Trial over caging autistic boys begins in Vancouver
May 22, 2012, 4:57 AM | Updated: 9:17 am
John Eckhart, 31, and Alayna Higdon, 27, are charged with unlawful imprisonment of Eckhart's sons, ages 5 and 7, between October 2010 and April 2011. Photos of the boys behind the gate were shown in court Monday. (Image courtesy KOIN TV Portland)
(Image courtesy KOIN TV Portland)
Was it cruelty or child proofing? A Vancouver couple is
accused of imprisoning their two severely autistic
children behind a locked gate in their apartment.
The boys were found last April caged in a room of a small
Vancouver apartment. The two boys, aged 5 and 7, were
wearing only diapers. They shared a small bed in the
darkened room. There were no toys or other items.
Their dad, John Eckhart, and his live-in girlfriend,
Alayna Higdon, had constructed a make-shift gate to lock
the two in the room. It was made out of metal shelving
turned on its end.
Defense attorney Jon McMullen told the jury on Monday that
the two had tried a variety of safety measures to keep the
severely autistic boys from hurting themselves in the
apartment, but nothing had worked. The boys had a history
of getting out of the apartment at night. So the couple
constructed this large baby gate, as McMullen called it,
that they used from time to time.
“We would suggest that it’s not just reasonable what J.C.
did to raise his two children but it was absolutely
required to safely raise his kids,” McMullen told the
court.
But Clark County prosecutor Dustin Richardson said the
boys were only let out of the cage for treats and a daily
bath. He told the court the couple caged the kids because
they just didn’t want to deal with them. He said the
couple thought of them as a burden and a hassle.
“Convenience, computer games, extended smoke breaks,”
Richardson said, “these are the reasons that these
defendants kept two young boys locked behind a make-shift
cage in a bedroom in their apartment.”
The prosecution is expected to call the couple’s 10-year-
old non-autistic son to testify about the conditions. He
often pushed food through the gate so his siblings could
eat.
The two boys were taken from the couple last year. The
older boy is now in foster care. The younger is with his
biological mother.
Eckhart and Higdon could face up to five years in prison
if convicted.
The trial is expected to last most of this week.
