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Diapers, starvation detailed in Troy boy's statement

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Diapers, starvation detailed in Troy boy's statement

Sharmon Evans faces child endangerment charge 

 

By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer

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Last updated: 5:44 p.m., Friday, May 23, 2008

TROY -- An 11-year-old boy allegedly abused by his adoptive mother told police he was neglected for as long as he could remember, regularly punched and slapped, and forced to wear a diaper and sleep on the floor.

The adopted son of Sharmon S. "Sherry" Evans apparently had enough on May 10 and went to a friend's house to tell him he was running away.

"I went there because I'm afraid of my adoptive mother and I wanted to say goodbye to my friend because I was running away," the unidentified boy told police in a statement on file with the city court clerk's office. "I made up my mind to run away because I can't take it anymore."

That friend's parents immediately took him to police headquarters and Evans of 714 Fourth Ave. was charged with one misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child. The child was removed from her care and placed in a foster home where county officials said he is now doing well and gaining weight.

In a graphically explicit statement, the boy said his mother regularly locked him in his room and put a plastic gate with bells on it, a crowbar and a 14-pound weight against the door so she could hear him open the door.

"She does not let me use the bathroom and she makes me wear a diaper whenever I'm home," the boy told police.

He said he recently had diarrhea in his bed and Evans made him throw his mattress and blankets into a side yard and sleep on the floor underneath the empty bed frame. "But it hurt because when I rolled over I would hit my head and shoulder," he said.

"A few times I had to poop at night and didn't want to fill my diaper. I couldn't use the bathroom, so I would poop on the floor and put the rug over it," the boy said. "A few times my mother found it and made me eat the poop. I had to throw up it was so bad."

The boy said a couple of days before he decided to run away, he came home from school a little late.

"I walked in the door and tried to put my book bag down, my mother pushed me into the door. My left arm hurt and now I have bruises on my left arm. I'm used to having bruises though because she hits me almost every day. Sometimes she pushes my head against the wall and slaps me and punches me."

The boy said he was always hungry and sometimes stole to eat. He said that during his spring break, "She didn't feed me at all, and I only got two cups of water a day."

He also told police that his friend, who for a time also was in Evans' care, snuck him food.

"He would try to sneak me food through the crack in the door. He would save the Pringles and candy from the Lunchables my mother gave him, and he would bring those to my room so I had something to eat," the boy said.

Rensselaer County Social Services Department Commissioner John Beaudoin said because the boy was adopted, his agency was not regularly monitoring the child's well being. The office monitors foster children's homes.

At one time, Evans had as many as six foster children in the home besides the adopted boy, authorities have said.

She dropped out of the foster care program after social services inspectors visited the house in December, Beaudoin said. His office had received a complaint, but he said they found nothing amiss.

Evans made a brief appearance this morning in City Court before Judge Christopher Maier with her court-appointed attorney Joseph Ahearn.

A representative for Rensselaer County District Attorney Richard McNally said the office was ready for trial in the case. Maier adjourned the case for two weeks after Ahearn asked prosecutors to hand over evidence.

Evans declined to speak to a reporter after her court appearance.

Bob Gardinier can be reached at 454-5696 or by e-mail at bgardinier@timesunion.com.

2008 May 23