How Could You? Hall of Shame-DeeAnn and Rondal Hale, Clinton Carr UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Bellview, Florida, a 21-year-old “mentally-handicapped” adoptee was rescued from her abusive home. After neighbors called 911, Escambia County sheriff deputies found her on April 21, 2012 “crying, bleeding and handcuffed as she trudged around a swimming pool in the rain for what she said was punishment for taking two pieces of candy that her adoptive mother was going to give to the homeless. Chained around her neck was a 40-pound sandwich board with the words “I am a liar and a thief” and the misspelled phrase “I well not.”
The 911 call indicated that “her adoptive mother’s husband and a friend of his [were] beating and spraying her with a garden hose.”
“DeeAnn Hale, 53, the victim’s adoptive mother; her husband, Rondal F. Hale, 59; and Clinton Michael Carr, 53, of Lillian, Ala., a friend of the Hales, were charged Saturday with aggravated abuse of a disabled adult. They remained in the Escambia County Jail on Monday.
Neighbors told news reporters that they have twice before called the Sheriff’s Office to say the woman was being beaten. They said they’ve seen her kicked, and they’ve heard adults yelling at her to pull down her pants, then heard loud “whaps” from boards.
No signs at home
But the Sheriff’s Office said records show deputies had no way of knowing that was occurring during two calls to the home in the 2800 block of Christine Street.
• Last Dec. 9, the Florida Department of Children and Families called the Sheriff’s Office to ask a deputy to be “on stand-by” while a DCF investigator checked on a report that a woman was the victim of domestic abuse.
The DCF investigator did not find any evidence of abuse on that call, DCF spokeswoman Nicole Stookey said Monday.
She confirmed that the call was about the 21-year-old but declined to provide further details, citing privacy laws.
The deputy was outside the home for about 15 minutes, but his assistance was not sought, Aiken said.
• On March 31, the Sheriff’s Office received a call that there were “some adults fighting with a 12-year-old child” and they “might possibly being abusing her” and “slinging her around,” according to a dispatch report.
When the deputies arrived, they found a pool party in the backyard and no evidence of anyone being hurt, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Mike Ward said. The deputy saw the 21-year-old, who was not injured, Ward said.
“They did not see any type of injury or any type issues which would lead them to believe that a crime had occurred,” Ward said.
Neighbor Mike Hollowell said Monday that he made that call. At the time, he instructed the Sheriff’s Office that he did not want to be contacted, according to the dispatch report.
Hollowell said Monday that when he heard the screams from the yard, he assumed they came from a child. He said he learned over the weekend that it was actually the 21-year-old.
He thinks the deputies did not pay enough attention.
“All he had to do was take one peek at her, and he would have understood,” he said. “He had a female officer with him. There was no excuse. There was zero excuse for this.”
No DCF oversight
DCF did not have oversight over the 21-year-old victim prior to Saturday, Stookey said.
She said adopted children stay with pre-adoptive parents for at least 90 days before an adoption is final, and case managers check on them at least once a month during that period.
“Once an adoption has been finalized, that’s their child,” she said. “The state doesn’t come in to ensure the safety and well being because we have already done that beforehand.”
She said DCF provides families with post-adoption services when needed. After an adoption is finalized, DCF does not get involved unless abuse or neglect is reported.
“It’s just like any other family,” Stookey said. “DCF doesn’t have the right to pick up the phone and call someone and say, ‘Hey we’re checking in on you,’ unless we have gotten that report and it meets the statutory criteria of abuse, abandonment or neglect or exploitation of the elderly.”
Woman will be safe
With Saturday’s events, the Sheriff’s Office and DCF are continuing investigations.
The victim was hospitalized over the weekend.
In addition to marks from the chain around her neck, she had a 4-inch gash in the back of her head. She told investigators that someone hit her with a bucket two days before. She said her mother super-glued the cut and later sewed it up with a needle and thread.
Stookey said she did not know if the woman was still hospitalized Monday. She said DCF will work with other agencies to place the victim somewhere safe.
Three young boys also have been removed from the home and placed with relatives.
They are believed to be DeeAnn Hale’s grandchildren and nephews of the victim.”
