Ex-Ga. Tech Star, Wife Represent Selves in Child Cruelty Case

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA — An ex-Georgia Tech football star and his wife represented themselves in court Wednesday on charges they locked one of their sons in a basement room for most of two years.

Recardo and Therian Wimbush, of Buford, are charged with cruelty to children and false imprisonment. They had a motions hearing in the case on Wednesday.

While Recardo sat silently for the hearing, Therian did most of the talking for the couple, WXIA-TV reported.

She began laughing while reading her motions to the judge before being told she didn't have to do so.

"You sound so argumentative," Therian told the judge, according to the station.

The Wimbushes were indicted in 2014, accused of keeping the 13-year-old boy — the eldest of their 10 children — in a small locked room with just a mattress and box springs, and a plastic bucket apparently used as a toilet.

Police said searches of the couple’s home on Pierce Way in Buford found the room had a hardwood floor, only a fitted sheet on the mattress and no bulb in the light fixture. The window was painted white, allowing some light into the room during the day.

The couple reportedly wanted to keep the boy away from his siblings, saying that he had molested three of his sisters.

They have defended their actions in the case on religious grounds.

On Wednesday, a court-appointed attorney and child welfare worker testified about conditions in the room where the boy was found, WXIA reported.

According to Gwinnett County Police, the Division of Family and Children Services received an anonymous tip about the boy on June 15, 2014 and found him the next day.

The attorney, who had represented the children during a previous hearing, said the boy told her he'd been locked up as punishment for trying to run away, according to the station.

The DFCS worker testified that there was dirt, hair and dust in the room, that the boy appeared unkempt, pale and frail and that "it looked like an animal was living in there," WXIA reported.

The motions filed by the Wimbushes on Wednesday included asking that the judge be thrown off the case and that the Gwinnett County district attorney's office be disqualified from prosecuting it.

Recardo Wimbush was a four-year starter at linebacker for Georgia Tech from 1999-2002 and was on the Atlanta Falcons training camp roster at one point.

To read more from WXIA-TV, click here.

Photo via Gwinnett County Jail