Custodial dad with history of domestic violence sentenced to nearly 6 years for burning 6-year-old son (Gresham, Oregon)

Dad DEONTAE LIONELL JOHNSON has been sentenced to six years in prison for burning his 6-year-old son's back.

But much more is going on here than just a few cigarette burns. This is a VERY SUSPICIOUS case. Notice Daddy's extensive history of domestic violence. Just this guy's CONVICTIONS include 4th-degree assault, attempted 2nd-degree kidnapping, and contempt of court for violating a restraining order. He punched the mother of his children in the eye (in front of them, no less) and dragged her to her car, all while threatening to kill her.

And with THAT history, Daddy wants us to believe she voluntarily left him in March 2010 after dropping off the kids at his apartment. Then she (conveniently) "disappeared." That's why he was now custodial, see.

Really? Where were the freaking cops and courts while all this was going on? Why wasn't this @$$hole locked up? Why has there apparently been no effort to locate the mother and verify Daddy's cockamamie story? We're just going to play along with this nonsense and throw these kids into foster care? Honestly, how "voluntary" was this mother's departure under these circumstances? Assuming that she "voluntarily" departed at all, which is rather doubtful. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if mom's "disappearance" turns out to be an unreported homicide.

http://www.theoutlookonline.com/news/story.php?story_id=129865759357616800

Father sentenced to nearly six years for burning son
Deontae Johnson convicted of first-degree criminal mistreatment
By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Feb 25, 2011

A Gresham man, described in court documents as “mentally challenged,” will spend 70 months in prison for repeatedly burning his 6-year-old son’s back.

Deontae Lionell Johnson, 30, of Gresham was sentenced to nearly six years in prison and three years of post-prison supervision on Wednesday, Feb. 16, after pleading guilty on Jan. 31 to second-degree assault. The sentence is the minimum allowed for the crime, with the maximum being 10 years and a $250,000 fine.

A first-degree criminal mistreatment charge was dismissed.

The abuse, which caused the victim to suffer “protracted disfigurement on his back,” was discovered on June 10, 2010, when the victim told staff at his grade school in Northeast Portland that his back hurt, according to court documents. Staff examined the boy and saw multiple burns on his back. That’s when the boy said his father did it to him.

A child abuse detective noted 10 or 12 burns where the top of a heated cigarette lighter had been pressed against the skin of the boy’s upper back. Some burns appeared to be many smaller burns that formed a line, including one that was between 3 and 4 inches long, and appeared infected. The detective described it in court records as appearing “almost charred.”

When questioned, the boy’s father denied causing the boy’s injuries, saying he wasn’t aware of them or how they were caused.

But the next day, the boy tried to protect his father. The boy told child-abuse assessors that he was injured when he fell on his back. He mentioned that he’d been playing with a lighter and it somehow got on his back. The boy also said his dad knew about the injuries and put water on his back.

Doctors, however, determined that the severe first- and second-degree burns were not accidental. In a second interview with a child abuse counselor, the boy “provided clear but somewhat brief, disclosures regarding his father burning him with a lighter and whooping him with a belt and cord,” according to court documents. In addition, he disclosed that his father showed him and his two older brothers pornographic pictures of their parents.

In addition to physical abuse, evaluators diagnosed the boy with medical neglect, sex abuse and emotional abuse from being exposed to domestic violence and a father who “gets angry for stupid things,” according to the evaluation.

Finally, the boy’s 8-year-old brother told an evaluator that his father hit all the children with a cord, has put them in a cold shower and “burned my little brother’s back.”

Deontae Johnson’s criminal history includes convictions in 2006 of felony fourth-degree assault, attempted second-degree kidnapping and contempt of court convictions for violating a restraining order. Johnson punched the victim’s mother in the eye in front of the boy, and her three other children, and dragged her toward a car by her neck while threatening to kill her.

In court documents, Johnson told officials that the children’s mother left him in March of 2010, dropped the children of at his apartment in the 800 block of Southeast 190th Avenue and “disappeared.”

Johnson no longer has custody of his four children, ages 5, 6, 8, and 12. They are in the custody of the state’s department of human services.