Florida Man Sentenced To Prison For Replacing Stepson's Medication With Laxatives

A Florida man was sentenced to prison three years after he was caught replacing his stepson's medication with laxatives.

Craig Allen Ripple, 57, was arrested two years ago on felony child neglect charges. He was caught by his then wife in August 2019 replacing his 14-year-old stepson's medication with laxatives. She divorced him shortly after catching him.

On Thursday a Flagler County judge sentenced Ripple to 14 months in prison. That will be followed by three years of probation.

The judge also ordered him to take parenting classes and to have no contact with the child. Hopefully that parenting class includes a chapter about not tampering with medication.

Image Credit/Flagler County Sheriff

This guy had a whole messing with the family operation

The tampering with the medication wasn't the only bizarre behavior Ripple was involved in. Shocking, I know. He liked to mess with the entire family in other ways.

The mother discovered this when she installed a security camera to find out what was happening to her son's medication. According to court documents, Ripple had been hiding clothing, homework, and jewelry just to watch them look for it.

Those items were later recovered in the trunk of his car. Ripple would also pour liquid onto the stepson and another child's bed to make it look like a pet had urinated on them.

Court documents stated, "The investigation revealed that had been engaging in malicious acts with no real purpose other than to cause emotional distress to" the child and his sibling.

14 months seems like a long time for giving a kid laxatives. But when you factor in all of the other bizarre behavior it's somehow not close to enough time.

I wouldn't say life in prison or anything like that, but I could get behind a 5 to 10 year sentence for all of this.