Girl Confined for Behaving Badly, She Says: Teen Testifies About Being Kept in Sparse Bedroom By Parents

By Gina Barton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jan. 31–OSHKOSH — A 13-year-old girl who prosecutors say was kept in near-solitary confinement for months said Tuesday that she was being punished for “getting out of bed, lying, stealing food, sassing back, (having a) really bad attitude, (and making) mean comments.” The girl’s psychiatrist said that while he had been treating her for more than a year for behavior issues, he had no idea she was being held in a nearly empty bedroom most of every day. The statements came during a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Winnebago County Circuit Court for her parents, Clint and Lynn Engstrom, who were ordered bound over for trial on charges of causing mental harm to a child. If convicted, each faces up to 12 1/2 years in prison. Defense attorneys argued that the psychiatrist’s testimony proved the girl had an underlying disorder and that nothing her parents did harmed her but was meant only to help her. The Engstroms were arrested Jan. 16, four days after they took their daughter to an Appleton hospital because she was hearing voices, tearing out her hair and picking at her skin. Oshkosh police — who went to the home after a Dec. 20 altercation between Lynn Engstrom and the girl’s grandmother — investigated after a hospital social worker reported suspicions of child abuse. The girl is Clint Engstrom’s daughter from a previous relationship. Lynn Engstrom adopted her a few years ago. A criminal complaint says the girl was “grounded” in an almost empty attic bedroom about 22 hours a day behind a locked door and surveillance camera, with no heat and a urine-soaked mattress. She told investigators that she was allowed out only for one-minute bathroom breaks, meager meals and chores. Some of the girl’s testimony Tuesday contradicted that information. She said she was never locked in the room, although she got in trouble if she left. She said her mattress was not soaked with urine; a detective said he smelled urine in the room. When District Attorney Christian Gossett asked the girl to describe a typical day of being grounded, the girl said: “Just sitting on my bed unless I was called to do chores or to eat.” The girl also said that until last spring, she attended Grace Lutheran School in Oshkosh throughout fifth and sixth grade, where she was an honor student and won an award for academic achievement. On school days, she would be mostly confined to her room after school, she said. She did not return for seventh grade in the fall, she said, but did get some schooling through a county program for troubled children a few days in December, according to testimony Tuesday. Gossett has said the girl had been terrified at the prospect of testifying, but he had practiced with her in the courtroom before the hearing. On Tuesday, Gossett arranged for a social worker to sit beside her as she testified and asked the defendants to sit outside her line of sight, but they refused. Wearing a Brett Favre jersey, the girl testified for about 30 minutes in a clear, loud voice. At her arrest, Lynn Engstrom told police that child psychiatrist John Korger had instructed her and her husband to stand firm in their punishment, according to the complaint. Korger testified Tuesday that he was working with the family but had no idea about the conditions in which the girl was held until he saw the charges. He said he started seeing the girl and Lynn Engstrom in January 2005, and he diagnosed the teen with oppositional defiant disorder, common among adolescents and characterized by being vindictive, uncooperative and easily angered. Korger also diagnosed reactive attachment disorder — not being very emotionally attached to the people around her. When treatment reached a standstill after about four months, Korger said, he recommended that the Engstroms seek help from Winnebago County social services or work with an in-home therapist. The family didn’t follow through on those suggestions, he said. After that, Korger said, he suggested a residential treatment center in Utah beginning in fall 2006, but the family’s insurance would pay for only one week of treatment. The girl had not started seventh grade in Oshkosh because the doctor and the family assumed she would go to Utah, Korger said. The girl testified Tuesday that she started pulling out her hair because of boredom. Korger said when he asked her about that in December, she said she didn’t know why she was doing it. Korger said he recommended that the girl’s parents take her to the hospital this month. “She was clearly deteriorated. She looked unkempt, bewildered, emotionally distraught,” he said. “She was clearly delusional. She was very much mentally ill, and she had to be hospitalized.” That conclusion, Lynn Engstrom’s attorney argued, should have been the end of the case. “As of Jan. 4, . . . it was his opinion that the child did not suffer any mental harm at the hand of the Engstroms,” defense attorney Joseph Hildebrand said. “These defendants did not cause, in his opinion, any mental harm to this child. And I think that’s the end of the story.” Paul Zilles, who represents Clint Engstrom, said: “This is a child who was experiencing mental health issues long before any of this came to light. . . . They have proffered a bunch of facts but haven’t established the connection.” Clint Engstrom, 32, and Lynn Engstrom, 35, remained in the Winnebago County Jail on Tuesday in lieu of $25,000 bail each. Court Commissioner Daniel Bissett scheduled an arraignment Feb. 5. Buy a link here

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