D.C. Mother Faces Cruelty Charges In Neglect Case (WP)

[diamond14]

D.C. Mother Faces Cruelty Charges In Neglect Case

By Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 7, 2004; Page B01

-snips-

The mother accused of leaving her six children alone in the family's decrepit apartment has told police that she promptly spent the month's entire $719 public assistance check without paying the rent or the gas bill or even buying food, prosecutors said in charging papers filed yesterday.

The filthy home, she told police, was the fault of the children and was their responsibility to clean up, according to the charging document filed as Hooks made her first appearance in the criminal case late yesterday in D.C. Superior Court. Her name was made public with the filing of the criminal charge.

When police arrived at the apartment Wednesday, they said they found a nearly uninhabitable place, with no food in the refrigerator and the floor hardly visible among the soiled clothes and diapers. The youngest child was just 3 months old, and the oldest in the home when police arrived was 7. Police would later learn that the oldest two children, ages 9 and 12, had gone to school.

It was not the first time that the mother had come under investigation. Cases were opened on the family in 1998, 2002 and last year, agency officials said. Each time, the agency stabilized the family and closed the case, they said.

Police said they found a bowl containing two raw chicken pieces with barbecue sauce on the floor, along with a heap of chicken bones. A slightly opened can of beans was also discovered, and from the sauce around one child's mouth, it appeared the child had been eating the beans.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20259-2004Feb6.html


Welcome to george bush*'s Amerikkka.....

[LiberalFighter]

1. This woman still needs to have her parental rights terminated.

[MountainLaurel]

2. My favorite part

From the article:

The filthy home, she told police, was the fault of the children and was their responsibility to clean up, according to the charging document filed as Hooks made her first appearance in the criminal case late yesterday in D.C. Superior Court.

:argh:

Guess that three-month-old should have been changing his own goddamn diapers!