A Mountain Home couple charged with keeping a 15-year-old male described as low functioning locked in a dark bathroom, naked and unfed for days will enter a plea in their cases July 21.
The plea schedule was announced during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Monday (May 5).
Forty-year-old Daniel Wright and 42-year-old Jaclyn Barnett had initially pled not guilty to the charges against them during an earlier court session.
They are facing 112 counts of false imprisonment as well as endangering the welfare of a minor and permitting the abuse of a minor.
The investigation has showed that since 2013, twenty-nine cases have been opened on the young man based on reports that came to the Child Abuse Hotline managed by the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS).
The cases dealt with such matters as maltreatment, inadequate supervision, failure to provide food and other essential needs, extreme or repeated cruelty and failure to protect.
Information was provided by mandated reporters and anonymous sources. Mandated reporters are those who are required by law to report instances of child abuse and include teachers, social workers, health care professionals, law enforcement and coaches.
Available information on the case does not show how many of the 29 complaints/cases were actually looked into in any depth by DHS/Child Protective Services, but they were apparently all closed after the incidents were deemed unsubstantiated.
At his request, Prosecutor David Ethredge met with the head of the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) and the agencys chief attorney to ask questions about how the 29 complaints were handled and why the teens situation had not come to light earlier as a result of the numerous complaints.
After the meeting, which was held in Mountain Home, Ethredge told KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot News that the DHS head, Kristi Putman, admitted her agency had not met its responsibilities to the teen victim and that the ball had been badly dropped.
In addition, Ethredge said DHS would be reviewing the entire case, including each of the 29 reports called into the Child Abuse Hotline, to determine where the system failed and how it failed so those issues can be addressed.
KTLO, Classic Hits and the Boot News talked with the spokesman for DHS in Little Rock last week. He said the investigation into the case had been completed and that a report was being written to submit to Ethredges office.
The prosecutor has said if it appeared to him that the information being reviewed rose to a level where criminal charges might be filed against others, he would ask the Arkansas State Police to enter the case.
According to the probable cause affidavit, it was in January last year that the family moved into the apartment where the boys situation was eventually brought to light.
Downstairs neighbors reported hearing noises coming from the upstairs apartment where the family lived and said they reported it to management several times.
The apartment managers claim they notified Wright and Barnett about the complaints but the noises continued.
In October, police were notified and Wright was contacted by telephone about the noise.
During the telephone call with Wright, he was reported to have said a 15-year-old male who also lived in the house was at work with him. Records do not show that any effort was made to see the boy face-to-face in order to prove or disprove Wrights claim.
Investigators speculate the other two children in the house — ages 10 and 11 — may have been coached by the adults not to talk about the 15-year-old or his living conditions.
On November 2 last year, police returned to the apartment complex to investigate a report that audible cries for help were coming from an upstairs unit.
It was at this point that the boys maltreatment and the extent of that maltreatment was finally uncovered.
Officers met with the occupant in the downstairs apartment and were taken to the master bedroom where the teenager could be heard speaking to the tenants from the upstairs apartment where he lived.
He said that he was locked in the bathroom and could not get out.
Police headed to the upstairs apartment and were met by the other two juveniles living in the house Wright and Barnett were reported to have been at work. Wright is said to have been employed at a furniture rental business and Barnett at a used car lot.
When police went to the master bedroom of the upstairs unit occupied by Wright and Barnett, they saw a red ratchet strap attached to the bedpost and the door of the master bath. A ratchet strap is commonly used to tie down and secure items being carried in a vehicle.
When the strap was released and the door opened, officers saw the naked 15-year-old male. He told them he had been locked inside the bathroom the day before and not allowed out since.
Officers saw no clothing in the bathroom. The boy said he slept naked because he had once stuffed clothing into a vent to stop cold air from coming into the room.
According to investigative reports, the lack of clothing appeared to be some sort of punishment for clogging the vent.
Police reported that the teen was embarrassed to come out of the bathroom because he was nude.
Even though the two juveniles who met police at the front door had initially feigned ignorance about a person being locked in the bathroom, they did speak to officers after the victim had been discovered.
The two juveniles said they slept in bunkbeds and the 15-year-old male slept on a pallet in the bathroom. They said there was no bedroom in the apartment for the boy.
The victim referred to Wright as his stepfather and to Barnett as his mother. She is actually his legal guardian.
There are court records regarding a guardianship for two boys that lists Jaclyn M. Barnett as the person asking for the designation. She is listed as the boys paternal aunt and as Wrights fiancé.
In an annual guardianship report submitted by Barnetts attorney several years ago, one of the boys was said to be attending a kindergarten where he received counseling, occupational, speech and physical therapy to address his needs.
In an annual report that guardians are required to fill out, Barnett said one of the boys received $733 a month in social security benefits
Court records are liberally sprinkled with documents showing what can only be described as a dysfunctional family.
At one point, Barnett was quoted as saying there were at least six children in her home and higher numbers – up to a dozen – are also mentioned in court reports and other documents.
When Wright and Barnett were interviewed, they said they had no idea the 15-year-old had been locked in the bathroom.
The couple claimed the boy must have been locked in while the kids were playing. Officers reported the two juveniles were asked to demonstrate how they would manipulate the ratchet strap keeping the bathroom door shut but they were unable to perform the task.
Wright and Barnett were also reported to have told investigators that the ratchet strap was not used to keep the teen in the bathroom, but to keep all of the children in the house out because of a leaky faucet that had been reported to management several times.
Apartment managers contradicted that statement telling investigators they had been contacted once in July by Wright and Barnett and that was to report a loose toilet, not a leaky faucet.
The victim, who was reported to be small for his age, said he was only let out of the bathroom to attend school and that is also the only time he was able to eat.
When school records were checked, they showed the victim had been to school for only 112 days since January last year.
The teen and other children living in the apartment were removed by DHS.
The attorney representing Wright and Barnett, James E. Hensley, Jr., who practices in Conway, stood with the couple during their appearance in circuit court May 5.
The pair had been represented by Deputy Public Defender James Wallace.
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