Woman caught on tape beating child gets brief visit with girl

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- A woman caught on a department store surveillance tape repeatedly striking her 4-year-old daughter visited with the girl for about 95 minutes on Wednesday.

The visit was Madelyne Gorman Toogood's first chance to see her daughter, Martha, since the girl was placed in foster care after Toogood was charged Saturday with battery of a child. A scheduled visit Tuesday was canceled because Martha was ill.

Toogood and her husband, John, visited Martha together Wednesday. She was teary-eyed as she left afterward.

"Yeah, she looked good," John Toogood said as he got into his car outside the Thomas N. Frederick Juvenile Justice Center. His wife did not say anything, other than to urge her husband not to talk with reporters.

The videotape of Toogood hitting her daughter on Sept. 13 has been shown repeatedly by television stations around the nation.

Toogood, 25, has said she hit her daughter in the head and back and pulled her hair but did not punch her. She has pleaded innocent to felony battery of a child, though her attorney says he is hoping a plea agreement can be reached.

Toogood, who also has two young sons, remains free on a $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 7.

If convicted, Toogood faces up to three years in prison.