How Could You? Hall of Shame-Dwight Solander, Janet Solander and Danielle Hinton 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 Las Vegas, Nevada, two adoptive parents,Dwight Solander, 50, Janet Solander, 53, and their adult daughter,Danielle Hinton, 21 are being charged with abusing and assaulting “three girls that were first in their care as foster children but were later adopted by the family. The girls were 12, 11 and 9 years old at the time of the alleged abuse.”
They are being charged with “numerous counts of child abuse, neglect, endangerment with substantial bodily harm and sexual assault with a minor under 14 years of age.”
“In the police report, the girls detailed nearly two years of abuse starting in Jan. 2011 –when the suspects adopted them and continued until Nov. 2013, when they went to a boarding school in Florida.
The girls told police that the suspects would severely limit their bathroom visits and then beat them with a stick used to stir paint, if they had an accident or took too long in the bathroom.
The girls accuse the suspects of forcing them to take cold showers and splashing them with ice water, if they had a bathroom accident. They said they were not allowed to towel off, but instead had to sit in front of a fan to dry off.
One girl told police she had a scar on the back of her hand from Janet Solander pouring hot water on her. Another said she had a scar from hot water on right ear.
They also said they were forced to wear soiled underwear on their head, and in one case, one of the girls said she had dirty underwear put in her mouth.
They also said they were made to sleep on boards in the loft of the Solanders’ home without blankets or sheets, wearing nothing but their underwear for fear they would wet the bed.
Some of the most serious accusations are that Janet Solander used the paint stick to sexually assault one girl because she wet her pants.
Janet Solander, who is a nurse, wrote a book titled “In Foster Care: How to Fix This Corrupted System.”
The girls told police they were beaten when they didn’t complete school work to the Solanders’ standards.
The Solanders’ daughter Danielle Hinton supported what the girls told police. When she spoke to officers, she called the girls “the definition of abused kids.” She told police she witnessed one of the girls having blood in her underwear because of the severity of the beatings she’d suffered.
The allegations came to light after four foster children were removed from the Solanders’ home because of fears physical abuse. A worker asked where their adoptive children and the Solanders eventually revealed they had been sent to a boarding school.
Child Protective Services in Florida contacted the girls who then made the allegations against their adoptive parents and sister.
The girls also told investigators they believed Janet Solander would kill them, if they returned to her care.
All three suspects are in the Clark County Detention Center and are expected to be in court April 8.”
Foster care author, 2 others charged with child abuse[8 news Now 3/27/14 by Natalie Cullen]
“The foster children were placed there by the Clark County Department of Family Services in June 2010, and were adopted by the Solanders in January 2011, police reports show.
Four other foster children placed in the Solander home in March 2013 were removed from the Solander home by Child Protective Services in late February.
According to the police report, CPS made a September, 2013 home visit and took photos showing an orange bucket with a toilet seat on top and a flat, rectangular board on the floor. Danielle Hinton told police that the girls were forced to sit on the bucket for hours as punishment and to use it as a toilet. The girls were forced to sleep on the board.”
“Janet Solander had a timer and prevented the girls from using the bathroom until it went off, the police report said. The girls were in pain from being forced to wait, police said.”
“The home had surveillance cameras, and their adoptive mother monitored them with a cellphone, the police report said.”
“The girls also told investigators that Janet Solander would catheterize them, then beat them if urine came out, the police report said.”
“In a statement, Family Services spokeswoman Kristi Jourdan said the Solanders have been licensed foster parents since 2010. The department has suspended their license and intends to revoke it. She declined to comment on specifics of the ongoing investigation, citing confidentiality requirements”
“After the foster children were removed from the Solander home, a Department of Family Services nurse told CPS staff about a 2013 book self-published by Janet Solander, “Foster Care: How to Fix This Corrupted System,” the police report said. The book details her criticisms of the foster care system, and offers advice on how to deal with children.
“The easiest and most defiant way for a child to vent is by urinating or defecating in his or her pants, on the bed, or on another object …,” she wrote. “This is where the rage could start for foster parents.”
Solander, who identified herself as a nurse in her book biography, wrote that the family has fostered more than 20 children. She also defends installation of cameras in the house as helpful, given that one child, due to a psychological disorder, mutilated herself.
