Boy cuffed to porch with chicken around neck returns to mom


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LEXINGTON, N.C. (AP) — A judge ruled Wednesday that a North Carolina boy who was found handcuffed to the porch of his legal guardian's house with a dead chicken around his neck two years ago can return to his mother.

WBTV-TV in Charlotte reports (http://bit.ly/1ixQUbw) a Davidson County judge ruled that the boy's biological mother has been awarded permanent custody. In June, a judge allowed the boy to go home with his mother on a trial basis.

In 2013, a deputy found the then-11-year-old boy on the porch. Wanda Sue Larson, a former Union County social worker who had been caring for the boy, agreed to a plea deal and was sentenced to 17 months in prison. She was released in April.

Larson's boyfriend, Dorian Harper, was sentenced to at least six years in prison.

During a hearing for Harper, prosecutors said the boy was beaten and starved and had been forced to sleep on a floor chained to part of a railroad tie. Prosecutors also said the boy had marks and scars on his body as well as a broken wrist and an infected hand. Larson was charged with not seeking medical treatment for him.

According to the sentencing report, the children in the home gave investigators details of what went on there, and they said Larson wasn't there to see much of it.

Larson had been the boy's legal guardian for years and was a supervisor with the Union County Department of Social Services. She had adopted four other children who were in the home when the couple was arrested. The children, ranging in age from 8 to 15, have been placed in social services custody in another county.

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Information from: WBTV-TV, http://www.wbtv.com/

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