Unnamed boys / Accused: Wayne Sperling, and Lorinda Bailey, parents - Denver, CO

4 boys found in filthy home spoke in grunts, were malnourished and not toilet trained, per affidavit

Posted: 3:21 PM
Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

•By: Anica Padilla, TheDenverChannel.com

DENVER - Four children found living in a Denver home full of flies and cat feces were severely malnourished and could only communicate with each other in grunts, according to an arrest affidavit released Monday.

The boys' parents, Wayne Sperling, 66, and Lorinda Bailey, 35, are charged with multiple counts of child abuse.

The investigation began when Bailey took her 2-year-old son to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital to be treated for a cut on his forehead on Sept. 29.

The child was non-verbal, unwashed, and smelled like cigarette smoke, according to the emergency room doctor.

Bailey told the doctor the cut occurred after a fall. The doctor said that explanation was possible, but said additional bruising behind the child's right ear seemed consistent with pinching.

Denver Police Officer N. Rocco-McKeel was called to the hospital to investigate and spoke to the doctor and Denver Human Services case worker Jill Perry.

The case worker informed the officer that there were three other boys, aged 4, 5 and 6, living in the family's home on 18th Avenue in Denver. Perry requested to have Officer Rocco-McKeel accompany her on a welfare check, according to the affidavit.

When they arrived at the apartment, Rocco-McKeel reported a strong odor of a decomposing animal coming from inside. The officer said the "smell became unbearable" as they entered the apartment. The officer could not locate the source of the smell but said it seemed to be coming from a back room that was so full of flies "they were covering every surface."

The officer also reported seeing five cats running around and said there was feces on the floor throughout the apartment.

The children could only communicate with each other using "infant-like noises," according to Rocco-McKeel.

The officer said the children all appeared to be about the same size and he could not determine any age or developmental difference between the three oldest children. Two of the children were wearing nothing but diapers.

The boys' mother told investigators she had been living alone in a separate unit of the building for the past two months, but saw the children almost every day.

Bailey denied that her children have any developmental delays and stated that they speak to her with no problems.

Bailey also stated that she did not think the apartment was unsafe or dirty.

The boys' father told investigators that he is their primary caregiver. Sperling stated that he was unemployed and stayed home with the children. None of the children were at school or in any daycare, and Sperling explained that he was "applying to home school" the 6-year-old child.

The children "have their own language" but are able to speak to him and their mother, Sperling told police.

Sperling said the feces on the floor "looks like human but it's the cats," according to the affidavit.

Sperling said he mops the floor frequently but with four boys it is hard to keep clean.

The children were placed in protective custody and all four underwent general exams at the hospital on Sept. 29. They were found to be non-verbal, malnourished, and not toilet trained.

On Sept. 30, investigators returned to the home and noted that recent attempts had been made to clean the apartment, but the smell of cat urine and feces "was still overwhelming."

There was 1-2 inches of cat feces under the bunk bed where the children slept and the floor was soaked with cat urine, according to the affidavit.  The floors were covered with dead flies, indicating some type of bug spray had recently been used.

Sperling said the flies fill the back room every summer because the cats won't use the litter box.

There was a single mattress and a bunk bed set in the room, but neither had sheets or pillows.

The affidavit notes that both parents had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child abuse in June 2009.

Sperling and Bailey were each charged with four counts of felony child abuse. They remain jailed under $5,000 bonds.

Both are due in court Tuesday to hear the charges against them.

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/national/4-boys-found-in-filthy-home-spoke-in-grunts-were-malnourished-and-not-toilet-trained-per-affidavit

I would give all my belongings to have a child, even a step child.  To love and care for.  I just don't see how people can do these things.  Just brought tears to my eye's and breaks my heart.  William

Malnourished Colo. boys face long recovery


AP Photo: Brennan Linsley
A man walks past the residence of Wayne Sperling, on Tuesday, Oct. 8 2013, the day of the first hearing in his felony child abuse case, in Denver.
3 hr ago By Dan Elliott of Associated Press





The brothers, ages 2 to 6, were removed from what police described as a filthy Denver apartment late last month and placed in state custody.

 — Four undernourished Colorado boys who were living in squalor and unable to speak face a long and uncertain path to recovery, an expert said, but there is at least some hope for their future.

