
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993                   TAG: 9309140205
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BROTHER, 2, BLAMED FOR BABY BITES

The mother of a 7-month-old boy who was hospitalized after being bitten 36 times - apparently by his 2 1/2-year-old half-brother - was charged Monday with child abuse by neglect, Carroll County authorities said.

Pamela Sue Lineberry, 22, of Woodlawn was charged with the felony and was being held in the Carroll County Jail on Monday night under $25,000 bond, Sheriff's Investigator Steve Williams said.

Authorities also charged her and another woman, 21-year-old Sandra Leftwich of Woodlawn, with misdemeanors after they left their children with an 11-year-old baby sitter between 9 p.m. Friday and 3 a.m. Saturday, Williams said. Leftwich was released Monday after posting $1,000 bond.

The 7-month-old, whose brother apparently bit him after the two were left in a playpen while the baby sitter fell asleep with the TV playing, was in stable condition Monday. Williams said he visited the child in Twin County Hospital, and the boy crawled into his lap, "giggled and grinned like a baby should." He was being treated with antibiotics.

"You can't help but get personally involved" in something like this, Williams said. "We've all got kids. . . . It's just got everybody upset - the whole community."

Williams declined to release the name of the baby sitter, saying she was shaken by the accident and felt it was her fault.

Authorities told her, "It's not for you to be put in a position like this," Williams said. The 2 1/2-year-old boy lacks the verbal skills to explain what happened.

A hearing will be held today in which Carroll County Social Services will try to obtain permanent custody of the children, Williams said. Both Lineberry's 2 1/2-year-old boy and Leftwich's 2 1/2-year-old girl were staying with family members Monday.

Williams said Lineberry cried when told that the social-service agency was granted temporary custody of her son, but otherwise "didn't show a whole lot of remorse."

"I think she realized she was wrong, but only because her kid got hurt and she got in trouble," he said.

Lineberry and Leftwich, both separated from their husbands, had recently moved into a mobile home together, Williams said.

A dental expert is to take casts today of three children's teeth to verify authorities' suspicions, Williams said.

Memo: ***CORRECTION***

by CNB