Judge resets woman’s sentencing for cruelty, child endangering

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Jody Seabolt

The woman said in court that the house she’s in now is clean.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A municipal judge wants to know a lot more about Jody L. Seabolt before he sentences the West Side woman whose German shepherd puppy had a temperature of 106 degrees before it died in June.

“There needs to be a penalty here; I’m not sure what yet,” Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. told Seabolt and her lawyer on Tuesday. “The level of responsibility is just not acceptable.”

Seabolt, 48, of South Lakeview Avenue, formerly of South Portland Avenue, was in court to be sentenced on one count of animal cruelty and two counts of child endangering. The judge reset the sentencing to Nov. 25 and ordered that Seabolt’s caseworker and a supervisor from Mahoning County’s Children Services Board be there.

Judge Douglas said he wants to know why CSB was involved with her family — son, 8, and daughters, 17, and 22 — before police went to her house in June. Seabolt said she didn’t know why, adding that the house she is in now is clean. The judge said she wasn’t helping herself with that answer.

Bret Hartup, assistant city prosecutor, said a police report shows what it took to get her to take action.

On June 9, Patrolman Sam Mosca said Seabolt’s son and 17-year-old daughter were home when they should have been in school, and records show they’ve been absent from school a lot. He described the conditions at Seabolt’s home on South Portland as squalid and unsafe.

Outside lay Max, the 8-month-old puppy, choking in a tangled chain and sweltering in record-breaking heat without water. Detective Sgt. John Perdue said the animal, with a temperature of 106 (101 is normal) died at a vet’s that evening after neighbors tried to rescue him.

Mosca, who smelled a horrible odor coming from the house when he stood on the porch, wrote a detailed description of what he found. The conditions were also photographed by CSB agents.

Mosca said he found dirty clothes scattered in the living room, the dining room table covered with food-soiled plates and containers, a rotting watermelon and a hamster in a cage. The kitchen had grease-covered pans on the stove, a pile of dirty dishes in the sink, greasy walls and a filthy refrigerator with rotten food inside, he said.

The basement, he said, was partially flooded and the odor so bad it made him gag. No washer or dryer was found, and the only bathtub was filled with dirty clothes and water, apparently being used to wash clothes, the officer said in his report.

One bedroom was covered with dog feces and the other two filthy bedrooms had only mattresses on the floor without sheets, Mosca said.

Municipal court records show Seabolt was charged in March with failure to register her dog and improper confinement of the animal. She was fined $25.