No jail for North Bend couple whose neglect nearly killed crippled teen Cerebral palsy-stricken young woman saw 23 teeth rot; state-paid caregivers get house arrest

A North Bend couple who let a severely disabled teen starve as her teeth rotted away likely won’t be serving any jail time.

Paid by the state to care for the blind, cerebral palsy-striken young woman, April and Jeffrey Henderson faced felony charges after she was pulled from their home two years ago. Naked except for a diaper, the young woman was caked in her own filth and weighed only 67 pounds.

The Hendersons pleaded guilty in September to second-degree criminal mistreatment, a felony that usually draws a nine-month jail sentence for first-time offenders.

King County prosecutors asked for a little more jail time for April Henderson – 12 months – and a six-month jail term for Jeff Henderson. The defense asked that both be cut a break – no jail, just probation.

King County Superior Court Judge Carol Schapira split the difference Friday, sentencing both Hendersons to nine-months on electronic home detention. Doing so, she spared both any jail time unless they violate the conditions of their release.

Coincidently, nine months is more or less the amount of time they’ve admitted to ignoring the needs of then-19-year-old young woman. Senior Deputy Prosecutor Amanda Froh described the abuse as “horrific,” and nearly fatal.

When investigators arrived at the wooded, rural home, on Oct. 25, 2012 they found the teen naked except for a diaper, left in a room littered with soiled clothing, dried vomit and trash. Weighing just 67 pounds, the girl was described as “skeletal” by the case detective.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Amanda Froh described the abuse as “horrific,” and nearly fatal.

“The conditions in which (she) was found are not conditions which could occur overnight, or even within a week or two,” Froh told the court. “It was a state that was the result of weeks and months … of extreme long-term neglect – of the Hendersons treating (her) like she was less than a human being who deserved to be cared for in a humane way.”

The teen “was removed from the Hendersons’ home in the nick of time,” Froh said told the court.

Her guardian has since said she believed the teen would’ve have died. A veteran Children’s Hospital nurse and a pediatric dentist both described the abuse as among the most egregious cases they’d seen.

The North Bend couple lived on the $4,100 or so per month in government benefits meant to provide for the young woman, who was orphaned and ultimately left in the Hendersons’ care at age 7.

Writing the court, Detective Belinda Paredes-Garrett said the young woman was flailing and crying when help arrived.

“The only way to describe her moaning was that of a wounded animal,” the detective said in charging papers.

“(She) lived in the worst conditions I have experienced in 16 years of law enforcement,” Paredes-Garrett continued, noting that the room and the young woman’s wheelchair were “covered in filth.”

Investigators were called to the Henderson home the day after staff at Children’s Hospital reported concerns about the young woman’s health.

April Henderson, now 33, has been the young woman’s full-time caretaker, while Jeffrey Henderson, 34, is her legal guardian. While she isn’t actually related to either Henderson, the teen had been cared for by Jeffrey Henderson’s mother before her death a decade ago. She was then placed in the Hendersons’ care.

Neither Henderson was employed – April Henderson hasn’t worked since the girl came to live with them. They and their four children had been subsisting entirely on the payments made for the teen’s care.

Arriving at the couple’s home in the 44500 block of Southeast 151st Street, investigators were confronted at the door by April Henderson, who initially tried to turn them away. Once inside, the detective said in court papers, they were “taken aback” by the foul smell.

Detectives and a Department of Social and Health Services social worker called for help after they found the teen nearly naked in her filthy bedroom. The couple’s three sons – then aged 12, 3 and 1 – were all in the home, while their 10-year-old daughter was at school.

Questioned at the home, April Henderson explained investigators had caught them on a “bad day” while her husband allowed that it was more of a “bad week.”

“This couple kept her in filthy, dangerous conditions,” said Julia Mitzel, an advanced registered nurse practitioner at Children’s, in a letter to the court. Mitzel treated the young woman after she was removed from the Hendersons’ home.

Mitzel said the girl was caked in vomit and hardened stool when she arrived at the hospital. It took nursing staff 30 minutes to clean her.

“This couple knew they were being abusive and neglectful,” said Mitzel, asking that the Hendersons be punished as severely as possible and barred from caring for anyone ever again.

