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'Worst Child Abuse Case' Uncovered

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By CARLOS MONCADA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 29, 2007

PINELLAS PARK - A 12-year-old boy, his body battered and burned, was kept in an empty bedroom with no furniture and only a bucket to relieve himself.

Authorities said Friday that if the boy tried to come out of the room, an ironing board propped up against the door would fall, sounding an alert. Pulled out of school last year, he was told to simply read the Bible every day.

'This is absolutely the worst child abuse case I've seen,' Pinellas Park Police Department Capt. Michael Haworth said Friday.

As the boy recovered from his injuries at a hospital, his mother and the man with whom they lived, Reginald Neil Carr, were being held at Pinellas County Jail.

The mother, 43, is charged with four counts of child neglect, and her bail was set at $80,000. Carr, 42, faces four counts of aggravated child abuse, with his bail set at $400,000.

The boy told police that Carr abused him over the past few months at their apartment in Freedom Village, a government-funded complex for low-income and disabled people. The boy was hit with an extension cord, struck with fists, burned on a stove and hit with an aerosol can, police said. The youth was kept most of the time in a bedroom with no furniture, only a plastic bucket for relieving himself and a linoleum floor, police said.

Abuse May Have Been Prolonged

Scars show that the boy's injuries were at various stages of healing, suggesting the abuse happened over an extended period. He had a skull fracture, broken nose and burns to his arms.

According to an arrest affidavit, the boy told police his left forearm was placed on a hot stove because he refused to wash his hands with soap and water. Police said this incident happened about five weeks ago.

The boy was reported in stable condition Friday afternoon at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.

'Mr. Carr made no indication of how the boy got the injuries,' Haworth said. 'He just made sure to tell us that he was not responsible for them. But the boy said Mr. Carr was absolutely responsible.'

Police did not release the name of the boy's mother.

'The mother's contention was the child was a very difficult child to handle,' Haworth said. 'She gave no indication on how the child received the injuries. Her statement to detectives was whenever she asked the child about the injuries, the child wouldn't give her any information.'

Detectives said the boy and his mother moved here from Alabama about seven months ago after she met Carr. Police think the pair met through a religious organization, the exact name of which Haworth did not know. Carr, who is legally blind, was known by the boy and his mother as 'bishop,' Haworth said.

The boy was removed from the school system last year under a home-school program, Haworth said.

'There are no records anywhere that indicate the child is being legally home-schooled,' he said. 'In fact, the child told our detectives that his home-schooling consisted of him just reading the Bible every day.'

Boy Found In Feces, Blood

A Freedom Village resident reported seeing the boy walking through the lobby of the adults-only center with injuries to his arm and blood on his head and leg about 2:30 p.m. Thursday. The resident, Edwin Cook, and the apartment management called authorities, who tracked the boy to Carr's apartment.

He was found lying in his own feces and dried blood.

'He came in; he was bleeding from this side of his head and scraped on this side of his leg,' Cook said. 'And there was no way you can fall and be hit on both sides unless you got a broken neck.'

'I couldn't accept it anymore, so I called the police for child abuse,' he said. 'I don't care what you do to each other as a couple, but don't take it out on the kid.'
Freedom Village I, 7700 66th St. N., is owned and operated by Goodwill Industries-Suncoast. A representative said Goodwill management had no idea the boy was living at the complex.

Goodwill screens all tenants through criminal background checks, said Michael Ann Harvey, director of marketing and media relations.

'The mother and the child were not residents here and we had not heard of any problems,' Harvey said. 'We were quite shocked and saddened to learn that something so dreadful had happened here.'

She said she met Carr during a picnic at the complex last year and that 'he seemed like a lovely man.'

'I'm very shocked,' Harvey said. 'Nothing like this has ever happened at Freedom Village. And I know that the residents are very upset by it, especially when it comes to a child.'

Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or cmoncada@tampatrib.com.

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