A Missouri foster mother accused of trading a teenage girl for a monkey will serve no prison time after a judge suspended her seven-year sentence and placed her on probation.
Brenda Deutsch, 70, received the sentence for child endangerment in Lincoln County last week, but Judge Thomas Frawley allowed her to remain free under three years of probation if she complies with its terms. Frawley also revoked Deutsch’s foster care license from the bench and criticized the state of Missouri for allowing her to keep it.
The judge then apologized directly to victims in the courtroom, telling them he was sorry the system had failed them.
Deutsch’s biological daughter, Brina Johnson, who testified about alleged abuse, said the outcome fell short of what she had sought.
“I’m kinda lost for words because this is not the end we wished for,” Johnson told FOX2.
Johnson identified a teenager present in the courtroom as the foster child at the center of allegations that Deutsch traded her for a monkey. She said she had turned over evidence to detectives.
“I have the whole conversation on my phone, which I turned over to the detectives,” Johnson said.
“That’s what she did; she had at least seven monkeys,” Johnson continued. “That’s just her thing. But she wasn’t any nicer to those monkeys than she was to a child.”
Deutsch was arrested in April after authorities investigated allegations that she sent the foster child, who is now 17, to Texas to stay in a home she admitted in court she knew nothing about. The investigation began after Deutsch sought permission to take the girl to visit a friend in Texas, then an anonymous caller five days later alerted the Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division that Deutsch was allegedly physically and mentally abusing the child.
Investigators later learned of an allegation that the girl had been traded for an exotic animal and was living in Texas. The teenager told investigators Deutsch informed her Texas friend that the friend could keep the child, but Deutsch “will be keeping the check,” according to court documents. A witness told police the girl had been left in an unsanitary Texas home filled with exotic animals, and she was eventually taken into custody of child protective services in Texas.
The teenager also described alleged abuse by Deutsch, telling investigators she was struck with objects including a paddle and shoes. During one alleged beating, she said she lay on the floor and tried to “soften the strikes to her body,” according to court documents. Deutsch also allegedly took away the girl’s clothes and once threatened to kill her “if she did not shut up,” the documents said.
Deutsch has reportedly fostered more than 200 children over the years. She declined to comment outside the courthouse, shielding her face with a piece of paper as she walked to her vehicle and drove away.
Johnson said the judge’s acknowledgment of the system’s failures offered some validation despite her disappointment with the outcome.
“It was good to know somebody knows from the other side of the street, that this shouldn’t have happened,” Johnson said. “None of it should. And the system did fail us, failed them all.”
Deutsch must now complete her three-year probation period under court supervision.