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Phone tirade lands woman on probation
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By Steve Irsay, Court TV

DECATUR, Ga. Court TV) — A telephone hold button is a terrible thing to waste.



Just ask Venus Taylor, 55, who probably wishes she had pushed one now that she has been sentenced to six years probation for a telephone tirade against her teenage granddaughter that was somehow tape-recorded by a local radio station.


Taylor pleaded guilty on Jan. 5 to child cruelty, even though there was no evidence that she physically abused her three grandchildren. Taylor's case was a rare instance of someone being prosecuted for verbal abuse, according to local authorities.


Taylor was arrested in November 2002 after radio station WALR-FM gave police a tape of a phone call in which Taylor is heard screaming at a wailing child. The child turned out to be Taylor's then-13-year-old granddaughter. It is not clear how the call was placed to the radio station but police were able to trace it to Taylor's home.


The tape continued for several minutes but Taylor's granddaughter told authorities it was actually just a portion of a rant that lasted 15 minutes. Tayor can be heard using foul language, threatening the child, and saying she wished the child had been left in a foster home.


During her sentencing, Taylor expressed remorse and told Dekalb County Judge Clarence Seeliger that through counseling she had come to realize that she was raised in an abusive home and had mimicked that behavior toward her grandchildren.