Child Molesters, Child Abuse Effects: Bulimia, Eating Disorders, Addictions

The case had been set for Durham County Superior Court last week. But it was postponed until Feb. 21, reportedly so two of three suspects could talk to a prosecution investigator.

Assistant District Attorney Mitchell Garrell said one or more of the suspects might plead guilty next month. If not, they will be arraigned and trial dates will be set, he said.

The incident involves a 4-year-old boy who allegedly was tied to a closet doorknob for so long May 6, 2004, that he contracted gangrene. One of his legs had to be amputated.

Tamekecia Justice, the child's mother, and Randall Lee Hargraves are accused of inflicting serious bodily injury on the boy. Desiree Justice, reportedly the boy's grandmother, faces the same charge.

Each faces prison time if convicted.

Hargraves was Tamekecia Justice's boyfriend at the time of the incident, and he has now agreed to speak with an investigator for the prosecution, Garrell said. Desiree Justice has done the same, Garrell said Thursday.

Garrell previously had said that, despite the suspects' relationships, one of them might turn against the others and cooperate with authorities to avoid a prison term. He declined to elaborate on any possible deals.

The suspects are free on bail. Court documents list the address for Hargraves and Tamekecia Justice as 2503-B S. Roxboro Road.

Cases of physical child abuse are not rare in Durham, though they generally appear in court less often than robberies or murders.

Another serious one was resolved in 2003, when Jeanene L. Scurlock was convicted of dipping her daughter into scalding water, leaving the child with burns to both feet and blisters on the right foot.

Scurlock was placed on probation for three years and ordered to attend parenting classes and perform 100 hours of unpaid community service work.

The same year, Tyrone Moore received an active prison sentence of 42 to 60 months after he pleaded guilty to felonious child abuse involving serious injury.

He was accused of shaking his girlfriend's daughter so hard that it caused bleeding in the child's brain and hemorrhaging in her eyes, among other injuries.