High school sweethearts who married in 2000 shortly after graduating from Mount Si High School, the Hendersons had been caring for the young woman since 2003.

The defense attorneys claimed their clients provided a “caring home” for the young woman for years. They viewed her as a member of the family, he said, and treated her well until early 2012; in April of that year, a doctor described her as “well-nourished and well-cared for.”

Things changed for the Hendersons in March 2012 after Jeff Henderson’s brother was shot dead after forcing his way into a North Bend home. King County Sheriff’s Department investigators determined Joshua Henderson, drunk and high on cocaine at the time, had been roaming the neighborhood before breaking into the home and trashing it before threatening the homeowner, who shot him.

The shooting left Jeff Henderson in a deep depression. His weight ballooned to more than 500 pounds, up from 400s the year before. He could barely walk and found it hard to get out of the house.

April was left with four children, her ailing husband and the young woman to care for, according to the defense. A review in May 2012 left a Department of Social and Health Services social worker “concerned” but aware that “the family is going thru a crisis.”

The girl was isolated – April pulled her from school because the family had a “steep driveway” – and entirely dependent on her paid guardians.

Due to her condition, she was forced to suffer in silence. Froh said the young woman did the only thing she could to get help – hurt herself. She’d been doing so for years.

She “is nonverbal and so was unable to directly express the pain that she was feeling,” the prosecutor told the court. “However, she did her best to communicate that information to her caregivers by engaging in self-injurious behaviors, such as clawing at her face and hair, pulling out her hair, and biting at her arms.”

Speaking with the detective, April Henderson explained she thought caring for the teen would get easier as she aged, but the work instead grew more difficult.

Acknowledging that his client came woefully short, April Henderson’s public defender Lucas Garrett noted the neglect was discovered because the Hendersons brought the young woman to a series of medical appointments in October 2012.

“After years of adequate care, April and Jeff ultimately failed in their responsibilities to (the young woman), who they considered to be a member of her family,” Garrett said in court papers. “Their failures arose during a few months of great personal hardship. …

“April should have realized that she was struggling and overwhelmed, and she should have sought outside help. But her failures were the result of a family crisis and not greed or cruelty.”

April Henderson was paid through a program meant to compensate in-home caregivers of severely disabled people.

Jeff Henderson’s public defender David Sorenson disputed the allegation that the couple saw the young woman as simply easy money.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Sorenson said in court papers.

While the young woman required 24-hour care, April Henderson was paid for 350 hours of work a month – 12 hours a day, at $11 an hour without health benefits. By agreeing to care for the then-7-year-old girl, April Henderson gave up any chance at working outside the home or obtaining a college education, according to the defense.

Writing the court, Paredes-Garrett noted the Hendersons had several televisions, laptops, an iPad and iPhones as well as an “extensive collection of reptiles.” Jeffrey Henderson couldn’t explain how he paid to care for his pets.

“April and Jeffrey actively deceived social service agencies involved with (the young woman’s) care to prevent them from realizing the extent of her neglect,” Paredes-Garrett said in charging papers.

The teen was removed from the home, as were the Hendersons’ children. The Hendersons later agreed the young woman should be placed in a care facility paid for with the money that had been supporting them.

The detective said Jeffrey Henderson offered to “take the heat” for his wife so she could continue to mother their children.

Following her rescue, the young woman gained more than 30 pounds. She received 19 root canals; four of her teeth were pulled.

A pediatric dentist told investigators the teen was doubtless in pain for several years as her teeth rotted away. Several were entirely destroyed.

Now in the care of a court-appointed guardian, the girl has enrolled in a Western Washington high school and appears to be improving.

“The change in her appearance was overwhelming to me,” Paredes-Garrett said in court papers, recounting a meeting with the young woman a year after she was rescued. The detective noted the girl smiled at her and held her educational assistant’s hand while laughing.

The Hendersons moved to Saint Augustine, Fla., after the young woman was removed from their care. They were forced to return to Washington to face the second-degree criminal mistreatment filed against them 18 months later in April.

Both Hendersons now work at a truck stop in North Bend. Their children remain with them as they live with a relative.

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Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.