By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
A former Warwick foster mother is sentenced to the maximum prison term for admitting to manslaughter in the January, 2019 death of her adopted daughter, and cruelty or neglect of seven other adopted children.
Likening the case of Michele Rothgeb to the child abuse depicted in the movie “Mommie Dearest”, a prosecutor asked for the maximum sentence allowed under a plea agreement.
“These are children who were first betrayed by a system that placed them with this defendant, and later by the woman herself, who rejected help and services at all turns, all while portraying herself to be “mommie dearest,” said Assistant Attorney General Laura Nicholson.
Rothgeb’s defense attorney, James Lawrence said he took issue with the reference to “Mommie Dearest”, the 1981 biological firm that depicted actress Joan Crawford as an abusive and manipulative mother. He described Rothgeb as the victim of childhood abuse.
After Rothgeb, 58, tearfully apologized, Judge Daniel A. Procaccini imposed the maximum sentence under a plea agreement. She must serve 18 years in prison in the 2019 death of her adopted daughter Zha Nae, 9, and what he called the “cruel and neglectful” treatment of seven other children in her care, as well as the abuse of a dog that later was euthanized.
The nine-year old who, like all of the other children had severe impairments, was found dead in the bathtub of the family’s home. Authorities determined she had been in the tub for some eight hours.
“I should have said no,” Rothgeb agreed, when asked by the Rhode Island Department of Children Youth and Families to take more foster children than she or anyone could handle, in what prosecutor Nicholson said amounted to “narcissism and greed”.
“I loved my children,” Rothgeb said. “But I’m ashamed, I’m very sorry I know that I did things, and I didn’t do things that I should have.”
“It’s all my fault, your honor,” she told the judge. “I was the mom, and you’re right, I had … I could have said no,” when asked to take on more foster children at the urging of the state DCYF.
Judge Procaccini read from police reports describing what he called “disgusting” conditions in Rothgeb’s Oakland Beach home, and said the troubles at the DCYF were not before him in Rothgeb’s sentencing hearing. The case led to resignations at the top level and widespread changes at the agency.
The judge said that all of the surviving children are thriving in new foster placements.
