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Father Accused of caging adopted son

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By Tony Holt

SPRING HILL -- When Michael Wells rented his house to a family of five last month, he thought he was doing a good deed for a set of morally courageous parents.

Ronald White and his wife had three adopted teenagers. The couple also told Wells they moved to the area from Georgia hoping for a fresh start, he said.

When he spoke to White's wife a couple of weeks ago, she was at the hospital. She told Wells over the phone their son was on a respirator and his outlook seemed dire.

"She was definitely concerned," Wells said.

He had just driven to the house at 1315 Medford Ave. in Spring Hill and noticed yellow taped wrapped around it.

A Hernando County Sheriff's deputy told Wells there had been a "misunderstanding" and the boy had suffered a seizure while taking a shower, he said.

He also was told the boy had flipped a go-kart in the backyard recently.

Wells was stunned when he heard from a reporter Tuesday that White had been arrested following allegations he had beaten and caged his adopted son.

"I thought we were helping people who helped other people," he said.

Deputies said White punched his son in the eye, forced him to drink a gallon of water and caged him inside a room without access to a toilet.

An investigation began after paramedics came to White's house July 14 and found the unconscious boy on the bathroom floor, according to the sheriff's office.

He was taken to Spring Hill Regional Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition "due to all his organs shutting down and his body being in septic shock," wrote Detective George Loydgren in an arrest affidavit.

Doctors said the teen had a black left eye and several bruises across his arms, legs and chest. He was airlifted to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.

White, 36, who lives at the Medford house, was arrested at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the sheriff's office. He was charged with aggravated child abuse causing great bodily harm and aggravated child abuse by caging. His bail was set at $20,000.

A jail spokesman said he posted bail at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. No one answered when a reporter rang the doorbell at the house that afternoon.

"It's just horrible," said neighbor Cheryl Schurecht, who hadn't met the Whites or their children. "I don't know how anyone could treat their kids that way."

She and other neighbors suspected wrongdoing a week or two earlier when they saw the yellow tape and a forensics vehicle parked in front of the house.

"I went on my computer after I saw that," said neighbor Shalynn Elasri. "I thought maybe there was a murder or something. That's what I was scared of."

Eight days after the teen was taken to the hospital, Loydgren spoke with him. He said his father had physically abused him, according to the sheriff's office.

Deputies would not release the victim's condition.

Some of the forms of punishment White administered included punching the teen in the face and causing a black eye, striking him several times in the head and body while he was on the floor and using a slide-bolt-style lock to confine him inside a room, deputies said.

Loydgren stated White locked the victim in his room every night and wouldn't allow him to use the bathroom. The boy's bedroom door had a "slide-bolt-style lock" on the outside, according to the affidavit.

Wells said a detective asked him about the locks. He said he had installed new doors in the house shortly before the Whites moved in and he had never added any special locks, he said.

The day before the boy went to the hospital, White punished him by making him drink a gallon of water, Loydgren wrote.

The teen told Loydgren one of White's favorite methods of punishment was making him drink large quantities of water at once, according to the affidavit.

White's wife was interviewed and corroborated her son's allegations, deputies said. Jail records show she has not been charged.

During his interview, the suspect admitted to the abuse, Loydgren wrote in the affidavit.

White's arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 18.

The teen has been removed from the house, along with his two sisters, who are 15 and 17 years old, according to the sheriff's office.

A message left with a Department of Children and Families spokeswoman was not returned.

Criminal records searches in Georgia and Florida uncovered no convictions for White.

Cpl. Wendy McGinnis, a sheriff's spokeswoman, said the investigation remains open.

In June 2010, Tai-Ling Gigliotti, 52, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being convicted on two counts of aggravated child abuse by caging. Jurors concluded she maliciously imprisoned, bound and beat her then-16-year-old son inside their Spring Hill home.

Gigliotti's live-in fiancée, Anton Angelo, also was charged in the case. He pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated child abuse and sentenced to five years probation in exchange for testifying against Gigliotti.

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2011 Jul 26