A Georgia couple was arraigned Saturday on charges of false imprisonment and child cruelty after authorities said they kept their 13-year-old son locked in a tiny room for two years. Recardo Wimbush, 33, a former Georgia Tech football player, and Therian Wimbush, 37, turned themselves in Friday and were held without bond in a jail outside Atlanta, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
State child services workers got a tip June 17 and found the boy in a dark room with only a mattress, a box spring and a plastic jar apparently used as a toilet, Gwinnett County police said in a statement. The boy had been in the room, without toys or books and without going to school for most of two years, and a lock was put on the outside of the door in January 2013, police said. Investigators found no signs of malnourishment or abuse to the 13-year-old or his nine siblings, who were not confined, according to police. All 10 children are in state custody.
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IN DEPTH
- No bond for ex-Georgia Tech star, wife in Gwinnett child cruelty case (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
— Elisha Fieldstadt