Couple Charged With Locking 13 Year Old Daughter Up For 2 Years (Let out to do chores)

[matcom]

<snip>

An Oshkosh couple is accused of locking their daughter up in a small room for nearly two years as punishment for behaving badly.

The couple only allowed the 13-year-old girl to leave for bathroom breaks, meals and to do chores, according to a criminal complaint filed in Winnebago County Circuit Court Tuesday.

The complaint states the girl was locked in a small bedroom for 22 hours a day for nearly two years. The bedroom was secured with a dead bolt accessible only from the outside and an alarm system that went off if the door was opened. There was a camera in the room that recorded what the girl was doing during at all hours of the day and night and the only furnishings in the room was a urine soaked mattress, a blanket, a pillow and an empty dresser.

Clint M. Engstrom, the girl's 32-year-old father, and her stepmother, Lynn M. Engstrom, 35, are charged with causing mental harm to a child, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of 12 years, six months in prison and a $25,000 fine.

"The facts are bizarre in this case," Winnebago County District Attorney Christian Gossett said. "This case is charged as causing mental harm to a child, but the behavior they engaged in and the conditions this child was kept in are just appalling."

Court Commissioner Daniel Bissett ordered the Engstroms to each be held in the Winnebago County Jail in lieu of a $25,000 cash bond. They are due back in court for a preliminary hearing Jan. 25.

http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070117/OSH0101/701170463/1987

[_testify_]

1. 12 years?

12 fucking years in prison is all you get for keeping a child as a slave?

[Pierre.Suave]

6. Agreed

the parents should get life.

[Crazy Dave]

15. And that's the maximum

So it could be even less depending on the judge.

[Hugin]

2. According to my child...

that sums up her life under my 'iron fist'.

I disagree... Every time I put gas in her car.

[kay1864]

3. Damn. Just damn.

A search warrant carried out showed that the home was lavishly furnished with high-end electronics and toys for three other children, however the room were the girl was confined had no toys, books or other things associated with a child, the complaint states. Detectives also noted the room contained a single light bulb and there was no heat or air conditioning duct work and that the only source of heat was a space heater that was controlled from outside the room.

Clint and Lynn Engstrom acknowledged to detectives that the girl had been grounded to her room for 1½ to 2 years and Clint Engstrom told detectives he installed the alarm on the door because they had problems with the girl sneaking out of her room to eat candy or watch television, the complaint states.

He told detectives the girl spent about 22 hours a day in the room and the girl told officers, "she was required to sit on her bed all day and night," the complaint states.

The girl told detectives that she was allowed to leave the room to eat meals, but she was only fed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or a fruit and grain bar. If she did not hear when she was called for a meal, she would not be allowed to eat. The girl said she would steal food because she was hungry and that "she would sneak downstairs to the kitchen and find scraps of food and leftovers," the complaint states. She told police she would have to skip two meals as punishment if she was caught.

She also told officers her stepmother only allowed her one minute to use the bathroom, she was not allowed to have any presents or cake for her birthday and was not allowed to read any books, including the Bible.

[DixieBlue]

7. That poor girl.

I just don't understand how people can do this to their child. And, frankly, I never want to.

[noonwitch]

16. The other 3 kids must have been the stepmom's kids

Then again, one never knows what people are thinking.

[philosophie_en_rose]

4. Those monsters are disgusting.

That girl should never have to see them again.

Her "crimes" of watching television or stealing food are nothing compared to her hypocrite father and stepmother.

[_testify_]

5. Personally

I think they should be smothered in brown gravy and locked in a room with a wolverine that's high on PCP.

[philosophie_en_rose]

9. let's not be cruel to the wolverine.

:bounce:

[zanne]

8. I wonder if this couple appeared to be normal on the outside...

What's really scary is that most people like this appear entirely normal to the people they know in the community.

[grace0418]

10. That poor girl is now fucked up for life. It's bad enough what they did to her, but

then that there were other kids in the house who were treated normally makes it that much more heinous. She's going to feel like she's human garbage for the rest of her life unless she gets some really, really good counseling. Fuck those two people. FUCK THEM. I can't even think of a punishment worthy of their crimes, but 12 years ain't it.

[GenDem]

11. I'm assuming she was not allowed to go to school.

This is beyond belief. To have not one, but two parents conspiring to imprison their own child. It is just unconscionable. I wonder if the step mother was behind this and the father went along. :shrug: Sick fucks..is all I can say.

[JackBeck]

12. And I thought my parents were strict.

Jeesh.

[ChoralScholar]

13. Pardon me for getting a little 'redneck'

but, as a teacher of this age kid, this makes me want to kick somebody's ass.

[_testify_]

14. That's not redneck.

That's human. Something these parents are not.