Bob CollinsMichaela Sousa of River Falls, Wis., was likely to get a stiff sentence for the abuse her then 4-month-old baby suffered in 2016. But her homophobia guaranteed it.
Sousa’s daughter had been hurt so severely, she had bleeding on the brain, suffered from a spinal injury, and damaged eyes.
This week she pleaded for her daughter because she’s in the foster care of two gay men, the Pierce County Herald reports.
Announcing in court that the men are a gay couple, Sousa said she had been attempting to raise the child through a “life of God” and that the men could not provide the parenting direction she could.
Sousa said she feared the child would develop mental disabilities if forced to live without her.
“I’m not meaning to offend anyone,” she said. “I’m just being realistic.”
Buffalo-Pepin County Circuit Court Judge James Duvall, who retires next week, was having none of it.
He called the case one of the worst examples of child abuse he’d ever seen, and was appalled at her assertion that her daughter is under threat now.
“They are more of a parent than you have demonstrated in your life,” he said.
He sent her to prison for eight years, and ordered her to have no contact with her daughter’s foster parents.
“I want her to grow up not knowing you,” Duvall said.
The district attorney had suggested placing her in a treatment program in lieu of prison.
(h/t: Paul Tosto)
