A decade ago, a man now running for Portsmouth council was accused of child neglect. Here’s what happened.

Portsmouth — De’Andre Barnes was helping bathe a child with cerebral palsy more than 13 years ago when he scalded the boy with hot bath water, according to court records obtained by The Virginian-Pilot.

His employer, Holiday House of Portsmouth, agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit over the child’s injuries. And Barnes, then 21, was charged with felony child neglect and a related misdemeanor and went to trial.

Instead of finding him guilty, a judge gave him a chance to keep a conviction off his record by staying out of trouble. Barnes did, and the judge dismissed the charges more than a year later.

Rumors about that day have surfaced in Portsmouth in recent months as voters decide how to fill four vacancies on the seven-member City Council. Barnes, now 34, is a Portsmouth School Board member who is running for a council seat, and The Virginian-Pilot is writing about the incident to shed light on what happened as voters decide who to elect.

Reached by phone and given a copy of the court paperwork via email last week, Barnes said he doesn’t remember the case. He said he never went to court, and he wasn’t convicted in the case, though court documents say he was in Circuit Court in person multiple times.

“It was a lot of people there,” Barnes said. “I honestly can’t tell you much about it. This was, what, 14 years ago?”

The boy, then 11, had been staying for two years at Holiday House — a local nonprofit organization that aims to help young people with learning disabilities — when the injury occurred on July 13, 2007.

Barnes was working as a caregiver there, and he placed the child into a scalding hot bath, “causing (the boy) to sustain severe and painful burns to various parts of his body,” according to a lawsuit filed by his mother. She said Barnes should have tested the temperature of the water before placing “this helpless child into the water,” which “constituted conduct so reckless as to evince a conscious disregard for the rights and safety” of the boy. The lawsuit also accused Barnes' employers of neglecting the child by allowing Barnes to bathe him inadequately.

Barnes appeared before Circuit Judge Johnny Morrison in June 2008 on charges of child abuse or neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to records from the court and the Virginia Department of Corrections. When Barnes came back to court that October, the judge continued the case for a year.

Barnes “maintained an exemplary record,” parole officers told Morrison in an October 2009 report. He graduated from Virginia State University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and, at the time, he was working for the office of U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott. He later graduated with a master’s degree in urban affairs from Norfolk State University, according to his biography on the Portsmouth Public Schools website.

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While Holiday House denied its employees caused the child’s injuries, it agreed in 2009 to pay $100,000 to cover costs associated with his treatment. Some of the money went to the child’s mother, some was used to pay for his medical bills, and some was used to pay the family’s attorneys. A trust fund was also set up in the child’s name.

Barnes is one of 10 candidates running for three empty council seats — the mayoral race is handled separately in Portsmouth. Their election will be pivotal in this deeply racially divided majority-Black city that has had a majority-white City Council for the past four years. By next year, a drastically different elected body will run the city.

Next year’s council will face many tall tasks: filling the jobs of Portsmouth’s recently ousted city manager and city attorney, tackling upheaval within its police department and erasing the city’s deeply entrenched racism. It will do so against the backdrop of a raging pandemic that is wreaking physical, emotional and financial ruin on communities of color. Portsmouth is 55% Black, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.

So far, Barnes has ranked fifth in fundraising, after political newcomer Mark Hugel, Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke, Dante' M. Walston, and former council member Mark Whitaker, in that order. Barnes reported raising about $5,200 as of Sept. 30. Hugel has raised about $35,200.

Lucas-Burke reported collecting about $31,600. She won the most votes among council candidates when she first ran in 2016 and has long had name recognition: She is the daughter of veteran Democratic state Sen. Louise Lucas, one of Virginia’s most powerful Black politicians.

You can read more about the campaign — and see Barnes' and the other candidates' positions in their own words — at PilotOnline.com/voterguide2020.

Ana Ley, 757-446-2478, ana.ley@pilotonline.com