On Friday, Charles County State's Attorney Tony Covington announced that Waldorf resident Janae Elizabeth Bishop, 32, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison with all but 10 years suspended after pleading guilty to multiple counts of child abuse last summer.
In February 2022, officials say that Bishop’s fiancé reported to officers that he witnessed and recorded Bishop assault the children, ages 5 and 3 years at the time of the incident, in their Waldorf apartment.
The investigation found that early on Feb. 17, 2022, the fiancé was getting the elder child ready for school while Bishop was still sleeping in her bed.
According to prosecutors, "the fiancé attempted to wake Bishop to take the victim to school; however, she refused to take him (and) began to make harmful statements and threatened to kill both victims."
Bishop then got up from bed and took the children to the bathroom, where she filled up the tub, took her naked kids in and put their heads under the water multiple times.
She then took them out of the bathtub and brought them outside in the cold while they were wet and without clothing, locking them out of the apartment.
"When something like this happens in the community, there’s got to be a strong reaction. This really impacts the whole community, but mostly impacts these two boys,” Assistant State’s Attorney John Stackhouse told the judge.
He furthered, “Parents get angry. Parents discipline their kids, but this is a whole other level. There are lines that you should never cross, and she crossed those lines.”
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