Back in November 2013, a sheriff’s deputy in Union County, North Carolina–southeast of my hometown of Charlotte–found a shivering 11-year-old boy shackled to a porch rail with a dead chicken around his neck. The deputy had been trying to corral a stray hog, but inadvertently stumbled on one of the most appalling cases of child abuse in recent memory. It turned out that Wanda Larson, a Union County child protective services supervisor who was the boy’s legal guardian, had allowed the boy and four other children under her care to live in disgusting conditions. Her house had no running water, and the floor was coated with feces. Additionally, the children were all noticeably underweight for their ages. Seen in this light, the “sentence” Larson got after she pleaded guilty on Tuesday would be laughable if not for the squalor these kids had to endure. Larson was sentenced to 17 months in prison. With credit for time served while awaiting trial, she is slated to go home next week.
At sentencing, Larson apologized for not protecting the children from her live-in boyfriend, Dorian Harper, who pleaded guilty to similar charges last month and was sentenced to six to ten years in prison. Larson admitted that “I should have done more” to stop abuse which included keeping the now 15-year-old boy handcuffed most of the day, twisting his fingers with pliers, and burning his face with live electric wires. Prosecutors believed that Harper was the primary abuser. As Union County district attorney Trey Robison put it, “Harper’s crimes were ones of commission and Larson’s were ones of omission.” Specifically, Larson, who was fired a few weeks after her arrest, knew the abuse was happening and didn’t do anything about it.
Even Larson’s own lawyer, Bob Leas, was stunned by her actions–or lack thereof. Leas told WSOC-TV in Charlotte that while “I wasn’t in her shoes,” he had no explanation for his client’s behavior. Apparently Leas must be one helluva talker, because even in the face of this, he was able to negotiate a plea deal in which Larson pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse, one count of false imprisonment and one count of dereliction of duty. In return, she got a “sentence” that will essentially amount to time served, since she has spent almost two years in jail on half a million dollars bond. When she gets out of jail next Wednesday, she will immediately begin to five and a half years’ probation, during which time she must have no contact with any children under 15 years old.
Robison said he signed off on the deal to spare the kids the trauma of having to testify at trial. That’s all good and well, but there’s a 500-pound gorilla in the room–the disgusting conditions of Larson’s house when those kids were finally rescued. This cannot be repeated enough–there was no running water, and the floor was coated with feces. While Harper may have committed most of the physical abuse, the conditions in that house cannot be blamed solely on him. Simply put, this was a situation that society cannot even appear to tolerate.
Not only that, but the kids’ new foster parents say that the kids in Larson’s care were tortured for several years, and are so far behind in school after being homeschooled for much of 2012 and 2013 that they may never catch up. That’s why I put “sentence” in quotes. Indeed, I’m having a hard time calling this a phrase. I’m not the only one who thinks this was a gross miscarriage of justice. The overwhelming sentiment on social media, based on comments at several Charlotte media outlets’ Facebook pages, is that this “sentence” was far too lenient. Larson’s daughter-in-law thinks that she should have gotten at least 10 years–the same amount that Harper got. A protest over the plea deal is planned at the Union County Courthouse on Saturday.
As far as I’m concerned, with yesterday’s “sentence,” those kids were failed a second time. Back in 2012, several teachers at the school where Larson’s kids attended until 2012 told state officials that the kids seemed dirty and hungry all the time before Larson pulled them out. However, that complaint disappeared into the ether–meaning that those kids had to endure another year of abuse before being rescued. From where I’m sitting, Robison and his prosecutors had a chance to give these kids some justice–and screwed it up eight ways to Sunday.
