A Virginia couple pleaded guilty to leaving their three toddlers in a locked room in appalling conditions and feeding them through a gate. Despite that, they only got suspended prison sentences because–wait for it–according to the local prosecutor, it didn’t amount to physical abuse under Virginia law.
On December 16, sheriff’s deputies in Spotsylvania County–roughly halfway between Richmond and Washington–responded to an anonymous complaint about three children being neglected at the home of Brandy Kangas and Scott Suggs. When deputies and detectives arrived, they found a 17-month old boy, a three-year-old girl and a four-year old girl locked in a room with a homemade gate across the door. It turned out that Kangas and Suggs kept the kids locked in that room for 24 hours a day, and passed their meals to them through the gate. The three kids were forced to sleep on the same mattress. The carpet was stained with urine and feces, and there was a “noticeable pungent odor” in the room, according to a court summary. They were later found to have skin rashes. According to sheriff’s captain Jeff Pearce, the three kids have virtually no social skills because they have had almost no contact with the public. Pearce added that the kids are also “fearful of any closed door.” In a colossal understatement, Pearce’s boss, Sheriff Roger Harris, called the situation “abhorrent.”
The woman who called social services about the children later told WWBT in Richmond that she got into numerous fights with Kangas and Suggs over how they treated the children. She felt she had no choice to call someone because “I thought the kids were in danger.” Watch WWBT’s coverage of this story here:
The kids were immediately removed from the home and placed in foster care, and Kangas and Suggs were arrested on charges of felony child neglect. As if they had a choice, they pleaded guilty on March 30. On Friday, they were each sentenced to six years in prison. However, to pile obscenity on top of injury, the judge accepted Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney William Neely’s recommendation that the sentences be suspended. Neely said that while the conditions in which the kids had to live “would offend anyone,” there was no evidence that Kangas and Suggs “intended to cause harm and in fact did harm” their kids.
Neely went further in an interview with NBC News. He said that since the kids were reasonably well-nourished when social services rescued them, he didn’t think he could prove they were physically harmed, “and that’s what the child abuse statute requires, is physical harm.” He added that while there was no doubt the kids were neglected, current case law in Virginia requires that prosecutors demonstrate that either a parent intentionally sets out to harm their kids or the parents’ behavior was “gross or reckless.”As he put it, “just being a bad parent and keeping a nasty, dirty house is not enough to convict somebody of child neglect.”
Um, William? If there’s ever a time to think outside the box, it’s when kids are involved. It’s hard to imagine any defense attorney would be able to claim that this was not child abuse, or that those kids weren’t harmed. Remember, they’ve had almost no contact with the outside world–time they’ll never get back–and are already traumatized as a result. Moreover, you don’t just have to physically harm someone in order to abuse them. I know from experience. I was married to someone who emotionally abused me for three years, and I came away from that as beaten down as someone who was beaten into a pulp. This situation is no different.
Kangas and Suggs were placed on indefinite supervised probation, and must keep their noses clean for at least 10 years. They were also fined $2,500 each and can have no unsupervised contact with the children. But the fact they managed to avoid jail time is a gross miscarriage of justice. Indeed, it’s at least as outrageous as a social worker in my state of North Carolina only getting 17 months in prison for her appalling treatment of several kids under her care. Significant jail time is the only acceptable penalty for treating kids this way. If Neely thinks this was just a case of bad parenting, it might be time for him to go. And if there’s any justice at all, this case should be tied around him like an anchor–even if these two don’t manage to slip up and get sent to prison after all.
The Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center in Fredericksburg is coordinating donations for the kids, from money to food to clothing. For more information, visit Safe Harbor’s Website.
