Attorney: Description of abuse exaggerated

Standard-Examiner (Ogden, UT)

Author: MARK GRAY

Standard-Examiner staff

mgray@standard.net

ROY -- Although the couple who police say abused an 8-year-old boy used "bad judgment," there is no evidence indicating the child would have died had the abuse continued, the couple's attorney said.

Attorney Gary W. Barr said the police's opinion that the crime was "extremely horrific" is "greatly exaggerated." Meanwhile, the accused father's former employer, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, called the incident "embarrassing."

Barr is referring to comments made by Roy Police Chief Greg Whinham in the Standard-Examiner Thursday about Salt Lake County correctional officer Scott Nelson, 32, and Catherine Kanani Nelson, 28, the couple accused of forcing their child to live on a small, concrete stairway landing with little clothing and no heat.

Authorities said the Nelsons didn't like the boy but loved their 3-year-old daughter, the boy's natural sister. Both were adopted from Samoa more than a year ago.

Barr said the boy "started to act out and wanted to return to his home in Samoa" some time in the fall. He then started defecating in his pants and withdrawing. Police said the Nelsons beat the child and, as punishment, forced him to stay in a outdoor shed, called the "Spider Room," without clothing.

In a letter faxed Thursday to the Standard-Examiner, Barr claimed, "The child was never locked outside in a shed, he was caused, on a few occasions, to wait outside of the house, in the winter, in his underwear, and the child did go into the shed."

Barr's arguments are a stark contrast to those made by detectives who claimed the child -- who was 7 years old at the time, but has since had a birthday -- lived in fear, his bedroom consisting of a 4-foot-by-4-foot stairway landing with no bedding.

Barr said there is no proof he was forced to live there, but "they did make him stay at the bottom of the stairway as a time out after he defecated and/or urinated in his pants or on the floor." He slept there a few times, he conceded.

He also disputed detectives' remarks that the child was given putrid food at school, saying he was given a sandwich, fruit, cookies and chips every day.

"There was a person who said that one day the sandwich's crust looked stale and the peanut butter did not look 'normal' whatever that means.

"There was no evidence of starvation," Barr went on to write, "in fact the child was in the 75th percentile of weight for children of his age, and blood work done on the child showed no evidence of malnutrition."

In the lengthy letter, Barr concedes the child had bruising on his body, and even agrees most of the bruising was nonaccidental.

"The parents' attempts to discipline were in bad judgment in my opinion," he wrote. "Certainly there were many other things they should have done."

After charges of second-degree felony child abuse were filed Feb. 17, Scott Nelson was placed on paid administrative leave, as per routine, by the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, where he worked for about three years in support services at the Salt Lake County Metro Jail. There, he worked in maintenance and security, said Paul Cunningham, chief deputy of corrections for the jail. Nelson resigned March 19.

"It's embarrassing," Cunningham said. "It's unfortunate when a law enforcement officer engages in criminal activity. We're not a perfect profession; we don't hire perfect people, but we do better than most."

Whinham did not want to discuss the case, saying he'd rather do that in the 2nd District Court. A preliminary hearing is set for April 28.

Phone calls to Barr's office were not returned Thursday.