Woman accused of ‘horrific, long-term torture’ of 13-year-old disabled boy

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — A 13-year-old boy was found beaten, soaked in urine and tethered to a metal step stool, with a blanket over his head at his home in Pompano Beach, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.

Jennifer Elaine Foran, 39, called her husband at work Monday night and told him to come home because of an emergency. He arrived about 9:30 p.m. to find his abused son, but he did not call 911 until the next day.

The father, whose name was not released, told detectives when his son lifted his head to look up from under a blanket, he immediately noticed a burn under his son’s eye.

The father later told detectives he was afraid to report it because of his wife. She had shot at him about a month earlier during an argument, according to an arrest report.

Detectives with the sheriff’s Child Protective Investigations Section noticed the teen, who has intellectual disabilities, had numerous scars on his body and was wearing a blood-stained shirt that indicated he was the victim of “long-term, repeated, physical abuse.”

Foran is accused of tying or handcuffing the teenager to appliances, a water heater and the stool to whip him, cut him with an eyebrow razor and burn him. His ankle was strapped to the stool with a cable used to lock up guns, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The boy and his father said Foran routinely abused the boy — almost every weekend. She usually tied him up in the laundry room to restrain him as she tortured him, they said.

Detectives searched the house. They found handcuffs, a rubber hose, a cable lock for guns and a foot bath that Foran is accused of throwing at the boy. They also found a pistol with two spent bullet casings and a video gaming console with a bullet hole in it, investigators said.

Detectives said they were given a cellphone with a video recording of the crying teenager being whipped.

Foran faces charges that include aggravated child abuse and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

At Foran’s first court appearance Thursday, Broward Assistant State Attorney Matheus Lopes called the case “pretty horrific.”

“Not only did Ms. Foran tie the victim up and was whipping him, she burnt his eye,” Lopes said. “There is video that shows her yelling at him and stating that he doesn’t feel pain and you can hear him on the video crying out for help saying that he does feel pain.”

Lopes recommended that Foran’s bond be set at $100,000. The public defender asked for bonds totaling $7,000.

Broward Judge Tabitha Blackmon disagreed, calling it a case of “long-term torture” before setting a total bond of $450,000.

“(Foran) said, ‘You don’t even feel it,’ while the victim is crying, ‘I do feel it,’ as she’s yelling at him, ‘No you don’t,’ and whipping can be heard in the background (of the video),” Blackmon said.

“The court not only has concern for this victim, but for the other children in the home,” she added.

The arrest report made no mention of other children living in the home or how the boy was related to Foran.

She remained in the Broward Main Jail on Friday.