends told him the child was fine and had been examined by a doctor. He said the girl was with her mother Friday night, along with her two sons, ages 5 and 6.
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