E-Paper
Mom makes daughter a 'dog'
A woman has been convicted of beating her 7-year-old daughter with a dog chain, burning her wrists on a stove, pouring bleach on her, and forcing her to eat cat food!
A woman convicted of beating her 7-year-old daughter with a dog chain, burning her wrists on a stove, pouring bleach on her, and forcing her to eat cat food and salt was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 to 70 years in prison.
Debra Liberman, 52, had been convicted of four counts of aggravated assault and one count of arson for setting a furnace filter on fire in a coal cellar where she had locked the naked and wet girl.
Haley Liberman was not hurt in the fire. But the girl was "terrorized physically and emotionally and psychologically battered," prosecutors said.
Police investigated after reports of screams coming from Liberman's home in February 2004 and said they found the girl in a closet.
Haley, now 9, lives in Virginia with her father, Liberman's ex-husband.
Defense attorneys called the sentence inappropriate and said the case would be appealed.
They had argued that Liberman had temporary psychosis from asthma medication and didn't realize what she was doing.
