Mother Of 555-Pound Boy Stays In Jail

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- An Upstate mother accused of putting her 555-pound son in danger was back in court for a bond hearing Friday afternoon.

A judge denied a request to reduce Jerri Gray's $50,000 bond.

Gray's attorney, Grant Varner, spoke on his client's behalf. "If anything, she's guilty of loving her child too much. She did not want to lose her child and I can't honestly blame her," Varner said.

Gray has been charged with unlawful neglect toward a child and custodial interference, after investigators said she fled to Baltimore, Md., with her 555-pound son Alexander Draper to avoid a family court hearing on May 19th.

The 14-year-old was supposed to be taken into protective custody after officials determined that the teenager was considered to be at a critical stage of health risk.

"Supposedly her son has been gaining a half a pound a day. How and why - we can't really explain that. My client has asserted to me that it's not because of the food she feeds him. He eats a fairly balanced diet," Varner said.

But prosecutor Samantha Adair told the judge Gray had not complied with DSS guidelines to help her son.

"The victim even had a scholarship to attend a hospital in New Hampshire for which she refused to send her son," Adair said. "So DSS has a completely different story that she's been very non-compliant with their program."

The judge felt Gray was a flight risk again and refused to lower the bond.

Alexander is in foster care through DSS, but Gray's attorney said he'll try to have him placed with family.

Authorities Arrest Mom For Medical Neglect of 555-Pound Teen

(CNN) -- South Carolina authorities have located a 555-pound teenager and his mother, who faces a charge of violating a custody order, police said Thursday.

Alexander Deundray Draper, 14, of Travelers Rest, South Carolina, and his mother, Jerri Althea Gray, were located at about 4:30 p.m. near a laundromat in Baltimore, Maryland, by the Baltimore County Sheriff's Office, said Matt Armstrong, a spokesman for the Greenville County Sheriff's Office in Greenville, South Carolina.

"Draper was checked out by EMS [Emergency Medical Services] personnel and turned over to the Maryland Department of Social Services," Armstrong said.

The South Carolina Department of Social Services will work with its Maryland counterpart to have the boy returned to South Carolina, he told CNN affiliate WYFF.

The mother is being held in a detention center and will be extradited to South Carolina on an outstanding warrant, he said.
Watch report on finding teen and his mother »

"The understanding was that the individual was of the weight where it was decided by medical authorities that he needed treatment that was not being provided for by his mother," Armstrong said.

Earlier in the day officials said the boy "is possibly at a stage of critical health risk."

Gray was supposed to appear in family court Tuesday with her son and failed to do so, the sheriff's office said. During the family court hearing, the boy was ordered into state custody because of medical neglect, as well as his mother's failure to appear. The Department of Social Services then contacted the sheriff's office, authorities said.

The warrant said Gray was served with papers Monday and told to report to court for a hearing in which the department would seek state custody of Draper. "The defendant has avoided the custody proceeding and has concealed the child," the warrant says.

Travelers Rest is about 10 miles north of Greenville, South Carolina