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Schenectady County resident Latrisha Greene, age 27, of Rotterdam, was found guilty on multiple charges of perjury and endangering the welfare of a child in Schenectady County Court on Friday, June 23.
It came months after her husband, 29-year-old Dequan Greene, was sentenced to the maximum of 25 years to life in prison for second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of the couple’s foster son, Charlie Garay, in December 2020.
Investigators determined that Charlie and his 5-year-old brother were abused for months after being placed in the Greenes’ care by Albany Child Protective Services.
The boys were often subjected to “cruel” punishments, including having water dumped on their faces if they fell asleep, being forced to take cold showers for wetting the bed, and beatings that left them covered in bruises.
The abuse culminated in emergency crews being called to the couple’s home on Dec. 20, 2020 with reports that Charlie was in respiratory distress.
When paramedics arrived, the boy was not breathing, police said. He later died at Ellis Hospital.
Prosecutors said Greene had stomped on the boy’s chest, causing extensive internal injuries to his liver and intestines. Greene later claimed that the boy lost consciousness after falling out of a toddler chair.
During Latrisha Greene’s trial, prosecutors said after the couple’s biological children were removed from her custody, Mrs. Greene lied in various family court proceedings, falsely testifying that her husband had never caused bruising to either child.
Mrs. Greene also falsely claimed that she never sent her husband text messages saying “no more bruises, we need them to heal,” or asked him about him striking her 1-year-old daughter so hard he left a handprint on her face.
Not only did she know about the abuse, but Greene “engaged in a course of conduct likely to be injurious to the welfare of Charlie and his 5-year-old brother,” prosecutors said in a prior statement.
The couple was able to hide their abuse by lying to service providers, telling them the family was in quarantine for COVID-19 and falsely claiming that the children had fevers.
“These representations prevented social workers from seeing the boys in person for extended periods of time while they were placed in the Greene’s home,” prosecutors said.
During her trial, Greene acknowledged sending the text messages to her husband and claimed she had initially forgotten about them. However, she denied abusing the children or knowing that her husband caused bruising.
In court Friday, jurors found Greene guilty of:
- Four counts of first-degree perjury (felony)
- Two counts of endangering the welfare of a child (misdemeanor)
Greene was acquitted of a fifth count of perjury that alleged she knew that her husband left bruising on her own 1-year-old.
She faces between two and seven years in prison for each perjury conviction, and up to 364 days in county jail for each conviction for endangering the welfare of a child.
Sentencing is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 25.
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