ORLANDO, Fla. – The mother of a boy who was rescued from abuse by an Orlando server in January 2021 will spend nearly a year in jail for her part in the case.
Kristen Swann, who faces abuse charges, accepted a plea in the case and was adjudicated guilty on aggravated child abuse and failure to report child abuse by a household member.
She was sentenced to 364 days in jail, and gets 15 days credit for time served. She will serve 14 years probation upon release, and she cannot have contact with her son or any other minors.
[TRENDING: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]
According to the Orlando Police Department, Flavaine Carvalho, a server at Mrs. Potato restaurant, noticed the boy when a family of four sat down at a table on New Year’s Day.
Police said a man at the table, Timothy Lee Wilson, did not allow the 11-year-old boy to order any food, and Carvalho noticed the child had bruises on his face and arms.
The server wrote a note that said, “Do you need help? OK” and held it up to the boy while standing behind the man so he couldn’t see it, police said.
“I wrote another sign, asking him if he needs help. And this is when he nodded, yes,” Carvalho said.
In an interview with Orlando police detectives, the boy recounted incidents of mistreatment, saying he had ratchet straps tied around his ankles and neck and was hung upside down from a door, officials said. According to police, the boy also said he had been struck with a wooden broom and handcuffed and tied to a large moving dolly.
“He had all sorts of different stages of bruising so it wasn’t like it was just one incident,” detective Erin Lawler said in January 2021. “It was ongoing abuse and torture.”
Wilson, the boy’s stepfather, was sentenced to life in prison in August after he was convicted on false imprisonment, aggravated child abuse with a weapon, aggravated child abuse and child neglect charges.
Police said Swann admitted to knowing about the abuse. She was arrested on two counts of child neglect.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: