Child-endangering suspect leaves court, is arrested again

Staff Report

BOARDMAN — The same day a Lemans Drive man appeared in court on one child endangering charge, he was arrested and charged with the same offense again.

Police arrested James B. Kennedy, 21, about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday on two counts of child endangering.

Police were called to Lemans by a woman who found her 3-year-old granddaughter wandering around outside of the apartment building. The grandmother, who lives in Warren, came to the apartment to check on her grandchildren’s welfare, she told police.

When she arrived, she saw the girl out running in the yard in front of the building and she tried to find the children’s father without success.

Police knocked on Kennedy’s door and could hear a baby crying, a police report said. After no one answered the door, an officer went into the unlocked apartment to check the child’s welfare.

The officer saw the 11-month-old boy crawling in a hallway inside the apartment unattended and wearing a soiled diaper. Kennedy was asleep in a back bedroom with the television on.

Kennedy was awakened, arrested and taken to the Mahoning County Jail.

The children were turned over to their grandmother under instruction from Mahoning County Children Services.

Earlier Tuesday, Kennedy pleaded innocent on a child endangering charge filed May 1. A trial on that offense is set for May 29.

On May 1, the apartment manager at Lemans called police after seeing the 3-year-old girl walking between apartment buildings with no supervision.

The girl could only tell police her first name and children’s services was able to locate the girl’s mother through its database. The mother was asleep in a bedroom and told police that she had left the toddler in Kennedy’s care because she had worked midnight turn the night before.

Kennedy told police he brought the girl to her mother while the mother was sleeping. He didn’t wake her but locked the bedroom door with the girl inside without knowing the child could unlock the door.

Kennedy told police he then went to Youngstown to work on his car.

At that time, Kennedy was released on a summons charging him with child endangering.