Woman in viral abuse case ordered to stay away from elderly mother, gets $150K bond
BATON ROUGE - A woman accused of beating her 93-year-old mother in a video that made waves online last week has been ordered by a judge to stay away from the victim.
Lottie Morgan pleaded not guilty Monday to aggravated second-degree battery. A judge ordered that morning that Morgan be held on a $150,000 bond and stipulated multiple conditions for her release.
Those conditions require a mental health evaluation, an anger management course, forfeiture of firearms and that Morgan has no contact with her elderly mother until her next hearing.
The uproar started last week when Morgan's son shared a video online which appeared to show her lashing her mother with a belt. Lenny Morgan said he posted the video on Twitter after his mother immediately got out of jail the first time he reported the abuse on Jan. 12.
"As soon as this monster got out of prison... They sent her right back to my grandmother's house," Lenny told WBRZ last week. "I feel like our local law enforcement has failed us... and also I feel like our local court system has failed my grandmother as a citizen."
The video was shared tens of thousands of times, and District Attorney Hillar Moore upgraded Morgan's charges amid the outrage. With the new aggravated battery charge, Morgan was ordered back in court Friday where she was taken into custody and jailed without bond over the weekend.
Morgan's attorney, Dele Adebamiji, defended his client Friday, saying she was "not the kind of devil everybody is making her out to be" and that she suffered from PTSD.
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Morgan's next court appearance is scheduled for April 21.