A jury has convicted a father on charges that he forced his young child to live in a locked basement in deplorable conditions while believing she was possessed by a demon.
Randy Swopes, 55, and Katherine Swopes, 56, both of Waukegan, were charged in July 2018 with child endangerment and unlawful restraint.
Then-Waukegan Police Chief Wayne Walles said at the time that police received an anonymous 911 call at 1:50 p.m. on July 17, 2018, to a home in the 200 block of Liberty Street.
The caller told police that they believed someone was being held captive in the home’s basement.
Police officers arrived and were able to search the home’s basement.
They found a 10-year-old girl who had been forced to live in the basement in “poor conditions,” Walles said.
Investigators believed that in the year leading up to the discovery, the girl had limited access to the outside and was locked in the basement at night.
She was forced to go to the bathroom in a training toilet and had to shower with a bucket.
Police said that the child had “very limited access” to other members of the family.
When police arrested the Swopes, they told officers that the 10-year-old girl was “possessed by a demon.”
Walles said that the 10-year-old girl and her three siblings, who were ages 7, 13, and 15 at the time, were taken into protective custody by the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services.
Both of the parents were ordered held in the Lake County Jail. Randy was ordered held on a $750,000 bond and Katherine was ordered held on a $150,000 bond.
At the time of his arrest, Randy Swopes was registered on the Illinois State Police Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth list after being arrested in 2008 and later convicted of aggravated battery of a child.
Court records show Randy Swopes, who is representing himself in the case, was found unfit for trial in November 2018 and again in November 2019.
He was later found in March 2020 to be fit for trial. The case did not proceed to trial until Monday.
A jury trial, overseen by an out-of-county judge — Kane County Judge Bianca Camargo — and prosecuted by special prosecutor Brian Towne, lasted four days and concluded on Thursday.
The jury found Randy Swopes guilty of all charges — one count of unlawful restraint, a Class 4 felony, and two counts of child endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor.
He faces one to three years in the Illinois Department of Corrections but could also receive probation.
Shanes scheduled a hearing on post-trial motions for May 23 and a sentencing hearing for June 27.
The case against Katherine Swopes is closed after she pleaded guilty in May 2019 to unlawful restraint and was sentenced to 12 months of periodic imprisonment and 30 months of probation.