|
Suspect's sisters tipped state to boy in chains
About a week before her sister and brother-in-law were
charged with child abuse in Lebanon, Jessica Ellis said, she just had to
move out of their house. “I'd sneak this boy food because she didn't give him
food,” Ellis said of the boy's stepmother, Christie Osborne. “'She
chained him up at night, and I asked why, and she said the cops told her
to do it.” Lebanon Police Chief Scott Bowen said he couldn't talk about
the case because of a gag order issued last week, but he said
allegations that one of his officers would advise the Osbornes to chain
a child were “asinine.” As a 15-day-old infant, Joshua Osborne received a heart transplant in 1989. He has been ill his entire life, his family members have said. The boy's step-grandmother and step-aunt said last week that the teen has mental problems and has been diagnosed as having mental retardation. They said he became violent at times and threatened to kill Christie Osborne and her husband with a butcher knife. Christie and James Osborne remained in Wilson County Jail yesterday in lieu of $50,000 bail each. Court documents show that they have a Oct. 12 court date. Ellis had lived with the Osbornes for about a month before their arrest last week, she said. She moved in because she was going through a divorce and needed a place to stay. She had seen her sister Christie chain the boy at night to separate him from other children and to prevent him from sneaking out. “I asked Christie, 'Why don't you put him in some kind of home?' ” said Candy Sellars, Christie Osborne's other sister, who said she, along with Jessica Ellis, called state social workers. “The response was (that) they wouldn't get the check anymore,” she said referring to financial support that the family apparently received because of Joshua's disabilities. Details of financial support that the Osbornes may have received were not clear yesterday. “Everyone is down on me that I reported her,” Sellars said. “Some people say I've done wrong. But what if he would have died?” Sellars said she last saw Christie Osborne on the day that Jessica Ellis moved out of the Osbornes' home on Wilson Avenue. Sellars said she did not enter the Osborne home that day, and she and Christie Osborne didn't get along well. Sellars and Ellis live together outside of Gallatin. Asked whether there was a feud between her and Christie Osborne, Ellis said no. “There's no feud. No kid deserves to go through this,” she said. Sellars said she called the state Department of Children's Services in 2001 and 2003 to report that she had seen bruises on the teenager. It wasn't clear yesterday whether DCS took action on those specific complaints. DCS spokeswoman Andrea Turner said she couldn't comment on any details involving the Osborne case because of the gag order. She had said last week that DCS investigated two allegations against the Osbornes, in 2001 and 2003, of minor physical abuse but didn't find substantial evidence to support the cases. The boy's whereabouts weren't clear yesterday. He and his siblings were removed from their parents' home Sept. 21, the day criminal charges were brought against the parents. Christie Osborne's mother, Diane Humphrey, said last week that the youth was admitted to a hospital but she didn't know where.
|
