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July 11, 2005

Child rape suspect refuses to answer questions in court

A Lufkin woman accused of raping and beating her children in one of the worst local cases of alleged child abuse in years pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering prosecutor's questions in court Friday.

Defense attorney John Tatum said his client, Bennedetha K. Buckjune, 31, originally of Florida, would not be answering questions about what allegedly happened to her children, citing her constitutional right not to testify against herself.

A Lufkin Police investigator told state District Judge Paul White he anticipated adding two more child rape charges Friday afternoon to the 11 felonies Buckjune is already facing.

Det. David Campbell said he expected to file as many as 10 additional felony charges against Buckjune.

An investigation by Campbell and Det. John Davis led to charges that Buckjune sexually abused all of her children, including her 12- and 13-year-old step-daughters, who allegedly suffered the most abuse.

Buckjune showed no emotion in court, testifying in a matter-of-fact manner to questions about her work history and her husband's income for purposes of the bail hearing.

Although her husband makes more than $60,000 a year at his food service supervisor's position, Buckjune was charged last week with forging state welfare documents in an attempt to get government aid on behalf of her children.

The children felt safe in foster care knowing their mother is behind bars, Campbell said, and didn't want to return to her. Letting Buckjune out on bail might challenge that sense of security, he said.

Buckjune told Tatum she was not a flight risk and that she should be released on bond. She was looking forward to returning to life in Lufkin, and to getting her children, she said.

"You intend to try to get your kids back, don't you?" Tatum asked.

"Yes sir," Buckjune replied.

Joshua Buckjune, 33, father of the two oldest girls, told Assistant District Attorney Art Bauereiss he'd seen photos of the girls' abused bodies, but denied any knowledge of how it happened.

"You didn't do that, did you?" Bauereiss asked him.

"No. ... I don't know what happened ... I don't know how they got there," Buckjune said of the bruises.

Buckjune said he'd attended truancy court for his two daughters, who'd missed around 70 days of school. Police allege the girls' step-mother kept them out of school to allow their visible injuries to heal after what was described as routine beatings.

Joshua Buckjune was out on bond for a child endangerment charge, for allegedly allowing the abuse to continue.

Attempts by The Lufkin Daily News to find the girls' biological mother, now living in Florida, were unsuccessful.

Abuse of the two oldest girls went back years, to when the family was living in Indiana, Campbell said. One girl recalled the sexual abuse beginning at age 10, when she was in the fourth grade, he said. It was one of the younger siblings who tipped police off to the rape allegations, after which the older girls started talking about it, he said.

Campbell described in detail discovering damaged and bloody walls, floors and doors throughout the house — evidence he said matched the girls' descriptions of beatings at the hands of their stepmother. In one instance, one of the girls' heads broke through the drywall, he said.

"There was considerable blood," Campbell said.

Police recovered a belt — the buckle of which matched distinct impressions left on one of the girls' backs from an alleged beating — hidden behind a bloodied couch in the house, according to Campbell.

White deferred his judgment on lowering Bennedetha Buckjune's $750,000-plus bond until a later date, pending more information on the case. Buckjune has already posted two $20,000 bonds on two of her earlier charges, according to court testimony.

Posted by Nealus at July 11, 2005 04:34 PM

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