Freeport couple charged with assaulting 3-year-old daughter

A Freeport couple was indicted Monday for allegedly starving and burning their 3-year-old daughter with scalding water, Nassau County prosecutors said.

The child’s mother, Hanchelove Decius, 27, and father, Evenson Francois, 28, pleaded not guilty to first-degree assault during a morning arraignment in Nassau County court in front of Supreme Court Justice Joy Watson.

They were remanded into custody after the hearing.

Joseph LoPiccolo, the defense attorney for the mother, said the charges are new and his firm will now do the work to build a defense.

“We have to learn the source of these claims as well as anything else that may have contributed to these allegations,” he said. He said that he will also look at any history with the Child Protective Services, “or other contributing factors.”

Prosecutors said that the couple starved the girl from October 2024 until they brought her into Nassau University Medical Center on June 8 with third-degree burns on her chest and upper body.

While at NUMC and later after the toddler was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital, staff noticed “scarring lesions, lacerations and bruises” consistent with abuse, authorities said. The child has scars on her forehead, nose and face, as well as an open cut on her eyebrow and chin, prosecutors said.

The child was removed from her parents’ care on June 10 and is currently in foster care, authorities said.

Some of the injuries were old and healing, but had not been treated, authorities said.

In addition to the physical abuse, the girl was severely malnourished and emaciated, prosecutors said.

“After suffering severe third-degree burns, medical professionals made several disturbing discoveries of alleged prolonged physical abuse when they examined the defendants’ three-year-old daughter,” Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement. “The scaring, bruising, and other injuries indicated that the child had been abused for months, and her emaciated appearance suggested she was also being denied basic nourishment to survive."

Decius, who was caring for the child when she was scalded, was arrested on Monday. The child’s father, Francois, was arrested on Friday.

Nassau County Legal Aid attorneys representing Francois did not immediately respond to a request for comment.