Police: Father arrested after one child found in dog cage, another naked outside

Tulsa County Jail

Tulsa, Okla., police say William Lewallen was arrested for child abuse/neglect.

A Tulsa, Okla., man was arrested after his 16-month-old daughter was found locked in a metal dog cage and covered with feces and his naked 3-year old son was found crying outside on a cold afternoon, police said.

William Todd Lewallen, 47, was arrested for felony child abuse or neglect. He was found in a stupor in bed with a third child, a 3-year-old boy who was also naked, Tulsa police said. 

The three children were turned over to the custody of the state Department of Human Services.


Police made the disturbing find on Sunday afternoon when they responded to a neighbor’s call about a child crying outside, with the temperature in the low 40s.

“He was screaming, ‘Daddy, let me in! I’m cold!’” one neighbor, Matthew Testerman, told the Tulsa World.

Other neighbors took the boy in and warmed him up.

Arriving officers heard screaming and crying coming from inside the house. They looked through a small back window and saw a child inside a metal dog crate, Officer Leland Ashley with the Tulsa Police Department told local media.

Officers kicked open the back door. "Upon entry officers were immediately hit with the overwhelming stench of feces," Ashley was quoted as saying.

Police removed the 16-month-old girl from the kennel. She was wearing only a diaper and was covered in feces, police said.

Officers found the father passed out in a bed in the master bedroom, with another naked toddler asleep in the bed.

The father reportedly told police he took narcotic pain medicine, a muscle relaxant and an anti-seizure medication with a beer and then "laid down to take a rest."

"The defendant was unaware that a naked child had been locked out of his house and was outside in the 40 degree weather for over 20 minutes," the arrest report states, according to NewsOn6.com. "The screaming child in the dog kennel did not wake the defendant nor did the officers kicking the door down to rescue the toddler in the dog cage."

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The children showed no sign of physical injury, according to police.

Leland said the children’s mother was at work at the time and arrived home just as officers were preparing to leave.

Lewallen was being held in the Tulsa jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.               

Records show he has been charged in eight felony cases in four counties since 1989, according to the Tulsa World. He has been convicted in the past of joyriding and possession of a precursor to manufacture a controlled drug – methamphetamine, according to NewsOn6.com.

The investigation is continuing, Ashley told NBC News on Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Billy todd , doesent look a day over 60 !

    Reply#53 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:25 PM EST

    I know this will never happen but why can't that guy, who is sitting in a warm cell getting three squares, instead be held in a 40 degree cell with only a diaper on and not a chance of it being changed.

    Maybe, just maybe, if we start inflicting the pain these animals to do their children they will think twice before abusing a child. Rights? Their rights would be revoked with the first broken bone, first sign of neglect or the first battered and bruise body of a child.

    • 1 vote
    Reply#54 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:25 PM EST

    I got 20 that says the mother is a scumbag as well.

    • 3 votes
    Reply#55 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:25 PM EST

    The so-called mother of these abused children must have been really hard up to spread 'em for Fabio there....

    • 2 votes
    Reply#56 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:27 PM EST

    LOL sorry coudn't help it

    • 1 vote
    #56.1 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:41 PM EST
    Reply

    Wow, what a candidate for Father of the Year!!!!

    This slimeball needs his testicles removed without anesthesia and his "baby momma" needs a freakin LOBOTOMY for sleeping with this derelict in the first place.

    Lets face it, those poor kids dont stand much of a chance with role models like this

      Reply#57 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:27 PM EST

      Why didn't they arrest the, drunk, drug addicted skank that gave birth to these kids.

      The court should require tubal ligation, and vasectomy along with a lengthy jail term for both.

      • 2 votes
      Reply#58 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:28 PM EST

      There is NO justification for treating these children this way and society needs to take a hard line on that. The mother had to have known they were being abused and is possibly as culpable as the father. He did not just start doing it one day after being a loving, supportive parent to that point. This is his basic way of dealing with children and he should never be allowed near them again. That should hold true for the mother as well. But, the likelihood is that they will enter a foster care system where there is insufficient funding, foster parents as bad or worse than their real parents, and caseworkers so overloaded that they cannot follow their clients like they should. Our priority in this country is not our children and until it is, children will suffer like these poor babies.

      • 2 votes
      Reply#59 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:28 PM EST

      This is what a loser drug addict looks like. Take the children away from this couple permanently.

      • 2 votes
      Reply#60 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:28 PM EST

      If anything convinces me there are real demons it is addiction. This is where it can take you. Total insanity, lack of perception and disregard for all human life, even the life of your own children.

