Amyroo77

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Deborah L. Cameron of St. Paul and her live-in boyfriend, Eric Bare, are accused of locking the woman's 11-year-old daughter in a chain-link dog kennel in a warehouse basement, leaving her cold and one night, naked.

Deborah L. Cameron and Eric Bare appeared in Ramsey County District Court on Wednesday, each charged with two counts of unreasonable restraint of a child, a gross misdemeanor.

Cameron called St. Paul police Jan. 1 to say she was having problems with her daughter and asked them to remove the girl from their home.

When police arrived they heard the girl screaming.

She told them that Bare locked her in a dog cage, hit her and read her diary.

Child protection officials removed the girl, then talked with the couple about the girl's allegations, the complaint states.
Deborah Cameron
Star Tribune

Bare, 41, and Cameron, 34, told officers that on two occasions in 2003 they had locked the girl in a kennel 12 feet long, 3 feet wide and 6 feet high to discipline her and change her behavior, according to a criminal complaint.
The girl was locked in the kennel for three days in August 2003 when she was 11 years old, and again in October 2003 for a week, Bare told authorities.

During the confinement periods, the girl said, she was let out of the kennel only to attend school and to do chores.

Bare and Cameron were released from jail Wednesday night after Bare posted $5,000 bail and Cameron posted $2,000 bail. Conditions for their release included having no contact with the girl and maintaining regular contact with pretrial release officials. County Attorney Susan Gaertner said she has never seen a case like this in her 20 years as a prosecutor. She said the couple's actions are deserving of more serious charges, but prosecutors could not find a state felony law that fit the conduct.

"It's hard to even comment on a case like this. It's so incomprehensible that a couple would think it was OK ... appropriate ... to confine a young girl in a dog kennel," Gaertner said. "I've seen all kinds of sick human behavior, but not this."

Allegations against the couple, who have lived in that stretch of Snelling Avenue in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood for many years, shocked neighbors.

"I think it's horrible," said Shawn Clark, who lives next door. "People shouldn't do that to a child. I have two young children of my own."

Ramsey County child protection officials said they cannot comment because of state privacy laws.

Bare told police that he believed the kennel was a suitable temporary living arrangement for the girl.

He said he put two car seats, a throw rug and a blanket in the kennel and placed it over a floor drain so the girl could urinate while locked up overnight. The girl told authorities that the kennel was cold but not freezing because she had a blanket.

Bare said he strip-searched the girl twice because he worried that she was concealing a stolen key to unlock the kennel. He said he forced the girl to spend one night naked in the kennel.

Cameron said that the confinement was Bare's idea but that she agreed to it.

She said she observed one strip search of the girl and approved of it. She also said she sat outside the kennel and talked to her daughter in hopes of altering her behavior problems.

Clark, the neighbor, said Bare told her that he was a musician in a band and that he kept equipment in the concrete warehouse or storage space on the north side of the couple's duplex.

Bare rented the warehouse for the past five years and was considered a good tenant.

"I've never had a problem with him," said Jason Brown of the Management Matrix, which leases out the warehouse and two adjoining apartments in a duplex on Snelling Avenue. "I knew he had a dog occasionally. I didn't think there was a kennel."

Neighbors said the couple had a golden or orange labrador retriever that they kept in their upstairs apartment or next door in the warehouse space. Neighbors reported seeing the dog often but not the girl. No one reported seeing obvious signs of injury on the girl.

"We'd hear yelping at night when we'd step outside but that's about it," said Mose Yang, who lives two houses away.

Sgt. Janet Dunnom, a St. Paul Police Department spokeswoman, said police received two previous complaints about mistreatment of the girl. Those were turned over to child protection officials.

One complaint made in June 2003 by someone other than the girl was not similar to the allegations made in the current criminal charges, Dunnom said.

Police received a report in May that the girl had complained of minor physical abuse, but that was not corroborated, Dunnom said.


This is from the star and tribune Minnesota paper. i'd post a link but you have to be a member to review it.

Car Enthusiast

it does sound bad, but this story could be totally twisted by the reporting agency

Amyroo77

It could be, but its been on our local news for the last day and half and in the paper so I am going to guess its not all that twisted.

Jabooty_3

I'm from the twin cities area and have heard quite a bit about this story. It is a twisted story, and the guy is one sick bastard. I wonder how she the girl didn't tell anyone before. Coverage has died down the last few days so I don't have to hear about him as much.

ITGuyfromHeLL

Okay, here we go...

How is this, really, any different from me being sent to my room when I was a kid? I remember several times when I was banished to my room, in the basement, no TV, no Nintendo, no computer, no toys, for weeks. I was allowed to go to school, eat dinner with the family (gee, thanks), shower and go to the bathroom. But that was it. I came home from school, to the room, I got done with dinner, to the room. Weekends, I saw no sunlight. yes, it was drywall and not chainlink, yes I had clothes and wasn't naked (okay, I was naked sometimes, but that was by choice), but I was alone, in a basement room, hers was 12'x3'x6', mine was 11'x4.5'x6.5'. I had a rug, she had a rug. I had a blanket, she had a blanket.

I mean, I feel for the girl, psychologically being in a chainlink cage in much different than a bedroom.

I dunno what I am trying to say...I think it is the hunger talking...I am going to go eat my half Quiznos sandwich and shut up for a while...

~ITGuyfromHELL~

thepipebomb

You’re joking right!?! I can’t see how you can compare being sent to your room, with being locked naked in a dog kennel.