SHARP COUNTY, AR (KAIT) – The trial date has been set for a father accused of chaining his daughter to a bed for five weeks with a dog leash and a short piece of chain.
47-year-old Michael Gilman is set to appear back in court on October 4.
According to the Sharp County Circuit Clerk's Office, Gilman pleaded not guilty in response to endangering the welfare of a minor and false imprisonment charges.
According to Sharp County Sheriff Mark Counts, Gilman is facing those charges after officers found his 11 year old daughter chained to her bed by her ankle. Counts also says her 15 year old sister released her as soon as officers arrived.
"Some of the behavior of this child, the family is claiming they can't control, and a lot of what they did was for her safety," Det. Sgt. Ken Guidry said. "However, chaining a child to a bed, we just can't have that."
Guidry says investigating officers say her father felt this was the solution to the 11-year-old getting up in the middle of the night and getting into food, other people's belongings, and sometimes going door-to-door in the neighborhood. They say he explained that he started chaining her up at night just before the first of the month to prevent her from getting into to trouble and that the girl was to be released when everyone got up in the morning.
"They claim that all the other remedies that they've tried, such as getting help through (the Department of Human Services) and other services, have failed," Guidry said, "and they can't afford a baby sitter so that was their solution."
When asked if he didn't think there was an alternative to control his daughter, Gilman said he had tried everything else and had been trying to deal with the problem for the past three years.
Police say three children were in the family, the 11- and 15-year-old girls, who were home schooled, and a 6-year-old boy, who was attending public school.
Counts says all three children were taken into the care of social services.
Gilman's bond was set at $1,000 by Judge Mark Johnson, but he bonded out Monday February 20. The children's mother was in the state of New York assisting her stepdaughter for unknown reasons.
Region 8 News will continue to track this story and bring you updates as they become available.
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Michael Gilman (Source: Sharp County Sheriff Office)
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