MARIAH ROSCO - 17 yo - Palatka FL

Palatka Group Home In Hot Water Over Abuse Allegations

Disabled Teen Abused With Hot Iron, Local Mother Says

12:55 am EST January 28, 2011

PALATKA, Fla. -- A group home in Palatka is in hot water after allegations surfaced that a local disabled teen was abused with a hot iron while she was in the facility.

Jeanette Rosco said she had no choice but to move her developmentally disabled daughter, Mariah, out of her home in Palm Coast and into the hands of workers at O'Carroll Homes in Palatka. She never imagined the people she trusted to care for the teen would allegedly abuse her.

"This is supposed to be a facility that protects," said Rosco.

Images: Child Burned By Iron

Rosco said her 17-year-old disabled daughter has a mental capacity of a toddler and couldn't communicate the pain she was enduring.

"My poor baby, she couldn't tell me anything. I'd talk to her on the phone and ask, 'Are you OK?' (She would say) 'I hurt,'" Rosco said.

Investigators said earlier this month, caregiver Kavarus Bellamy intentionally burned the girl's legs with a clothes iron while Devin Wesley, who used to work at the facility, held her down.

Rosco said there was a 7-inch burn above her daughter's knee, burns on her ankle, the back of her thigh and even at the bottom of her foot.

“It was just horrendous,” Rosco said. Investigators said employee Jolissia Battles sprayed a chemical in the girl's face and two other workers, Yolanda Miller and Jamon Davis, had been on the clock at the time.

Police said the two weren't in the room when the alleged abuse happened, but they knew about it, didn't stop it or reported it.

"Where are your morals, your values, your sense of humanity?" Rosco said.

The Department of Children and Families is investigating the group home, which remains open with five disabled children still in their care. Police are still trying to track down Kavarus Bellamy, the woman investigators said burned the girl with the iron. Bellamy is facing child abuse charges, police said.

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5th Arrest In Abuse Of Disabled Child

Woman Worries If She Can Trust Daughter's Care To Group Home Again

2:16 pm EST January 28, 2011

PALATKA, Fla. -- A fifth person wanted in connection with abuse of a 17-year-old developmentally disabled girl at a Palatka group home turned herself in one day after the teenager's mother speaks for the first time about what she calls the repeated torture of her daughter.

Police said part of that abuse at the O'Carroll Homes on 14th Street included burning the 17-year-old girl on her legs and ankles with a clothes iron.

Police said Kavarus Bellamy, 21, an employee at the home, intentionally burned the girl on Jan. 3. Investigators said Jolissia Battles, another employee, sprayed a chemical in the teen's face, and Devin Wesley, a former employee and visitor to the facility, held the teen while she was burned.

Police said two other staff members, Yolanda Miller and Jamon Davis, were in the facility during the time of the abuse and knew what happened but did nothing to stop it or report it.

Four of the five were arrested earlier in the week. Bellamy turned herself in on Friday morning.

"I did whole-heartedly trust them with my daughter," Jeanette Rocco-Roscoe said Thursday.She thought her disabled daughter was in good hands at the home for the past nine years. She had no idea staff members that were supposed to be caring for her were actually torturing her.

"She pulls down her pants and my first reaction, in all honesty, was anger," Rocco-Roscoe said.

Rocco-Roscoe was brought to tears after seeing the burns all over her 17-year-old daughter's legs and feet.

Investigators said that on Jan. 2 four caretakers and a former employee pinned her down and used an iron to burn her 10 times. They also sprayed chemicals in her face while she was being burned, according to police.

Mariah is a teenager, but her mother said she has the mind of a 2 or 3 year old.
"Considering Mariah can't speak for herself, it left me really clueless," Rocco-Roscoe said.

That's why it was so hard for her to know what was happening inside the group home, but pictures of the burns clearly show what was going on.

The next morning, another employee noticed the burns on Mariah and she was taken to the hospital.

"So my baby was sitting there for over 12 hours hurting," Rocco-Roscoe said.

Rocco-Roscoe believes the burns may not have been the first time her daughter was abused by her caretakers.

This past Christmas, she said she noticed a burn on her daughter's hip, but ignored it -- a mistake she will always regret.

"After this incident, I did not want to put her anywhere. I wanted her home with me, so I can make sure my baby is safe," Rocco-Roscoe said.

Bellamy is charged with aggravated child abuse, obstructing justice and other charges. Wesley was charged with child abuse, false imprisonment and tampering with a witness. Battles was charged with child abuse and failure to protect a child. Miller and Davis were charged with failure to protect a child and failure to report child abuse. Terry Carnes, the director of the group home, said they do not condone this type of behavior in their homes and that is why they reported it to authorities once they found out what happened.

Carnes said they plan to get stricter and observe their five homes more closely. Carnes said all employees have to pass a background check through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the FBI and local law enforcement. All the suspects came up clean when they were hired, according to Carnes.

How? ... Why? ... OMG I'm speechless. May God bless this child.