Adoptive parents accused of banishing children from home

Two people were arrested and charged last week after the Maries County Sheriff”s Office found out they were allegedly forcing their adopted children to camp in the back yard and threatened them if they tried to come inside the house.

Deputies were searching for two missing teens on July 3. Charles and Cheryl Fales, the teens’ adoptive parents, told authorities the children ran away after being confronted about taking food, according to court documents filed last week.

Deputies found the children the next day, and the teens told the detectives Charles and Cheryl forced them to live in their back yard for more than two weeks. The teens also told the detectives that they were forced to use the bathroom outside and use leaves as toilet paper, the documents said.

The teens said they were given a sandwich for breakfast and raw hot dogs for lunch and dinner. They told police they were forced to do manual labor all day every day, and that Cheryl said she would threaten them with a gun if they tried to come inside the house as they would be considered intruders, court documents said.

They told police Cheryl and Charles viewed this as punishment for taking food from their own home.

When authorities confronted Cheryl and Charles, they told investigators that the children had an eating disorder and were not allowed to take food as they pleased, according to court documents. Charles and Cheryl admitted to telling the teens they would go to jail for stealing food where they would get attacked and other inmates would have sexual intercourse with them, according to the sheriff’s department.

This is what caused the children to run away from home, according to court documents.

The Fales in a statement from their attorney, Carrie Gerischer, denied the charges.

“They have been dedicated to the foster care system and assisting children with behavioral special needs for many years,” Gerischer wrote. “They and their supporters have faith that the truth regarding these allegations will come forward and they will be exonerated of any wrongdoing.”

Charles and Cheryl bonded out of the Maries County Jail on a $10,000 cash bond.

They’re charged with two counts of abuse or neglect of a child.

The two teens are in the custody of the Department of Children’s Services.

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