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Lawyer Accused Of Beating Son Facing Felonies

June 22, 2011 10:30 AM
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A St. Paul attorney is accused of choking and punching his 7-year-old son at least 30 times.

John Akwuba is charged with domestic assault by strangulation and making terrorist threats. Police were called to the Battle Creek neighborhood Saturday after receiving a report of someone beating a child in the back seat of a car. A criminal complaint says officers tried pulling Akwuba away from the child, but had to use a stun gun to subdue the 246-pound suspect.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports a neighbor told police she saw Akwuba repeatedly punch the boy while yelling at him as the child was screaming and crying.

Akwuba later told police he was disciplining his son for hitting a girl.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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  • Drunken Dissed Orderly

    Police also were witness to hearing him tell the child he was going to kill him.

  • DD

    What is wrong with these people! He was punishing him for hitting a girll by beating the crap out of him. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

  • Dale Gribble

    Akwuba? I’m guessing this guy isn’t Norwegian…

    • Max

      How is his ethnicity relevant??

      • Drunken Dissed Orderly

        Cultural differences. Africans typically subject their children to severe physical punishments. They also subject their wives to the same abuse and feel justified, since the women are more property than partner.

        It IS relevant.

        • Mark Lavalla

          This is what you will see until wcco stops letting people comment anonymous

        • shannon

          Your comment is completely ignorant! I have been with someone from an East African country for over 8 years. He has NEVER even spanked his child and has never laid a finger on me. I am his partner and he treats me like I am. He hates confrontation, so when he is mad/upset he removes himself from the situation, he doesn’t become violent. He has 6 brothers (and countless male friends) and they, too, do NOT fall into your pathetic ignorant bigotted stereotype!

          • Drunken Dissed Orderly

            Your limilted examples don’t prove me wrong. My facts stand as correct.

            • shannon

              My limited example. At least I provided one. Where are your examples? Where are these facts you speak of? I would like to see them.

              Africa has hundreds of cultures with various belief systems. Not all them fall into your generalization.

              • Drunken Dissed Orderly

                I have dozens of examples, but I’m not sure the WCCO board will allow the links to all the stories of African men in Minnesota killing their wives and children in various acts of violence. It seems the Africans favor knives and prefer hacking and slashing their family members to death.

              • Ada. A

                Being married into one African family doesn’t give you the right to speak like you know what Africa is all about Shannon … I bet you’ve never been to Africa before. I’m a born and bred West African who resides in Minnesota and I’ll let you know that there’s no country in Africa that terms it “child abuse”when a parent tries to discipline THEIR child. Maybe what this man did was a little overboard, but of course everything is overboard in America. It’s only in this country that spanking your child for being rude gets you in jail. I’m a 21-yr-old only child and I’ll let you know that my parents whooped me silly but I’m not stupid or violent. I’m actually an honors student at the University of Minnesota studying Biochemistry. I understand that when a person is in Rome they SHOULD act like the Romans do, but we Africans also have OUR CULTURE … you know … that social aspect of life that distinguishes us from other Nationalities, and “timeouts” aren’t part of ours. I wish I could give you a two-way ticket to Africa so you see for yourself and only talk about what you really know. Have a great day.

                • mom

                  ada
                  I have a 14 yr old son who is one of the most respectable, caring teenagers I have ever known or seen. He is polite, well mannered, and just an all around good kid, he gets very good grades, will be taking 2 honors classes this year when he enters high school and he wants to be a lawyer when he grows up, his dad and I have never had to lay a hand on him. We have never spanked any of our children nor have we ever been in a situation where we had to. We have 5 kids, I use our 14 yr old as an example because he is the oldest. My point is that you don’t need to whip or beat a child for them to be respectful and do what you tell them to do. We have rules at our house and being respectful and a well rounded kid is part of those rules, if you break the rules you lose things that are important to you ie playing sports, watching a movie, or playing a video game, not having friends over or being grounded is another option. There are plenty of other ways to handle discipline than to “whip a child silly” as you put it.

                • Welas234

                  Well said bro!

                • Ada. A

                  This a reply @ mom who wouldn’t let me reply to her bigoted comment below. Your narrow mindedness didn’t even let you make sense out of my comment. Did you understand the part about “cultural differences” ? I know you didn’t have to whip your kid to shape him into what he is today and I’m delighted for you but there are kids who do really need it and there are parents who believe it’s the best form of discipline. Live and let live ma’am. No one bothers you about the way you raise your child and you shouldn’t be stuck up on how other parents raise their kids either.

