Missouri Foster Mom ‘Trades’ Teen for Monkey

A Missouri foster mother accused of trading a teenage girl for a monkey has avoided prison, despite a judge blasting her behavior as “reprehensible” and saying the foster care system failed the children placed in her care.

Brenda Deutsch, 70, was sentenced to seven years in prison for child endangerment, but a Lincoln County judge suspended the sentence and instead placed her on three years of probation.

That means Deutsch will remain free as long as she follows the conditions of her probation.

Judge Thomas Frawley also revoked Deutsch’s foster care license from the bench and criticized Missouri officials for allowing her to keep fostering children.

The judge then addressed the alleged victims in the courtroom and apologized to them, saying the system had failed them.

Deutsch’s biological daughter, Brina Johnson, who testified about alleged abuse, said she was deeply disappointed by the outcome.

“I’m kinda lost for words because this is not the end we wished for,” Johnson told FOX2 St. Louis.

Johnson said a teenage girl who was in the courtroom was the foster child at the center of the shocking allegation that Deutsch traded her for a monkey.

“I have the whole conversation on my phone, which I turned over to the detectives,” Johnson said.

According to Johnson, Deutsch had a fascination with monkeys and owned several of them.

“That’s what she did; she had at least seven monkeys,” Johnson said. “That’s just her thing. But she wasn’t any nicer to those monkeys than she was to a child.”

Deutsch was arrested in April after authorities began investigating allegations involving the foster child, who is now 17.

Investigators said Deutsch sent the girl to Texas to stay at a home she later admitted in court she knew virtually nothing about.

According to court documents, the investigation began after Deutsch requested permission to take the teenager to Texas to visit a friend.

Five days later, an anonymous caller contacted the Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division and accused Deutsch of physically and mentally abusing the girl.

Investigators later learned of the extraordinary allegation that the teenager had effectively been traded for an exotic animal and left behind in Texas.

The girl told authorities that Deutsch allegedly informed her friend in Texas that she could keep the child, but Deutsch “will be keeping the check,” according to court documents.

A witness reportedly told police the teenager had been left inside an unsanitary Texas home crowded with exotic animals.

The girl was eventually removed from the residence and taken into the custody of child protective services in Texas.

Investigators said the teenager also described years of disturbing alleged treatment while living with Deutsch.

She claimed Deutsch struck her with objects including shoes and a paddle.

During one alleged beating, the teenager said she was forced to lie on the floor and tried to “soften the strikes to her body,” court records stated.

Deutsch also allegedly took away the girl’s clothes and once threatened to kill her “if she did not shut up,” according to the documents.

Deutsch did not comment after leaving the courthouse. She reportedly covered her face with a piece of paper while walking to her vehicle before driving away.

Perhaps most troubling, Deutsch has reportedly fostered more than 200 children over the years.

Despite being upset that Deutsch avoided prison, Johnson said hearing the judge openly acknowledge the system’s failures gave her some sense of validation.

“It was good to know somebody knows from the other side of the street, that this shouldn’t have happened,” Johnson said. “None of it should. And the system did fail us, failed them all.”