LANSING, Mich. — Five young children, including one with cancer, were locked in what a Lansing police officer described as a "dungeon" and whipped for punishment on and off for at least six years, police said.
Yenier Conde, 32, and Sarah Conde, 28, would lock their children in a dark bedroom with the door screwed shut and locked as punishment, Lansing Detective Pete Scaccia said during a July 18 hearing that led to criminal charges against the couple.
In the room, the children had no food and no toilet, Scaccia said. The children told Child Protective Services investigators with the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services that they routinely were beaten and threatened with guns.
The Condes stopped taking one child to see his cancer doctors, child protection investigators said.
The five kids — now ages 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11 — were taken from the Condes' care and put into foster care after the full extent of the abuse was discovered in 2017. Their parents each were charged Friday with 10 counts of first- and second-degree child abuse and unlawful imprisonment.
Between 2011 and 2017, the Condes subjected their children to physical and verbal abuse and deprived them of medical care, Scaccia said during the hearing.
But the abuse and neglect is documented in Child Protective Services reports as far back as April 2009. State investigators were called twice that year, once for improper supervision and once for physical neglect.
State investigators were called on the family at least 10 more times before the children were removed from the Condes' care in 2017.
Sarah Conde's lawyer, Joseph Brehler, declined to comment on the case Wednesday. She is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 3 for a hearing.
Yenier Conde did not have an lawyer listed in court records and had no court hearings scheduled.
Bob Wheaton, public information officer for the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, said he was not able to comment on a specific case because of to state law.
The 'dungeon'
All five children frequently were locked in their bedroom for extended periods without food, water or a chance to use the bathroom, Scaccia said.
The Condes gave the kids diapers instead of letting them out to use the bathroom. At times, they had to relieve themselves elsewhere in the room. Even now that the children are in foster care, four still are not fully toilet trained, according to a child services report.
The oldest boy, now 10, told state investigators that he and his siblings would break holes in the walls to try to escape and to pass food and water through.
At times, their mom had tried to help them escape and gave them food and water through a heating vent, he told investigators. He also said their parents would beat them with a belt if the children tried to escape through the vent.
The youngest boy, now 6, told investigators that Yenier Conde locked him in the bedroom for "a bunch of days" without food or water. It was dark, and he was scared.
He had to go to the bathroom in the closet.
"If locking the kids was a crime, then ... he'll take whatever's coming his way," Yenier Conde said during a Child Protective Services investigation, Scaccia said.
When investigators searched the house, they saw the room had a boarded up window, multiple holes in the wall and an open vent that led from one bedroom to another. The outside door had wooden slabs and screws to allow it to be locked from the outside.
Time spent in the room varied, but one boy told investigators it could range from 10 hours to two days.
Although Sarah Conde denied knowing the kids were locked up, Yenier Conde told police that he built the door to the bedroom at his wife's request.
Missed cancer treatments
The second oldest child, now 10, was diagnosed with a type of neuroblastoma cancer as a baby.
Before his second birthday, he was in remission. Child Protective Services workers were called in April 2009 because the home was filthy and the conditions may have been detrimental to his health, according to state records.
In 2012, when the boy was 5, someone told child protection workers that his parents weren't taking him to his doctor appointments. He completed cancer treatment in July 2011 and had missed multiple appointments and follow ups since then, according to records.
He saw four specialists and should have seen each every three months.
Four months later, Child Protective Services investigators again were called on a report that the child had been taken to school with a dirty diaper and no clean ones were sent with him. The cancer left him with physical ailments that caused him to need a diaper, according to a memorandum included in the court file from the Condes' divorce, which was finalized earlier this year.
Because of those ailments, he needed a leg brace and specialized shoes to help with his gait, according to state records. He was fitted for a brace once but never got new ones as he grew.
Although he struggled and complained of pain, Sarah Conde requested that the school remove him from special-education programs and physical-therapy treatments. She told the school she had no orthopedic concerns.
"If he has another accident, he would be put in a garbage truck," records show that Sarah Conde reportedly told the boy.
A violent household
When state investigators interviewed the three oldest children in May 2017, they said they had witnessed domestic violence for much of their lives.
One boy said police took away his dad because "he was going to kill us," according to the Child Protective Services petition. The kids said they had seen Yenier Conde hold a gun to their mother's head multiple times.
Sarah Conde filed a personal protection order against her husband after he filed for divorce in April 2017; she said he abused her. She was so scared of him that she was living in her car at the time of the filing because she didn't want to go home, she wrote.
The violence wasn't only between the mother and father, the children said.
One boy reported that he had been beaten with a piece of wood with nails in it. One of the girls had a scar on her butt from a spanking.
When the kids flooded the bathroom with water, Sarah Conde lined them up and pointed a loaded gun at them, according to the Child Protective Services petition.
According to the oldest boy:
She almost shot us. She made us stand in a line. She was laughing with her gun.
She was about to shoot us. She said, 'Stand in a line so that the blood can spill on (the oldest boy) and then (he) can come up front and I can shoot him.'
She showed the kids the bullets in the gun and pointed it at the youngest child's face, according to the court petition.
Then she pulled the trigger.
The gun jammed. Nothing happened.
"I was scared," the youngest child, now 6, told investigators. "She clicked on the gun. ... She wasn't even playing on it. I was scared because I was afraid that she was going to shoot us."
Sarah Conde told the kids they got lucky, then ordered them back upstairs, one child told investigators.
A psychologist who examined Sarah Conde said her scores on some tests indicated she may have a "low frustration tolerance, tendencies to be impulsive, poor ego development, and prone to increasing levels of coercive discipline as stress increases."
Sarah Conde runs an American Kennel Club breeding program, Capital Chaos Danes, out of her home.
The business' website says she weans puppies from their mother right next to her bedroom and cares for them bedside and that all the dogs have full access to every part of the house and the fenced-in backyard.
Yenier Conde told Child Protective Services investigators that his wife "would care for the dogs at the expense of the children."
The divorce
As the state investigation progressed, Sarah and Yenier Conde's marriage fell apart. Sarah Conde accused her husband of cheating on her.
She started dating another man, according to divorce paperwork. Yenier Conde filed for divorce.
Although both accused the other of abusing the children, both asked for joint legal custody.
Initially, the state aimed to reunite the children with their parents. But as the investigation progressed, and the Condes went through classes, treatment and further interviews, investigators decided the children would be better off if they weren't with their parents, according to the child-protection petition to terminate the Condes' parental rights.
They lost custody of the children in June.
A psychiatrist and psychologist who evaluated the children said all five suffered serious psychological abuse and had thought and mood disorders. Two of the kids were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, Scaccia said.
Three of the children had not seen a dentist in years and had rotting teeth that needed to be extracted, he said.
In 2013, Yenier Conde had been sentenced to probation for larceny and embezzlement between $1,000 and $20,000, a felony.
During a Child Protective Services home visit last year, officials found three guns that he was not supposed to have because of his felony conviction. He now faces two charges of possession of a firearm as a felon and two felony firearm enhancements.
Sarah Conde also is charged with felonious assault and a felony firearm enhancement.
Yenier Conde had two previous charges of second degree child abuse and unlawful imprisonment from October 2017, but both were dismissed in Ingham County Circuit Court.
Sarah Conde is in custody in the Ingham County Jail in Lansing. Her bail has been set at $50,000.
Yenier Conde had not been taken into custody as of Thursday morning.
