A Rogers man was sentenced to 18 years in prison today after admitting to chaining his 5-year-old daughter to a dresser for three days.
David Bridgeman, 26, pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to false imprisonment in the first degree, a Class C felony, and permitting abuse of a minor and endangering the welfare of a minor in the first degree, both Class D felonies. His plea was under an agreement Sara Ashley, his public defender attorney, reached with Deputy Prosecutor Stephanie McLemore.
Bridgeman’s jury trial was slated for next week.
He and his wife, Jana Bridgeman, were arrested Dec. 2.
A woman staying with the couple reported she woke to hear a girl crying and found the child bound to a dresser with a chain and a loop fashioned from a belt. The couple was not home, and the woman unfastened the child, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Police found a belt cut to make a collar and loop. The child slept on a blanket on the floor of the master bedroom and the room smelled of urine, according to the affidavit.
Bridgeman said during Wednesday’s hearing that he chained the child for her own safety because she sleepwalks and had once gotten into chemicals in the kitchen. He said she had also gotten knives that were in the kitchen while sleepwalking.
Jana Bridgeman also pleaded guilty to the same charges. She is the 5-year-old’s stepmother. Her attorney is Billy Bob Webb.
Jana Bridgeman told Circuit Judge Robin Green that her husband (David Bridgeman) had placed the collar around the child’s neck.
The judge accepted the plea agreements and the Bridgemans’ guilty pleas.
David Bridgeman was sentenced to 18 years in prison and after his release from prison he must abide by a suspended sentence agreement for 12 years. He will have to serve at least 3 years before he is eligible for parole.
Jana Bridgeman’s plea agreement recommends that she serve 12 years in prison in addition to a 10 year suspended sentence. The judge will formally sentence Jana Bridgeman on Monday morning.