Deputies: No sign of earlier abuse against mentally disabled woman
[Pensacola News-Journal 4/24/12 by Thyrie Bland]
“The adoptive mother of the 21-year-old, mentally handicapped woman helped sew costumes for church productions.
The mother’s husband was part of the church prison ministry team.
On Monday they remain in the Escambia County Jail, accused of torturing their adoptive daughter, who is said to have the mental capacity of a child.
Rondal F. Hale, 59, was arrested along with his 53-year-old wife and their friend, Clinton M. Carr, 53, of Lillian, Ala., on Saturday on a charge of aggravated abuse of a disabled adult.
The young woman was found handcuffed and bleeding in the backyard of her family’s Bellview home. She was chained to a sandwich-style body billboard that was so heavy it had embedded chain marks on her neck, and she had a gash in the back of her head that had been crudely sewn together with a needle and thread, and apparent ligature marks on her neck.
“What I’ve seen and read in the news has just broken my heart,” said the Rev. Wesley Alvarez, 40, pastor of My Father’s Vineyard, where the Hales were active members. “But we had no idea. None.”
The details of the abuse began to emerge Saturday afternoon and hung heavy over the congregation of about 250, including about 50 in an overflow room, at regular Sunday morning services at the church on Pensacola Boulevard.
Early in the two-hour plus service, Alvarez talked briefly about the arrests, urging the congregation to pray for everyone involved.
The woman remains hospitalized in stable condition. Three young boys, whom deputies say are DeeAnn Hale’s grandchildren, were staying in the home and are now staying with other relatives.
Alvarez also told his congregation not to gossip or discuss the case with others and to avoid speculation.
“Two church members are arrested,” he said. “I don’t want to hear people talking about it in a form of gossip. That’s not a Christian thing to do.”
After the service, Alvarez said Rondal Hale joined the church in 2008. He met and married DeeAnn Hale about two years ago. Alvarez said the whole family – including the young woman and DeeAnn Hale’s grandsons – regularly attended.
The church has earned a reputation for its various outreach programs – including ministering to the homeless and the addicted. The church welcomes all with little notice paid to typical church pageantry. Most in the crowd on Sunday wore jeans. Plenty wore shorts and T-shirts and leather motorcycle gear. Some wore ball caps.
Alvarez preached in jeans from the pulpit. His sermon touched on a variety of subjects, including complete surrender to God and Alvarez’s own escape from cocaine and heroin addiction.
“Rondal was on our prison ministry team. DeeAnn was involved in our productions – she was our costume maker,” Alvarez said after the service. “This has come as a very great shock to us.”
Alvarez said Carr had attended a few services.
“He’s been around for about a month or two,” he said. “But he hasn’t joined the church.”
The Hales seemed concerned about the woman’s welfare, Alvarez said.
“They have asked advice on what to do about her weight gain,” he said.
Alvarez and other church officials suggested the Hales get a Wii Fit video game workout to help the woman exercise.
“We thought that might make it fun,” he said. “We were trying to come up with something entertaining.”
Law enforcement officials said the abuse case is one of the most brutal they have witnessed locally.
Sheriff’s spokesman Matt Baxter called it “animalistic.”
After responding to a Saturday morning 911 call to a home in the 2800 block of Christine Street, a deputy followed the sound of sobbing to the backyard.
There, he found the young woman bound with pink faux-fur-covered handcuffs, bleeding from the mouth. She was weighed down with a plywood billboard that was chained to her neck. One side bore the misspelling “I am a liar and a theif.” The other side read “I well not.”
She was being forced to walk around an above-ground pool. It was raining, and she was shivering.
“Please help me,” she cried to the deputy.
The woman told the deputy she was being punished for taking candy from a collection that her mother had set aside to give to the homeless.
Among the woman’s other injuries were a two-day-old gash on the back of her head and signs that a rope had been tied around her neck. She told the deputy the cut came from someone hitting her with a bucket. She said her mother, who is a licensed practical nurse, first glued the 4-inch gash together and later sewed it up with a needle and thread.
Rondal Hale and Carr are being held on $100,000 bond. They were at the home when deputies arrived.
DeeAnn Hale has a $50,000 bond. The deputies summoned her home from the church.
