Back in November 2013, a sheriff’s deputy in Union County, North Carolina–southeast of my hometown of Charlotte–responded to a call about a loose hog and found a shivering 11-year-old boy shackled to a porch rail with a dead chicken around his neck. This touched off what is quite possibly one of the most appalling cases of child abuse I’ve seen in recent memory. Yesterday, the live-in boyfriend of the boy’s legal guardian pleaded guilty just hours before he was due to go to trial for subjecting the boy to horrific abuse.
Dorian Harper, a former emergency room nurse, pleaded guilty to six felonies and a misdemeanor for his abuse of the boy. He was sentenced to six to ten years in state prison. However, had he gone to trial, he could have faced up to 20 years in prison. Harper had rejected a similar plea deal two days earlier. However, according to Harper’s lawyer, Randolph Lee, his client wanted to spare both the boy and two other children the emotional load of having to testify. His longtime girlfriend, former child protective services supervisor Wanda Larson, is awaiting trial on charges of child abuse and willful dereliction of duty next month. Larson was the boy’s foster mother. Both had been in jail since their arrest on combined bond of over $1 million.
When the boy and four others under Larson and Harper’s care were rescued, sheriff’s deputies found them living in absolutely horrifying conditions. Their home had no running water, and the floor was coated with feces. All of the children appeared to be somewhat underweight for their ages; indeed, one neighbor recalled an instance where one of the kids came to his house begging for food. The boy was particularly malnourished; according to prosecutors, even though he was 11 at the time, he looked like he couldn’t have been any older than six.
Prosecutors had evidence that the boy was kept in handcuffs all day long. In three separate incidents earlier in 2013, Harper twisted the boy’s fingers and fingernails with pliers, slashed him in the face with a knife, and burned his face with live electric wires. He was frequently blamed for problems that went on in the house. When he was found chained outside the house, he was being punished for accidentally killing the chicken earlier in the day. The boy still has scars on his face, and his biological mother, Maria Harris, fears he will be the target of bullying as a result. The boys’ current foster father, John Rowland, said that the children were tortured for several years, and still have physical scars as a result.
For his part, Harper apologized for his actions, blaming “a series of events that unfolded” after Larson decided to home-school the children under her care. Lee echoed these sentiments, saying that his client “did not respond appropriately.” Lee also indicated that Harper is willing to testify when Larson goes to trial.
I’m not sure if this is an adequate sentence, given the emotional and physical scars that the kids suffered, as well as the appalling conditions in which they had to live. Indeed, Rowland said that they’re so far behind in school that they may never catch up. Unless there’s something that I don’t know about, Harper should have gotten a maximum of 15 years–if only to ensure that all of the boys will be old enough to have had adequate time to heal. Still, it looks like Harper’s guilty plea was the first decent thing he’s done in awhile.
