Neighbor: Parents kept kids in locked room

A neighbor who used to watch two boys - allegedly kept locked in their bedroom and abused by their parents - said she hopes Linda and Robert Williams never regain custody.

"These kids need a home with someone who loves and cares for them. They need freedom, they don't need to be locked up like that," said Debbie Bedoy, who lives across the drive from the Williams family in the Clear Creek Trailer Park in South Carson City.

Saturday afternoon, a deputy, responding to a report that Robert Williams was seen the day before with two young boys who "looked beat up," went to the family home.

When she asked to speak with the children, Robert Williams allegedly reached over and unlatched a sliding bolt on the exterior of a bedroom door.

Inside, the deputy wrote in the arrest report, she found Michael, 5, and David, 3, huddled under a blanket on the top bunk. Michael allegedly had two black eyes, while David had abrasions on his face that resembled road rash.

David said his mother scrubbed his face with a steel wool pad, according to the report.

The officer also noted there were two toddler potties filled with urine, and a board covering one window. Bedoy said the room in which the children stayed had a bathroom but it was kept locked.

The view from the other window is blocked by a large bush.

Both parents were arrested and are being held on $100,000 bail. The children are in protective custody with the Division of Child and Family Services.

Bedoy said Friday she babysat the boys in the summer of 2008 until she had a falling out with the Williamses over payment. Since then, she said, she had only seen the children a few times, including the day when police took them away.

"Mike said, 'Hi Debbie,' and David waved," she said.

The babysitting arrangement was that Bedoy would fill in the gap between one parent working graveyard and the other working day shift. From 4:30 a.m. to about 8 a.m., she would stay in their home while both parents were at work.

Bedoy said when she would go to the house, the children would be locked in the bedroom.

"She said it was for their safety," said Bedoy of the explanation she received from Linda Williams.

Bedoy said when the parents left, she would unlock and open the door while she was there.

She recalled once when she tried to get Michael to come out of the room, he refused.

"He said, 'No, 'cause Daddy's supposed to come home. I'm supposed to be in my room,'" Bedoy said.

She described the children as "very sweet and gentle," but timid.

"They were like scared little rabbits. After I broke through, we started playing together," she said.

Though the control Linda and Robert Williams appeared to have over their children concerned her, Bedoy said she didn't think it was enough to warrant police intervention.

"Everyone that I ever talked to - (my) friends and family - they said just stay out of it," she said.

The news that both Linda and Robert Williams are charged with child abuse, neglect and false imprisonment makes her angry.

"In my opinion, they could stay in jail and rot," she said.

A preliminary hearing is set for Friday.