Parents are charged in child-neglect case
Adopted 12-year-old girl and other children endured unusual punishments, officer says.
Author: JOHN MASSON; STAFF WRITER
An Army financial specialist and his wife, who police say locked their 12-year-old daughter in a feces-strewn basement, were charged this week with battery and felony child neglect.
Christopher Slatten, 33, a student at the Indiana University School of Law in addition to his Army duties, remains free on $10,000 bond. He was arrested last week by Lawrence police.
Slatten and his 28-year-old wife, Elizabeth Slatten, adopted the girl from a Russian orphanage several years ago, Detective Sgt. James R. Fouch of the Lawrence Police Department said.
The girl had been living with her parents in the 7900 block of East 46th Street along with several other children who were in the process of being adopted, Fouch said. They were removed by Child Protective Services workers and placed in foster care in February.
"It was a time-consuming process," Fouch said of the investigation. "These kind of cases always take a long time."
According to court documents, the victim was forced to sleep on a bed saturated with animal waste in the unlighted basement, while other children slept upstairs.
A photograph taken by a CPS worker showed a dead rat, its head chewed off, lying in the same bed.
The stench emanating from the house was so vile, Fouch said, that two Lawrence Police Department supervisors refused to enter during a run there in February.
Over a period of about 18 months, Fouch said, the girl suffered bizarre punishments, including being stripped naked and forced to sing songs in front of other family members. She also was forced to stand in the corner naked, and sometimes had to hold lumber over her head.
Other children also suffered unusual punishments, Fouch said, but none as severe as the girl's.
Christopher Slatten refused to comment about the charges.
His commander, Capt. Alan Lindley, said Slatten and the Army were working with police.
"When the detectives called, we personally went down there and he turned himself in," Lindley said. "He ... believes in his innocence."
Lindley also emphasized that the soldier was off-duty when the alleged abuse took place. If Slatten is convicted, he faces discharge from the armed forces.
Elizabeth Slatten left her husband in January and took several of her biological children out of state with her, Fouch said. She hasn't yet been arrested.
Fouch wasn't sure whether she Elizabeth Slatten would be returned to Indiana to face the charges. But he said she was aware of the alleged mistreatment, and once told the girl to "have fun sleeping in the basement with the dog poopy."