Police: Kids live in filth, stench

Both mothers were taken into custody and held overnight in jail pending arraignment today.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Picture this: Four children lie on a cockroach-infested floor to watch TV while a starving pit bull eats foam from a decrepit couch in a sweltering house that reeks of urine and feces.
That was the scene Tuesday at 731 W. Indianola Ave. for Patrolman Dan Mikus and Dave Nelson, Animal Charity humane investigator.
It was a near repeat of what they found the day before at 3916 Howard St., also on the South Side. "We're two for two," Nelson told Mikus.
"Put your hand over your nose," Mikus warned as he made his way through the 10-room house on Indianola. "This is bad, real bad."
Nelson had gone to the 21/2-story mint-green house in response to a call about a pit bull. He found the children -- three boys and one girl ages 4 to 8 -- in the living room.
No adult was in the house he called unfit for humans or animals.
The brown pit bull was in a room off the kitchen. The room, littered with trash and dirty clothes, had no food or water for the animal -- only yellow foam that he'd ripped from the couch, chewed and swallowed, Nelson said.
Mikus pointed to two moldy loaves of bread next to a jar of jelly on the grimy dining room table.
He found no food in the refrigerator. Dirty dishes and utensils covered the counters and filled the sink.
The officer almost gagged as he made his way upstairs, noting the deplorable conditions for his report. "You name it, it's in here," he said of the decaying trash and mounds of refuse everywhere he stepped.
The upstairs bedrooms resembled the aftermath of a tornado. All the mattresses were urine-stained.
Dirty clothes, rancid food remnants, bugs, trash and more on the floors made walking difficult. The bathroom toilet doesn't work, but that didn't mean it hadn't been used.
New computer, TV
What seemed out of place in the house were the new computer and color TV in the living room where the children had been. One small fan offered their only relief from Tuesday's 90-degree heat.
Nelson took the dog to Animal Charity. Mahoning County Children Services took the children, who looked frightened and confused as they were led outside.
"Who's screaming?" Nelson asked after he put the dog in his van.
"That's the mother," Mikus answered.
Mikus had located Tonya Rushton, the 30-year-old mother by phone and told her to come to the house, where he placed her under arrest. She sobbed as she stood in the driveway, her hands cuffed behind her.
She pleaded with officials to let the children's grandmother take them. She accused the CSB workers of not coming to her aid when she asked.
The house on Indianola is owned by RN Enterprises, county records show.
Rushton stayed in the county jail overnight, pending arraignment later today in municipal court. She faces charges of child endangering and animal cruelty.
Mikus arrested another mother Tuesday -- the one he couldn't find Monday at 3916 Howard St.
Other house
At the Howard house, Mikus and Nelson had found deplorable living conditions for two children, and a bulldog without food or water. The 23-year-old mother, Darlene L. Shina, was arrested Tuesday after Mikus learned that she had returned to the house to remove some belongings.
She also spent overnight in jail and faces charges of child endangering and animal cruelty.
The house at 3916 Howard is owned by Antoune Malek, county records show.
Shina told The Vindicator that she hasn't been staying at 3916 Howard but next door at 3920 Howard or with her boyfriend in Liberty. She blames her estranged husband in Austintown, with whom she shares child care, for her troubles.
Mikus challenged her story, saying the boxes at 3920 Howard he saw Tuesday contained pictures he had found Monday at 3916 Howard.
"She's trying to cover her butt by making it seem like she's been living next door," he said.
The house at 3916 has no electricity and an inoperable toilet that overflowed onto the bathroom floor. Unsealed plastic trash bags, their spilled contents adding to the rancid odor, are everywhere.
The living room rug is smeared with human and animal feces and covered with cat litter. Nelson has Rocco, her 7-month-old bulldog. Her cat got away.
Mikas told the woman he found small children's footprints in the excrement on floors at 3916 Howard. She had no explanation.
The house at 3920 Howard is owned by Laurice Malek.
Councilman Mike Rapovy, D-5th, said he's disgusted by the deplorable conditions found at both houses. The situation, he said, is becoming "almost common."
meade@vindy.com