Police: Teen Frequently Tied Up, Kept In Closet

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A woman accused of beating her 14-year-old son frequently tied him up to prevent him from escaping and had a lock installed on a bedroom closet where he often was kept for days at a time, police said Tuesday.

Investigators continued to conduct interviews and examine evidence on Tuesday as they prepare a criminal case against 37-year-old LaRhonda Marie McCall, police Sgt. Gary Knight said.

McCall and a friend, 38-year-old Steve Vern Hamilton, were arrested Saturday on 20 complaints each of child abuse and child neglect. Both remained jailed Tuesday on $400,000 bond.

Neither has been formally charged, and jail officials were not sure if either has an attorney. No one answered the phone at McCall’s home on Tuesday.

Based on physical evidence and interviews conducted so far, investigators have no reason to doubt the teen, who claimed he spent most of the last 4 1/2 years locked inside bedroom closets at various apartments where the family lived, Knight said.

“I personally have seen those photographs of the boy’s body, and he was subjected to a number of types of abuse,“ he said. “He was frequently locked in the closet for hours if not days at a time. He wasn’t allowed to leave, never attended school, never received medical attention.“

McCall had seven other children, six of whom were minors and were taken into custody of the Department of Human Services, but none showed signs of abuse, Knight said.

Police launched an investigation Friday after the boy, malnourished and covered with scars, showed up at a National Guard armory about a mile and a half from the town house where he lived.

He told police the closet door was mostly blocked with a stepladder or a bed and that he managed to push the door open enough to escape and leave the house.

Dr. Daniel Rybicki, a Gig Harbor, Wash., clinical psychologist who specializes in domestic violence and child abuse and consults in criminal and civil cases, said it’s not uncommon for an abusive parent to single out one child as a target for violence.

“There may be temperament variables, where one child is difficult to deal with, but it may be that there are a number of factors with what that child means to the parent,“ Rybicki said. “The child may look like someone who troubled the parent.

“It may be completely irrational and based on that parent’s own pathology.“