Couple charged with aggravated child abuse after leaving child locked in a homemade cage while parents were at work

Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Dustin Michael Gerard Huff, 35, and Yurui Xie, 31, were arrested yesterday after their 6-year-old son reportedly told an adult he didn’t want to go home because his father built a cage to lock him in while his mother was at work.
After a Gainesville Police Department officer responded to the family’s home to assist with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) investigation, Huff reportedly said the child does not sleep in a cage but referred to it as a “bed frame.” He reportedly offered to show the “bed frame” to the investigators.
The officer reported that the “bed frame” was a wooden enclosure over the child’s bed, made of pressure-treated 2x4s. The enclosure was just under 4 feet tall and had a door with two barrel-bolt latches on the outside.
The child reportedly said Huff had built the enclosure for him and that he is placed in it overnight and after school, when Xie places him in the enclosure with both latches locked and goes back to work; he said he is taken out when Huff gets home from work. While investigators were talking to the child, Xie reportedly stated spontaneously that the enclosure has been in the child’s room for about a year.
Xie reportedly told DCF investigators that their 6-year-old and 2-year-old go to bed at about 8:30 p.m., and the 6-year-old is left in the enclosure until about 7 a.m. She reportedly said the 6-year-old has been diagnosed with ADHD and is “disobedient.” She said she and Huff have tried to find childcare for the 6-year-old after school, but they cannot find a program because of his behavior. She reportedly said she leaves her job during her break, places the child in the enclosure, and then goes back to work. She said Huff comes home “at some point,” and the child is “only left in the enclosure for a few hours without adult supervision.”
Huff reportedly told DCF investigators that the enclosure is used to keep the child in bed at night because he wakes up in the middle of the night and “disturb[s] the house.”
The 6-year-old also told investigators that the 2-year-old child is placed in a makeshift cage in the adults’ master bathroom closet. The officer reported finding a toddler’s crib upside down in the bathroom closet; the crib mattress was on the floor under the crib, and the 6-year-old showed the officer how his parents picked up the front of the crib to place the 2-year-old inside the crib enclosure.
The officer reported that placing the crib upside down exposed metal wiring and metal springs that would usually be under the mattress, and these were about 2 feet above the mattress; the officer wrote that the 2-year-old could harm himself by pulling on the wiring or standing up and hitting his head on the metal springs.
Post Miranda, Huff declined to answer any further questions.
Post Miranda, Xie reportedly said they put the crib upside down because the 2-year-old climbs out of the crib when it is upright. When she was asked whether she believes it is wrong to place the toddler in an upside crib, she reportedly said, “Yes, it is wrong.” When asked why she did it, she reportedly responded, “My husband.” She said her husband built the “bed frame” for the older child and said she does not leave him unattended, which contradicted her earlier statement.
Both parents have been charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse and one count of child neglect without serious bodily harm. Neither has any local criminal history; Xie has a single traffic ticket from 2016. Judge George Wright set bail for each of them at $600,000. The children were turned over to DCF.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Why do people have children if they don’t want them? This is horrible! Put them in a CAGE!!!!! And throw away the key! Those poor children will be scarred from this abuse for life and now they are in the “system”. How very sad that is. I pray loving people are caring for them. Right here at Christmas time. What a shame!!
You’ve already judged these parents guilty according to a media report??? How Foolish!!!
Wtf!?…
He deserves to be tossed into the ocean with a millstone tied around his neck.
She too probably…even if she is just a dumb, weak human who allowed her children to be treated like livestock.
No excuses
It breaks my heart to hear stories like this. Children are so precious, and they will be scarred for life because of their insensitive, uncaring, irresponsible “parents”. I’m a proponent of involuntary sterilization. Sorry, but I am. God bless those babies and please hold them in your arms and guide them to a loving home.
Unfortunately, people will procreate regardless of their inability to parent their children in a psychologically functional/healthy manner. Many people seem to perceive thus treat human procreative ‘rights’ as though they [people] will somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture our children’s naturally developing minds and needs.
Yet, general society perceives and treats human procreative ‘rights’ as though we’ll somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture our children’s naturally developing minds and needs.
One wonders how much child abuse and long-term suffering might have been prevented had some crucial child-development science via mandatory high-school curriculum been taught. After all, dysfunctional and/or abusive parents, for example, may not have had the chance to be anything else due to their lack of such education and their own dysfunctional/abusive rearing as children.
As a moral rule, a physically and mentally sound future should be every child’s fundamental right — along with air, water, food and shelter — especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter.
That’s actually not a bad idea. People need to stop meddling in other households affairs.
We live in a very imperfect world, and it’s easy to criticize. Unfortunately, there can be times that something like this is necessary, if there is absolutely no alternative. As long as there is no other abuse. No tolerance for that.
This is something out of a horror movie!
There is another side to this coin. Three things to consider, actually.
1) Republicans are fixated on no abortions, but won’t fund the necessary programs to help parents raise their unaffordable or unwanted children.
2) Bidenomics. ‘Nuff said about that.
