‘Adult Baby’ Cleared of Fraud, Still Getting Social Security Checks
Stanley Thornton, Jr. eats his dinner in his personalized highchair while in his baby bib and pajamas at his home in Redding, Calif. (© Jeremy Adair/Beyond Productions)
The California man who lives his life as an “adult baby,” complete with adult diapers, bottles, a crib and a mother-figure caregiver, says he has been cleared from suspicion of Social Security fraud and will continue to receive his disability checks.
Stanley Thornton, Jr. has a condition called paraphilic infantilism that involves role-playing as an infant. Though paraphilic infantilism is a sexual fetish for some, Thornton explains on his website that he pretends to be a baby because it makes him feel “safe” and helps him cope with the post traumatic stress he suffers from physical and sexual abuse he suffered as a child.
After Thornton’s lifestyle was showcased on National Geographic’s television show “Taboo,” Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., accused him of defrauding Social Security because the episode shows him exhibiting work skills such as building a high chair and operating his website.
John Hart, a spokesman for Coburn, told the Washington Times that the senator, also a doctor, questioned how “a grown man who is able to design and build adult-sized baby furniture is eligible for disability benefits.”
Faced with the possibility of losing his source of income, Thornton threatened suicide when questioned on the matter by the Times.
In August, however, Thornton reported on his website that his disability had been cleared and the Social Security administration confirmed that his disabilities are “continuing.” He will continue to receive the $860 monthly checks from the agency that he lives on.
In the same post on his website, Thornton defends his reasons for being on disability.
“I am not getting disability because I am a Adult Baby. No one can get on disability because they are a Adult Baby. I am on disability for legit, tested and well documented illnesses [such as] PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), depression, bipolar 2, spinal injury, heart problems…my role playing is a way for me to relax, not a disability that is being claimed for a disability.”
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By Thom Weidlich
(Updates with possible sentence in the 11th paragraph.)
Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. citizen from Afghanistan, convicted of destroying evidence of a failed plot to bomb New York City's subways, pleaded guilty to lying on an immigration form.
Mohammed Wali Zazi, 56, admitted today before U.S. District Judge John Gleeson in Brooklyn, New York, that he committed visa fraud between December 2006 and January 2007 when he said his nephew was his son.
"Amanullah was not my biological son and I told my attorney to mark it as my real son," the elder Zazi told the judge through an interpreter, referring to his nephew.
On July 22, a jury convicted Zazi, a former New York City taxi driver who lives in the Denver area, of obstructing justice in the case of his son, Najibullah Zazi, who admitted to participating in the subway plot.
Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty in February 2010 to supporting al-Qaeda and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in a 2009 plot to detonate bombs on New York subways around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Co-Conspirator
A co-conspirator, Zarien Ahmedzay, pleaded guilty to his role in the foiled subway plot in April 2010. Ahmedzay and Najibullah Zazi face life in prison.
A third man, Adis Medunjanin, pleaded not guilty in August 2010 to participating in the subway plot.
Deborah Colson and Justine Harris, lawyers for Mohammed Wali Zazi, declined to comment on the plea after today's hearing.
Brooklyn prosecutors previously agreed to drop the visa- fraud charge so it could be moved to federal court in Manhattan. After his jury conviction, Mohammed Wali Zazi agreed to move it back to Brooklyn.
In the elder Zazi's trial, prosecutors said he directed family members to destroy bomb-making materials, including liquid chemicals, that were part of the probe into his son, and that he conspired with family members to lie to agents looking into the subway plot in 2009.
The new conviction brings a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, though the nonbinding guideline range is up to six months. He faces a maximum of 40 years on the other charges. He's scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 2.
The visa case is U.S. v. Zazi, 11-cr-718, and the obstruction case is U.S. v. Zazi, 10-cr-60, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
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