Jail time and fines leveled in death of Wisconsin girl

A counseling center received the maximum fine and one of its staffers was sentenced to 60 days in jail Monday in the death of a 7-year-old girl who had been restrained at a center in Rice Lake because of behavioral problems.

Northwest Counseling and Guidance Clinic was convicted of one felony count of negligent abuse of a resident. Barron County Circuit Judge Edward Brunner handed down the maximum punishment, a $100,000 fine, and ordered the company to pay $12,000 in restitution to Angellika Arndt's family, deputy clerk of courts Ann Barnes said.

The staffer, Brad Ridout, was convicted of misdemeanor negligent patient abuse. Ridout, 29, of Rice Lake, was sentenced to 60 days in jail, one year of probation and was ordered to meet with the girl's family if they wish to meet with him, Barnes said.

District Attorney Angela Holmstrom said the judge stayed a nine-month jail sentence for Ridout as long as he successfully completes the probation.

"As far as we are concerned, the case is resolved," she said.

The maximum punishment for the misdemeanor was up to nine months in jail.

Angellika Arndt was repeatedly endangered at Northwest Counseling's day-treatment center in Rice Lake and a May 25 chokehold resulted in her death, the criminal complaint said.

Arndt had attended the clinic's day-treatment center five days a week for a month for behavioral problems. She was restrained on nine separate occasions, according to a state report.

She died May 26, the day after Ridout covered her upper body with his own and held her head for about 30 minutes, or until she became calm and listless, according to court documents.

The Hennepin County, Minn., medical examiner ruled her death a homicide because the restraint significantly impaired her ability to breathe.

Northwest Counseling was accused in court documents of failing to adequately train staff members on how to perform restraints.

Ridout, who told Brunner on Monday that he did what he was trained to do in the incident with the girl, no longer works for Northwest Counseling, Holmstrom said.

The company has made some changes since Angellika death, including getting parents more involved in treatment programs and doing more focused training of staffers in how to handle intense situations, Denison Tucker, the president of Northwest Counseling's board, said Monday.

"We are vigorously moving toward our goal of a control-hold free environment," he said in a statement. "The training included a new emergency control hold technique that eliminates prone and supine positions."

Tucker said that Northwest has 180 clients in its day-treatment programs, many of them high-risk children.

"All of us ... struggle to put into words the emotional impact of Angie's death," he said.

The Wisconsin clinic opened in 1997 and expanded to 12 facilities. The company closed its Rice Lake office after the state revoked its license for six months.

According to court records and state reports, Angie's birth parents gave her up in Milwaukee. She was placed in foster homes until she was adopted by a Ladysmith family. She suffered from numerous problems that included hyperactivity, mood disorder, attention deficit disorder and reactive attachment disorder. She had temper tantrums and was taking medication. She attended Northwest's Rice Lake center, beginning last April 24, at the suggestion of a counselor.

Some advocates worry the girl has been all but been forgotten in Rice Lake, a town that erected a park memorial to six local deer hunters who were murdered nearly three years ago.

"You see decals, ribbons, 'Remember the hunters' bumper stickers all over the place, but no one seems concerned about the horrendous thing that happened to Angie," said Rick Pelishek, a regional director of Wisconsin Family Ties & Disability Rights. The organization is a nonprofit advocate group for families with children with emotional disorders.