New Law to Allow For Longer Prosecution Time For Those Who Abuse Children, Elderly or Disabled
By Cindy Van Auken, Tribune-Herald staff writer
Originally published in the Waco Tribune-Herald, July 25, 2001
Trae Smith's most likely lot in life was to be just another statistic.
Shaken violently by a baby-sitter when he was 11 weeks old, Trae suffers from cerebral palsy, impaired vision and learning disabilities. Now 8 years old, he is under the care of 20 doctors and requires around-the-clock assistance.
But all those obstacles have not stopped Trae and his family from having an impact on residents statewide. This morning Gov. Rick Perry will host a special ceremony to sign Senate Bill 328, better known as "Trae's Law."
The new law, which takes effect Sept. 1, will increase the statute of limitations from three years to 10 years for felony cases involving injury to a child, elderly person or disabled individual. It's named after Trae because the baby-sitter who abused him was never prosecuted due to the prior three-year time limit.
"He's a voice for our shaken angels," said Bonnie Armstrong, vice president of the Fort Worth-based Shaken Baby Alliance. "I think Trae's story speaks volumes."
Although Trae and his mother, Melonie Smith, now live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, much of their story is rooted in Waco. Smith is a 1981 graduate of La Vega High School and many of her family members still live in the area.
Also, students from two local high schools have joined in the fight to get justice for Trae and other children like him. Two years ago, Smith's younger brother, Adam Fetsch, and other members of the La Vega football team, led a schoolwide campaign to educate students about Shaken Baby Syndrome.
As a result of their efforts, the team was named Texas' grand prize winner of the Lowe's Home Team award and received a $10,000 prize. After that, some students at Connally High School joined in the effort and started educating their classmates about the form of abuse.
Most of the students who participated in the awareness program have since graduated from the two high schools. But the issue of Shaken Baby Syndrome is still prominent in the community, Adam Fetsch, 20, said. Some of the students even continue to make presentations across the nation at conferences that are geared toward law enforcement and social service professionals, he said.
In fact, the teens have made such a good impression at the conferences that the Exchange Club, a civic organization with more than 100 child abuse prevention centers nationwide, recently decided to adopt the program, Armstrong said. Although the organization will produce its own educational video about Shaken Baby Syndrome, it will use many of the teens' presentation materials and handouts, she said.
Trae's grandmother, Brenda Fetsch of Waco, said she thinks Smith's determination is the main thing that has put the mother-and-son team in the national spotlight. After the initial shock of Trae's injuries wore off, Smith didn't waste any time trying to get justice for her son, Fetsch said.
Even when law enforcement officials and investigators from Tarrant County, where the abuse occurred, said they didn't have enough evidence to build a case against the baby-sitter, Smith persevered, Brenda Fetsch said. She started hiring doctors and other experts on her own to help prove how the abuse happened.
But by the time Smith finally had a good case, it had been more than three years since Trae was injured and the statute of limitations had run out. Smith, and the rest of the family, was devastated, Brenda Fetsch said.
Hoping to receive comfort by talking to other parents with shaken babies, Smith helped found the Shaken Baby Alliance shortly after that. She said it was only then that she realized she needed to do something to change the law, even if it Trae couldn't benefit from it.
It's been about two years since Smith, Trae and their supporters started actively lobbying the Texas Legislature for the change in the law, Brenda Fetsch said. Their efforts have included testifying in front of different legislative committees, mounting a phone and fax campaign in support of the bill and just being the faces that represent a form of abuse that is rarely talked about.
Smith said she is still sometimes amazed that their campaign worked. The fact that the bill includes elderly and disabled people makes it even better, she said. The 200 Texas children who are injured or killed each year due to being shaken are only a small part of those who deserve a longer span of time to prosecute their abusers, she said.
"It's been a long process, but it was worth it," Smith said. "(The system) was so unfair to Trae. I felt like our society had completely let him down. This was something I could do."
