Wisconsin CPS FAIL UPDATED

By on 2-21-2012 in Chad Chritton, CPS Incompetence, Joshua Drabek, Melinda Drabek-Chritton, Wisconsin

Wisconsin CPS FAIL UPDATED

The family was investigated in 2007 about possible sexual abuse of their daughter. They were uncooperative with police. Apparently nothing came of that.

Two neighbors called CPS to report abuse, but to no avail.

The child was homeschooled, so forget about mandated school reporters.

On February 6, 2012, the 15-year-old girl, who looked like an 8-year-old, finally was rescued from her tortured life. Two other children were also removed from the home. There is no word on their conditions.

“Neighbors of a severely malnourished Wisconsin teenager found wandering outside, her bare feet purple and her face bleeding, say they rarely saw the girl leave home, and that when she did emerge she would scavenge through the trash and eat discarded scraps.

At least two neighbors called social services to report potential abuse at the house, but it wasn’t until the 15-year-old was spotted walking outside in the cold last week wearing just thin pajamas that details of what she allegedly endured were revealed. Authorities say she was forced to stay in an unfinished basement for years and eat her own feces. Her father and stepmother have been arrested on suspicion of child abuse and neglect, and a hearing is set for Thursday.

Mark Stuntebeck, who lives next door to the family in Madison, said he called child protective services within the last two years after he saw the girl taking out the garbage and scavenging through it to find food. He doesn’t know if anyone ever followed up with the girl’s family.

“She seemed to be hiding and munching on crumbs or remnants of something,” said Stuntebeck, 44.
Melissa Clark, 38, who lives across the street, said the girl rarely came outside but she could hear her family berating her inside the house. Clark’s mother, who was visiting from Florida last year, noticed the girl and called child protective services. Clark said she doesn’t know if anything was done.

Her parents once yelled at her for showing too much skin when she was bent over and her blouse hung off her, Clark said.

“It was horrible,” she said. “She was treated like Cinderella.”

State Department of Health Services spokesman Sara Buschman said Wednesday she couldn’t immediately comment but planned to have more information Thursday.

The 40-year-old father and 42-year-old stepmother, whom The Associated Press is not naming to protect the girl’s identity, were each being held on $20,000 bail after their arrests last week. Their hearing Thursday is expected to include a review of their bail and a discussion about the status of the potential charges, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said.
Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said Wednesday that the teen was getting medical treatment and remained in protective custody.
The girl, who only weighed 70 pounds, told authorities she had been forced to stay in the unfinished basement of her father and stepmother’s home since 2006 and that an alarm would sound if she went upstairs. She said she ate what she could find in the garbage and sometimes she was made to eat her own feces and drink her urine, according to a police affidavit.
She said if she was caught eating without permission, the couple would make her throw out the food or vomit it back up.
The allegations came to light after Mike Vega saw the girl walking in thin pajamas, barefoot and crying on a cold Feb. 6 afternoon. She was bleeding from a gash on her nose and other small scrapes and was so scrawny he mistook her for an 8-year-old. He called police.
“It was the most shocking thing I have ever seen,” Vega, 31, said Wednesday, recalling the day he found her. “A little girl looking like that. I’ve never seen anybody look like that, to be honest.”
A doctor quoted in police reports said what the girl went through before Vega found her amounted to “torture.”

Vega, who lives about a mile from the girl and her family, said he was driving on a busy street not far from home when he spotted her. As he slowly passed her, he looked through his rearview mirror and saw her bare feet, which were purple from the cold. He backed up, and she told him she needed help.

Once she was inside Vega’s car, she was scared at first, but Vega said she became more comfortable after he showed her photos of his three young sons and a Mary Poppins video on his cellphone.
According to police records, the girl told authorities she had been let out of the basement that day to “clean some papers” for her stepmother and that the woman became angry because she wasn’t working fast enough.
The teen told Vega the stepmother threw her back downstairs but she managed to escape out a window. Vega said the girl told him she feared the woman would throw her down the stairs again. She said the woman even threatened to kill her.
Vega said the girl “wasn’t crying, wasn’t hysterical” when she spoke about her stepmother’s alleged death threat. “But it wasn’t nonchalant either,” he said. “You could see fear in her eyes. It was very disturbing.”
Barbara Knox, a physician at American Family Children’s Hospital quoted in the police reports, told officers the malnutrition the girl suffered “poses a significant risk of death” and that chronic starvation had caused her puberty to be arrested. Knox also said the girl would be at high risk for other disorders and complications that can lead to death.

