"John" BALLARD - 14yo - St. Bernard Parish LA

A
malnourished and injured 14-year-old boy who was taken from his father
had been living inside of an RV that was littered with trash and animal
feces and had no food or running water, according to St. Bernard Parish
Chief Deputy James Pohlmann.

St. Bernard Sheriff's Office

Daniel Ballard

The young man continued improving in the
hospital and his mother, who had apparently not seen him in four years,
since she sent him to live with his father in Louisiana, is coming to
see him, said Pohlmann. The young
man weighed only 60 pounds when he was found and hadn’t been to school
or to see a doctor in four years, according to Pohlmann. The father, 30-year-old Daniel Ballard, has been jailed on charges of cruelty to a juvenile. The boy's name is not listed anywhere as a runaway or a kidnapping
victim, Pohlmann said. He also said Ballard has outstanding arrest
warrants in New Mexico and Ohio but both are for minor offenses for
which the states will not seek extradition. "Until we look at documents and see some facts, we can only go by what
the boy and the father are telling us," Pohlmann said. “We want to get
to the bottom of this and make sure this juvenile ends up in a good
environment.’’ The boy gave
detectives from the sheriff’s Juvenile Division his mother's phone
number and she told sheriff’s detectives she has been in contact with
the boy off and on over the past few years. He was supposed to visit the father for several months while she was
ill but she has claimed to sheriff’s detectives since the teen’s
removal from his father’s custody that the father wouldn’t say where
they had moved and she couldn’t find them on her own. The woman said by
telephone that Ballard often tightly restricted phone conversations and
would never reveal their whereabouts. The father, Daniel Ballard, 30, is in the St. Bernard Parish Prison in
lieu of bond set at $25,000 and would face up to 10 years in prison if
convicted of cruelty to a juvenile.

A 14-year-old boy, who is a suspected victim of child cruelty, has been reunited with his mother.

The
boy’s father, Daniel Ballard, 30, was booked last week by St. Bernard
Parish deputies with felony cruelty to a juvenile. He has since been
released on $25,000 bond.

The boy’s mother came in from Arizona this week and was awarded custody of the child Monday by a St. Bernard Parish judge.

Deputies
say they found the boy living with his father in a dirty trailer,
malnourished and injured. He was taken to the hospital and treated. The
boy, who weighed 60 pounds when police discovered him, was in the
custody of the state while being treated for his injuries.

The
boy has not been to school or seen a doctor in the more than four years
he has lived with his father in the New Orleans area, Chief Deputy
Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

The victim’s mother told
investigators that she has only spoken to her son by phone and hasn’t
known where hand the father have lived since the boy came to stay
temporarily with his father before Hurricane Katrina.

The mother and child, whose names have not been released, have returned home to Arizona.