A 14-Year-Old Installed Cameras to Prove the Abuse. Florida Later Gave Custody Back to the Father She Filmed

The news footage is graphic.

OKALOOSA COUNTY, FLORIDA — A 14-year-old installed cameras in her bedroom because no one would believe she was being beaten. The footage went to the sheriff. Damon Richard Becnel, 47, was arrested January 2, 2020.

Two videos showed him grabbing the girl by the hair, headbutting her, and slamming her head into a bed. In another he pulls a knife on a dog and screams that he will cut the animal’s eyes out while she tells him to stop. He was charged with child abuse and animal cruelty, posted $4,000 bail on January 3, and was released.

The sheriff’s office would not say how he was related to her, citing Florida’s victim-identity law. Reporting filled it in. Becnel was her father, a Destin business owner listed as a managing partner across local companies, last tied to ABEC Resorts. She had hidden a Nest camera without his knowledge. Her mother, Allison Tringas, who did not have custody, told WEAR she had been trying for years. “Nothing was done. Nothing has ever been done to help my daughter.” She said the girl “absolutely knew that something bad was going to happen and nobody would believe her unless she had that on film.”

Five Okaloosa Circuit judges passed the file around, several recusing without a reason, before it landed with Judge John Jay Gontarek. Chief Assistant State Attorney William Bishop said the office would not plea-bargain and had given the case to a child-abuse specialist. The criminal trial was continued for years. Becnel’s lawyer said he had checked into rehab while a domestic-violence injunction was in effect. The girl spent long stretches with her paternal grandfather.

Then a retired judge, brought back to hear the matter, granted Becnel temporary custody in late 2020 on the recommendation of the Florida Department of Children and Families and the teen’s own attorney — while the felony child-abuse charge was still pending. By 2022, reporting confirmed the same father had custody again. A child who documented her own beating watched the system hand her back.

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