Police See Lesson as Abuse

Mary Francis Bergamasco dressed her son like a pig and called it education. Police called it child abuse.

The 7-year-old boy sat on a bench in front of his home with his hands tied behind his back, blue finger paint on his face, a cardboard pig nose taped to his head and a sign on his chest reading, “I’m a dumb pig.”

“Ugly is what you will become every time you lie and steal. Look at me squeal. My hands are tied because I cannot be trusted. This is a lesson to be learned. Look. Laugh. Thief. Stealing. Bad boy,” the sign read.

Bergamasco, 29, is scheduled to be arraigned today on a misdemeanor charge of child abuse, police said. She is free on her own recognizance.

When the mother was arrested in the June 28 incident, her son and 1-year-old daughter were taken into protective custody and placed in separate foster homes in Castro Valley and Livermore.

The punishment was intended to teach the boy a lesson after two weeks of thievery during which he stole $25 worth of baseball cards, $6 cash, an earring, a belt buckle and another child’s toy, police quoted Bergamasco as saying.

After each theft, the boy lied about what he had done, she said.

Bergamasco’s own mother used the discipline technique and also placed Bergamasco’s hands on hot stove burners for punishment, she told police in a six-page written statement.

According to court records, Union City police investigated Bergamasco on a report of child abandonment in March. Two warrants were issued for her arrest after she failed to make court appearances.

In the latest incident, police arrived after 5 p.m. to find the boy crying on the porch. A 28-inch piece of nylon rope was tied around his wrists in a knot.

According to police, Bergamasco said she wanted her son to understand “ . . . that lying and stealing make you ugly like Pinocchio.”