“…Video provides indisputable evidence of anything that happens in the house,” she wrote.
If Solander’s book is factual, CPS has investigated the family before. Solander wrote that one of her adopted daughters had a mark on her face that caught the attention of a caseworker. The daughter, whom Solander described as “manipulative,” told the caseworker that the mother had pushed her, according to the book’s account.”
“In the 23-count indictment, Dwight Solander is charged with three counts of child abuse, neglect or endangerment with substantial bodily harm; both parents are charged with 12 counts of child abuse, neglect or endangerment; and Danielle Hinton is charged with three counts of child abuse, neglect, or endangerment with substantial bodily harm. Janet Solander is also charged with four counts of child abuse, neglect or endangerment with substantial bodily harm and one count of sexual assault of a minor.
Bail is set at $250,000 for Dwight Solander. No bail was listed for Janet Solander. Both are being held at the Clark County Detention Center. Hinton also remained in jail Thursday, with bail set at $50,000.
A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for April 8.”
Las Vegas police: Former foster parents arrested on child abuse, neglect charges[Las Vegas Review Journal 3/27/14 by Ben Botkin]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update:”A former nanny for three adopted children Las Vegas police say were subjected to years of abuse and neglect can’t understand what took so long for authorities to intervene, saying: ‘The system is a disgrace.’
Jan Finnegan has slammed the Clark County Department of Family Services following the 23-count indictment of child abuse and neglect charges laid against Dwight Solander, 50, and Janet Solander, 53, the adoptive parents of the three victims involved, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Danielle Hinton, 21, the daughter of Janet Solander, has also been indicted, with all three adults arrested on March 20 after the children told authorities they were beaten with paint sticks, forced to take cold showers and dry themselves in front of a large fan and regularly prevented from using the bathroom.
Adding to the alleged cruelty is the fact that Janet Solander is the author of a book called Foster Care: How to Fix this Corrupted System.
Finnegan said she first reported her concerns about the way the children – aged between nine and 12 – were being to Family Services last year, after being hired to care for the girls in January and February 2013.
‘They did nothing for a year,’ Finnegan said Monday.
‘They did nothing. The system is a disgrace.’
The three sisters were placed in foster care with the Solanders in 2010 and adopted in early 2011.
The Solanders also took care of four foster children, who were removed Feb. 27 amid allegations of physical risk, authorities said.
After the foster children were removed, Child Protective Services officials learned the three sisters had been sent to a boarding school in Florida.
When case workers contacted the girls, they reported persistent abuse and said they feared their mother would kill them if they returned to Las Vegas, the report said.
Investigators said the three girls were forced to sleep on boards without sheets, blankets or pillows out of fear they would wet the bed.
The girls told authorities their adoptive parents would make them wear their soiled underwear on their head or would stuff them in their mouth if they had an accident, and they made them use catheters.
Janet Solander imposed harsh punishments if the girls had a bathroom accident, sometimes withholding food from them for three days at a time, the girls told investigators.
They also reported their mother doused them with ice water, and one girl had scars that apparently came from her mother pouring hot water on her.
The mother also punished them with cold showers, pouring a pitcher of ice water of them and forcing them to dry off with a large fan, police said.
Janet Solander’s book, which was self-published, is heavy on strict discipline.
Ironically, one chapter is called What Happens When You Are Accused of Abuse?
The book also describes behavioral issues among foster children.
‘The easiest and most defiant way for a child to vent is by urinating or defecating in his or her pants on the bed,’ the book says.
‘This is where the rage could start for foster parents.’
Dwight Solander is accused of participating in the abuse, although he told investigators he only hit the girls with a wooden paint stick on one occasion.
Hinton is also accused of hitting the girls with the stick, but she denied the claim in an interview with police.
In May 2013, the Solanders unsuccessfully attempted to sue Finnegan for slander after the claims she made to Family Services.
Finnegan, who replaced a previous nanny, said she at one point even confronted Dwight Solander about the plight of his adopted daughters.
‘I tried to talk to him and ask him why they adopted these children,’ she said.
‘He just got very defensive and said he never had any children and his wife wanted him to have kids.’