          • rvmiracles

            Absolutely right, shannon! The guy’s just ignorant. He probably thinks Africa is a country.

            • Drunken Dissed Orderly

              The real ignorance comes from thinking that identifying a pattern is an issue of racism, when in fact it is not.

              Africa is one of the 7 continents. In 1983 I befriended a man from Togo. You probably wouldn’t know where that is though.

          • Ali Mohamed Kwalili

            You’ve got a boyfriend from AFRICA??? That’s GROSS!!!! Better get an STD test ASAP!!!

            • shannon

              You are an idiot and I will leave it at that

          • shannon

            You have no idea. My boyfriend is not muslim, get a clue. Not everybody from Africa is Muslim. I am not his property, that would never happen. He has never laid a finger on me and never would. You’re pathetic and a racist.

            • Goomba Swahili-Tato

              @ Shannon > Your parents must be SO proud of your choice of partners..They did a poor job of raising you, that’s for sure.

        • Dale Gribble

          That’s right, Drunk. Your negroid types are more disposed to violent, criminal behavior. It is a relevant factor in determining guilt because, statistically, they’re just more lilkely to do it.

  • Christine Maxwell

    They make you take a test to get a drivers license and to become an attorney but they will let anyone be a parent, enough said!

    • Drunken Dissed Orderly

      Christine, that was a nonsensical statement to make. What was your point? That people should get licenses or permits to conceive a child legally? Really?

      • mom

        yes people should have to take a test to be a parent, there are millions of screenings you need to do to adopt a child,many parents would fail these tests if they were made to go through all the loop holes you need to go through to adopt. Biology doesn’t make you a parent, it is being there for the child when they are sick, teaching your child right from wrong by leading through example, feeding, clothing, caring for you child, and showing your child to have empathy and sympathy for others, providing shelter and a safe place to come to when they are scared, hurt, or worried are things that make you a parent. So yes I am all for making parents take tests once they have a child.

        • Drunken Dissed Orderly

          What would the test be? What would happen to people who failed it? What would be the punishment for having sex without having a “I passed the parent test” certificate?

          What you said is stupid. Just plain STUPID.

          • mom

            so you think this guy should just be allowed to bully his kids to be afraid of him and that will teach his kids and then guess what his kids will grow up and teach the same way they learned. It is not a stupid statement, of course I realize this will never happen nor is it even an option, but my point is that just because you know how to have sex and you create a life you don’t automatically know how to parent. Not everyone in the world deserves to have kids just because they can produce them. Some of the best parents in the world that I know have not been able to “produce” their children the biological way but are better parents than their kids biological parents ever would have been. Maybe instead of birthing classes we should give them parenting classes. Common sense and trail usually teaches new parents how to parent and take care of their children but obviously too many “parents” did not get the common sense gene because we hear about this horrible stories way too often

            • Beer Guzzling Redneck

              “so you think this guy should just be allowed to bully his kids to be afraid of him and that will teach his kids and then guess what his kids will grow up and teach the same way they learned”

              Uhh, what?? How did you surmise that from my comment?

              And then further you go on to say that the “before you can be a parent test” will never happen and it is not even an option, but yet it’s not a stupid statement? I beg to differ, and from your comment, so do you.

              “Not everyone in the world deserves to have kids just because they can produce them.”

              Oh really? And you get to decide who does or doesn’t “deserve” it? Based on what exactly?

          • mom

            just read some of the stupid comments above and i will rest my case. Sterotyping is a learned behavior, my 3 little ones would willingly play with any kids, they don’t see color, they see another human being, if that person is mean or doesn’t share they will not want to play with that person but it isn’t because of the color of their skin. Children are color blind when it comes to skin color until their uneducated parents and( I am not talking book smart either ) teach them it

    • mom

      so true Christine this is just sick, how was he teaching his son anything by beating him and threatening him? His rationalization is way off base and after his parental rights are terminated he should be disbarred as well. I am guessing this isn’t the 1st time he has hit this boy we can only hope it is the last.

