19 Children - 8 mo to 14 yo - Bowling Green KY

19 children found living alone in sweltering house

Posted: Jul 03, 2012 9:00 AM CDT
Updated: Jul 03, 2012 10:32 AM CDT
Posted by Scott Sutton - email

BOWLING GREEN, KY (WSMV) - Authorities in Warren County, KY, on Monday night removed 19 juveniles that they said were left unattended for about a week in a sweltering Bowling Green home.

The local sheriff's office responded to a check welfare complaint at a home at 130 Kingston Way around 11:30 p.m.

When deputies arrived, they found 19 children ranging from 8 months to 14 years old with no supervision, no working air conditioning or food.

All of the children were transported and treated at the Medical Center then placed into protective custody of the state.

Nine dogs and one cat were removed from the residence by the Warren County Sheriff's Office Animal Control. Authorities said living conditions were found to be unacceptable for the juveniles and animals.

When police arrived at the home, they said temperatures were in excess of 90 degrees. Social workers from the Department for Health and Family Services were contacted and responded to the scene.

Police are still investigating.

http://www.wsmv.com/story/18941278/19-children-found-living-alone-in-sweltering-house

Mother jailed after kids removed
Authorities removed 19 children from her home

Posted: Thursday, July 5, 2012 11:34 am
Updated: 11:52 am, Mon Jul 9, 2012
By CHUCK MASON The Daily News cmaason@bgdailynews.com

A Warren County woman is in the Warren County Regional Jail today in lieu of a $100,000 bond after being charged with felony child abuse in connection with 19 children being removed Monday from her rental home.

Jackie Farah, 32, 130 Kingston Way, was arrested by the Warren County Sheriff’s Office at 4:18 p.m. Tuesday after the 19 children – one as young as 8 months old – were removed from the one-story, five-bedroom house late Monday night after someone asked that authorities check the welfare of those in the house.

Farah is charged with 14 counts of first-degree criminal abuse (child 12 or under) and five counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, according to a release from the sheriff’s office. The release added that other people are being sought for questioning.

The children are stair-stepped in age up to 14 years old, authorities and neighbors said.
Her preliminary hearing will be 9 a.m. Monday before Warren County District Judge Brent Potter, said Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron. Cohron said additional charges may be pursued against Farah when the case is presented to a Warren County grand jury, if Potter rules Monday there is probable cause to proceed.

Cohron said under Kentucky law, if convicted, Farah could face a 20-year maximum sentence.

“How those kids were not injured is beyond me,” Detective Tim Robinson, the sheriff’s office’s lead investigator in the case, said today.

Robinson said officials are sorting out to whom the children belong. Two of the custodial mothers have been staying at Hometown Suites since Tuesday, when they were contacted by the sheriff’s office concerning the children.

The children are also from several states, Robinson said, which complicates custodial issues.

“If they are from another state, Kentucky child services can’t check on them” if they are released to other parents, he said. Closed hearings were set for today in family court to explore those issues, he said.

Robinson said about an inch of dog and cat feces was in one of the home’s bathrooms and the youngest children in diapers were in a need of changes. There was no air conditioning, he added.

He also said the investigation shows that one of the children pulled a television down on his hand, but the child was not injured.

“They don’t need to be left at home (alone),” said neighbor Denise Kitchens, 47, of 230 Kingston Way, when interviewed Tuesday by the Daily News. “This really shocks me.”

An abandoned car with Indiana plates and a small chain saw with two plastic fuel cans sat in the front yard and drive of the house. A neighbor said the adults in the house left the abandoned blue Chevrolet and used a Ford Expedition to make trips.

The Expedition had not been seen for five days when authorities discovered the children, neighbors said.

The children have been medically evaluated and released and are in the custody of the Department for Child Based Services, the release said.

“Farah is the biological mother of some of the children involved,” the release said. “Farah was en route back to Bowling Green from Chicago and was instructed to come to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office for questioning in regards to the incident. Farah was questioned and then taken into custody.”

Several animals were also inside the house with the children during a stretch of triple-digit temperatures. The Warren County Animal Control Unit removed nine dogs and a cat from the house Monday.

The arrest followed a previous visit to the house by deputies about two weeks ago to check on the children after a complaint about their unsupervised condition was made, according to a neighbor of Farah’s.

Annie Adams, 31, of 200 Kingston Way, who lives next door to 130 Kingston Way with her husband, Jake, 37, and their four boys – ages 2, 5, 10 and 12 – said earlier this week that she had concerns about the children.

She said a deputy came to the house two weeks before, had banged repeatedly on the door and had finally talked to one of the children through a screen. The deputy left when an adult came to the house, Adams said.

The Adamses moved to the neighborhood from Portland, Tenn., in March. Farah, a man she only knew as “Joe” and 13 children had moved in next door in May. They were later joined by six more children, reportedly cousins of the other 13, who were visiting for the summer, Adams said. The Associated Press reported the man’s name is Irving “Joe” Smith and that Farah and Smith left town June 27 and left the kids alone.

“For me, it was kind of a shock they have so many kids and they didn’t work,” Adams said.

Adams said the children were left alone for days at a time. She recounted that the kids were apparently left alone several different times since the couple moved in during May.

Adams said she contacted the sheriff’s office more than once about the children.

“If something was to happen to those kids, that would have been on my conscience,” Adams said.

“I’m just glad that someone else called about the children.”

“I seen a couple of black guys on the porch and a white girl come in, but I never seen any kids,” said Bobby Womack, 47, of 120 Hillsborough Court. “If I had known (there were kids) I would have called someone. They are just lucky that none of them died.”

Barbara Wilson-Hill, of 211 Kingston Way, another neighbor, said she saw some of the children playing basketball at 220 Kingston Way. She also noticed when she went to get her mail that the windows were open on the house at 130 Kingston Way several days before the day the children and animals were removed.

“I’m glad that they are in a better place,” Wilson-Hill said of the children.

http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/local/mother-jailed-after-kids-removed/article_40bc68ea-c6bf-11e1-8362-0019bb2963f4.html