The mother of a missing autistic 11-year-old boy has again refused to say where her son is, speaking not a word when she appeared in Brooklyn Family Court Thursday.
Jacqueline Pritchett through her lawyer invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself when Judge Dawn Orsatti asked for information that could help police find her son, Jacob Pritchett, who authorities said has been missing since at least April.
Orsatti had harsh words for the 50-year-old mother and for her lawyer, Daniela Mancini, after Mancini spoke on Pritchett’s behalf.
“Your client has a voice,” Orsatti told Mancini. “It’s improper for you to say she can’t speak on her behalf.”
Pritchett, who police sources said has mental health issues, has denied her son even exists, claiming she has no children. She has been held on Rikers Island since early October on a civil court contempt warrant.
The judge allowed reporters to attend Thursday’s hearing after lawyers for the Daily News and New York Times objected to press being barred at the mother’s prior hearing on Nov. 24.
Orsatti said that her prior ruling, made after Mancini asked that media be told to leave, was based on a “compelling reason” — that Pritchett might reveal what happened to Jacob if reporters were not present.
Instead, Orsatti noted Thursday, Pritchett had seven times previously refused in court to reveal where Jacob is.
“If you don’t tell the court Jacob’s whereabouts you will remain in custody,” Orsatti told her Thursday.
That could change, however, if a Supreme Court judge rules that Pritchett’s constitutional rights have been violated because she has been jailed for invoking her 5th Amendment rights and that she should be released, as her other lawyer, Brian Holbrook, argues in a petition filed Tuesday.
Even if that happens, Orsattii told Pritchett, she must still continue to appear at Family Court hearings or risk being the subjeect of an arrest warrant.
The bizarre case first came to light in early October when it was learned that on Sept. 25 ACS workers had gone to the Pritchett home, a Brownsville apartment on Howard Ave., to check on Jacob because a tipster to a state hotline was worried about his well-being.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
On Sept. 25, ACS went to Pritchett’s home on Howard Ave. in Brownsville to check on Jacob. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Pritchett wouldn’t let the Administration for Children’s Services caseworkers into the home, police sources said.
ACS then notified police and on Oct. 1, Pritchett allowed both police and ACS caseworkers to search her apartment.
There was no sign of Jacob, court papers said, but there were two mattresses inside as well as toys in the bathroom and in closets. ACS provided a birth certifical that proves Jacob is in fact his mother’s son, sources said.
Neighbors told the Daily News they remembered seeing Jacob, but not in weeks — one resident said it was more like a year. Neighbors said the boy, who doesn’t speak because of his austism, was small for his age and often pushed around in a stroller despite being too old for one.
The NYPD on Oct. 4 asked the public for help, identifying Jacob as missing and releasing a sketch of the boy and a photo of his mother.
Several days later the NYPD, along with State Police, searched the High Acres Landfill in upstate Perinton, about 14 miles east of Rochester.
Police, fearing Jacob’s body had been thrown into a dumpster outside his building, had tracked the garbage to the landfill. But after more than two days of searching police found no sign of Jacob.
Since then, the NYPD has released a computer-generated image of Jacob but appear no closer to figuring out where he is and if he is alive.
Amanda Cathers, an ACS deputy borough chief, said in court Thursday that the NYPD had reviewed several months of surveillance footage at the Pritchett’s building but did not see Jacob.
The NYPD said the search went back three months, with no footage available before then.
Anyone with information about Jacob is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
A green police seal on the door of missing child Jacob Pritchett’s apartment on Howard Ave. in Brooklyn. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)