Girl’s abusers charged with felonies

Talk about it

The father and stepmother of a malnourished and molested 15-year-old girl in Madison were charged Feb. 15. Chad Chritton, 40, and Melinda Drabek-Chritton, 40, were charged in Dane County with felony reckless endangerment, felony child abuse, and misdemeanor child neglect.

The victim’s stepbrother, 18-year-old Joshua Drabek, was charged with child abuse and two counts of sexually assaulting the girl. Court Commissioner Todd Meurer continued to require cash bonds: $30,000 for the mother, $25,000 for the stepbrother, and $22,500 for the father.

The stepbrother and mother made court appearances soon after their charges were filed. Prosecutors filed a 16-page criminal complaint alleging that the girl was forced to live in an unfinished basement, starve and relieve herself there, set off an alarm when trying to go upstairs, and sometimes forced to eat her own feces.

The girl escaped the house late last week. That was apparently after she told officers that her mother threatened her with a knife, if she didn’t act faster to pick up papers from a floor.

Police said the girl weighed only 70 pounds when a man found her in pajamas and called 911. Although she was 15, prosecutors said the girl’s height was that of an 11-year-old and her weight was that of a nine-year-old child.

TV news reports said child protective workers made a half dozen contacts with the girl or her family since 1997 – and maltreatment was substantiated in only one of those contacts.

Tags: wisconsin, crime, courts