The brothers, ages 2 to 6, were removed from what police described as a filthy Denver apartment late last month and placed in state custody. Their parents, Wayne Sperling and Lorinda Bailey, appeared in court Tuesday on charges of felony child abuse.


"These kids have lived in such a bizarre environment that they probably haven't developed any level of trust," said Diane Baird, a licensed clinical social worker and a pediatrics instructor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

"These guys are going to have a really hard time through it. They need good therapists and good caregivers," said Baird, who isn't directly involved in the case.

Asked if they can recover, Baird said they could, to some extent. Then she added, "People change beyond my wildest imaginings sometimes."

AP Photo: Denver District Arttorney's Office
This photo combo of photos provided by the Office of the Denver District Attorney's Office shows Lorinda Bailey, left, and Wayne Sperling.

Doctors found the boys were malnourished, were not toilet-trained and had poor and delayed verbal skills, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. They made "infant-like noises" to each other, one officer reported.
The apartment where they lived was littered with feces, cat urine and flies, police said. It had an unbearable odor like that of a decaying animal.

Bailey, 35, is free on bail. She declined to comment after Tuesday's court hearing. Sperling, 66, was still in custody Wednesday. The state Public Defender's Office refused to release his attorney's name.

Baird said the four boys will spend their entire lives recovering from their early years.

"The first thing they need is a healing attachment relationship," she said, one that teaches them to trust that caregivers will attend to their needs.

"These children have had very distorted kinds of early experience," Baird said. Future caregivers will have to help them "undo what they think about the world and human beings."

They will face problems learning to develop relationships and intimacy with other people and will probably always struggle with self-worth because "they weren't cherished," Baird said.

"Neglect is at least as harmful as abuse, and maybe more" she said.

Who will care for the boys over the long term is up to a judge. If the judge and child-welfare workers believe the parents can successfully care for the children, they could regain custody. If not, the parents would lose their rights and the boys could be adopted after they are stabilized in a therapeutic foster home, Baird said.

Sperling and Bailey had three other children who were removed from their home after a 2006 incident, according to court records. The current whereabouts and status of those children is not publicly known.

"That certainly ups the ante" in the decision about the four boys' future, Baird said.

Whether the brothers are placed in a single family or separated depends on whether child-welfare workers think they can best recover together or apart, Baird said.

Sometimes siblings can help each other build relationships with adults.

"Other times, siblings are so bound in their relationships which defend against adult relationships that they reinforce each other's mistrust," Baird said.

If they were separated, they would still have sibling visits and therapy together, she said.

Baird said she believes adoptive parents could be found for the boys, despite the difficulties they face.

"There are a lot of amazing people out there who really do this because they want to help children get better," she said.

www.galvestondailynews.com/.../article_607a95ed-0399-5e54-a773-c3676...

Accused parents have history with Denver Human Services

11:13 PM, Oct 21, 2013
written by: Chris Vanderveen

DENVER - Dressed in a green robe, 66-year-old Wayne Sperling was quick to speak of conspiracy theories and a distrust of a government he once loved. His words rambled, but the moment he was asked about the four children and his common-law wife, Sperling's words grew more focused.

"If I start talking, I'll probably start crying. We're already convicted," he recently told 9Wants to Know. "My kids, every day, would get up into my arms."

Prosecutors have charged Sperling and Lorinda Bailey, 35, with multiple counts of felony child abuse. Both are currently out in lieu of bond and expected back in court for a preliminary hearing on the case next week. Denver police records indicate investigators believe Sperling and Bailey left four of their children, between the ages of two and six, inside a filthy home and kept them "non-verbal and malnourished."

The case has generated national attention with eye-popping headlines and disturbing allegations.

Sperling told 9Wants to Know he remains worried about a fair case.

"You just can't fight the city, and everybody has got their mind made up. In fact, they've had them made up for a long time," he said.

When asked if his children could speak, Sperling insisted they could.

Sperling would not address additional specifics of the case and would not answer questions about a 2006 child abuse case. He and Bailey eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child abuse stemming from a case in which two of their children were found playing on nearby 18th Avenue in October 2006.

In 2009, following years of termination proceedings, they lost custody of three of their oldest children. For yet to be known reasons, the two were allowed to keep custody of two additional children who were born after the original 2006 case.

