AKRON Review panel says county didn't mishandle case
The five boys' mother and her partner were each sentenced to 30 years.
AKRON (AP) -- County children services workers did not mishandle an abuse case involving five boys locked in a closet and forced to eat animal feces, according to a county panel's review.
County Executive James McCarthy asked the Child Fatality Review Board, which consists of citizens and several local agencies, in May to examine how Summit County Children Services Board treated the case. The request came after complaints that the agency didn't act on warnings from relatives and neighbors indicating that the children were in danger.
Children Services Board legal director Katerina Papas said the agency was pleased with the panel's findings.
"The significance of them is that they come from the people who work with child protection day in and day out and understand the issues," Papas said.
Mary Rowles, 31, and her partner, Alice Jenkins, 28, were each sentenced Jan. 13 to 30 years in prison. The women pleaded guilty in October to kidnapping, child endangering, felonious assault and other charges involving the children, now ages 7 to 15.
Boys' statements
Rowles' five sons said they were locked in dark closets, deprived of food, forced to eat feces and were mentally and physically abused for a year or more.
The women were arrested after three boys were found malnourished and wandering city streets April 28.
The fatality review board did recommend ways that the agencies involved with the children could have shared information more effectively with the children services' workers.
It also recommended the agency refer cases of children who appear malnourished to the child abuse center at Akron Children's Hospital "rather than seek the opinion of a family's primary care physician as to the condition of children in question."