A 5-year-old boy who was locked in a windowless basement room for 12 hours a night reportedly had an ”orangey tint” after his parents forced him to eat carrots before every meal, according to court documents.
Brett and Clarissa Tobiasson, ages 30 and 27, respectively, of Eagle Mountain, were charged with second-degree felony child abuse in 4th District Court on Aug. 9 after a witness reported the alleged abuse to police.
Last fall, the witness visited the home, and said the child’s bedroom door was secured shut with a rope, which the witness untied before going to bed. The same witness also saw the couple lock the child inside a basement room at 6 or 7 p.m., and neither parent gave the child anything to eat or drink in the room or let him out — even to go to the bathroom — until the next morning.
The room the boy was kept overnight was described by witnesses as dark and windowless, according to court documents. The boy had a sheet-less mattress to sleep on and the door knob had been reversed so it locked from the outside. With no access to a toilet, the boy hid his waste in a hole in the wall to avoid getting in trouble, according to court documents.
At mealtime, the child had to eat carrots prior to receiving any other food or drink, the witness reported. Clarissa Tobiasson allegedly told the witness the reason for the routine was that the child “does not like them.” The family ate pizza for dinner that night, and the child wasn‘t allowed any unless he ate all of his carrots in 15 minutes. If he didn’t finish his carrots in the time limit, he wasn’t allowed to eat the meal.
The next night, the boy was not allowed to eat any pizza because he had gone to the bathroom in his pants while locked in the room the night before, according to the documents.
The witness reportedly called the visit the “worst 4 days of her life,” the documents state.
“At one point, the child would be sent to respite care for the day and Clarissa‘s reply was that sometimes he just needs to go away so she could miss him and really love him,” court documents state.
The couple had adopted the 5-year-old and his 2-year-old brother after they had initially been their foster children. They also have a 2-month-old girl. All three children have now been removed from the home. The Utah Division of child and Family Services took custody of the children in June. The victim of the abuse, who turned 6 in June, is staying with a grandmother.
“Clarissa reported that she did not know she could not lock her children in their rooms and thought that only applied to foster kids,” the documents state. ”Clarissa reported when the child is in the basement they cannot understand his word but can hear him hitting and yelling.”
The couple have posted $10,000 bail each. Scheduling hearing has been set for Sept. 14 in Provo.
The younger two children were not treated the same way as their brother, according to Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon.
“They were treated better. They did not have the restrictions, they had a regular bedroom with toys and a sippy cup with water and those kinds of things,” Cannon said. “It was primarily the older boy who was treated this way. But he seems to be doing pretty well now.”