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KARE 11
Jail time and fines leveled in death
of Wisconsin girl
March 12, 2007
Watch Julianna Olsen's Report
 A
counseling center received the maximum fine and one of its staffers
was sentenced to 60 days in jail Monday in the death of a 7-year-old
girl who had been restrained at a center in Rice Lake because of
behavioral problems.
Northwest Counseling and Guidance
Clinic was convicted of one felony count of negligent abuse of a
resident. Barron County Circuit Judge Edward Brunner handed down the
maximum punishment, a $100,000 fine, and ordered the company to pay
$12,000 in restitution to Angellika Arndt's family, deputy clerk of
courts Ann Barnes said.
The staffer, Brad Ridout, was
convicted of misdemeanor negligent patient abuse. Ridout, 29, of
Rice Lake, was sentenced to 60 days in jail, one year of probation
and was ordered to meet with the girl's family if they wish to meet
with him, Barnes said.
District Attorney Angela Holmstrom
said the judge stayed a nine-month jail sentence for Ridout as long
as he successfully completes the probation.
"As far as we are concerned, the
case is resolved," she said.
The maximum punishment for the
misdemeanor was up to nine months in jail.
Angellika Arndt was repeatedly
endangered at Northwest Counseling's day-treatment center in Rice
Lake and a May 25 chokehold resulted in her death, the criminal
complaint said.
Arndt had attended the clinic's
day-treatment center five days a week for a month for behavioral
problems. She was restrained on nine separate occasions, according
to a state report.
She died May 26, the day after
Ridout covered her upper body with his own and held her head for
about 30 minutes, or until she became calm and listless, according
to court documents.
The Hennepin County, Minn., medical
examiner ruled her death a homicide because the restraint
significantly impaired her ability to breathe.
Northwest Counseling was accused in
court documents of failing to adequately train staff members on how
to perform restraints.
Ridout, who told Brunner on Monday
that he did what he was trained to do in the incident with the girl,
no longer works for Northwest Counseling, Holmstrom said.
The company has made some changes
since Angellika death, including getting parents more involved in
treatment programs and doing more focused training of staffers in
how to handle intense situations, Denison Tucker, the president of
Northwest Counseling's board, said Monday.
"We are vigorously moving toward
our goal of a control-hold free environment," he said in a
statement. "The training included a new emergency control hold
technique that eliminates prone and supine positions."
Tucker said that Northwest has 180
clients in its day-treatment programs, many of them high-risk
children.
"All of us ... struggle to put into
words the emotional impact of Angie's death," he said.
The Wisconsin clinic opened in 1997
and expanded to 12 facilities. The company closed its Rice Lake
office after the state revoked its license for six months.
According to court records and
state reports, Angie's birth parents gave her up in Milwaukee. She
was placed in foster homes until she was adopted by a Ladysmith
family. She suffered from numerous problems that included
hyperactivity, mood disorder, attention deficit disorder and
reactive attachment disorder. She had temper tantrums and was taking
medication. She attended Northwest's Rice Lake center, beginning
last April 24, at the suggestion of a counselor.
Some advocates worry the girl has
been all but been forgotten in Rice Lake, a town that erected a park
memorial to six local deer hunters who were murdered nearly three
years ago.
"You see decals, ribbons, 'Remember
the hunters' bumper stickers all over the place, but no one seems
concerned about the horrendous thing that happened to Angie," said
Rick Pelishek, a regional director of Wisconsin Family Ties &
Disability Rights. The organization is a nonprofit advocate group
for families with children with emotional disorders.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated
Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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