Harvard mom gets 3 years in prison for child’s ‘severe malnutrition’

A Harvard mother was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for not adequately feeding her son for two years and letting him suffer “severe malnutrition.”

In September Margaret Wisner, 51, was found guilty by the late Judge Michael Coppedge of acting “recklessly” in providing her son inadequate nourishment and medical care for two years. He cleared her on charges of “knowingly” doing so.

Before learning her sentence Monday, Wisner said tearfully that she failed her son and wishes she “could go back and make different choices.” The emotional and physical harm he suffered “breaks my heart,” she said.

Wisner, along with her husband William Wisner, whom she’s divorcing, was charged in 2020 with aggravated battery, aggravated domestic battery and reckless conduct, all felonies, and endangering the life or health of a child, a misdemeanor, according to the indictment filed in McHenry County court. In a sentencing hearing held last month, Assistant State’s Attorney Sharyl Eisenstein asked that Margaret Wisner receive the maximum sentence of six years in prison.

Eisenstein said that in 2018, Wisner was told by a doctor that her son’s condition was “deteriorating” and to seek further medical care and testing, which she did not do. The boy weighed just 38 pounds at the time and she “chose to ignore medical providers’ advice,” Eisenstein said.

In 2020, when he was removed from the home, at nearly 7 years old he weighed just 28 pounds, closer to the size of an average 3 or 4 year old, she said.

He had a “long list of medical conditions,” which were resolved just by eating nutritious food, Eisenstein said.

The child was taken into custody by Illinois Department of Children and Family Services while he was in the hospital after his mother declined medical treatment, including a feeding tube, according to trial testimony. Doctors testified he suffered from several medical conditions including anemia, scurvy and a severe vitamin deficiency.

Today, the child still is in foster care and has recovered from most of his conditions, rides a bike and goes to school, prosecutors said. “He was days away from dying,” Eisentstein said. “If they just fed him ... He suffered through her actions or inactions.” She added that “this was not isolated. It took years to get him into that condition.”

Additionally, Wisner told people on social media her son was autistic, which later proved not to be true, Eisenstein said, asserting that Wisner “takes no responsibility for her actions. She blames everyone else. [The child] said he felt like his bones were cracking and a doctor said they were.”

In asking for probation, Wisner’s attorney William Bligh said the child was diagnosed last year with Crohn’s disease, which the prosecutor is “glossing over.” In 2020, the child was seen by doctors at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago and they could not determine what was wrong with him, he said. Bligh said the child was in a “slow decline” at the same time Wisner was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2019, and then the pandemic hit.

“These are all factors,” Bligh said. “There was stuff happening in the world while she is trying to navigate her family and her health.”

Wisner has lead a law-abiding life and is currently going through a divorce and suffering with kidney damage due to the cancer, Bligh said, adding the maximum sentence is not rehabilitation but punishment and would only place hardship on Wisner.

He also said housing Wisner for six years in prison would cost taxpayers $400,000 and that the state is currently moving to terminate her parental rights to the child. “This is not a situation likely to occur again,” Bligh said.

In handing down the prison term, Judge Mark Gerhardt said he reviewed Coppedge’s decision, which noted that Wisner is eligible for extended sentencing of six years in prison due to the child’s age. Gerhardt took into account, among other things, social media posts she made about her son. He said he gave Bligh’s statement that the boy was slowly declining “no weight” and that Bligh failed in providing proof that incarceration would be bad for Wisner’s health.

Gerhardt also did not believe that Wisner would follow the rules of probation because she had violated terms of her pretrial release. He also said she has taken no accountability for her actions. “She buried her head in the sand,” Gerhardt said.

Wisner also was ordered to pay more than $2,500 in fines and fees. The judge stayed Wisner’s sentence for two weeks. She must report to the court at 9 a.m. March 25. She is required to serve half of her prison term and will get credit for six days spent in the county jail.

Charges against the boy’s father still are pending. He is due in court March 15.