A 16-year-old boy was found hiding from his grandmother at a business on Highpoint Drive in Romeoville on Saturday, September 26, with facial and hand injuries, including what appeared to be a broken finger. Police say the discovery set off a fast-moving investigation that ended with his 56-year-old grandmother, Cassandra Mosley-Dagons, behind bars without the possibility of pretrial release.
Officers responded after a missing/runaway juvenile was found at the business, according to Patch. Detectives then went to Mosley-Dagons' home on Harmony Lane, where she claimed to be alone — but officers searched the house and found her 14-year-old granddaughter inside, also showing visible signs of abuse, the outlet reports. Both teenagers were taken to a hospital for treatment, according to NBC Chicago, and the boy appeared thin and looked three to four years younger than his actual age.
Years of Alleged Isolation and Punishment
According to NBC Chicago, the 16-year-old told investigators his grandmother had been abusing him and his sister for years, and that he last remembered leaving home for anything fun or social back in 2020 — after that, his only contact with the outside world came through the internet. Per prosecutors, the two teens were homeschooled and were made to do cleaning and other chores nonstop, and Mosley-Dagons routinely abused them when she believed the chores or tasks were done incorrectly, the station reports.
Court filings from the Will County State's Attorney's Office detailed that the boy reported Mosley-Dagons whipped him with an extension cord on September 25 and struck his hands with a bludgeon, leaving numerous scars and welts, according to Shaw Local. NBC Chicago reports that Mosley-Dagons had also forced the boy to strip to his underwear before whipping him with the cord on his backside, and that she beat him about the face roughly 12 days before he was found. The boy reportedly fled the home on a Monday and briefly returned through a window in the middle of the night to sleep before fleeing again, per the station's reporting.
Detained Without Bail Under the SAFE-T Act
Mosley-Dagons faces multiple felony counts of aggravated domestic battery, and prosecutors sought to keep her behind bars pending trial, according to NBC Chicago. On September 28, Will County Judge James B. Harvey granted the state's petition under Illinois' SAFE-T Act to detain her without pretrial release, ruling she posed a real and present threat to public safety, the same Shaw Local report notes. Her next court appearance is scheduled for October 13.
Under Illinois law, aggravated domestic battery is a Class 2 felony carrying three to seven years in prison, extendable to 14 years under aggravating circumstances, with a mandatory minimum of 60 consecutive days in jail upon conviction, according to the Illinois General Assembly. Aggravated battery charged as a Class 1 felony carries a standard statutory penalty of four to 15 years, with an extended range of up to 30 years.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services took both teenagers into protective custody following their hospital evaluation and has initiated ongoing child welfare support services, per Patch's reporting.
A Broader Debate Over Homeschool Oversight
Prosecutors argue Mosley-Dagons isolated her grandchildren from the outside world since 2020 through homeschooling, which in Illinois requires no registration with or notification to local public school districts under the Illinois School Code, as Capitol News Illinois has reported. Illinois is one of roughly 12 states with no such requirement. Earlier this year, lawmakers introduced House Bill 2827, known as the Homeschool Act, to mandate school district notification and oversight aimed at detecting potential abuse and educational neglect, but the bill stalled after opposition from more than 40,000 citizens, according to Chalkbeat Chicago.
Child advocacy groups including the Coalition for Responsible Home Education have warned that a complete lack of homeschool regulation cuts children off from mandated reporters like public school teachers and counselors, increasing the risk that severe domestic abuse goes undetected for years, Capitol News Illinois notes. Open questions remain, including the history of any prior DCFS contact with the household and the legal guardianship status of the grandmother, as Romeoville police continue their investigation ahead of the October court date.
