A teen who was found chained to the porch of a North Carolina home with a dead chicken around his neck, is suing social service officials and his former foster mother.
In November 2013, the then 11-year-old boy was found handcuffed to the porch of a home in Union County, just outside Charlotte.
According to WSOC-TV News in Charlotte, the boy was living with former social services supervisor Wanda Sue Larson and her boyfriend, Dorian Lee Harper, when he was found by a sheriff’s deputy.
The boy was living with four other children in the foster home where he was subjected to abuse.
According to the news station, Harper admitted to cutting the boy’s face and burning him with an electrical wire as well as handcuffing him and placing the dead chicken around his neck.
According to The Associated Press, the boy also suffered from beatings and was deprived of food and forced to sleep on a floor while chained to a part of a railroad tie.
The now 14-year-old claims Larson used “connections” with local officials to manipulate his custody and that Union County inadequately supervised her.
The lawsuit was filed last week and claims the county failed to “monitor, supervise, oversee and evaluate the dangerous home environment,” WSOC-TV News quoted the suit as saying.
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A Charlotte attorney told the news station the county will likely claim it’s “immune from the suit.”
“And they may be, and it’ll depend in part on what the relevant laws and statutes state, as well as what kind of insurance coverage they carry,” James Wyatt told WSOC-TV News.
Last week, the teen was reunited with the sheriff’s deputy who spotted the boy chained to the porch. It was the first time the two had seen each other since the rescue, WSOC-TV News reported.
“You doing all right? You’re doing a lot better now this time, aren’t you?” Deputy Robert Rucker asked.
“Thank you for saving my life. I really appreciate it. I don’t know where I would have been if you didn’t come up there,” the news channel quoted the teen as saying.
The deputy was responding to an unrelated call in the area when he spotted the boy.
“You never have to say that. I’m glad to have been there for you. I just wish I could have been there sooner,” Rucker said.
Larson pleaded guilty to multiple child abuse charges and was sentenced to 17 months in jail. Her live-in boyfriend was sentenced to at least six years.
– with a file from the Associated Press
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