Bond has been denied for a couple being held on child cruelty charges that they kept their oldest child a prisoner in their home.
Gwinnett chief magistrate Christina Blum ordered Recardo and Therian Wimbush to remain in custody. She said she was afraid that if released the couple might try to influence the testimony of their other nine children, even though all 10 of the children are now in DFCS custody.
Police contend they kept their 13-year-old son locked up in the basement for two years, away from his nine siblings. They have been married since their Georgia Tech days where Recardo was a football star and team captain in 2002; Therian was a tutor and earned duel degrees from Spelman College and Tech.
Recardo, 33, and Therian, 37, told investigators they had locked their 13-year-old son in a room in the basement for “disciplinary reasons,” Gwinnett police said.
“The victim had been confined to the room for most of the past two years and a lock had been added to the victim’s room in January 2013,” Gwinnett Police Cpl. Jake Smith said previously. “The victim had no access to books, toys, entertainment devices, or his siblings.”
The Buford couple was charged with malicious and intentional cruelty to children and false imprisonment and have until today to turn themselves in to authorities, Smith said. Police said the child appeared healthy.
The Wimbushes told a judge at a June 19 family court hearing that the 13-year-old was a threat to their other children. The arrest warrant said the child was “sent to the basement of the family house for the past two years in deplorable conditions due to being disobedient.”
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