Since then, Sperling and Bailey have gone on to have two more children. It's why there were four children living in the couple's apartment at the time of the most recent case.

"How do we know you love your kids?" 9Wants to Know asked.

"Bring those kids here and see," Sperling replied.

It's a wish that's not likely to be granted anytime soon. The four kids involved in the 2013 case have since been taken to protective services. The three children involved in the 2006 case are now living with adoptive parents in the Denver metro area and in southeastern Colorado.

In order to protect the identity of those children, 9News has chosen not to use the families' last names. We recently traveled to Lamar to meet two of those children who are now the custody of Meagan and Jeff.

"We've just sort of tried really hard to make them comfortable, happy and healthy. We devoted some time to them and now look at what's happened," Jeff said.

The children, now seven and nine, were once non-verbal. After a difficult first year, a year in which Meagan and Jeff openly wondered if they could continue on as parents, the two adopted children now appear to be thriving.

Both are near grade-level in school and highly talkative.

"It just warms your heart to see the changes they've gone through. We know the people they are becoming, and we're really proud of them," Jeff said.

Yet the news of the most recent arrest involving the birth-parents of their boy and girl has them both upset.

Meagan said she found out when people started forwarding online articles involving the case.

"I didn't know what to think. I ran to the computer, and I looked at a story. Tears started running down my face because this is exactly the same thing. It's the same thing. It's the same people. It's not a similar family. It's the same people who did this two times," Meagan said.

"I just don't know how this was overlooked. That's the only way I can put it. It had to be overlooked, but why? Why?" she added.

She said she and Jeff have told their adopted children some of the truth about their former parents.

"They know their parents didn't know how to be parents, and so we became blessed in order to become their parents," she said.

She'd like to try to adopt some of the younger children who were recently taken away, but she knows resources won't allow for that.

"If I had the resources I would pick up the phone and scoop [all four] up, but I can't. I just hope somebody will," she said.

Wayne Sperling said he still hopes the courts will consider him to be a good father, but he did not sound terribly optimistic.

"I can't convince nobody," he said. "I can only say it, and you have to see it."

http://www.9news.com/rss/article/361168/339/Accused-parents-have-history-with-DHS

Father of boys found in squalid Denver home pleads guilty to abuse

By Keith Coffman 10 hr ago



A father of four malnourished boys found living amid cat feces in a squalid Denver home and unable to speak except by grunts pleaded guilty on Thursday to felony child abuse, prosecutors said.

 
©


REUTERS/Denver District Attorney/Handout/Files Wayne Sperling (L) and Lorinda Bailey are pictured in this undated booking photo released by the Denver District Attorney's Office in Denver in this October 8…

Wayne Sperling, 66, was arrested last year along with his common-law wife, Lorinda Bailey, after authorities discovered the boys, aged 2, 4, 5 and 6, living in a filthy apartment teeming with flies.

Sperling pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse, second offense, said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney's Office.

Bailey, 36, pleaded guilty in August to one count of child abuse and was sentenced last week to 90 days in jail and five years of probation.

Prosecutors had argued that Bailey deserved a maximum seven-year prison sentence because she and Sperling had previously lost custody of two other children over similar neglect charges.

Authorities were alerted to the boys' plight when Bailey took the 2-year-old to an emergency room with a cut on his forehead, according to an affidavit filed by Denver police.

The treating physician noted that the toddler was filthy, non-verbal, and reeked of cigarette smoke.

A social worker and a police officer then visited the couple's apartment in east Denver and found Sperling at home with his three older sons, the affidavit said.

The home was littered with cat feces and permeated by an "unbearable" stench, the affidavit said. The responding officer said the three boys uttered "infant-like noises."

"Sperling stated the children have their own language and grunt at each other but were able to speak to him and Bailey," the affidavit said.

Sperling told police that he was unemployed and was the primary caregiver for his sons.

A pediatrician who later examined the children found all the boys were malnourished, had "very poor and delayed" verbal skills, had not been toilet trained, and lacked up-to-date immunization records, the affidavit said.

The four boys are now living together in foster care.

Sperling, who was found competent after undergoing a mental evaluation, is set to be sentenced next month and faces up to seven years in prison.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/13/us-usa-colorado-abuse-idUSKCN0IX2I920141113