Neighbors said the woman had been mistreated on previous occasions. They also told deputies that they saw her beaten and sprayed with a hose on Saturday.
There have been at least three calls to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office since February by neighbors reporting possible abuse.
Baxter said on Monday the Sheriff’s Office will begin looking into the previous calls and determine what information was available to officers. He said the initial effort over the weekend focused on the safety of the woman and the three boys and the arrest of the suspect.”
”Regular churchgoers” accused of abusing mentally disabled woman
[WTSP 4/23/12 by Tory Moon]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Another Florida DCFS fail.
Update:“The State Attorney’s Office in Florida has filed new charges against three people accused of beating, starving and torturing a disabled woman in their care.
Back in April, Escambia County deputies found the woman with plywood signs and chains hung around her neck, among other serious injuries.
The woman’s adoptive mother, DeeAnn Hale, stepfather Rondal Hale and family friend Clinton Carr are charged in the case. The men face four felony abuse charges, while DeeAnn Hale faces three.
“New Charges Filed in Extreme Abuse Case”
[Localtv5 5/21/12]
“A man accused of torturing his disabled stepdaughter was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison, the State Attorney’s Office said.
Rondal Hale, 60, pleaded no contest last month to four counts of aggravated abuse of a disabled adult. Hale, his wife and a family friend were were arrested after the woman was found in April handcuffed, bleeding from the mouth and strapped to 40-pound plywood signs strung by chains.
One of the signs said, “I am a liar and a theif (sic),” prosecutors said. The woman was forced to wear the signs for taking candy that Hale said was for the homeless.
Investigators later learned that the woman was forced to stay outside for days on end and was not given food or medical attention. Assistant State Attorney Anne Patterson said this abuse went on for at least a year.
“They would say that it was discipline, which didn’t ring true,” Patterson said.
A presentence investigation said Hale should be sentenced to at least 112 months in prison. Circuit Judge Michael Allen also ordered that Hale be placed on probation for 15 years once he is released.
During the sentencing, Hale apologized for his actions and asked the judge to consider his age, health and lack of a previous criminal record.
Two other defendants were arrested in the case. Family friend Clinton Carr, 54, pleaded no contest last month to two counts aggravated abuse of a disabled adult and battery. He will be sentenced Oct. 5.
The woman’s adoptive mother, 59-year-old DeeAnn Hale, will appear in court on Oct. 4. She is charged with abuse, neglect and aggravated abuse of a disabled adult.
Patterson said the woman’s condition has improved since being removed from the house.
“She’s doing very well,” Patterson said. “She’s back in a school setting and is living in a facility for people with special needs.”
Jeremy Early, Rondal Hale’s attorney, did not return a call Thursday.
According to an arrest report, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office was tipped off about the abuse by a neighbor who saw the woman in the backyard with her hands tied behind her back being sprayed in the face with a garden hose.
When a sheriff’s sergeant arrived, the woman “immediately started calling for him to help her,” the report said.
Carr and DeeAnn Hale remain in the Escambia County Jail.”
Stepfather gets 15 years in abuse of disabled woman
[PNJ 9/13/12 by Eric Heisig]
Dee Ann was sentenced to five-years and nine-months in prison.
[Florida Today 11/8/12]
A search of Escambia county court records shows that Clinton Carr pled nolo prosequi to two charges of AGGRAVATED ABUSE OF DISABLED ADULT WILLFUL/MALIC. He was found guilty of two counts of AGGRAVATED ABUSE OF DISABLED ADULT WILLFUL/MALIC and one count of Battery -touch or stirke on November 8, 2012. “TIME SERVED UNDER CT. 3 (202 DAYS)” “ COUNTY JAIL: 11 MONTHS 30 DAYS – EACH COUNT CONCURRENT, BUT CONSECUTIVE TO CT. 3 – BEGINS TODAY” “with no credit” followed by”COMMUNITY CONTROL: 18 MONTHS UNDER CT. 1, CT. 2 – EACH COUNT CONCURRENT, FOLLOWED BY: ” PROBATION: 3 1/2 YEARS EACH COUNT CONCURRENT, ON CONDITION SERVE”
Recent Comments