Hot Sauce Mom Guilty: Tweets Compare Her to Casey Anthony
The Alaskan mother who has made headline news for disciplining her son by force-feeding him hot sauce has been handed down a guilty verdict.
A jury of three men and three women found “hot sauce mom” Jessica Beagley guilty of misdemeanor child abuse.
The mother of six now faces up to a year in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The "hot sauce mom" story came to the public’s attention after Jessica Beagley submitted a videotape to the Dr. Phil show.
The tape, which was recorded by Beagley’s 10-year-old daughter, displayed how Beagley disciplines her adopted son. The tape was used as an audition tape for the Dr. Phil show segment called, “Mommy Confessions.”
After the tape was shown on the show, it caused a national outcry, and concerned viewers contacted Alaskan authorities.
Beagley’s defense attorney told the jury that she turned to Dr. Phil out of “pure frustration” and in hopes to find help in dealing with her "misbehaved" 5-year-old son, who is now 7.
Prosecutors have argued that Beagley abused the boy simply to get on the show.
While on the show, Dr. Phil told Beagley, “You have crippled this child mentally, emotionally, and socially.”
The case is causing national outcry and people on both sides of the spectrum are debating whether “hot saucing” is indeed child abuse or just a strict form of punishment.
Some people have turned to social media sites like Twitter to react to the verdict.
Prettyiss1982 said, “Hot Sauce Mom found guilty. But Casey Anthony’s free? (explicit) Not saying what she did was right. She punished her child. Casey Anthony murdered hers.”
Another person that goes by the name of MediaWyse posted the article, “Hot Sauce Mom Found Guilty for Spicy Punishment," and commented, "She got off easy if you ask me!”
ThecitizeNY tweeted, “So it’s a guilty verdict for that hot sauce mom. Should have stuck with soap like MY mom. ;)
LisaBloom said, “Cruel, misguided parenting, but I’d send her to parenting classes. We can’t imprison everyone.”
Although Beagley will be forced to face her crime, the Dr. Phil show is not considered liable for what some critics argue is giving encouragement to others to video record this sort of behavior.
