Dad of Boy Isolated in Basement Takes Surprise Plea

DETROIT, MI – A Detroit dad who appeared stunned when grilled by Nancy Grace on national TV in June 2014 just as police were announcing the 12-year-old was found in his basement made a surprise plea agreement Tuesday, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said.

In a statement, the prosecutor’s office said that Charlie Bothuell IV, 47, had pleaded guilty to a fourth-degree child abuse, a misdemeanor, before Wayne County Circuit Judge Margaret Van Houten. Bothuell had earlier declared his intent to go to trial on the charges that he had abused and isolated his son, Charlie Bothuell V.

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Bothuell IV won’t serve jail time, will be on probation for 18 months and must attend anger management classes. He had been charged with second-degree child abuse, a felony carrying a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

He was also ordered to have no contact with his son, the subject of an 11-day search after Bothuell IV reported him missing.

When he was discovered in the basement, the boy told investigators that he had been beaten with PVC pipe by his father and threatened by stepmother Monique Dillard-Bothuell to keep quiet as authorities searched for him in the basement of the family’s home on Nicolet Place in Lafayette Park.

In a petition before the Michigan Department of Human Services that resulted in the loss of the boy’s father’s and step-mother’s parental rights, officials said the boy was not fed for days and would sneak upstairs to get food when his parents were gone.

The petition also detailed gruelling workouts at dawn and in the evening that included 100 push-ups and 100 jumping jacks, twice the number of situps, 25 arm curls per arm with a 25-pound weight, and 5,000 revolutions an elliptical trainer.

A judge had previously dropped torture charges against the boy’s father and stepmother, who could have gone to prison for life if convicted, The Detroit News reports. Dillard-Bothuell earlier pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, which will be expunged from her record in six months if she stays out of trouble. She also didn’t get jail time.

Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, told the Detroit Free Press the plea agreement is in the boy’s best interests.

“In light of everything that’s happened to young (victim), we thought this was an appropriate resolution of the case for him to be able to go on with his life,” Miller said.

» Detroit police mug shots of Charlie Bothuell IV and Monique Dillard-Bothuell