Custodial dad had 6-year-old son chained to bed for almost 10 days (Cache County, Utah)

Posted on this case earlier today. Now we find out that dad SAMMIE HODGES is apparently CUSTODIAL. It is reported that the boy "was living with" his father, so it doesn't appear to be a summer visitation situation. Notice also that Mom lived in another town (Ogden). But as we often see, the reporter refuses to explicitly identify this as a custodial father either.

So how did this fine paternal specimen get custody? What judge gave it to him?

http://news.hjnews.com/news/police-boy-likely-chained-to-bed-for-almost-days/article_f1d26068-f0e7-11e3-a48b-0019bb2963f4.html

Police: Boy, 6, likely chained to bed for almost 10 days

Posted: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 3:41 pm

By Amy Macavinta

Police say a 6-year-old boy was found chained by his ankle to his bed Tuesday morning in a Logan home at 825 N. 1400 East while his father, 28-year-old Sammie Hodges of Logan, was at work.

Hodges has been booked into the Cache County Jail, where he is being held on four counts of child abuse, a class A misdemeanor.

Police Chief Gary Jensen said while he doesn’t know exactly, it is likely the child has been secured to the bed since school was dismissed for the summer — nearly 10 days.

According to Jensen, a heavy length of chain was padlocked around the bed on one end and the boy’s ankle on the other end.

“This is a heavy, truck chain, not a light chain … but like what you would pull a truck down the road with … It’s big and it’s heavy,” Jensen said.

The boy had enough length to get to a restroom across the hall, and he bad been left some water and some “snack-type” junk food in the adult’s absence, Jensen said.

The child did not appear to be emaciated, nor were there obvious physical injuries, he said.

Police received an anonymous tip via 911 at about 11 a.m. this morning, and officers were immediately sent to the home.

There was no answer at the home in question, so police went door to door to verify it was the home where the child lived before making entry into the home through an open window.

Jensen said he knows the child was living with Hodges, and there is an adult female living in the home as well, but the woman is not the child’s biological mother, Jensen said.

The boy’s mother is reportedly living in the Ogden area.

Jensen said it is not yet known if the woman living in the home will also be questioned or arrested.

The child is now in the custody of the Division of Child and Family Services.

Jensen said police are grateful to the person who reported the child abuse to police.

Without that call, “this child would still be chained to a bed.”