Child-abuse trial underway
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Prosecutors told a jury during opening statements in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that an Eliot Lane woman made her home a living hell for two of her four children.
Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin told jurors before Judge Maureen Sweeney on Tuesday that Tamara Julious, 31, would banish the boys, age 8 and 9, to a bedroom for what she termed “slave punishment” and also beat them with belts and withheld food from them.
Julious’ attorney, Jeffrey Limbian, said, however, his client was mother to four children, all by different fathers, and none of those fathers helped her.
Limbian said the two boys had emotional and mental problems, and Julious did not want them on medication as counselors wanted, so she found different ways of trying to discipline and instruct the two boys.
A jury was selected to hear the case Monday against Julious, who faces four felony counts of child endangering for the abuse, which prosecutors said took place between Nov. 1, 2014, and Jan. 26, 2015.
A co-defendant, Albert Barnette, 41, also of Eliot Lane, will be tried separately, according to court records.
McLaughlin said Julious turned the East Side home into a “humiliation” for the children instead of a haven.
In the punishment room, there were no clothes, a television that did not work, a bare mattress and a blanket.
The children would not be allowed food when they were being punished, and there was no access to a toilet in the room, McLaughlin said.
She said Julious gave them a bucket to use if they needed to use the bathroom.
Also, the children would be deprived of food and would sneak out of the room and steal food to hoard it, and she would dress the two in embarrassing outfits or give them embarrassing haircuts and make them go to school, McLaughlin said.
Several people, including counselors, the principal at the boys’ school and social workers were alarmed at the condition of the children and contacted the Mahoning County Children Services Board, McLaughlin said.
“What this defendant did to these kids is more than bad parenting,” McLaughlin said. “It is criminal conduct.”
Limbian said records show behavioral problems for the two boys and that Julious researched other methods to help teach her children right from wrong.
She was against medication because she was afraid it would alter their behavior too much and stifle them.
Limbian said Julious is paying a price for trying to do things on her own rather than following the instructions of professionals.