Wisconsin woman convicted of force-feeding, beating adopted children

By Alahna Kindred, The Sun

A jury has convicted a former Wisconsin state trooper of severely physically and mentally abusing her adopted children.

Sharon Windey, 55, buried her head in her hands and sobbed as the judge read out that she was guilty of eight counts of felony charges of physical child abuse, causing mental harm to a child, and strangulation and suffocation.

The court heard how the four victims, who are now in their teens, were punched, choked and force-fed vomit by their adoptive parents.

Windey, of De Pere, Wisconsin, was convicted following a six-day trial, while her husband, Donald, 53, has also been accused of abusing their adoptive children.

Prosecutors told Brown County Circuit Court that the abuse lasted 12 years before Windey was charged in March 2018.

Police were contacted several times by school officials, social workers and others claiming the couple and their biological son, Steven, 27, were abusing the three children, according to a criminal complaint.

They finally interviewed the children following a physical altercation in the home when they refused to go to church in February 2018. It was then that authorities heard the full scale of horrific abuse they were subjected to.

The children told police that Donald forced one of them to eat their own vomit-covered food after they got sick during a meal, according to the criminal complaint. They also alleged Donald made the girls strip down to their underwear, sit on his lap and have “kissing sessions.”

The children detailed how Windey, a former state trooper, used “excessive feedings of oatmeal” as a form of punishment, and would lock the kitchen cabinets so the children couldn’t access other food themselves.

In the same criminal complaint, the children said Steven put his hand around one of their throats during an incident in February 2018.

The children also alleged they were forced to participate in a bizarre prayer ritual while standing on one foot in their underwear, and were beaten if they lost their balance.

A fourth child, who had moved out of the house when she turned 18, told investigators she was subjected to similar abuse when she lived with the couple and their son.

The three were arrested in February 2018.

Windey is out on bond pending sentencing on Jan. 13 and is required to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet.

During the trial, she appeared stoic and during her testimony Friday, she told the jury her adopted children were lying about being abused.

The prosecutor asked, “If all the kids are consistently saying this happened through the years — years! — they’re lying?”

She replied: “Some of the things they’re lying about. There’s some threads of truth to it, but a lot of this stuff was just being fabricated.”

She said the children were disobedient, disrespectful and needed discipline.

She admitted to physical punishments like making them do door push-ups or stair runs, as well as making them write essays, taking the doors off their bedrooms, and giving many of their belongings to charity after a fight.

Windey told the court: “Your life can be taken away from you in a minute, just like that, because people say things and that’s it, no evidence. You can’t just discipline without love. These children are very manipulative, and they know how to use things against each other.”

Donald will next appear in court on Dec. 17 to face a string of felony and misdemeanor offenses.

He has been charged with two felony counts of repeated physical abuse of a child with probability of great bodily harm, party to a crime, one felony count of physical abuse of a child, one felony count of strangulation and suffocation, four misdemeanor counts of child neglect party to a crime, and four felony counts of mental harm to a child, party to a crime.

Donald was also charged last month with three counts of repeated sexual assault of a child.

Steven Windey will next appear in court on Feb. 7 for a plea hearing over two felony charges of child abuse and attempted strangulation and suffocation, and a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.