Updated 9-8 to reflect new information contained in the criminal complaint.
A school social worker was aware of the child-rearing problems faced by a Wind Lake area grandmother before the woman started locking her nine year-old granddaughter in a cage.
According to a criminal complaint that was filed Friday, a social worker for the Muskego-Norway School District told investigators that she had contacted the grandmother, 46 year-old Gail Lalonde, because her granddaughter needed help with social and coping skills. Lalonde is the girl's guardian. The date of the contact wasn't specified in the complaint.
According to the complaint, Lalonde told the social worker that she believes her granddaughter is "psychotic." She also indicated that she's had trouble controlling the girl, claiming that she eats inappropriate things, including stuff that could be poisonous.
When confronted by a Racine County Sheriff's Deputy this week, Lalonde reportedly admitted that she had locked the girl in a large dog kennel for the past two weeks. "Yes, that is true...she hurts animals, threatens to kill us, eats Ridex and cleaners," the complaint quotes Lalonde as saying. Ridex is a septic system cleaner.
The social worker told a deputy that the girl "has had significant and substantial emotional trauma previous to this incident," the complaint says. The "incident" refers to this week's cage investigation. The "trauma" wasn't identified in the criminal complaint.
Lalonde, and the owner of the woman's residence, 48 year-old Dale Deavers, were both charged Friday with false imprisonment and causing mental harm to a child. The complaint includes a couple of drug-related charges because a deputy who had gone to the residence to investigate the child abuse complaint stumbled across 23 marijuana plants and 121.9 grams of dried marijuana.
The kennel that the victim was kept in overnight and on weekends is 8 ft. by 4 ft. in size and nearly five feet tall. A padlock prevented the girl from getting out. "Cardboard on the floor, a couple of blankets, and a padlock? I wouldn't treat my own dog that way," Racine County Sheriff Chris Schmaling told reporters Thursday before the criminal complaints were filed. .
"This by far is one of the most disturbing and heart-wrenching cases of child abuse I've seen," he said. "It doesn't get much worse than this."
According to the complaint, Deavers bought the kennel at the end of August.
The child's situation was uncovered after social workers responded late Wednesday morning to Lakeview Elementary School after a teacher noticed that the victim's hair had been cut unusually short. The girl told the social worker that Lalonde had done it because she was angry that the girl had tried to cut it herself. That's when she revealed that she'd been locked in the cage.
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