Charlene Wise takes the stand
MS
her daughter Charnae, took the stand yesterday as the defense began to
present its case. Her claim is that she was too addled by drugs to know
what she was doing back in the summer of 1997, when Charnae was sent to
the dark basement to die--for being "bad." Wise is also charged with
beating her son, Dante, who was 7 at the time.
She says she was at a party on Aug. 23, the day Charnae died. She
testified that she put Charnae and for a shorter period of time Dante in
the basement for eating lead paint chips. Wise said that city workers
had discovered lead in the paint in their rowhouse, and that she "tied
up" the two children to prevent them from eating the paint. She said
that she usually put Charnae in the basement "when I was getting high,
to prevent me from hollering at her, so she wouldn't bother me." Wise
has seven other children.
Wise testified that she supported her $50-$100/day drug habit with
prostitution and by selling household items. Her children had been
taken away from her shortly after Charnae's birth because she was
"running a crack house." She lost custody for two years.
Wise testified that she had used drugs for eleven years, staying high
three or four days at a time on crack cocaine, methamphetamine, vodka,
rum and 40-ounce beers. She said that she had lied to DHS workers about
her drug use because she didn't want to lose her children again.
She said that alsthough she kept Charnae in the basement, she told her
to stay on the steps and not on the dirt floor. "I used to go down
there every day for five or 10 minutes. I'd ask her how she was doing.
She said, 'I'm OK' or 'Mommy, can I go to the bathroom?' and I'd let her
go to the bathroom. Sometimes she'd ask for something to eat, and I'd
provide food--hamburgers, hot dogs, rice, gravy, spaghetti and string
beans."
Wise claimed that she was high when she was arrested, at which time she
told a detective that she'd put Charnae in the basement in June 1997 and
knew that the child was failing during July. She said the truth was
that she hadn't noticed that her daughter was "ill" until the day she
died.
"What did you do when you discovered she wasn't OK?"
"I got scared. I got nervous. I didn't do anything."
"Why didn't you call rescue or the police?"
"I don't know the answer to that. When I came [home] from the party she
was dead already. I didn't know what to do."
What Wise did was to pack up her surviving children and go to Norristown
and hide until her older daughter, Denisha, learned from her mother what
had happened to Charnae. Denisha called the police, who found Charnae's
skeletal remains in the basement of Wise's house.
Martha