Man arrested after child found in dog cage, another outside naked
BY AMANDA BLAND World Staff Writer
Monday, November 12, 2012
Tulsa police on Sunday arrested a man accused of locking an 18-month-old child in a dog cage and leaving a 4-year-old outside naked.
A resident who lives near 4600 N. Frankfort Place called police about 4 p.m. Sunday when he heard a child crying for longer than 20 minutes, police said in a news release Monday.
The man found the child, who was naked, outside of William Todd Lewallen’s residence and tried to knock on the home’s front door. When no one answered, the neighbor took the child to his house and called police, said Officer Leland Ashley.
National Weather Service records indicated the outside temperature at 4 p.m. Sunday was 42 degrees.
The responding officers heard screaming from inside Lewallen’s home and, upon forcing entry, found an 18-month old locked inside a metal dog cage and covered in feces, Ashley said.
Lewallen was reportedly “impaired to the point where he didn’t hear his child screaming for help outside or the other child wailing to be let out of the cage,” according to the release.
He was found in bed with a third child, a 3-year-old, who was also naked.
Lewallen remains at the Tulsa Jail in lieu of $50,000 bond on a complaint of child abuse by neglect.
The Department of Human Services was called to take custody of the children.
Lewallen has been named in eight felony cases in four counties since 1989. He was to remain on probation until December 2013 after being convicted of second-degree burglary in Osage County in 2003.
In August, he was given a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to a Tulsa County charge filed last year of possessing a precursor with intent to manufacture methamphetamine.
Associated Images:
William Todd Lewallen
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