The teen said her stepmother homeschooled her using a third-grade workbook, according to the affidavit.

The girl’s 18-year-old stepbrother also was arrested on a probation and parole hold. DeSpain said he couldn’t comment on the arrest. Two other minors in the home were taken into protective custody, DeSpain said.

Police said they encountered the girl in 2007, when someone alleged she might have been molested by a family member. The girl did not corroborate the allegation and her family was not cooperative, police said.

She appeared healthy at the time, police said.”

Neighbors had reported possible abuse of Wis. girl
[Associated Press 2/16/12 by Carrie Antlfinger]

“When the malnourished 15-year-old awoke each morning, she could hear her family eating and getting ready for the day. If she felt especially brave or desperate she would call to her stepmother and beg for food, but usually she just went back to bed and hoped her hunger pangs went away.
The girl was 70 pounds when she was rescued. She told investigators during lengthy interviews at the hospital that most of the food she ate was scraps she found on the floor or in the garbage. She had spent most of five years in the basement of her family’s Madison home, where she was beaten and sexually assaulted.

The girl’s statements, contained in court documents, paint a troubling picture of physical, mental and sexual abuse. The girl describes running away, only to be found, brought home and threatened. Confined to the basement, she had no one to ask for help. She wasn’t allowed to go to school or church, have visitors or talk on the phone.

Dane County officials say the girl is getting help now. She gained 17 pounds after about a week under doctors’ care, a criminal complaint said. She has been placed in foster care, and child welfare officials say there’s been an outpouring of support from people across the nation, who sent cards and letters.”

“Her father and stepmother have been charged with child abuse, child neglect and reckless endangerment. The charges carry a maximum combined prison sentence of 11 years, 3 months. The girl’s 18-year-old stepbrother is charged with child abuse and child sexual assault and faces 68 years behind bars if convicted.”

“[The] father and stepmother are still applying for public defenders.

The girl told investigators the abuse started the month she turned 10. Her stepmother beat her, and her stepbrother repeatedly forced her to perform oral sex on him. That’s also when the family began keeping her in the basement.

Because it had no bathroom, she said she often bathed in a basement sink that had no hot water and relieved herself in boxes or containers. If she made a mess while doing so, “they will make me eat it. Or drink it or rub it on my face,” she said.

She said she was forced to do chores naked and had to call upstairs for permission to eat. She was often told her stepmother was too busy to feed her.

“I know it’s a lie,” the teen told police. “She’s playing with my brother upstairs. I can hear her upstairs watching TV.”

She wasted away to 70 pounds. In contrast, police records say her father weighs 240 pounds and her stepmother 370 pounds.

The girl implied she could unlock the basement door but said there were motion sensors and an alarm that would draw her stepmother’s wrath. Still, she said she fled a couple times, but her parents always found her and threatened to report her to police as a runaway.

Neighbors expressed concern. One called authorities after watching the parents scream at the girl as she was forced to push cement blocks from one side of the yard to the other for no apparent reason. However, the parents blocked county workers from speaking with the girl.”

Starved Wis. Girl’s Statements Detail Her Life
[ABC 2/21/12 by Dinesh Ramde/Associated Press]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Accountability2

Update: “The father, stepmother and stepbrother accused of starving and abusing a 15-year-old girl for years remain in custody facing multiple charges.

The charges against the parents include child abuse and neglect while the stepbrother is charged with sexual assaulting a child.

Among the allegations the parents face is an attempt to inhibit the recent state Department of Human Services investigation and even cover up their alleged crimes.

But records show that, years earlier, the girl’s father, Chad G. Chritton, and stepmother, Melinda J. Drabek-Chritton, stood in the way of another investigation — and did so legally.