  • Mad Mom

    Hmm…boy hit girl…wonder where he learned to hit? Ah, dumba** father! Makes me puke! Someone rescue this poor little 7 year old. 7 years old! Being hit 30 times??? How many times has he been hit before??? What a jacka**!!! Thank goodness the neighbor called the police! YAY neighbor!

  • pam

    and he’s an attorney??? Good grief…. what an idiot! Please disbar this individual – at the very least! Then let him go sit in jail for awhile….

    • Mark Lavalla

      “and he’s an attorney??? ”
      Yes, does it matter what he does for work?

  • hmm

    If he was 16 or 18 and hit a girl I would say he deserved to be punched one or two times but this kid is 7. Most 7 year old kids could pass as a boy or girl if you did their hair/clothing the same.

    • St Paul Mom

      @ hmm
      Does it matter if he thought that he was hitting a boy vs a girl? Your statement implies that hitting a boy would be okay. WHAT?! Also – age 7 or 16, hitting should not be the go-to reaction for anyone, though he has obviously learned from Daddy Dearest how to solve problems, poor children! Get them away from Dad NOW!

  • red

    disgusting mother **

  • Kevin

    Aint “diversity” grand??? Keep them coming! Our court systems and jails are not full yet……

  • Diane

    The headline makes it sound like the son was facing felonies.

  • Brian

    I still haven’t figured out how a person can allow themselves to beat anyone mercilessly like this, let alone a little kid — and your own kid at that. My mind/body just doesn’t work that way, I guess (thank God). At what point does logic not kick in and tell you that continuing to beat him is going to make him scream louder… not shut up??

    This guy is a class A moron and I hope he pleads guilty and loses his law license… and I hope the mom and kid get the heck out of there!

  • BeenThereDoneThat

    fairly well educated and sober (didn’t see any references to his being drunk) …there isn’t even a hint of an excuse. I hope he doens’t get one of those silly prison terms where they send him to some attitude readustment class and back out ..to beat again.

  • DD

    MOM- Some adopted parents are no better than biological parents, even though they are screened before they can adopt. I have a young lady living with us because her adopted parents kicked her out of the house, not once, but seven different times. She was ready to sleep out on the streets which she has had to do in the past because shelters where full. Yes I agree that biological and adopted parents should provide a roof over there childs head, food and love and support. But not all do. So the screening in this case fell through the cracks.

  • NIEN SCHWERBERGIEN

    NO WONDER THIS WORLD IS THE WAY IT IS. NO ONES GOT HIT WITH THE COAT HANGER OR BELT WHEN THEY MISBEHAVED THEN THEY WERE YOUNG.

  • Daniel

    CBS needs to discontinue anonymous posts to weed out most of the racist comments I am reading here in cyber space. I wondered if most of you would post what you are if you were face to face with an African male.

    Last I checked, you are innocent until proven guilty in this country. Let the man have his day in court and let a judge/jury decide his punishment. But to simply form an opinion (an “uneducated” one) based on what you read or watched is simply jumping the gun. Sure, we have read what the police claimed to have “seen” or “hear” but those are not all the facts. Very soon we will know the whole story. Until then, hold you judgments just a little and tune down the generalization of a whole people simply because of your myopic views of another culture.

    • Beer Guzzling Redneck

      “CBS needs to discontinue anonymous posts to weed out most of the racist comments I am reading here in cyber space.”

      CBS will determine the level of need and will act accordingly I’m sure…

    • poor baby

      Grow a pair Daniel.

  • http://www.lawn-4u.com/lawyer-accused-of-beating-son-facing-felonies.html Lawyer Accused Of Beating Son Facing Felonies | Lawyer, Lawyers, Attorney, Attorneys, Law, Legal Information

    [...] Lawyer Accused Of Beating Son Facing Felonies A St. Paul attorney is accused of choking and punching his 7-year-old son at least 30 times. Read more on CBS Minnesota [...]

  • TL the alligator

    Yeah Shannon…..sure…..your an imbecile….your guy probably falls to the other end of the spectrum, by being afraid of confrontation just says that he is a coward and spineless, …..the guy that upset you was refering to generalities that are true and you have to twist it and thik it means every male….reality is that there are just some things that one ethnic group has a notably higher presence in such as violence in general, crimes committed per 100,000 people, percentage of prison population, shootings, robberies, drug dealing violence, and on and on….ITS REALITY.

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