Mom, Stepdad Allegedly Forced 13-Year-Old Girl to Drink Detergent as Punishment for Stuttering
A Georgia stepfather and mother are charged with dozens of counts of child cruelty and aggravated battery for what officials with the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s office alleges was one of the worst cases of child abuse they’ve ever seen.
Authorities allege that Rimmon Lewis, 32, and Angela Strothers, 33, brutally beat and disfigured Strothers’ 13-year-old daughter and forced her to live in unsanitary conditions.
PEOPLE confirms that Lewis has been charged with 15 counts of first-degree cruelty to children, four counts of aggravated battery and one count of aggravated stalking. Strothers has been indicted on our counts of cruelty to children and one count of aggravated stalking.
The indictment returned on November 15 details the alleged disturbing violence the girl endured.
According to the indictment, Lewis allegedly disfigured the girl’s back and feet by hitting her “repeatedly with the leg of a child’s table and a black leather belt.”
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In one of the most disturbing allegations in the indictment, Lewis allegedly disciplined the girl for stuttering by “pushing his thumbs into her mouth with such force as to split the corners of her mouth.” He allegedly left scarring on both corners of her mouth.
Authorities allege that Lewis and Strothers both locked the girl in a laundry room repeatedly and forced her to “stand barefoot on food cans while writing a sentence 1,000 times.” The indictment also alleges that she was forced to drink laundry detergent.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the alleged abuse was uncovered when counselors at the girl’s school noticed that she was covered with bruises in March. The counselors called police.
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“It’s amazing to me how this child survived as long as she did,” Assistant District Attorney Tracy Cason told local TV station WSB.
The alleged victim and her siblings are in the custody of the Georgia Department of Family and Child Services.
It’s not Lewis’s first brush with the law. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison and 10 years of probation for a previous child abuse conviction. He has been jailed for violating his probation. His attorney did not return PEOPLE’s call for comment.
Strothers has been released on $11,200 bond. Court records do not list an attorney. She did not return PEOPLE’s call for comment.
Neither defendant has entered a plea.