Missouri foster mom accused of trading teen for monkey avoids prison
A Missouri foster mother accused of trading a teenage girl for a monkey avoided prison time, even as a judge condemned her as reprehensible and apologized to her alleged victims for a foster care system he said had failed them.Brenda Deutsch, 70, was sentenced to seven years in prison for child endangerment, but a Lincoln County judge suspended execution of the sentence and placed her on three years of probation, allowing her to remain free if she complies with its terms, FOX2 St.Louis reported.Judge Thomas Frawley also revoked Deutsch’s foster care license from the bench and criticized the state of Missouri for allowing her to keep it.FLORIDA COUPLE ALLEGEDLY HELD FOUR CHILDREN IN TRACTOR-TRAILER CAB FOR NEARLY SIX YEARSBrenda Deutsch is charged with three felony counts of child abuse, neglect and child endangerment.
(Lincoln County Sheriff's Office)Frawley then apologized to the victims in the courtroom, telling them he was sorry the system had failed them.Deutsch’s biological daughter, Brina Johnson, who testified about alleged abuse, said the outcome was not what she had hoped for."I’m kinda lost for words because this is not the end we wished for," Johnson told FOX2.Johnson said a teenager present in the courtroom was the foster child at the center of allegations that Deutsch traded her for a monkey."I have the whole conversation on my phone, which I turned over to the detectives," Johnson said."That’s what she did; she had at least seven monkeys," Johnson said."That’s just her thing.
But she wasn’t any nicer to those monkeys than she was to a child."A judge condemned Brenda Deutsch, 70, as "reprehensible" and said the foster care system had failed her victims.(iStock)Deutsch was arrested in April after authorities investigated allegations that she sent the foster child, who is now 17, to Texas to stay in a home Deutsch admitted in court she knew nothing about.Court documents previously obtained by Fox News Digital said the investigation began af...