Oklahoma 14 year old boy held in closet fot 4 years -Mom charged w torture/abuse

[Edward]

OKLAHOMA CITY —  Authorities say the mother of a 14-year-old Oklahoma boy has been arrested after her child told police he had spent years locked inside a bedroom closet.

A police report says a security guard at a National Guard facility in Oklahoma City called police on Friday after the boy showed up looking malnourished and with several scars and other signs of abuse.

The report says the teen told police he escaped from his home in Oklahoma City, where he told police he had been kept in a closet for more than four years.

Police say they arrested the boy's 37-year-old mother and her 38-year-old friend on child abuse and child neglect charges. They were both being held in jail on a $400,00 bond.

[Nut44x4]

An Oklahoma City woman has been charged with 29 counts of child abuse in a case coming out of Oklahoma.

LaRhonda McCall and her friend Steve Hamilton allegedly abused McCall's son for many years, with the details going beyond  gruesome. Now they will have to pay for their crimes, but the worry is that they won't receive punishment adequate for what they have done. It seems that all too often child abusers are able to get off with just a slap on the wrist, but this is another time where Oklahoma City prosecutors need to press this case until McCall and Hamilton are in jail for the rest of their lives.

LaRhonda McCall has been charged with 29 counts of child abuse, all stemming from crimes she committed against her own son. Among the things that she is alleged to have done is beat up her son with fists, bike chains, extension cords and boards. It goes further than that, and is the reason that Hamilton faces an additional 24 charges of his own. The details of all the allegations have been released in a 33-page court document that was released to the press in Oklahoma City on Friday. It says a lot that they are facing a combined 53 charges of child abuse, including committing crimes that are unbelievable.

The measures that McCall and Hamilton went to in order to torture her son included locking him in closets for nearly four years, was forced to stand outside in the snow nude, and in one instance it is alleged that McCall poured rubbing alcohol on him and lighting it on fire. One despicable accusation in the report is that McCall tied a rope around his ankle and then around his neck, so that if he put his foot down it would choke him. This teen now has permanent scars from the ordeal that he has gone through, and the mental scars from this child abuse probably won't heal for years, if ever.

The teen finally escaped recently, and that was when authorities started finding out what had been happening in this house of horrors. The most remarkable thing about it though, was that the teen cared more about his brothers and sisters than himself when he talked to police. These two people, LaRhonda McCall and Hamilton, need to be tossed in jail and the key thrown away. They are being held on a $400,000 bond right now, and I see no reason why they should be allowed back into society. They are both extremely sick individuals, and the extents they went to in order to torture McCall's son are just unbelievable. It's time to make an example of these criminals Oklahoma City.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2296335/oklahoma_city_woman_faces_29_counts.html?singlepage=true&cat=9

[Nut44x4]

Okla. mom charged with locking son in closets
 
Thu Oct 15, 9:44 pm ET
OKLAHOMA CITY – The mother of a 14-year-old Oklahoma boy who says he was locked away in apartment closets over four years was charged Thursday with 29 counts of child abuse for allegedly torturing and imprisoning the teen.

Prosecutors allege LaRhonda McCall, 37, and her friend, Steve Vern Hamilton, 38, beat the boy repeatedly — with "fists, bike chains, cables, extension cords, and/or boards," leaving permanent scars. Hamilton is charged with 24 counts of child abuse.

The charges also allege McCall tortured her son in various ways, including by tying him naked to a ladder and pouring sugar water over him to attract insects. Another time, the charges allege, she poured alcohol on him and lit it on fire, burning the boy. She also allegedly forced him to stand barefoot in the snow for more than 45 minutes.

McCall and Hamilton were being held in the Oklahoma County jail on $400,000 bond each. Jailers and the prosecutor's office did not know if either McCall or Hamilton had an attorney yet, and charging documents did not list lawyers for them.

Oklahoma County First Assistant District Attorney Scott Rowland declined to comment on the charges.

The boy, malnourished and covered in bruises and scars, sought help from a security guard at a National Guard armory on Sept. 25. The teen told police he spent most of the last 4 1/2 years locked inside bedroom closets at various apartments where the family lived and never attended school or received medical attention, authorities said.

The boy's 18-year-old sister, Jaleasa McCall, told The Associated Press last month that she would bring her brother food and sympathy, but didn't have the courage to contact the authorities.

The boy and his six younger siblings have been placed in Department of Human Services custody.

Managers of the last two apartment complexes where the family most recently lived said they occasionally saw some of McCall's seven other children but never saw the teenage boy.

McCall was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in New York in 1996 in the death of her 2-year-old daughter and served six months jail time. Prosecutors in that case alleged McCall, who then went by LaRhonda Presley, essentially starved the toddler who died in February 1995, according to a New York grand jury indictment obtained by the AP.

 LaRhonda Marie McCall

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091016/ap_on_re_us/us_child_imprisoned

[Sister]

6 months for starving a child - WTH!