Tai-Ling Gigliotti

Spring Hill, Fla - On Monday, the 16-year-old adopted son of Tai-Ling Gigliotti (wife of internationally known classical musician Anthony Gigliotti) knocked on a neighbor’s door asking for help. He had cuts and bruises all over his body and explained that his step-mother had forced him to strip nude, wrapped his hands in packing tape and then proceeded to beat the shit out of him with a 3-foot block of wood and a metal-tipped water hose. She then locked him in the bathroom from which he had just escaped. When police arrived, the story just got worse.

The boy told officials that the abuse began with him being removed from his room and being forced to sleep in the hallway. 15-months ago, this was changed to being locked in the bathroom at night and when Tai-Ling went to work at the Gigliotti Music shop she owns and operates. Tai-Ling would also turn off the power in the bathroom, leaving him in darkness. He also revealed he had not slept in a bed in 3 years and that food was also withheld from him routinely as part of his punishment.

He had managed to escape from the bathroom on other occasions before this one, but instead of telling neighbors, he would go inside a Mercedes in the garage and listen to classical music. Tai-Ling later found out he was getting out and covered the window with plywood from the outside. The reason why he did not go to neighbors on these occasions was because Tai-Ling threatened that if he told, he would be deported. He also stated that the family’s Taiwanese culture required absolute submission to elders.

But on this particular beating, she really did a number on him. She broke his right forearm and he had cuts and bruises on nearly every part of his body. The sheriff said the lacerations on the boy’s buttocks were so bad that “there was no way this young man could even sit down.” Medical workers also found scars from previous beatings.

When investigators arrived to the home and began searching, they found the blood-stained pieces of wood and the water hose, as well as the locks on the bathroom door and the plywood over the bathroom window. As investigators worked inside the home, Tai-Ling was overheard telling someone on a cell phone that “he must have gotten out of the room,” the affidavit stated.

Tai-Ling Gigliotti turned herself into the Hernando County Jail on Tuesday.  She was charged with aggravated child abuse and false imprisonment and being released on a $15,000 Bond. Police are also looking at 45-year-old Angelo Anton, a real estate agent and owner of 1-Stop Clarinet & Sax Shop in Spring Hill. He lives in the home and I am guessing police don’t think he could have resided there without seeing some of what was happening.

Gigliotti adopted the teen from her sister, who lives in Taiwan. She brought him to the United States when he was 4, and moved to Spring Hill after her husband died in 2001. Neighbors do not report anything amiss with the family, telling reporters that Tai-Ling was always pleasant and they frequently saw the boy outside, usually shadowed by Tai-Ling. Neighbor Murray Guttman said the boy appeared very obedient, “almost to the point of being trained.” State Department of Children and Families spokeswoman Carrie Hoeppner said the teen is in temporary foster care.

Oh, check out the pad: