A 12-year-old boy weighing 71 pounds spent four days in the hospital after his mother, who adopted him as a foster child, abused and refused to feed him, according to a search warrant filed in Common Pleas Court.
Athens County Children Services took the boy from his mother, who adopted him while she was a foster parent in Franklin County, according to the warrant. The principal of Chauncey Elementary School called Child Services after noticing bruises on the boy's left cheek and temple.
The boy appeared to be abused, wrote Detective Doug Crites in the warrant.
Crites removed a section of drywall from the home where, he wrote, it appears the boy's head slammed into and dented the wall.
All the boy's pockets were sewn shut to prevent him from taking food out of the house, according to the warrant, which notes school officials caught him taking food several times.
The woman, whom The Post will not name, unless she is charged with a crime, worked for the Oasis Therapeutic Foster Care Network, said Dedborrha Armstrong, community outreach director for Franklin County Children Services.
Franklin County contracts out some foster care to Oasis, Armstrong said. A message left at Oasis was not returned yesterday.
The woman is not a foster mother in Athens County, said Sherri Oliver, public relations coordinator for Athens County Children Services.
Neither the woman nor Crites could be immediately reached for comment.
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Dave Hendricks
