Pennsylvania Deputy AG Charged with Abuse of Adopted Ethiopian Children
A deputy attorney general in Pennsylvania and his wife have been charged with abuse and neglect of two children adopted from Ethiopia earlier this year.
Douglas Barbour, 33, has been suspended without pay from his job with the attorney general’s office pending resolution of the charges, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Barbour and his wife, 30-year-old Kristen Barbour, are charged with assault and endangerment of their 6-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter.
The Barbours were charged after hospital officials reported that the girl appeared to be the victim of physical child abuse, including head trauma, the story says. Kristen Barbour told hospital officials that the girl has a history of banging her head.
The boy had skin lesions that may have been caused by contact with urine, doctors said. He allegedly told hospital personnel that his parents made him stand or eat dinner in the bathroom when he soiled his pants. He was losing weight at home but ate voraciously at the hospital, hospital staffers told police.
