LAPD: Mom Tortures Young Son

(Los Angeles, California) A mother and her girlfriend, Starkeisha Brown, 24, and Krystal Matthews,21, were arrested last week for the brutal torture of Brown's five-year-old son. Brown is in custody without bail. Matthews is being held on $100,000 bail.


Starkeisha Brown_Krystal Matthews

The boy, who was in guarded condition at a local hospital, was rescued Monday by a stranger who found him abandoned and called authorities.

On that same day, the two women had an appointment with the Department of Children and Family Services and had brought the healthy child of a mutual friend and tried to pass him off as Brown's son.

Police said the women routinely beat the boy, forced him to put his hands on a hot stove, burned his body and genitals with cigarettes and often would not let him eat or drink.

At a news conference Friday [6/13], LAPD Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said that because of the burns from the stove, the boy no longer can open his hands.

Lt. Vincent Neglia of the LAPD's Abused Child Unit said in a statement Saturday that the abuse was "akin to a level of torture we hope our military personnel would never encounter."

Brown is a known gang member who has done time and has an outstanding arrest warrant for a parole violation. Interestingly, Brown was still able to collect welfare while the LAPD and the Department of Child and Family Services were looking for her. The community is outraged.

Tip: Brian Kissick