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Man charged with sexual abuse By JILL BRISKEY A Sunny Valley man illegally camped on government land along with his family was arrested Monday and charged with sexually abusing his 9-year-old daughter. Oregon State Police Detective Greg Wright said 28-year-old Eli Joseph O'Dell was taken into custody without incident while waiting to pick up his children Monday afternoon at a school bus stop on Placer Road in Josephine County. O'Dell was charged with two counts of first-degree rape, four counts of first-degree sodomy, two counts of first-degree sex abuse and incest. O'Dell, who was the subject of two Josephine County warrants charging him with driving under the influence of intoxicants and driving while suspended, was lodged in the Jackson County Jail on more than $8 million bail. Police reports indicate O'Dell is accused of victimizing his daughter over a three-year period. Wright said the other daughter, age 5, was interviewed Tuesday and did not implicate her father. No new charges were added, but the case remains under investigation. The sisters and their 6-year-old brother were taken into custody by Services to Children and Families, Wright said. O'Dell, his wife, children and mother lived in a camper on Bureau of Land Management property in the Upper Grave Creek area for more than a year. The land is in northern Jackson County near Sunny Valley. The family had no running water but did have a generator and sent their children to school, Wright said. The siblings were examined by a doctor Tuesday, Wright said, but they did not require any medical attention. Wright said the O'Dell family lived with several other groups of squatters. Some individuals are legally camped on mining claims, he noted. "Our game enforcement people had been in contact with them, along with BLM people," Wright said. "They had been ordered to move out within a week." Wright said the O'Dell case will go before a grand jury Thursday. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.