PD: Parents kept teen daughter in squalor for 2 years
CHICAGO, Illinois -- A suburban Chicago couple faces abuse and neglect charges after allegedly locking their disabled teenage daughter in a squalid bedroom for at least two years.
The Chicago Tribune reports 59-year-old Charles Hopkins III and his longtime girlfriend, 38-year-old Marinda Y. Hicks, made an initial appearance Saturday in Cook County court.
Authorities say the Blue Island couple's 18-year-old daughter, who has the mental capacity of a small child, slept on a soiled mattress and was fed through the bars of a gate.
Prosecutors say a portable toilet was installed in her room, but it was only emptied every four or five days.
Hopkins' private attorney Elliot Zingger says that there was "a lot more to the story" than what prosecutors claimed. He also noted that his client lacks a criminal record.
