Terre Haute couple charged with abuse of adopted boys had encounter with police earlier this year

ERRE HAUTE – Bonnie Butler knew there was something strange about her neighbors.

It started a few months ago, around the time school began. One day, she saw one of their children standing outside and gesticulating wildly.

“He acted like there was something wrong with him,” she said. “I should have went over to ask him, could I help him.”

But Butler, like many of her neighbors, said she had no idea the Terre Haute couple would soon stand accused of beating, confining and starving three of their adopted children.

Vigo County prosecutors filed Wednesday 11 counts of abuse and confinement against Larry Russell, 39, and Nikki Russell, 35, with three additional ones for the latter. The charges carry a possible 48-year prison sentence between the two, plus tens of thousands of dollars in penalty fines.

Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt said investigators are just scratching the surface of a case he called one of the most “appalling” his office has ever seen.

“It’s all still under investigation,” Modesitt said. “It’s very possible there could be additional charges at a later point.”

The Russells were arrested Nov. 23 after their 17-year-old adopted son told investigators he escaped their home through a window and had been tied up and beaten by his parents.

The boy said the Russells had at times bound him and his two brothers with rope, withheld food, “back handed” them and put IcyHot on one boy’s genitals and in his rectum, according to an investigator’s report.

The Russells have another adopted child and a biological child, but they are not named in police reports. Modesitt said the children are in the care of the Department of Child Services, but he would not elaborate.

Most of the charges are alleged to have taken place between Aug. 23 and Nov. 23 of this year. But Travis Chesshir, the lead detective handling the case, said the boy could have been starved for even longer based on his state of malnutrition.

Chesshir said the Russells adopted three of their children April 13 of this year. The fourth was adopted in 2008. They had also been foster parents to the children.

Modesitt said the case is still fresh and his office does not have all the details.

“We’re looking into everything. We’re trying to look back as far as how all this allegedly first commenced, involvement, how it all came about,” he said. “At this point, we’re trying to find out as much information as we can.”

That includes, Modesitt said, how the Russells interacted with DCS while they were foster parents. Child service’s spokeswoman Stephanie McFarland said details about when the Russells served as foster parents as well as adoption records for their children were confidential. But she said all foster parents are subjected to annual inspections and monthly evaluations, while adoptive parents are not, since those children are no longer wards of the state.

John Fortner, 24, said he’s lived next door to the Russell home on the city’s Northside for about seven months. He said he knew something was up last week, when he stopped seeing kids from the house going to school. And he said he almost called the police the night before the arrests after hearing an odd pounding sound.

“Literally, it was 2:45 or 3 o’clock in the morning,” he said. “I think it was a hammer. I think they were boarding up something.”

Neighbors also said last week’s incident wasn’t the first encounter the Russells have had with police.

Many recounted an incident from May 25 as evidence of trouble, when they said at least six squad cars were lined up outside the home after someone reported shots fired.

Some of the police were “going down the alley,” said Angie Decker, 41, who lives two doors down. “I’ve never seen something like that.”

Larry Russell was arrested on a felony domestic battery charge because of that incident, according to a probable cause affidavit. Four of their children were listed as witnesses.

He was barred from contacting Nikki Russell, a court order which she later requested to be dropped. It was, and the case was deferred until January.

Modesitt said he’s aware of the case, and he’s factoring it into the investigation. But some neighbors wondered why the children stayed in the home after that incident.

“(Police) were there for several hours,” Butler said. “How come they didn’t notice those kids being abused then?”

McFarland said in a domestic violence case, the state is only allowed to intervene with adopted children if both parents are arrested — in which case law enforcement would have to contact them — or if DCS were to receive a report of child abuse or neglect and abandonment.

In this case, she said, they have no statement.

The Russells — Larry works construction and Nikki is unemployed — are being held in Vigo County Jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond each. Vigo County Superior Court District Six Judge Michael Lewis assigned each defendant a public defender.

Follow Star reporter Jill Disis on Twitter at twitter.com/jdisis. Call her at (317) 444-6137.