Mother who poured scalding water on son with cerebral palsy gets nine years

Betty Threatt, 27, who was convicted in March of aggravated assault against a minor and first-degree child cruelty after admitting in court that she bound her son with duct tape and refused to feed him, spoke softly in a brief statement to the judge.

"I want to say I apologize to the family for putting them through heartache and pain and stress," said Threatt, referring to the family of the boy's father, who was not present in court. Threatt, wearing a blue jumpsuit, added in a barely audible voice,"I love my family and children very much."

Judge Rhonda Reid Winston accepted the recommended nine-year sentence negotiated in Threatt's plea deal, explaining that nothing she read in a pre-sentencing report, detailing Threatt's childhood and her mental illness, could excuse the mother's actions.

"The behavior in the case is almost unheard of," Reid Winston told Threatt, who stood at the defense table with her hands clasped in front of her.

The judge told Threatt, "I see defendants come into court every day who have undergone many horrible things, but it is in my view just unheard of to engage in this kind of conduct with respect to one's own child."

Threatt's attorney, Brandi Harden, requested that, after sentencing, Threatt be placed in a facility where she could receive mental health treatment. According to social services documents, when Threatt was 9 years old, she was sent to an inpatient psychiatric facility after putting the family cat in a microwave and turning it on.

"Ms. Threatt is going to be released from prison at some point; it is obviously in the community's best interest to have these issues addressed head-on while she is incarcerated," Harden said.

The judge also sentenced Threatt to three years of supervised release after she gets out of prison.

Threatt must complete parenting and anger-management classes, as well as counseling for past trauma. Threatt was ordered not to have any contact with her son or any of her four other children.

After Threatt's arrest, three of her children — ages 1, 4 and 7 — were placed in foster care. The boy, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was 5, is the second-oldest of Threatt's five children.

Threatt told detectives, according to court records, that she was "embarrassed" by the boy's cerebral palsy and "hated" him, blaming the boy for a miscarriage.

During a court hearing in March, a prosecutor told the judge that Threatt and her then-boyfriend Lester Jackson, 52, had abused the boy in their apartment on Brandywine Street in southeast Washington.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Park told the judge that Threatt poured scalding water on her son and locked him in a bedroom and a bathroom for as many as five days at a time.

Jackson, 52, ordered Threatt to withhold food from the boy during the four-month period from March to June 2014, Park said. The boy became severely malnourished and "extremely underweight." The prosecutor explained that Threatt and Jackson had beaten the boy with a belt and stick.

Threatt and Jackson were arrested June 21, 2014, three days after they dropped the boy off at his father's home.

The boy's father, Taurus Bulluck, who said he had not seen the boy in more than a year while his son was living with Threatt and Jackson, immediately noticed bruises, belt marks and bits of duct tape still stuck to the boy's wrists and ankles.

He rushed his son to Children's National Medical Center, where doctors discovered 60 injuries, diagnosed the boy with severe malnutrition and called police.

Jackson, who pleaded not guilty to first-degree cruelty to children, obstruction and aggravated assault while armed, is scheduled for trial in October.

The boy's maternal grandmother, Lora Brighthaupt, said during an interview in March that the boy, now 10, was recovering from his injuries.