D.C. Woman Sentenced For Severely Beating 4-Year-Old Boy

WASHINGTON, DC — A Washington, D.C. woman was sentenced Friday to six-and-a-half years in prison for beating and maltreating a four-year-old boy she watched for a summer. (Subscribe to the D.C. Patch for realtime breaking news alerts.)

Suzette Nicole Allen, 45, and her son Timothy, 20, both pled guilty in April 2017 to a charge of first-degree cruelty to children. Timothy was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison in July 2017.

According to government evidence, the victim's mother put the boy and his older brother in the care of the Allen family, who she knew, during the summer of 2016. Prosectors said the Allens beat the child with their hands and with drumsticks throughout the summer. The child's health began to deteriorate from the beatings, and by early August, he was having trouble walking.

Over the next couple of weeks, the boy grew lethargic and his balance faltered, prosecutors said. The Allens discussed this in text messages, but they never sought medical attention.

The boy's mother received the children back from the Allen family on Aug. 16, 2016 and immediately recognized something was wrong with her 4-year-old. She rushed him to Children's Hospital Medical Center, where he was found to have multiple contusions, two lacerations to his liver, a hemorrhage in his abdominal cavity, two rib fractures, a fractured finger, a missing tooth, patterned scars to his spine, abdomen, chest and inner thighs, and healing injuries to his forehead, eye, nose, jaw, and chest.

The boy was kept in the hospital for 17 days and then spent another 55 days in rehabilitation at another facility, prosecutors said.

Timothy Allen has been in custody since his arrest, while Suzette Nicole Allen had been free on personal recognizance, with a condition that she have no contact with children under age 18.

Following completion of her prison term, Suzette Nicole Allen will be placed on three years of supervised release; during that time, she is to have no contact with children under 18.

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