The criminal complaint said that in 2007, Chad Chritton refused to sign releases to help out a Dane County Human Services investigation, barring officials from interviewing his now 15-year-old daughter.

“People have a right to privacy in regards to parenting. That’s a protected right under the law,” said Julie Ahnen, who manages Child Protective Service for Dane County. “The parent or the owner of the private property has the right to say we cannot, to bar us access to the child.”

Ahnen said usually there is a way around the parents for investigators.

“If a child is attending a public school, we can go to the school and interview the child without the parent’s permission,” Ahnen said.

But if a child isn’t school-age yet, class is out for the summer, or, like in the Drabek-Chritton case, the child is homeschooled, a knock on the door from Child Protective Services officials may legally go unanswered, making an investigation harder.

“Those cases can be more complicated as far as gaining access,” Ahnen said.

Lynn Green, director of Dane County Human Services, said she doesn’t feel current laws restrict investigators from uncovering child abuse.
“I’m not sure that the law prevents us from unearthing some abuse and neglect that occurs, so much as human dynamics,” Green said.
Green said that children frequently won’t reveal they’ve been abused. Green said she’s confident that in this case, her staff did all they could. “I believe that we appropriately screened out and did not have the grounds to intervene any more fully,” Green said.
“Screened out” refers to cases where a report has been made but the information it contains does not rise to a legal level that allows an investigation.
And when parent’s don’t cooperate, Child Protective Services can involve the police and does have other means, when necessary, to compel people to speak.
The agency has latitude to talk to others but without releases from parents, no information is required to be given to officials, with the exception of some medical information. A school or day care provider could decide to give up that information if they felt there was good reason to do so.
Dating to 1997, Child Protective Services had received seven reports of possible abuse or neglect in the Drabek-Chritton home, and only two of those were substantiated — the most recent and another in 1997, before the girl came to live in Wisconsin, according to records.”
[Channel 2000 2/22/12]
Update 2: “State officials are investigating how Dane County child welfare officials handled complaints involving a Madison man and his wife who are now charged with torturing and starving his 15-year-old daughter.

The investigation was revealed in a Feb. 23, 2012, letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press as a result of an open records request. It was written by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to Lynn Green, the director of the Dane County Human Services Department.

The state planned to conduct an onsite inspection, look at case records and interview staff involved, as is customary after a death and sometimes after egregious incidents, according to Fredi-Ellen Bove, administrator for the Division of Safety and Performance.

The review’s purpose is to identify ways to reduce and prevent serious injuries, identify factors that may have negatively affected the case and possibly develop recommendations to improve the quality of child protective services, according to state records.

The state also could require child welfare officials to submit a corrective action plan. If so, they have 60 days after receipt of the final report and the state will monitor it to make sure it’s implemented.

Green has previously said her staff followed protocols in the case. She did not immediately return a call or email Monday seeking comment.

Sara Buschman, spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families, said she cannot release any other information until the investigation is complete.

“An official assessment of these allegations is still ongoing and the state is exercising its authority to review the county’s handling of this case,” she said.

The teen’s 40-year-old father and 42-year-old stepmother are charged with child abuse, child neglect and reckless endangerment. They are accused of making her stay in their basement for years and denying her sufficient food. She weighed only 70 pounds when a passing motorist spotted her crying and walking barefoot in pajamas outside in the cold last month.

Her 18-year-old stepbrother is charged with child abuse and sexual assault for allegedly forcing her to perform oral sex on him repeatedly.

The Associated Press isn’t naming any of the defendants to avoid identifying the girl. The AP does not usually name victims of sexual assault.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled Tuesday for the couple. Prosecutors are expected to play a videotape of the girl telling police about her alleged abuse. The stepbrother has an arraignment scheduled for March 19.

According to an earlier open records request in the case, the Department of Children and Families noted there had been 10 reports of suspected neglect, sexual abuse or physical abuse since 2006, including three that are still pending. Those three include a report on Feb. 6, the day the motorist spotted her.

The department released few details, citing legal reasons.

Of the seven others, six were unsubstantiated or didn’t meet the legal definition of abuse or neglect. The department says a May 1997 report of physical abuse was substantiated but didn’t note what more happened.”

