A woman in Missouri was sentenced to probation instead of jail time after she was convicted of endangering the welfare of a child, a felony.
Breanda Deutsch, 71, was initially sentenced to seven years behind bars and three years of state-supervised probation. The judge overseeing the case said the prison term would be suspended if she completes her probation, the Lincoln County Journal reported.
The judge also revoked her foster care license, criticizing the state for allowing her to keep it.
Brina Johnson, Deutsch’s biological daughter, said that a teen in the courtroom was the child at the center of the case where Deutsch allegedly traded the teen for a monkey.
Johnson testified about the alleged incident, saying, “I have the whole conversation on my phone, which I turned over to the detectives,” KTVI reported.
She also said she had a photo of her mother with a monkey.
“That’s what she did; she had at least seven monkeys,” Johnson added. “That’s just her thing. But she wasn’t any nicer to those monkeys than she was to a child.”
Deutsch was accused of sending the teen to Texas, to a home she said she knew nothing about and admitted it.
The judge stated in court that it was the decision Deutsch made to send the teen to Texas, not the allegations of the trade for the animal, that was what the foster parent was guilty of.
“This case is about a mom who sent her daughter to temporarily stay with a friend in another state without first inspecting the living accommodations, accommodations which were deemed unsafe due to sanitary issues,” Judge Thomas Frawley said, according to The Lincoln County Journal. “That is what she is being sentenced for. She did not abuse anyone, engage in patterns of abusive behaviors, trade a child for a monkey, or anything else that has been said.”
Deutsch’s attorney, Joseph Flees, said that his client was thrust into the international spotlight for a case he said was not who his client was.
“Brenda has been in local, national, and international news. Her name, photo, and the allegations in this case have been widespread,” Flees wrote in the filing asking for probation, the newspaper reported. “There is an unusual level of sensationalism surrounding this case. The unusual press has destroyed her reputation in the community. The outcry on social media is disturbing. But Brenda is not the person she has been made out to be.”
Several of Deutsch’s children testified about alleged abuse before she was sentenced, but while the district attorney’s office said it did receive several complaints, most were past the statute of limitations and could not be prosecuted, the Journal reported.
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