Finnegan said the Solanders had surveillance cameras throughoyt the home and the children were given a liquid diet.
Police reports confirm that detail, noting that the girls had stomach problems because of the way they were treated.
Police reports also show that in September 2013 — five months before removing the children — CPS staff snapped a photo of a bucket with a toilet seat on top of it and a photo of a board on the loft floor.
The three adopted children were forced to sit on the bucket for hours, and sleep on the board, the police report said.
Family Services has not commented on the five-month gap between when the photos were taken and when the children were removed from custody in late February.
Finnegan plans to be at the preliminary hearing on April 8.
The former nanny plans to be in the courtroom.
‘I want to look them in the face,’ she said.
‘If you adopt a child, you should love a child like it’s your own.'”
‘It’s about time!’: Nanny claims three adopted daughters abused by parents had been subjected to horrible torment for YEARS and were ‘hit with paint sticks and forced to sleep on wooden boards’[Daily Mail 4/1/14 by Associated Press and Daily Mail]
Update 2: “An alleged child abuse case involving foster parents has raised the concerns of a watchdog group that looks out for children.
Police say a foster mom and dad beat, starved and humiliated three girls.
Leaders with the group say Clark County family services needs to be held accountable for its mistakes.
Metro police describe a torturous time for three foster children living under this roof.
Police say Janet and Dwight Solander, the foster parents, kept a close eye on the three girls, turning any mistake they made into a nightmare.
The alleged child abuse has raised red flags for a non-profit group named the National Center for Youth Law. Representatives feel Clark County family services let the children down.
“How did these people become licensed and how did they continue to be renewed yet provide the kind of abuses care that the children were in their home,” said Bill Grimm, an attorney with the center.
Grimm says for the past eight years his organization has followed the Clark County foster care system and it has repeatedly failed in its duties.
“To us it just represents an ongoing problem where children in Clark county foster care are at risk of being harmed or not really appropriate care while they are in foster care with Clark county,” Grimes said.
In the police report describing the abuse in the Solander home, a CPS caseworker reported in September that he noticed a bucket with a hole on the top and wooden boards on the floor. Janet Solander’s daughter, Danielle Hinton – also charged with child abuse – told police the girls were forced to use the bucket as a toilet and they slept on the boards.
“It raises questions about whether she was visiting the home as required was she talking to the children privately was she seeing the rooms they were living in. Was she talking to the kids about the type of care they were getting,” Grimes said.
Clark County Family Services representatives say they could not comment on the case citing confidentiality reasons. News 3 reached out to Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who understands concerns over foster care in the county, but he isn’t sure what needs to change.
“It is difficult because it’s a very sensitive situation we are dealing with kids that need to be placed and foster parents that need to be screened,” Grimes said.”
Watchdog group raising questions regarding foster program[My News3 4/3/14 by Andrew Castelan]
Update 3:“Child Protective Services agents investigated complaints from three girls living at the Las Vegas home of Janet and Dwight Solander at least three years before the former foster parents were arrested on child abuse charges, according to recently unsealed court testimony.
In light of further details about physical and sexual abuse the girls endured for years, Clark County prosecutors have added dozens of new charges against the Solanders.
The alleged abuse began in January 2011 — the same month the couple adopted the girls who were in their care — and lasted into November 2013. The girls ranged in age from about 9 to 12 years old at the time, court records show.
Just after they were adopted, the girls said caseworkers visited the house and took pictures.
“They said that they wanted to talk to all three of us,” one of the girls testified.
It’s unclear what the caseworkers found at the time, but the girls said that the most severe abuse had yet to begin.
“Before, when we were foster kids, we got popped soft, not hard but soft,” the middle child said.
SISTERS DESCRIBE SEVERE ABUSE
During a June preliminary hearing that was closed to the public, the three girls described ongoing torture at the hands of the Solanders, according to the court transcripts made public earlier this month.
Janet Solander, 53, who was being held at the Clark County Detention Center on $150,000 bail, now faces 46 counts, including child abuse, neglect or endangerment with substantial bodily harm, sexual assault with a minor under 14 and assault with the use of a deadly weapon.
