Alaska: Mother convicted of child abuse after taping “hot sauce torture video” for Dr. Phil Show

[onehandle]

A mother in Alaska has been convicted of abusing her adopted Russian son by "pouring hot sauce into the crying child's mouth and not allowing him to spit it out for more than a minute," then forcing him to stand in a cold shower.

She staged the incident as an audition tape for a segment of the Dr. Phil show titled "Mommy Confessions," and ordered her ten-year-old daughter to record the video on a Flip handheld digital video camcorder.

Her bid for TV fame was successful: "Days later, she was on her way to Los Angeles to be on the show," and the episode aired in November, 2010.

The child is now in therapy for a psychological disorder.

http://boingboing.net/2011/08/23/alaska-mother-convicted-of-child-abuse-after-taping-hot-sauce-torture-video-for-dr-phil-audition.html

[patrice]

1. Child in therapy . . . and Dr. Phil is an enabler of the worst order. nt

[Blue_In_AK]

2. I'm glad.

It's probably true that the child was difficult, but she should have gone to a real child psychologist instead of setting this up for that fraud Dr. Phil. He shares blame in this incident.

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. I wonder if he ever gets any guilt when viewers send him tapes of them abusing their kids?

At least everyone knows Jerry Springer is a joke.

[rfranklin]

4. Most likely he never knew anything about this until the story came out...

Segment producers are responsible for booking guests and the on air host usually has nothing to do with those decisions.

[Demoiselle]

6. But his name is on the show...

and he probably gets paid a lot more than the segment producers. He's at least as culpable as they are.

[Sherman A1]

7. Precisely

His name is indeed on the show, and that says it all.

[Demoiselle]

8. Your Harry Truman picture is very appropriate for this thread.

The Buck Stops Here and all that. I think I may love him most of all.

[pipi_k]

10. Guilt?

You mean, people send him tapes of them abusing their kids, but they don't really do it in private?

So they're sort of just acting, and abusing their kids on tape in order to get on TV?

I've seen the show a LOT of times, and actually that was one of the only/few times I ever saw someone abusing their kid on tape.

Most of the other tapes people send in are of things like their kids going bullshit while they're on drugs and the whole family being held hostage to the addict.

[azurnoir]

5. This is the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4JZxAIBNWU

I remember reading about it (here?) at the time, then the story was that her 10 year old taped to try to help her brother, now the story is that it was all staged?

[pipi_k]

9. I don't get it...

People are all pissy because the tape was supposedly "staged"?

What does that mean...that she never abused her child?

She must have. Why would she say she did if she didn't?

Her doing that tape gave the authorities the evidence they needed to convict her of child abuse.

I saw that episode on TV. Sure did sound like that poor kid was suffering in that cold shower.

Another thing...I don't understand why people call him a "fraud" like he doesn't do a damned thing to help a lot of those people who NEED help. People with addictions. Teenagers with eating disorders. He gets these people into some of the best treatment centers in the country.

If not for that, a lot of them would be dead.

And yeah, his name is on the show, and he makes money doing this sort of thing, but it also gives other people hope that they aren't alone with whatever problems they might have and that they don't have to be ashamed of getting help.

[Gregorian]

11. Holy crap. My mother did that to me. (The hot sauce part.)

I had no idea this was considered child abuse, until now.

Wow.

[Horse with no Name]

14. My Grandma washed out mouths out with Lava soap.

That stuff is really gritty...but it did end there and we were allowed to wash it out quickly.

[LeftyMom]

12. She was also the Primary (sunday school) leader for her ward (parish church)

so who knows how many other people's children she mistreated. edit: The parentheses are translations out of Mormonese, if needed.

[Rex]

13. That's a fucked up thing to do to a kid.