By Brendan O’Brien
MILWAUKEE, Jan 29 (Reuters) – A Wisconsin man was sentenced
on Wednesday to five years in prison for imprisoning his teenage
daughter in a basement for six years and forcing her to eat her
own excrement, a local prosecutor said.
Chad Chritton, 42, was also sentenced in Dane County Circuit
Court to an additional five years of extended supervision after
a jury found him guilty in November of four felonies, including
child abuse and neglecting a child, according to district
attorney Ismael Ozanne.
His wife Melinda Drabek-Chritton, 44, was sentenced to five
years in prison in July on similar charges.
Prosecutors had accused the Madison couple of holding the
girl in the basement of their home for about six years. The
couple told investigators they home-schooled her and said they
needed to lock her in the basement because she was a threat to
her family due to mental health issues.
The girl told investigators she was rarely allowed to eat
and, if given food, was forced to eat off the floor. She also
told detectives the couple forced her to use boxes or bags as a
toilet and to bathe in a utility sink in the basement.
Chritton and Drabek-Chritton, the girl’s father and
stepmother, were also accused of physically abusing the girl and
forcing her to do chores naked so she could not hide food in her
clothing.
The criminal complaint also accused them of forcing the girl
to drink her own urine and eat her own feces on several
occasions.
The girl’s stepbrother, Joshua Drabek, 20, is accused of
sexually assaulting her and will go on trial in February.
Prosecutors have accused Drabek of trying to have sexual
intercourse and oral sex with the girl on several occasions.
Charges were filed in 2012 against the couple and Drabek
after a passerby found the pajama-clad girl walking barefoot in
her neighborhood and appearing “extremely malnourished.”
(Reporting By Brendan O’Brien; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
