Insets, top to bottom: Jeffery Scanlan and Misty Scanlan (Henderson Police Department). Background: The home where their son was found in a feces-filled enclosure (KLAS).
A judge handed down the fate of two Nevada parents who admitted to locking their 11-year-old son who has autism in an enclosure “similar to a jail cell” for six years in a case uncovered when a truancy officer went to the home after the boy hadn’t shown up for school.
Jeffery Scanlan and Misty Scanlan pleaded guilty on Jan. 8 to a misdemeanor child neglect charge. On Wednesday, a judge sentenced them to a year of probation, online court records show. District Judge Jessica Peterson determined the Scanlans were a low risk of reoffending, which contributed to her decision to not give the couple jail time, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Defense attorney Michael Horvath told the newspaper that the result was a “fair resolution.” The Scanlans didn’t actually keep their son in a cage, defense attorneys contended, it was just more of an enclosure to keep the boy safe.”
“Obviously, the initial charges didn’t really show what the underlying facts were,” Horvath said, adding his clients “learned from this.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, the case came to light on April 23 when a truancy officer went to the house to check on the boy, who had been absent from school for over a week.
The truancy officer told police no one was answering the door, even though a child could be heard screaming and a gate rattling inside, according to the police report obtained by local CBS affiliate KLAS.
After about 40 minutes, Jeffery Scanlan answered the door and told police his children had been absent from school because they were sick, according to the report. When the officer asked if he could go in to check on the children, the defendant agreed. In the living room, the officer saw a large enclosure with metal bars and locked doors, “similar to a jail cell,” the report said.
In the enclosure was a young boy wearing only a diaper. The enclosure had feces on the floor and walls.
