A teen who had hot sauce poured in his eyes and mouth as a punishment has been safely returned to the custody of his father, and two Utah women have been arrested and charged after the abusive discipline came to the attention of police and local child welfare authorities.
The 14-year-old boy was not only subject to hot sauce poured in his eyes and mouth, but several other punishments that clearly seem to fall into the realm of abusive behavior.
ABC describes a “pattern of abuse” including hot sauce poured in the teen’s eyes inflicted by mother Robin Willette Rumsey, and her friend, Krista Jean Miller, 38 and 33 respectively. Allegedly persisting for about a year, the abuse included several cruel and unconventional means of discipline that could have harmed the boy.
The network explains:
“A mother and her friend jailed on suspicion of duct-taping a teenage boy, forcing him to inhale marijuana and pouring hot sauce in his eyes as punishment could face additional child-abuse charges in an ongoing investigation, police in a Salt Lake City suburb said Thursday.”
The case in which hot sauce was poured in the 14-year-old’s eyes is still under investigation, but Marsha Christensen, Miller’s foster mother, believes that dispute over the custody of the alleged victim is at the heart of the accusations — and that the woman she knows Miller to be would not perpetrate such abusive discipline on a child:
“No, she was not raised this way.”
West Valley Police Sgt. Jason Hauer addressed the suggestion that the hot sauce poured in the teen’s eyes was fabricated to sever custody, saying that the claim is one of many that do not, to the knowledge of police, bear out under scrutiny:
“This case is full of mysteries. There are a lot of questions coming up that I don’t have answers to, mostly because the case is still active … The arrests made two days ago with Krista and Robin are probably just the beginning of other allegations that are going to come to light in this case.”
Online court records detailing the hot sauce poured in the teen’s eyes and other allegations were not available among online records, likely due to the age of the victim and involvement of child welfare authorities.
