Brenda Sullivan Pleads Guilty to Child Abuse for Locking Teenage Son in Cage and Starving Him
In Jacksonville, Florida, Brenda Sullivan plead guilty to three counts of aggravated child abuse for keeping her teenage adopted son in a caged crib in an incident some people are calling the worst case of child abuse they have ever seen. Sullivan is undergoing a sentencing hearing and faced up to 20 years in prison. (You can see pictures of the Sullivan’s and interviews with their neighbors’ here.)
Seems that she and her late husband put their adopted boy in a caged crib at night on the advice of a doctor in Ohio. The advice was given to them when the boy was seven and weighed 49 pounds. The teen is now 17 and still 49 pounds.
Employees from the Department of Children and Families went to the Sullivan’s home after receiving an anonymous tip that the teen was wearing a diaper and appearing developmentally delayed. The boy was less than 4 feet 6 inches tall and weighed only as much as a normal six-year-old.
Police say that the boy was starved and suffered psychosocial dwarfism, which is a lack of physical and emotional growth caused by abuse. He was also forced to wear a diaper and did not attend school.
The teen and four other youngsters were taken from the home and placed in protective custody. Makes one wonder how the Sullivans were able to adopt these children.
The young man has made remarkable strides since being removed from Sullivan’s home. He has gained 27 pounds and grown a half-inch in two months. Hopefully, with good medical care, therapy, and loving foster parents he can live a normal life.
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POSTED IN: Abuse, Neglect, Starvation
6 opinions for Brenda Sullivan Pleads Guilty to Child Abuse for Locking Teenage Son in Cage and Starving Him
April RJ
Mar 15, 2008 at 10:22 am
What is wrong with the f*ckers in Florida??? Randy Piercy??? Ring a bell?? Sheesh! I hope this young man has a full recovery a lives a happy life. Doesn’t Florida still have the eath penalty?? She should move to the front of the line…
rockdoll_71
Mar 15, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I can’t imagine even treating a dog this way, much less your son. It’s disgusting. In her pic, she sure as hell looked like SHE was eating enough. She should have been feeding him.
I don’t see how these people and people like them sleep at night.
maminka1979
Mar 19, 2008 at 10:04 am
rockdoll_71, Again, you are so right. I don’t even treat my dog like this and never would.
I’ve never been in a situation as a parent where I didn’t have enough food to go around, but if I was I would be the one starving, not my children (giving birth and adopting have no differences to me, I think you should love your children no matter how they came to be in your life). As for the cage, I can’t even keep my one year old in a room with baby gates, I have no locks on any doors except the front and back (for fear of them locking me out), and my children figured out how to work things (eveything from the computer to a simple lock) very quick. I hope this poor young man and his sibllings get a chance at a normal life.
loving_mom
Mar 19, 2008 at 1:57 pm
This makes me so sad. I feel bad when I have to tell my son “honey I know you are hungary but, supper will be done in 20 mins.” 99% of the time I end up giving him some apple slices or 1/2 a banana just to tide him over. I am excited to hear that he has gained weight and seems to be improving. I hate people like that. Especially foster parents. Foster or adoptive parents are supposed to take care of kids who have been abused, neglected, or their parents simply could not care for them. They are supposed to be the safe haven not the little house of horrors. How can people be willing to open their homes and then treat the kids like savage beasts? When my babies come home I want them to know they are in a safe environment and that I am there to protect them. If I ever decided that I wanted to be an adoptive parent or a foster parent then I would want the kids to know that no matter what they are safe and secure and ALWAYS welcome in my home.
rockdoll_71
Mar 19, 2008 at 10:39 pm
maminka1979, You know what gets me? I saw her pic and it’s obvious that she’s been eating- A LOT! How could she go to sleep and REST knowing that she was starving that poor kid?
maminka1979
Mar 22, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I don’t know. I can’t put my kids to bed without a large snack, a bath, a story, and they both get a drink to go to bed with. I can’t go to sleep myself without checking on them to make sure they have their covers on. Now, my youngest is one and she is in the 50th percentile for weight for kids her age, but well above the 100th percentile for height (she is so tall and thin that I have to use 18 months to 24 months cloths and take in the waist alot). It eases my mind that the child eats constantly (and I mean every hour on the hour she has to have something to eat), but it’s horrible to go out to eat because she will eat and eat and eat (especialy at a buffet) and people look at me like I just never feed her. She is a healthy, very very very active child, just not the cute little butterball baby you see on tv.
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