      • 1 vote
      Reply#61 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:29 PM EST

      With parents like these, who needs enemies?

      • 1 vote
      Reply#62 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:29 PM EST

      This BUM should never EVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVER be allowed around these children again? WTF a baby in a damn DOG CAGE? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Im SEETHING that ANYONE could do such a thing ........He needs to be BEAT within an inch of his LIFE! Momma is probly a wildabeast her damn self!

      • 1 vote
      Reply#63 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:29 PM EST

      I saw the photo and wondered how an obviously intelligent person like this could possibly be involved with a sick offense. There surely must be some mistake. Profiling gone wild!

      Or we could just stick his sorry pathetic behind in a dog cage for a month or two.

        Reply#64 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:30 PM EST

        Why isnt the mom charged with neglect as well? Just because she's a working mom, doesnt mean you need to neglect the fact the children is also a priority!!!!! both parents are due to be questioned.

          Reply#65 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:30 PM EST

          yeah he looks like some old meth head drunk junkie. throw his worthless butt in the slammer for a while. it might straighten him up a little.

          • 1 vote
          Reply#66 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:30 PM EST

          first of all, why the hell did "obummer" come up in conversation? Does every post on this computer have to end up being some kind of political free for all. back on the subject at hand. The guy's in jail, the mother should be and hopefully, the children will get the help they need to be well adjusted adults. This is all we can hope for. Now on that "political note", I've put up with Obama for the last 4 years, everything I've worked hard for is going to hell. If Obama is so "great" ahsleyaddams, why do 20 or so state want to succeed from the United States?....................SOCIALISM AT ITS FINEST :p Can't wait for 2016 when Obama cannot be elected again! :)

            Reply#67 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:31 PM EST

            I am probably going to take some flak here, but I am glad he at least put the littlest one in the dog cage if he was in that kind of shape. A dog cage is safer than a playpen or crib if you want to keep your child from roaming around. And no, I would never do this, and I hope it was her feces she was covered in, but at least he used maybe his last brain cell and came up with a marginal solution.

              Reply#68 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:31 PM EST

              You sound like someone who would have kids with this worthless pizza chit....

                #68.1 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:37 PM EST

                Oh no, on a scale of one to ten, he is a minus ten. I was just trying to picture it in my mind, and I can see where someone might use a dog pen as a playpen as a last resort. Always taking for granted it had never been used as a dog crate.

                  #68.2 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:48 PM EST
                  Reply

                  jessica, how the fuc* did you turn this into a race issue, you must be a bag of shi* just like this guy

                  • 1 vote
                  Reply#69 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:32 PM EST
                  Comment author avatarNichole Merwinvia Facebook

                  I agree with u John. This world is get worse then ever. And there is no care in this world to fix it.

                    Reply#70 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:32 PM EST

                    hmmm, yeah total tweeker! just look at his stupid mug. i hope he never regains custody of his kids again.

                      Reply#71 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:33 PM EST

                      Wow. this happened in Oklahoma and not the gReat state of mIssissippi? Better check those children for in-breeding.

                      • 1 vote
                      Reply#72 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:33 PM EST

                      What a sorry piece of humanity. To think that there are loving folks out there that want and can't have children, and trash like this have been blessed with 3 children, and this is how they take care of their treasure. I would like to believe that a judge could take those kids away and give them a true loving couple that would really want them. However, I suppose thats probably not going to happen. The cops will be kicking in the door next week....

                      • 1 vote
                      Reply#73 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:34 PM EST

                      Sometimes you can just look and see that he is a bad monkey, he has that helter skelter look right off. Thats a good indicator.

                      • 1 vote
                      Reply#74 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:34 PM EST

                      why isnt the mom charged with neglect as well? just because shes working, doesnt mean she needs to neglect being a parent!!!!!!

                        Reply#75 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:34 PM EST

                        Wow poor kids, but I'm agreeing with the post who said the brother probably locked his little sis in the dog cage I mean come on he's 3 and she's 16 months......anywho I hope they get a good family for the kids and throw the parents in jail; although we will have to pay regardless of what they do to them.

                          Reply#76 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:34 PM EST

                          Yeah and I'm sure her lil bro also plastered all that sh!t on her just because he thought it was Playdough.....pffftttt.....

                            #76.1 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:41 PM EST
                            Reply

                            hopefully the inmates will take care of this freak as our legal system does not.

                            • 1 vote
                            Reply#77 - Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:35 PM EST
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