From San Mateo Daily Journal
Autistic son forced to drink dozen juices
By Michelle Durand
A Burlingame father forced his 13-year-old autistic and developmentally disabled son to drink juice until he threw up and beat him with a belt because the boy was sent home from school for stealing a juice box, according to prosecutors who could seek a third-strike sentence if he is convicted of child abuse.
Jason Todd McGlown, 34, pleaded not guilty in Superior Court yesterday to two alternative counts of child abuse. McGlown was ordered back to court May 19 for a pretrial conference and June 9 for jury trial.
On Feb. 13, according to prosecutors, McGlown was called by his estranged wife to pick up their 13-year-old son from school in San Bruno after the child was sent home for swiping a juice box. McGlown allegedly brought the boy to the Burlingame home he shares with his parents and made him drink a dozen juice boxes until he vomited. McGlown then whipped the boy on the buttocks and back with a belt, according to the District Attorney's Office.
On Feb. 14, the boy's teachers discovered bruises after he told them it hurt too much to sit, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
The underlying question, said defense attorney Bill Johnston, is if his client went beyond the legal standard of "reasonable punishment." Those standards are fluid dependent upon circumstances such as the child's age, size and mental capacity, he added.
The child gave various accounts to authorities including discrepancies in the number of juice boxes, Johnston said.
"This is not an instance of an angry father who lashes out at a child because he is keeping him from a favorite TV show but a situation of a father who spends every day working with the child on homework and imposes discipline to make sure the child learns appropriately," Johnston said.
Johnston acknowledges his client has a criminal past but said it doesn't necessarily pertain to the current situation.
McGlown has two felony assault convictions dating from 1996 and 1998. The latter included a domestic violence conviction which, taken with the assault charge, brought McGlown a 14-year prison sentence of which he served 50 percent, Wagstaffe said.
A conviction in this case could count as a third-strike and bring a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
"This is a case where we will be looking very closely at that," Wagstaffe said.
McGlown remains in custody in lieu of $100,000 bail.
E-mail Michelle Durand at michelle@smdailyjournal.com |
