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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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.”