Jaded
October 17th, 2008, 08:15 AM
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Five children were removed from their home Wednesday after child welfare workers determined they were living in filth and sleeping on floors strewn with feces.
As many as 15 people - including the five children between 2 months and 6 years old - lived in squalor with more than a dozen dogs in the two-bedroom, two-bathroom house on Gilsey Avenue, according to statements made in court on Thursday.
The children will be in the custody of the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services for at least 30 days, at which point child welfare workers will reassess the situation.
Police were called to the home Wednesday evening and arrested 21-year-old Robert Allen Jr., the father of three of the children, on three counts of child endangering. Allen was released from jail Thursday.
Also arrested were two of Allen's girlfriends, a 17-year-old and 23-year-old Sara Clark. The 17-year-old is the mother of a 1-year-old and a 2-month-old. Clark is the mother a 6-year-old, a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old. She was also arrested on three child endangering charges. Like Allen, Clark was released from jail on Thursday without a bond.
The teen was held overnight Wednesday on child endangering charges at the Hamilton County Juvenile Court Youth Center, said Harvey Reed, the facility's superintendent. What happened with the teen's case Thursday was not available.
A third woman, Linda Mangrum, 44, was convicted in court Thursday of one charge of child endangering. She was fined $100.
Court Magistrate Ellen Wolf was baffled why Mangrum would live in squalor with so many other people.
"It really wasn't intended to be that way," Mangrum said.
Mangrum told the magistrate that she didn't intend to return to the home, and was going to go back and live with her husband.
The families' problems with child welfare workers were not their first.
In 1999, Mangrum was working with child welfare staff after a case of sexual abuse was substantiated, officials said. Court records do not indicate that that case went any further.
Clark's history with child welfare workers dates to 2003.
"We've had several unsubstantiated and substantiated cases with each of these families," said Brian Gregg, a spokesman for the department.
When police arrived Wednesday they found the children surrounded by dog feces as they slept on the floor. Police reports say that there was little food.
Workers from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Thursday they went to the house to check on about 16 dogs, but couldn't get inside.
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008810170411
Five children were removed from their home Wednesday after child welfare workers determined they were living in filth and sleeping on floors strewn with feces.
As many as 15 people - including the five children between 2 months and 6 years old - lived in squalor with more than a dozen dogs in the two-bedroom, two-bathroom house on Gilsey Avenue, according to statements made in court on Thursday.
The children will be in the custody of the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services for at least 30 days, at which point child welfare workers will reassess the situation.
Police were called to the home Wednesday evening and arrested 21-year-old Robert Allen Jr., the father of three of the children, on three counts of child endangering. Allen was released from jail Thursday.
Also arrested were two of Allen's girlfriends, a 17-year-old and 23-year-old Sara Clark. The 17-year-old is the mother of a 1-year-old and a 2-month-old. Clark is the mother a 6-year-old, a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old. She was also arrested on three child endangering charges. Like Allen, Clark was released from jail on Thursday without a bond.
The teen was held overnight Wednesday on child endangering charges at the Hamilton County Juvenile Court Youth Center, said Harvey Reed, the facility's superintendent. What happened with the teen's case Thursday was not available.
A third woman, Linda Mangrum, 44, was convicted in court Thursday of one charge of child endangering. She was fined $100.
Court Magistrate Ellen Wolf was baffled why Mangrum would live in squalor with so many other people.
"It really wasn't intended to be that way," Mangrum said.
Mangrum told the magistrate that she didn't intend to return to the home, and was going to go back and live with her husband.
The families' problems with child welfare workers were not their first.
In 1999, Mangrum was working with child welfare staff after a case of sexual abuse was substantiated, officials said. Court records do not indicate that that case went any further.
Clark's history with child welfare workers dates to 2003.
"We've had several unsubstantiated and substantiated cases with each of these families," said Brian Gregg, a spokesman for the department.
When police arrived Wednesday they found the children surrounded by dog feces as they slept on the floor. Police reports say that there was little food.
Workers from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Thursday they went to the house to check on about 16 dogs, but couldn't get inside.
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008810170411