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Mother charged with beating child arrested again

Charged with giving fake address, released on bail

Madelyne Gorman Toogood has a court date of October 10 on a misdemeanor charge.
Madelyne Gorman Toogood has a court date of October 10 on a misdemeanor charge.

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CNN's Gary Tuchman says a not guilty plea was entered on behalf of Madelyne Gorman Toogood in the beating of her daughter (September 23)
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MISHAWAKA, Indiana (CNN) -- A woman videotaped while allegedly beating her 4-year-old daughter, according to police, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge Friday of providing authorities with a false address.

Madelyne Gorman Toogood, 25, allegedly gave a fake address to her probation officer. She turned herself in Friday night and was released minutes later on $2,000 bail, according to Deputy Rachel Wolvos of the St. Joseph's County Sheriff's Department, which had issued an arrest warrant for her on the charge of falsifying information.

A court date has been set for October 10, Wolvos said. The misdemeanor is punishable by up to six months in jail, according to St. Joseph's County prosecutor Chris Toth.

Toth said the address Toogood gave -- - 1808 East Bristol St. -- was actually a dry cleaner in an Elkhart, Indiana, strip mall, an address her husband had listed on his driver's license as well.

"We still do not have a permanent address for this individual and that continues to concern us, particularly because we are talking about the welfare of little Martha Toogood [the 4-year-old daughter]," Toth said. "Obviously we were all aware that these individuals had had a transient lifestyle and there was some history of fraud being involved in their background."

Her attorney, Steve Rosen, said Toogood was "very unhappy" when he notified her about the new charges.

"She started crying. I said, 'Madelyne, keep your composure, keep your temper, keep a smile on your face, I don't want to see you crack,'" Rosen told reporters.

Charged with felony child battery

Toogood pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of felony child battery.

Martha, remains in foster care, although Toogood was able to have a supervised visit with the girl earlier this week.

Toth also said authorities are double-checking Martha's identity after a local newspaper reported the Toogoods were not the same as the mother and daughter caught on videotape.

Authorities already confirmed Madelyne Toogood's identity, Toth said.

"We're in the process of getting footprints that were taken at birth and those footprints are being forwarded to us. They will be matched up with Martha's footprints here," Toth said.

He said that based on interviews with Johnny and Madelyne Toogood, "There clearly is a bond of mother-child, father-child" and authorities are "very confident we have the right individuals."

"Martha was interviewed today ... she stated that her name was Martha Jean Toogood Gorman," Toth said. "She is 4 years old, folks, and for a 4-year-old to keep a story like that for this amount of time, I think, probably would not be a reasonable thing to expect."

He also said Martha has a condition with her right eye that matches the little girl in the video.

In an interview with CNN ahead of her arraignment, Madelyne Toogood admitted she had smacked and shaken her daughter and pulled her hair.

Toogood said the girl had been acting up while they were shopping September 13 in Kohl's department store in Mishawaka. The beating occurred in the store's parking lot as they were preparing to leave.

"There would be no excuse in the world why I did it," Toogood said.

She said she "was horrified and sick to my stomach and mortified" when she saw the videotape of the incident.

Speaking to reporters Friday, her attorney said, "She lost her temper at a bad time on a bad day, and yes, she brought this upon herself."



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