Alan Small, 38, pleaded no contest to three misdemeanor counts legally called “neglecting a child (specified harm did not occur),” court records show.
His mother, Barbara Peterson, 63, has an Aug. 15 trial scheduled on three child neglect charges.
The two were charged in July 2019 for the conditions found in the home on 11th Avenue.
Two 15-year-old boys described how they were provided a bucket to use a toilet. Also, their rooms had an alarm on their door that goes off. One said “he can leave his room, but the alarm always sounds so he’s essentially locked in his room and is not free to leave (and) a consequence of opening the door is to hold a chair over his head or face the corner,” according to the criminal complaint.
A 16-year-old boy said he had to clean the buckets with a hose outside, and also said he could not leave his room.
When investigators went to the home, it was cold, with the thermostat set at 57 degrees. The presences of door alarms and waste buckets were also confirmed.
The complaint has very limited comment from Small and Peterson. Small said the locks were for when he used to rent rooms through the internet, so he could lock away his items when people would stay. Peterson “admitted to dumping the buckets of urine and feces outside in the yard behind the garage,” the complaint states.
According to the complaint, Small was contracted by Brown County to operate the foster home. But Erik Pritzl, executive director of the Brown County Health and Human Services, told FOX 11 in 2019 the county contracted with another agency, which would have then contracted with Small and Peterson. The county did not directly contract with or supervise Small and Peterson.
