CHESTERIFLED COUNTY, Va. — Chesterfield Judge David E. Johnson told former Henrico teacher Barbara Paul the abuse she inflicted on her stepsons came from an “evil mind,” not a “disturbed” one, before sentencing her to 132 years and 102 months behind bars.
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Henrico teacher, former police officer fiancé found guilty of child abuse
Johnson said Paul’s “technique” involving “physical torture, unrelenting questions and shrill profanities” was the same model used by interrogators in the former Soviet Union.
Paul was found guilty in late July on 42 charges related to the abuse of her two stepsons.
Paul, a former teacher in the Henrico County school system, was engaged to a Henrico County police officer who is the father of the two boys she abused. The children were ages 9 and 11 when the abuse occurred.
With the sentence, Johnson said he wanted to make sure the boys she abused would be free from any possibility that their former stepmother might pass in their midst.
Prosecutors said Paul strangled, punched and kicked the boys. They also said she forced them to do excessive exercise as punishment.
The jury viewed videos from inside the family's Chesterfield home that prosecutors said showed Paul forcing the boys to do wall sits, jumping for hours, and having their legs swept out from under them as they jumped causing them to fall to the floor.
The punishments were given for not being able to guess a word she was thinking, missing the bus, forgetting their planner and putting a pencil in a lunchbox.
The brothers, who are ages 10 and 12 now, both testified at Paul’s sentencing hearing.
The older child did not look at his former stepmother and told the judge he will never forget what Paul did to him, and he does not remember a time where he was not being abused by her.
His younger brother did occasionally look at Paul, as he told the judge it was stressful dealing with her constantly hurting him and his brother, and he still cannot figure out why she would do that to them.
Judge Johnson had the courtroom stand as as sign of respect to each boy as they walked out of the courtroom after testifying.
School counselors from each of the boy’s schools at the time the abuse was discovered in October of 2024 testified at the sentencing hearing.
Allison Anderson, a school counselor at Evergreen Elementary School, testified about four documented instances at the school where staff noticed physical injuries to the older boy.
The first incident occurred in October 2019 when the child was six years old. It was documented that he had a bruise on the ridge of his nose that was noticed by his teacher, and he told the counselor and nurse that his stepmother hit him repeatedly over time with a pencil because he was using the wrong piece of paper to do his homework.
Anderson said the incident was turned over to Child Protective Services, and Judge Johnson asked Anderson what happened with the report.
“There was no follow up?” he asked.
“Not that we know of,” she replied.
Subsequent incidents occurred in 2021 and 2022, involving the child having black eyes.
Each time, he told the school a dog got him or he fell in the bathtub.
Anderson said it was “not typical” to have several reports over the years for a child.
The boy’s paternal grandmother, Nyla Higgins, testified that everytime the boys would visit her house, she was told the boys were grounded and not to give them any treats.
She said if she asked questions of her son and Paul she would not get to see the boys, so her husband told her, “if you want to see the boys, shut your mouth.”
Judge Johnson asked Higgins if she wondered if something was wrong because the boys were always grounded, or if she considered asking someone other than the boys about why they were always grounded, but then quickly told her told her she could be done testifying and called the next witness.
The boy’s maternal grandmother, Angela Fountain, told the judge she prayed the court’s decisions would “bring justice” and spoke to CBS 6 outside the hearing.
"To know that my grandsons will never have to look at this woman, ever. They’d never have to worry about running across her anywhere in public or in private. They’re free of this now. It's no longer a weight that's holding over them. They won't have to deal with her and the joy, the elation is just beyond. It's everything that we had hoped for and prayed for,” Fountain said.
Paul’s attorney, Cody Villalon, claimed in court that his client has a number of mental health issues, including executive function disorder and ADHD, and alleged that the boy’s father, Bhalmiki Maharaj, was mentally and physically abusive to her.
He also claimed the 33-year-old grew up in a chaotic home with suicide threats, physical and mental abuse, substance abuse, and mental health problems.
Still, Villalon said she understands that is not an excuse for what she did to the boys, and Judge Johnson said the "court believes no evidence has been presented with regard to her mental health appart from her own evidence."
Through tears, Paul told the judge, “There is no sorry that can be given to apologize for what I’ve done, not just to the family but to the boys, especially. There is no apology they could ever get that would make things better or right. The ripple effect that it caused impacted so many other lives, their family, four generations, and it impacted my own. My parents are disappointed in my actions, my brothers were shocked, and my friends didn’t know what to think. I let down so many people from friends and family to my employer and the community at large. And I understand that there are consequences for my actions. I just want to do right by the boys in whatever way I can because there is no sorry that I can give that will even begin to make things right for them.”
During the trial, Villalon said Paul performed many of the acts in front of her fiancé, Maharaj, who was a police officer for Henrico County, suggesting that if she wasn’t permitted by law to do it, he would have stopped her.
Maharaj worked for Henrico County as a Police officer from December 2018 to March 2025.
Court records show that Maharaj admitted to detectives that he hit the older boy on the face and hand with a slipper because he was not doing his punishment military style exercises in a satisfactory manner.
The records show Maharaj said he struck the boy multiple times out of “anger and frustration.”
A source told CBS 6 a classmate of the older boy’s noticed a bruise on the boy’s face from the slipper incident and told a counselor about it, which led the counselor to contact other school officials, including a school resource officer who began to investigate.
Maharaj also admitted that he broke the femur of the 11-year-old in the summer of 2022 by striking him with a five pound dumbbell multiple times.
He plead guilty on July 25 to child abuse and neglect, assault and battery, malicious wounding, and child cruelty, and his sentencing will be on December 8.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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