3) Both parents are (or were) working, trying to make a living for the family, apparently on different shifts. That gave them the most time with the children.
Perhaps training for the parents and mental help for the six year old would solve the real problem here; lack of money.
I mean childcare IS expensive…
Horrific!! Those people don’t deserve to be parents.
It’s not that hard to work from home nowadays, especially if the alternative is keeping your kids in cages. Or they could probably receive a lot of food stamps and free stuff if one of them quit working, since they have two kids (again, better than keeping kids in cages).
The parents are both scientists working at UF. They could afford anything those kids needed. Sick individuals. Smh.
AND WE WONDER WHY THEY GET OLDER AND DO MASS SHOOTINGS!! IT ALL STARTS AT HOME! I GIVE THAT KID 6-8 YEARS AND WE’LL BE SEEING HIM ON THE NEWS!!🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️
Is bail amount missing a “0”?
It is easy to criticise others and judge by the news, and not knowing the truth. A kid with a behavioural issues can wake up at night and pick up a knife or random things and hurt himself or his parents while they are sleeping; then you would understand a bed frame is for a kid’s safety and not abuse. If they were bad parents, they could just give him ADHD medication to put him in bed, and not care about the side effect of medication.
Leaving a child unattended for hours at a time, with no way to contact emergency services, could potentially be fatal. What if there was a fire and he couldn’t get out? There is no excuse whatsoever for leaving a child unattended.
What if he waked up at night and stabbed his other sibling! All here to blame them, and forget our responsibility to be more caring about others when they need us to prevent this kind of incident. they got rejected from daycares, no work flexibility and cost of living doesn’t let you give up your job or they might be ashamed to get food stamps.
Is there any evidence they asked for help so compassionate people could help? Is shame in getting food stamps a reason to endanger the life of your child?
And one more thing: Imagine being 6 years old and locked in a cage with no access to a bathroom.
We cannot make excuses for this. It needs to be so far beyond the pale that parents will do whatever it takes to find help instead of leaving a child unattended in a cage.
Having a narrative view is the problem, which is safer, leaving your kids in a cage for a temporary until you find a solution or with a total stranger in a foster home? Put your self in their shoes, but I guess it is hard for closed minded people.
I guess it’s easier for you to insult someone else than admit that what these people did is COMPLETELY unacceptable. How long is “temporary”? There is no sign that they were working toward ending this.
If it’s closed-minded to insist that a parent’s top priority is caring for their children, I’m happy to be called closed-minded.
Absolutely right, “She reportedly said the 6-year-old has been diagnosed with ADHD and is “disobedient.” She said she and Huff have tried to find childcare for the 6-year-old after school, but they cannot find a program because of his behavior.” This says that childcare places most likely did not accept the kid!
So that gives them the right to lock the child up? No go Albert.
I’d normally say let us hear both sides, but on this one, seriously! Gainesville is a really small town, everyone will see you both and remember exactly who you are.
TV20 says both parents work as UF researchers, perhaps one as a graduate assistant. Why are educated scientists so often amoral?
This is what you call educated fools. Today we have so many avenues to help children. May God have mercy on their souls the parents because I wouldn’t!
1. How do 2 educated adults think it’s OK to put a child in a cage? How does this conversation go?
2. Now that you have been put in a cage, (jail) how does it feel?This should be your home until the 6 year old tells you that you can be free or forever.
3. Others had to be aware and need to be charged.
I have direct knowledge of this situation. You are on the outside, seeing only the worst possible perspective in this situation. Yes, it appears bad, but you are not in their shoes. Their child is extremely violent and disruptive. The child has been kicked out of *multiple* daycare and school programs because of the violence (hitting and biting) of teachers and students. The child would also get up at night repeatedly and tear up the house, possibly with knives. Who knows why the child behaves this way, but it’s egregious enough to restrain the child at night. Leaving the child unattended – from what is know, that appears to be a problem. What I do know is they have been actively trying to find a remedy for this situation for a very long time and are extremely stressed.
The bail amount is utterly absurd as they are no risk to the public and their kids have already been taken away. Rape and murder suspects get less bail than this.
It’s easy to sit on the outside, as all of you are, and then pass judgment on them and condemn them based upon such little information that is available. Take a moment to reflect on the fact you don’t know 1/10th of the details before you make a condemnation. That is true for any emotionally-charged situation. If this does go to trial, and I hope it does, take the time to read the testimony and character witnesses. I may be one of them and I only have good things to say in my experience.
Even if true, doesn’t begin to explain the confinement of *both* children. One parent is obligated to take care of the children at home if daycare cannot be found. Parents are not entitled to seek employment outside the home at the expense of the humane supervision of their children.
We crate dogs while we work, not little humans. To do so is inexcusably cruel, no matter the circumstances. The consequence for your friends is they have likely lost their employment and their children as well, which is certainly for the best if they cannot care for them.
For their lack of judgment and inhumanity, this couple may also lose their freedom. Good luck getting them off.
Wow, just unbelievable what they have been doing with those two children! Glad they have been arrested. Those poor children are traumatized from what they went through. The parents are both scientists and could afford a nanny to keep their children.