Custodial dad makes excuses for torture-like treatment of kids--and trashes non-custodial mom (Holmen, Minnesota)

Custodial dad ADDISON STEINER is totally full of sh**. 

There are lots of single parents who manage to NOT lock their kids in filthy rooms for hours (days?) on end. Who manage NOT to neglect them to the point where they show developmental delays from the forced isolation. Who manage NOT to beat them repeatedly.

Like a lot of abuser dads, Steiner makes light of his abuse (no "big deal" locking a 3-year-old up for hours on end). He trashes everybody else, from his mother to his grandfather to his ex-wife, but takes no responsibility for his own actions.

Then he wallows in melodramatic self-pity, as if that would get the judge's sympathies.

Fortunately, Judge Elliott Levine didn't buy the pity party. 

Notice too, that this big loving daddy had abandoned his older kids, failed to pay child support, and didn't even bother to contact the younger kids (the ones he had custody of) from jail. This is typical of the custodial father who is motivated by CONTROL, not love. You either possess them or utterly reject them. 

Given Daddy's "skewed" sense of reality, we really have to question his story about "rescuing" these kids from their allegedly alcoholic mother. The mother is obviously not given an opportunity to defend herself against these allegations. And given how manipulative this dude really is, it's hard to take him seriously.

So who gave this sicko dad custody of these kids and why? Any judge want to step up and take credit for that? 

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_21766307/i-have-prayed-die-my-sleep-said-father

'I have prayed to die in my sleep,' said father sentenced for child neglect

By Chris Hubbuch La Crosse Tribune

Posted: 10/13/2012 12:01:00 AM CDT Updated: 10/13/2012 09:35:10 AM CDT

Addison Steiner says he was just a single parent trying to make a better life for his kids, working nights, going to school by day, doing the best he could.

But when police were called to his Holmen home in April 2011, an officer found Steiner's 3-year-old son alone, locked in a bedroom strewn with trash and broken toys, his diaper soiled.

The door was pulled shut from the outside, secured with a bungee cord; inside, the mattress was bare and the electrical outlets exposed, according to a complaint.

Steiner, 48, said he'd left the boy sleeping while he went to a doctor's appointment.

According to the complaint, he didn't think it was a big deal. He'd done it before.

Two older children told police their brother was often locked in the room at night and during the day when their dad was watching YouTube videos. They'd tap on the door to comfort him. 

Steiner's 9-year-old daughter said she feared her brother would "learn that no one loves him or that we'll forget about him."

The boy showed signs of developmental delay, after what District Attorney Tim Gruenke called the torture of being kept alone in his cell.

"I shudder to think what would have happened if we hadn't found him," Gruenke said.

 The older children also said Steiner beat them with a belt and a plastic tube.

A jury convicted Steiner of child abandonment and one misdemeanor count of child neglect after a trial where his daughter testified against him, but jurors couldn't agree on a verdict on two felony abuse charges.

Steiner failed to show for his sentencing hearing in May and was later arrested at a Houston County campground. He's been in jail ever since on a $10,000 bond.

 On Friday, Steiner was sentenced to spend 2.5 years in prison.

Gruenke painted him as a mean and manipulative man with no interest in being a father, noting he abandoned two older children and has failed to pay child support.

Since his arrest, Gruenke said, Steiner has made no effort to contact his children. "He just doesn't care," Gruenke said.

"He doesn't want to be bothered."

Steiner, who worked as a radiology technician and was in nursing school, told the court he is a good person, not the man Gruenke portrayed.

"These hands," he said raising his shackles, "have helped saved lives. I don't think Mr. Gruenke can say that about himself."

He described his own upbringing: the son of a single mother with schizophrenia, he essentially raised himself. His role model was his grandfather, who he later learned had molested his mother. He told how his ex-wife was a heavy drinker who cheated on him and how he wanted to rescue the kids from her. 

"My kids were my life," he said. "I did love my kids. I do love my kids."

Now, Steiner said, he sees his kids only in his dreams, and he wakes up in jail.

"I have prayed to die in my sleep," he said.

Judge Elliott Levine didn't buy it.

 "You don't sacrifice your children in order to make money to help them," Levine said before sentencing Steiner to prison followed by five years on supervised release.

Levine chastised Steiner for his arrogance and lack of remorse.

"Your perception of reality is so skewed, you continue to make things worse," he said. "If your love is so great for your children, how does that not override everything else?