Police: Grandma put kids in danger

A child told police he and his siblings were regularly locked in their room for long periods of time.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A 47-year-old Youngstown woman faces four counts of child endangering after police said they found four of her grandchildren under her supervision living in filth.

Police discovered the living conditions at the Wilcox Street house, on the city’s West Side, after Deborah Jean Poe called Monday, after a 2-year-old grandchild ingested two of her pills.

Poe, of Youngstown-Hubbard Road, called the fire department shortly before 9:30 a.m. Monday from her daughter’s home on Wilcox Street.

A 6-year-old boy told police that he and his siblings are often locked in their bedroom for long periods of time by their mother’s boyfriend. Because of that, he said he and his siblings used the floor as a toilet.

He also told police that his grandmother beat them with a leather belt.

Poe told police her 2-year-old grandchild swallowed a Tylenol and a Buspar pill she had on the couch in a bottle that isn’t childproof. Buspar is an anti-anxiety medicine.

The condition of the 2-year-old, taken to the St. Elizabeth Health Center, wasn’t released. Police didn’t release the sex of the 2-year-old Monday. The three other children were taken into protective custody by Mahoning County Children Services. Police didn’t release the ages of the other children in the house.

Conditions in the house

Police Officer Daniel Mikus wrote in his arrest report that he immediately smelled cat urine when he arrived at the house and noticed the brown carpet in the living room was black with dirt from long-term neglect. There were trash and clothes all over the floor, and three young children completely covered in marker from drawing on themselves and one another, according to Mikus. There were gnats throughout the house, he wrote.

The kids were filthy from neglect, and one was wearing a diaper filled with excrement, Mikus wrote.

Also, none of the children had eaten that day, he wrote. During a check of the refrigerator, freezer and cupboards, Mikus wrote, he found a minimal amount of food. The kitchen had cat excrement on the floor, he wrote.

There were only two plastic baby mattresses in the bedroom shared by the four children, Mikus wrote. The walls were covered with marker, and the floors stained from urine and feces, according to the officer.

Children locked in bedroom

Poe told police she got to her daughter’s house about 5:30 a.m. and her daughter’s boyfriend had all but the 2-year-old locked in their bedroom. Those three children were locked in the bedroom until Poe called the fire department after the 2-year-old swallowed the two pills nearly four hours later, Mikus wrote.

Police charged Poe with one felony count and three misdemeanor counts of child endangering. She was in the county jail late Monday pending an arraignment today in Youngstown Municipal Court.

The children’s mother is at a medical facility for mental problems and is the subject of a county Children Services investigation, Mikus wrote. The mother’s boyfriend was not charged by police, but the case is under investigation.

skolnick@vindy.com