A Gwinnett couple who remain jailed in a bizarre child abuse case have decided to fight for custody of their 10 children, but another judge has again nixed their hopes.
Ricardo Wimbush, a former Georgia Tech football star, and Therian Wimbush reversed themselves from their decision last month not to legally challenge the state Division of Family and Children Services, which continues to house their kids in temporary custody instead of Wimbush relatives.
But on Thursday, Juvenile Court Judge Robert Rodatus ruled the Wimbushes made a knowing waiver of their rights when they agreed last month to give temporary custody to the state, Channel 2 Action News reported. The judge ruled they can’t go back on that deal.
In the deal, the Wimbushes agreed not to fight the dependency ruling while they are in custody, in exchange for the right to petition the court for custody if they get out of jail.
“We came to a consent order with the hopes the children could go home with a relative, but that didn’t work out….” Therien Wimbush’s attorney Alex Manning told Channel 2.
On Feb. 5, Rodatus granted the Buford couple the right to receive letters from their 10 children eight months after they were placed in foster care.
The Wimbushes have been in jail since June, after police and social workers said they discovered their eldest child — now 14— had been imprisoned in a small basement room for more than a year.
“At the end of the day, this is not just a challenge for our family, it’s not just about our family, it’s about every family out there,” Therian Wimbush told Channel 2.
The couple home-schooled their children and raised a close-knit family and have said they are concerned that their children are not being raised in line with their strict religious beliefs.
The case stunned many people who knew them today or while they were at Georgia Tech, where Recardo was a captain and star of the football team. Recardo Wimbush, 33, was a supervisor with a railroad company, is a graduate of Georgia Tech. Therian Wimbush, 37, has dual degrees from Spelman College and Georgia Tech in engineering and tutored students privately.
Their seemingly accomplished life made at least one magistrate view them skeptically in the abuse case when denying bond in July.
“The victim had been confined to the room for most of the past two years and a lock had been added to the victim’s room in January 2013,” Gwinnett Police Cpl. Jake Smith said previously. “The victim had no access to books, toys, entertainment devices, or his siblings.”
Juvenile Court Judge Rodatus postponed the custody hearing until March 19 but agreed that social workers should turn over the letters from the children to the parents, some of which had been written months ago.
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