CAPE CORAL, Fla. – A southwest Florida couple has been charged with abusing their adoptive and foster children.
The Cape Coral Daily Breeze reports three teenage girls told authorities Sunday their father physically and sexually abused them. The couple has 13 children, a mix of foster, adopted and biological.
Daniel Spurgeon was arrested Monday after Cape Coral police responded to a KFC at which three girls — ages 16, 13 and 13 — were reported intoxicated, according to WBBH, the NBC affiliate in Ft. Myers. One teen told police their foster father provided alcohol mixed with Mountain Dew and beer, WBBH reports.
The teens were transported to the hospital where they admitted Spurgeon had physically and sexually abused many of the 10 adopted and foster children — eight girls and two boys, aged 8 to 16 — living in the home.
According to the Cape Coral police report, the non-biological children said they were treated differently from the biological children; including that they were fed meager meals, hit and choked, take cold showers, thrown into walls, or forced to do pushups Spurgeon’s or his wife’s foot on their backs.
According to the Associated Press, the children were all adopted or fostered in Alabama.
Daniel Spurgeon is charged with sexual battery, lewd and lascivious battery, lewd and lascivious molestation and aggravated child abuse. His wife, Jenise Spurgeon is charged with aggravated child abuse.
All the adopted and foster children were removed from the residence by the Department of Children and Families.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.