[Coshocto Tribune 3/12/12 by Carrie Antlfinger]

“A preliminary hearing for a couple accused of abusing a 15-year-old girl and keeping her confined to a basement for years ended Tuesday without any evidence being presented, but it will resume on Friday with testimony from a child abuse expert.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne was to present a video recorded interview with the girl in lieu of her live testimony. But Circuit Judge Amy Smith, after ruling the video was admissible, said it was not necessary to show it again in court because she had already viewed the entire two-hour interview and it is up to her alone to determine probable cause in the case.

The hearing, which will determine whether there is enough evidence to order the girl’s father, Chad Chritton, 40, and stepmother, Melinda Drabek-Chritton, 42, to stand trial on reckless endangerment, child abuse and child neglect charges, will resume Friday with testimony from Dr. Barbara Knox, a child abuse expert at American Family Children’s Hospital.

At the hearing, Smith threw out subpoenas issued by the defense attorneys seeking medical records and testimony from doctors who have examined the girl, calling them impermissible at this stage in the case. She also said that some of the subpoenas, in particular one seeking testimony from Lynn Green, director of the Dane County Department of Human Services, were issued too late.

Chritton’s lawyer, William Hayes, also protested the playing of the video interview with the girl in lieu of her live testimony because his client has a constitutional right to cross-examine her. Smith said that state law differs on that point and allows child witnesses to present their testimony by video recording.

The video, later released to reporters, showed the girl, dressed in a pink hoodie and clutching a teddy bear she called Cocoa Bean, talking about the alleged abuse she suffered over the past five years.

The girl, interviewed at Safe Harbor by Madison police Detective Maya Krajcinovic, appears thin under her baggy clothing, looking much smaller than most 15-year-olds and speaking in a soft, hoarse voice that sounds like that of a much younger girl.

During the hearing, Smith said that at times during the video, the girl blamed herself for what happened. She said she wasn’t believed when she told her parents about sexual abuse by her stepbrother, Joshua Drabek, who is now charged with two counts of child sexual assault and child abuse.


Smith said the girl appears to have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and cried at times during the interview, saying “I don’t want to go back. I can’t take it anymore.”

[The Wisconsin Journal 3/13/12 by Ed Trevelen]
Update 3:”A pediatrician specializing in child abuse testified Friday afternoon that the 15-year-old girl allegedly locked in her family’s basement and deprived of food likely would have died if the pattern of abuse continued.

“She was the victim of serial child torture with prolonged exposure to chronic starvation,” said physician Barbara Knox, the medical director of the University of Wisconsin Child Protection Program. “She was profoundly malnourished.”

Knox said the girl weighed 68 pounds when she examined her last month, and the girl’s medical records showed she had weighed 82 pounds in the summer of 2006.

Knox testified Friday at the preliminary hearing for the girl’s father and stepmother, both charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, intentional child abuse and child neglect.

Based on the doctor’s testimony Friday and other evidence, including a videotaped interview of the teen by police that was presented as evidence Tuesday, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Amy R. Smith ordered the parents to stand trial.

Knox testified that the teen’s growth and development had been arrested by the starvation.

“If you lined up 100 children (the girl’s) same age, she would weigh less than the skinniest or the lowest weighing child in that entire group,” Knox said.

The teen had the average weight of a 9 1/2 -year-old child and the height of an 11 1/2 -year-old child, Knox testified.

The physician said she ruled out anorexia and bulimia as causes and found no indication of any eating disorder except starvation.

After being fed regularly since she fled the home, the girl gained 17 pounds, Knox said. Such a weight gain would be abnormal for a typical child over the course of a week or two, but “very consistent with what I typically see in these cases of intense starvation,” Knox said.

While being treated at a Madison hospital, the girl ordered as much food as she could, sometimes as many as 10 items, and then would hoard some of the food for later, typical in starvation cases, Knox testified.

According to the criminal complaint, the girl told investigators she had been held in virtual captivity in the couple’s basement starting sometime in 2006, scavenging for food and forced to eat her own feces.

She said she fled the home Feb. 6 after her stepmother threatened her twice because the teen wasn’t completing a chore fast enough.

