Alaska Mom Found Guilty of Radical Forms of Punishment
JACOBS: Welcome back to the show. And thank you for sticking around. I`m Chris Jacobs, from "Entertainment Tonight," filling in for Dr. Drew. The Alaska woman found guilty of abusing her 7-year-old son is tonight on the receiving end of a judge`s punishment. Take a look at this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Major developments in the case against the mom who forced her son to drink hot sauce just to be on the "Dr. Phil Show."</s>JESSICA BEAGLEY, "HOT SAUCE MOM": What happens when you lie to me?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I get hot sauce.</s>BEAGLEY: You get hot sauce. Open.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There she is, "Hot Sauce Mom." That mom from Alaska now convicted of child abuse.</s>DR. DREW PINSKY, HOST, "DR. DREW": People are asking the question, is that discipline or is that abuse? That`s abuse.</s>BEAGLEY: I want him to obey and listen and to understand the consequences of his choices.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The so-called "Hot Sauce Mom," she won`t be spending a day in jail.</s>JACOBS: A difficult piece of tape, and a terrible story, in my opinion. Now, calling her actions an extremely serious offense, the judge ordered "Hot Sauce Mom" -- and I hate to call her that, because I think it belittles the severity of the situation. He ordered her to serve three years probation, and she was sentenced to 180 days in jail and fined $2,500. But the judge suspended both of those sentences, saying she needed time and money to help rebuild and heal her family. Joining me to discuss this is Robin Sax. She`s a former Los Angeles County prosecutor. Dr. Harvey Karp is a pediatrician and author of "The Happiest Baby on the Block." And still with us from San Diego via satellite is Lisa Boesky. She is a clinical psychologist. Quickly, I want to ask each of you, starting with you, Robin, should this woman serve jail time?</s>ROBIN SAX, FMR. PROSECUTOR: Even as a former prosecutor -- and I don`t think there is a prosecutor who would really think that this woman needs more than a serious cooling down here. And that is what the message was that the judge gave, was that she needs other help and jail was not going to be the answer.</s>JACOBS: Doctor?</s>DR. HARVEY KARP, PEDIATRICIAN: Yes, I totally agree, she should not go to jail. That would really be penalizing her family, punishing them. She needs help. She needs counseling. And I hope she has to give community service as well so she can go out and show herself as being an example for how not to be a parent, or, actually how to go and reach out for help.</s>JACOBS: Good point there. Lisa Boesky, same question -- should "Hot Sauce Mom" be serving jail time?</s>BOESKY: She should not be serving jail time. She should be held accountable. Probation is appropriate if and only if she`s required to go to mandated parenting classes with an emphasis on effective discipline. She needs to be monitored closely to ensure this doesn`t happen again to that boy or the other children in her house. But she also needs to go to mandated family counseling. They need to heal the relationship between this boy and his mother, as well as the siblings. It was a sibling who held that camera, so there`s family counseling that needs to happen as well.</s>JACOBS: That`s a good point to bring up, Lisa. It was the "Hot Sauce Mom`s" 10-year-old daughter who was actually filming that disturbing video that we saw. And I happen to agree. I don`t think jail time is appropriate here, but there has to be some deterrent. As you said, Doctor, perhaps community service. And maybe more disturbing is her motivation for making this tape, which is what we`re going to discuss in the next block. And when does discipline cross the line? Well, we`ll find out what`s OK and what may be a crime. And later, the father of the suspect being held in Aruba speaks out. Hear what he has to say coming up.