Lawyer: Deputy attorney general and wife ‘frustrated’ by child-abuse allegations
Lawyer: Deputy attorney general and wife ‘frustrated’ by child-abuse allegations
About Jason CatoJason Cato 412-320-7936
Staff Reporter
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
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By Jason Cato
Published: Monday, November 19, 2012, 1:40 p.m.
Updated 12 hours ago
The lawyer for a deputy state attorney general accused of abusing his two adopted children from Ethiopia said on Monday that authorities parsed his client’s words to make up a story that is anything but truthful.
Police charged Douglas Barbour, 33, and Kristen Barbour, 30, of Franklin Park with endangering the welfare of children, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. Douglas Barbour, who is suspended without pay from his job in the Attorney General’s Office, is charged with simple assault.
“The selective use of what they told the doctors at the hospital is being used, and they are frustrated,” defense attorney Charles Porter said outside the Leetsdale office of District Judge Robert Ford, who postponed a preliminary hearing for the Barbours.
Prosecutors this week added the reckless endangerment charges and count of aggravated assault, prompting a closed-door meeting among Ford, prosecutors, Porter and attorney Robert Stewart, who represents Kristen Barbour.
“We obviously dispute the allegations, but we need time to prepare,” Porter said. “These new charges are completely different from anything in the complaint.”
Ford rescheduled the preliminary hearing for Jan. 18.
Prosecutors with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
In October, county police accused the Barbours of denying proper nutrition to their adopted 6-year-old son and physically abusing their adopted 18-month-old daughter.
The couple is not accused of abusing two biological children.
“Why would you adopt two children and choose to abuse them? It makes no sense,” Porter said.
According to police documents, the boy was taken to Children’s Hospital in Lawrenceville on Sept. 14 with concerns of hypothermia, rapid breathing and a skin condition. At that time, he weighed 9.5 pounds less than he did when he entered the United States six months earlier.
The girl was hospitalized the same day because her eyes were rolling back, and she was having trouble breathing. Kristen Barbour said the toddler had a history of banging her head, and doctors found multiple healing fractures, police said.
When interviewed by police on Oct. 2, the boy said that when he was bad, the Barbours forced him to eat his meals in or stand in a dark bathroom.
“What do they think, that (the Barbours) purposefully withheld food and were starving this child to death? That’s absurd,” Stewart said. “They took the child to the hospital that day.”
Police have said the boy’s room was stripped down with no bed. Porter said it once had his name on the wall and his own bed, but that those things were removed as the couple tried to deal with the boy’s problems, such as often urinating and defecating in his pants or on the bed.
“You had a child who had some serious issues,” Porter said. “I think they tried to deal with it the best they could.”
The Barbours have not seen their adopted children since police charged them. They have had supervised visits with their other children, Porter said.
“You can imagine this is very difficult on them,” Porter said.
Jason Cato is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7936 or jcato@tribweb.com.