Dwight Solander, 50, who is free on bail, faces 36 counts, including child abuse, neglect or endangerment with substantial bodily harm and sexual assault with a minor under 14.
The youngest child said Dwight Solander was sometimes away from the home when their adoptive mother beat them, but he was well aware of the abuse.
“He should have been the one to step up and say, ‘You know what? You need to stop doing that,’ ” the girl testified. “ ‘That’s not right. You’re abusing them,’ and should have stepped up and called the cops.”
One of the girls said Janet Solander shoved her under a faucet of scalding water for so long that she still has scars from the burn on her shoulder.
Another girl was threatened with a razor blade and said her lip was cut after she squirmed while being forced to take a cold shower. Her sister also was threatened with the razor blade and said she was scared because “I don’t want to die in a bathtub.”
Family Services spokeswoman Kristi Jourdan said the Solanders were licensed as foster parents in 2010, and the department has since revoked that license. She declined to comment on specifics of the case, citing “confidentiality statutes that protect child welfare information.”
The middle child testified that she watched as Janet Solander grabbed the oldest girl’s head and slammed it against a marble counter top, giving her a black eye.
Solander forced one of the girls to stand inside a trash bag for an entire day, according to testimony, which also indicated she told the girls she fed them blended food that included parts from mice.
Janet Solander’s biological daughter, Danielle Hinton, also faces two counts of child abuse, neglect or endangerment with substantial bodily harm.
The three adults were taken into custody March 20 at their home on …. The foster children were placed there by the Clark County Department of Family Services in June 2010, and were adopted by the Solanders in January 2011, police reports show.
Transcripts of the closed hearing indicated that Hinton laughed as one of the girls testified.
“I have every right to tell what they did to me,” the middle child said. “And I don’t care if Danielle doesn’t like me, or if she laughs at me because I’m up here crying, because at least I was — I had someone — to have someone that cares about me.”
Prosecutor Jacqueline Bluth said she saw Hinton smirk, “make little noises” and roll her eyes. Hinton’s defense attorney, Jeff Rue, said he did not notice anything from his client.
Justice of the Peace Diana Sullivan also said she did not notice a reaction from Hinton, though she focused on the girl’s testimony.
‘THE DEFINITION OF ABUSED KIDS’
Police had interviewed Hinton about the allegations. She knew the girls were spanked with paint sticks and forced to sit on buckets topped with toilet seats for hours at a time.
Hinton even told Frances Emery, an investigator with Metro’s Crimes Against Youth and Family Bureau, that the girls appeared “very scared, traumatized and were the definition of abused kids.”
Sandra Cetl, a pediatrician who examined the children, reported scarring and delayed physical growth because of the abuse.
Upwards of eight other foster children lived with the three adopted girls, according to the transcripts, meaning caseworkers had visited the house in the course of the ongoing alleged abuse.
The girls testified that the Solanders often forced them to stay behind an iron gate in a loft area, while the other children roamed free around the house.
“We couldn’t go past the bathroom,” the youngest girl said. “And if we climbed over (the gate), she would know because, um, it would electrocute us.”
At one point, one girl feigned a seizure because she no longer wanted to stay in the home.
“I was gonna call the police and make sure these people suffer for what they did to me, because I don’t want them to do it to other people,” she said.
In late 2013, the girls were sent to a Bible ministry in Florida, where they told the director and caseworkers that the defendants hit them with a paint stick on their legs and buttocks until they bled.
The girls said they feared returning home and believed their adoptive mother would end up killing them, police reports show. They never encountered the Solanders again until the court hearing.
The girls slept in their underwear on boards with no blankets or sheets, court records stated. The home had surveillance cameras, and their adoptive mother monitored them with a cellphone, authorities said.
The girls also testified that Janet Solander would catheterize them, then beat them if urine came out.
Dwight Solander is due back in court Tuesday, while Janet Solander is slated to appear before a judge August 28. Hinton is not scheduled for another court appearance until next year.
After having discovered religion in Florida, at least one girl said that she now forgives the defendants.
“There are people in this room that treated me really bad that deserve a chance,” she said during the preliminary hearing. “I pray every night. I ask God to save them, to convict them. I want to tell them that you need to change before it’s too late.””
