"John" LASSITER - 8 yo - McCracken/ Paducah KY

http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/Couple-pleads-not-guilty-to-child-abuse-charges-135133478.html

MCCRACKEN COUNTY, Ky. — A little boy is on the mend and living with a foster family. His mother and his boyfriend calling him a liar but detectives say he endured months of being kicked, beaten, and locked up for hours at a time.

Looking across Ogden Landing Road, Betty Finnell stares at a now empty house.But she said she remembered when it was full of life. Oftentimes, she said she would watch as the neighbor's kids rode their bikes or kicked a ball.

Every kid except, she said, for an 8-year-old boy."The other kids would play. He'd just stand around and look, just stare into space."

His mother, she remembered, complained he was naughty. But Finnell did not see it.

"It was like he was scared to move or something. You had to talk to him. He wouldn't say nothing to you."

But after several concerned phone calls from the school where the little boy is a third grader, an investigation began. When he met with Detective Tim Reed of the McCracken County Sheriff's Office, he finally broke his silence.

Reed described the boy as "polite" and "pleasant."

But the story he told the veteran detective was anything but. He told Reed he was kicked and beaten, then locked in this bedroom alone for hours at a time. "We're not gonna get into the details but the charge itself holds cruel confinement as well as cruel punishment," Reed said.

The boy's mother Marion Lassiter, 30, and her boyfriend Robbie Wiggington, 28, deny the charges.

In court Tuesday, the pair pleaded not guilty in court to felony child abuse charges and asked the court to provide legal council.

Tim Reed said the pair never admitted wrong-doing and said the little boy had fabricated the whole thing.

"One of the things they said was he lied a lot." But neighbor Betty Finnell said she was not buying it.

"You don't mistreat a child. Period."

There were two other children living with this couple at the time, the little boy's siblings. Reed said there were no signs they were abused. They, too, have been placed in foster care.

The children's father, who lives in Texas, is in the process of trying to get custody.

Lassiter and Wiggington will be back in court Dec. 15 for a preliminary hearing. Their bond was set at $10,000 each.