As Mettie Cartwright struggles to get around the house, she is still upset that her son, a cross-dresser, assaulted her and ripped her dentures from her mouth.
She asked, "Who is going to take anybody's teeth and then hold on to them?"
Cartwright says it happened two weeks ago when she accidently tossed out a lost filling her son, 24-year-old Christopher Harding, left in a glass in the bathroom. In a rage, he stormed out to the driveway where she was talking with a friend and confronted her.
"He says, 'Well, I'm going to just take your teeth and see how you feel,'" Cartwright recalled. "So he busted me in the mouth."
Frail and disabled, it didn't take much for her son to pry out her dentures as revenge for his lost filling.
Cartwright said, "He knocked me on the concrete and busted my mouth with his fist. Then he took his whole fist and jammed it in my mouth and literally pried my skin apart and took my dentures out."
Her dentures still haven't been returned. However, Harding, charged with causing seriously bodily injury, plead guilty in exchange for no jail time. Though he lived with his mother for three years, he is not welcomed back for now.
"I'm sorry," Cartwright said. "I forgive him, but forget -- I don't know if I ever will."
Harding received three years probation, 100 hours community service and will have to complete a batterer's intervention program. If he does not, he will receive jail time. He must also return his mother's dentures or purchase a new set.