Girls’ testimonies describe torture by adoptive parents[Las Vegas Review Journal 8/16/14 by David Ferrara]
Update 4: A search of the Clark County,Nevada court records shows that Dwight had a trial set for 3/30/15 but it was rescheduled for 2/1/16.
Update 5:“A Las Vegas man pleaded guilty to three counts of child abuse with substantial bodily harm Wednesday, while his wife, the author of a book critical of Child Protective Services, faces trial for alleged torture of the couple’s three adopted daughters.
Dwight Solander, 54, and free on bail, could be sentenced in May to decades behind bars, but his attorney, Craig Mueller, is expected to ask District Judge Valerie Adair for probation.
Solander admitted that he hit one of the children with a paint stir stick and did not stop his wife, Janet Solander, from further abusing the children.
Prosecutors have said the abuse began in January 2011 — the same month the couple adopted the three girls, ages 9 to 12 — and lasted into November 2013.
In court papers filed earlier this year, prosecutors alleged the couple also abused foster children in their home and that the torture was “cyclical and non-stop.”
Janet Solander, 57, still faces 46 felony charges, including multiple counts of sexual assault with a minor under 14 and child abuse, and the possibility of life in prison.
In late 2013, months before she was charged, she published a book titled “Foster Care: How to Fix This Corrupted System.”
Las Vegas man pleads guilty to abuse of adopted girls
[Las Vegas Review Journal 1/31/18 by David Ferrara]
Update 6:“Janet Solander likely will die in prison for the years of torture she inflicted on three children she adopted.
At her sentencing Tuesday, when District Judge Valerie Adair ordered the 57-year-old Solander to serve 35 years to life behind bars, one of the girls said she could no longer find comfort in a mother figure.
“I just can’t have a relationship like that again because she ruined it for me,” the girl told the judge. “I’m scared that it’s going to happen all over. I can’t trust anybody, because as soon as I let them in I don’t know what their intentions are.”
Another questioned why Solander would have accepted the girls and then abuse them.
Solander denied the extent of the torture and many of the 46 counts on which she was convicted.
“Either way, I know what happened,” the second girl said. “She knows what happened.”
The third wished she could have protected her younger sisters.
“It makes me sad that I couldn’t help my sisters,” she told a judge. “As much as I really wanted to, I couldn’t.”
Solander was found guilty by a jury in March on charges that include child abuse, neglect or endangerment with substantial bodily harm; sexual assault with a minor under 14; and assault with a deadly weapon.
Prosecutors said Solander, who is from Las Vegas and authored a book that was critical of child protective services, engaged in nearly three years of continual abuse when the adopted girls were ages 9 through 12.
She forced the girls to sleep on hard floors, sit on paint buckets and stand in trash bags for hours. She smacked them with a paint stir stick, slammed one girl’s head into a counter and burned another with hot water, according to trial testimony.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Jacqueline Bluth described the girls as “survivors” of abuse at the hands of Solander, along with her husband Dwight.
“But the road that they have is long,” Bluth said. “And they have a long way to go to where they’re not angry anymore and they’re not in a lot of pain.”
The prosecutor struggled to find a reason for the crimes.
“Why adopt these children and then treat them like that?” Bluth said. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Wearing a blue jail jumpsuit and seated in a wheelchair Tuesday, Solander vowed to fight her sentence, though she acknowledged exacting some abuse.
Dwight Solander pleaded guilty to three counts of child abuse with substantial bodily harm and was ordered to serve three to 10 years behind bars. One of Janet Solander’s biological daughters, Danielle Hinton, was given probation for her role in the abuse.
Las Vegas woman sent to prison for abusing adopted children
[Las Vegas Review Journal 6/5/18 by David Ferrara]
I personally would like to know if Janet or Dwight got anytime for the horrible abuse suffered by these children, I was the nanny there and first reported this and nothing was done, and tried to speak to Dwight, it would not get through. I would sincerely hope that they both do time for this
Dwight has also disgraced his family but apparently does not care, these girls have missed out on so much.
They haven’t gone to trial yet. The trial WAS supposed to be on 3/30/15 but now has been rescheduled to 2/1/16.