After searching for 11 days, the police found a boy who had been in his father’s basement the whole time. The case is expecting more testimony today leading to the charges of torture and abuse for the father and the stepmother of the boy from Detroit.
The accused father Charlie Bothuell and stepmother Monique Dillard-Bothuell are on trial for the crime and are denying the charges claiming to have no idea that the boy, who has the same name as his father Charlie Bothuell, had been in the basement.
The boy is now of 13. His parents have been accused of striking him with a plastic pipe to force him to do rigorous workout while keeping his on a restricted diet. The boy has been reported missing since June 2014 and has the possibility of ending up testifying in court.
Lori Dillion, a Detroit police officer testified on court yesterday that she found the boy in the middle of boxes and hugged him although he seemed very hesitant. The pipe has been brought to evidence, with which he used to be beaten allegedly.
The defense attorney of the parents, Shawn Patrick Smith, tried to bring out the idea the boy has been abused. He has also questioned in detail the chief of the child abuse team at DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Dr. Dena Nazer about the diagnosis of the boy. The response to that query was that the boy had spent 10 days in the basement while forced to urinate in a drain and had held in his bowels as he was not allowed to use a toilet. The boy had also claimed to have been beaten and starved.
The validity of her diagnosis has been questioned by Smith, although Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Attorney Carin Goldfarb objected, and the objection has been sustained by 36th District Court Judge Shannon Holmes.
The prosecution also focused on the fact that Bothuell has spoken of his son’s physical fitness at the time when he was allegedly missing, raising questions on his focus on the boy’s physical fitness regardless of the fact that if it had resulted in mental or physical abuse.