The girl said she was not allowed to leave the basement without permission, and there was an alarm on the basement door that sounded if she opened it, records state.

Attorneys for the father, 40, and stepmother, 42, during cross-examination of Knox stated that the girl suffered from mental health issues, including fantasies, engaged in self-mutilation, was angry and was lying about being starved and tortured.

The father’s attorney, William J. Hayes, pointed out through questioning that the girl had received inpatient mental health treatment in 2006 and that she had threatened family members.

Hayes said some of the girl’s issues stemmed from her being upset because she had been abandoned by her biological mother.

Mental health cited

Knox said she reviewed some of the girl’s mental health records, but those records would not change her diagnosis that the girl was a victim of child torture and starvation.

She also testified that she had a pediatric psychiatrist evaluate the girl, and there was nothing that would warrant inpatient treatment.

According to the criminal complaint, the father told authorities the girl had mental health problems.

He said knives were found under her bed when she lived in the main part of the house and they believed she had a plan to hurt family members, the complaint states.

After that the teen was kept in the basement, the father said, because he feared for the family’s safety, the complaint states. He told investigators he had security cameras and motion detectors set up in the basement and the pantry to monitor the girl.

In response to defense attorneys’ questions about the girl’s possible mental health issues and truthfulness, prosecutors asked Knox, “Is starvation a treatment for any mental health disorder?”

“No,” Knox replied.

“Is locking a child in a basement any treatment for a mental health disorder?”

“No,” she said.

The girl’s 18-year-old stepbrother also was arrested and is accused of raping the girl. He is charged with first-degree sexual assault of a child under 13; sexual assault of a girl under 16; and child abuse.

The stepbrother last month waived his preliminary hearing.”

[Journal Sentinel 3/16/12 by Mike Johnson]
Update 4: “A prosecutor leveled more charges Monday against a husband and wife accused of torturing and starving the man’s 15-year-old daughter and forcing her to live in their basement for years.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne charged the couple with felony reckless endangerment, child abuse and child neglect in February. He also filed felony sexual assault and child abuse charges against the girl’s stepbrother.

Moments before the man and wife were scheduled to enter pleas in court Monday afternoon, Ozanne added four more felonies against each of them, including causing mental harm to a child, failure to protect a child, false imprisonment and child neglect. He did not add any more counts against the stepbrother.

An amended information alleges the couple demonstrated substantial disregard for the girl’s mental well-being and failed to protect her from her stepbrother. The document also says the couple unlawfully confined the girl and neglected her, resulting in bodily harm. It doesn’t offer any details.

The man, woman and stepbrother all pleaded not guilty to every count they face.

The new charges seemed to catch the couple’s lawyers, William Hayes and Thomas McClure, by surprise. Ozanne handed the new information to each of them as court began and both had to spend several minutes privately reviewing the new counts with their clients.

Neither attorney immediately returned messages Monday afternoon. The Associated Press isn’t naming any of the defendants to avoid identifying the girl.

The girl’s case came to light on Feb. 6, when a motorist spotted her walking the streets barefoot and dressed only in thin pajamas.

She told investigators later that her father, 40, and stepmother, 42, had forced her to stay in the basement since 2006. She said she had to scrounge for food and sometimes was forced to eat her feces and drink her own urine. If she was caught eating without permission, the couple would make her throw out the food or vomit it back up.

She also accused her 18-year-old stepbrother of trying unsuccessfully to have intercourse with her once and forcing her to perform oral sex on him more than 10 times.

She told investigators she decided to run away that day because her stepmother had threatened to throw her down the stairs.

Ozanne filed the first charges 10 days after the girl was found.

During a preliminary hearing last month, Ozanne presented a video of the girl telling a detective she tried to run away several times but her father always found her and brought her back. A doctor also testified that the girl weighed 68 pounds on the day she was discovered.

It’s unclear whether any information from that hearing prompted the new charges. Ozanne was vague with reporters after court, saying only that he and his assistants reviewed the case and thought they should file more charges.”

[San Francisco Chronicle 4/16/12 by Todd Richmond/Associated Press]

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