Texas woman charged with leaving son home alone for months

[Brent]

Child neglect of the most calluos sort. If it's true, I'd put her in jail for 20 years.  

Texas woman charged with leaving son home alone for months

 
PAMPA, Texas (AP) — An 11-year-old boy has been placed in protective custody after he was found living alone with several pets in a filthy house where he had been unsupervised for at least two months, authorities said.

When the boy was found last week, he told police he did not know where his mother lived and that he had lost her phone number. Pampa police Lt. Fred Courtney said they boy's mother apparently came by at least once a week and brought him food.

The mother, Margaret B. Stevens, 44, was charged Tuesday with abandoning or endangering a child, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison. She was released from jail after posting $2,500 bond.

Mark Buzzard, Stevens' attorney, said she is innocent.

"She never went a day without seeing him," he said. "She would take food over there every day. She's always been very attentive to the boy."

Stevens was in the process of moving into her fiance's home and decided to let her son stay at the family's home to limit his depression over the death of his father about 17 months ago, Buzzard said.

When police arrived at the Panhandle home, they found garbage heaped in the kitchen and pet feces, urine and vomit on beds, furniture and the floor. Animal control officers removed several cats, a Chihuahua and a turtle.

Police said the boy did not appear malnourished but was scared and upset. The boy was to undergo a physical and mental evaluation, said Holly Campidilli, spokeswoman for the Department of Family and Protective Services.
 
http://www.courttv.com/news/2004/0820/homealone_ap.html

[Kitty C.]

And my favorite line????

'She never went a day without seeing him," he said. "She would take food over there every day. She's always been very attentive to the boy."

Is this guy really an atty.?????  That still means she left him alone and thru the night!!!!

Pray that there's someone from the father's family who could take this child in.  Cuz as mentally unstable as the mother would have to be to do something like this, I wouldn't be too sure about the rest of her family.  I hope they yank her rights.......she isn't fit to be a parent.  

[Brent]

>And my favorite line????
>
>'She never went a day without seeing him," he said. "She would
>take food over there every day. She's always been very
>attentive to the boy."

Yes, that was a gem alright. As if bringing food satisfied her parental responsibility. What kind of crappy parent abandons a child and (essentially) puts him in solitary confinement? What if something had happened?

20 years in jail, that's what I recommend. Harsh? Maybe, but it would be a fine "wake-up call" to many of the other crappy parents out there.

[joni]

my favorite was....she didn't want to cause him additional trauma removing him from the house after his father had died just 17 months earlier.  so abandon your child...lock a kid in his father's house, by himself, for 2 months because that would be less traumatic than having him move with you and be with you???

ah...the merry widow!

[wendl]

"She's always been very attentive to the boy."

see below


"When police arrived at the Panhandle home, they found garbage heaped in the kitchen and pet feces, urine and vomit on beds, furniture and the floor. Animal control officers removed several cats, a Chihuahua and a turtle"

How in the hell was this woman attentive to her sons needs with feces, puke, trash all over the house.  If she come over every day why didn't she take the trash out clean up feces and vomit.  

IMO she just left that kid there and showed when she dam well wanted.

I have a 12yr son and I would NEVER leave him alone over night. I do let him stay at home for a few hrs before I get home from work, but he is required to call me and leave notes.

Grrr this woman needs 20yrs in jail. or better yet a feces/vomit infested jail cell.

[gr8Dad]

"to limit his depression over the death of his father about 17 months ago"

Okay, acceptable depressive statements:

"My father died yesterday..."

"My father died last week..."

"My father died last month..."

"My father died a few months ago..."

Okayk, this child has been depressed for SEVENTEEN months.  Now, My father passed away when I was very young, and through the years, there were times I thought of him, and got sad, but I would THINK that after almost a YEAR AND A HALF, if I was not to the point where I was capable a moving to a new home, Mom would have looked into THERAPY, to find out why I was having such a hard time dealing with this.  Especially a Mom that was, how was it?, "She's always been very attentive to the boy."

Yeah, throw her in jail and FORGET about her, like she did to HIM...

[StPaulieGirl]

Just amazing.  Want to bet she gets probation?  Murderers don't get 20 years these days.  She probably drove by and stopped long enough to drop off a bag of fast food.  Did her fiance know she had an 11 yr old boy?  He does now.

I wonder how her husband died?  I have a few questions.

It could be worse.  She could have been planning on homeschooling the kid.  /sarcasm

[KAT]

Yeah, she stopped by to see if the SS check had arrived and to feed the pets....her 11 year old son being one of them.

She isn't going to get jail time. I bet they already have a reunification plan in effect. She'll get time served, parenting classes, community service & a small fine.

KAT

[StPaulieGirl]

I didn't even think about that.  I think I'm going to try and Google a search and try and find out how her husband died.  Something doesn't add up.

[Nextmother]

Public responds to boy's plight




By KRIS ABBEY
[email protected]


 
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Reading the day's headlines in her office Friday, Claire Menard came across an article online that caught her eye - and broke her heart.
"I just cried and cried when I saw the story," Menard said.

Then she got angry.

A 35-year-old lawyer from Miami, Fla., Menard said she was shocked into action when she read about an 11-year-old Pampa boy who apparently was left to fend for himself for a month or more.

Pampa police found the boy Aug. 13 in a home littered with garbage, dirty clothes and filth left by a number of pets.

The boy's mother, 44-year-old Margaret B. Stevens, faces felony charges of abandoning or endangering a child.

Authorities in Pampa initially reported she or the boy's older sisters apparently came by once or twice a week to bring the boy food. However, Stevens' attorney, Mark Buzzard, said she took food to her son every day.

"She's always been very attentive to the boy," Buzzard told the Associated Press.

Foster Care Facts

To learn more, visit the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange at //www.adopt children.org.

An information meeting for potential foster/adoptive parents is at 7 p.m. Sept. 14 at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, 6200 W. Interstate 40. Call 354-6260 for more information.
 
Menard said the details of the story so sickened her that she fired off an angry letter to Stevens.

"I've never ever responded to anything before like this in my life," Menard said.

Now Menard wants to contact Child Protective Services about adopting the boy.

"I thought, 'My God, somebody's got to show him a better life,"' she said. "This little boy needs to know there's better people in the world than what he's been exposed to so far."

Holly Campidilli, a spokesperson for the Department of Family and Protective Services, said she also got an e-mail from a woman in Virginia who wanted to help the boy. She said CPS has the boy in protective custody and will try to restore him to his family, if appropriate.

"Our goal is always to reunite (the child) with parents. Our goal is to make them safe and healthy enough to reunite," she said.

Later this month, a district judge will preside over a hearing with a number of parties including the boy's mother, a CPS caseworker and the boy's attorney ad litem.

"All of those players are going to have a say," Campidilli said.

The judge will decide on a plan and could order the mother to take specific actions such as going to parenting classes and counseling, Campidilli said. If family reunification is deemed appropriate, the process could take 12 to 18 months. Meanwhile, the boy will be placed in foster care.

Campidilli said people touched by the boy's plight can make a difference by becoming foster parents.

"We always have more kids coming into care than we have licensed (foster) homes to take care of them," she said.

In fiscal year 2003, CPS removed 97 children from homes in Potter County, but there were only 22 foster homes in the county. CPS removed 32 children from homes in Randall County, but there were only 25 foster homes.

"That means that we have to look at placing children out of the area that they came from," Campidilli said. "Obviously, we don't want to do that. It's traumatizing enough for a child to be abused or neglected, then to be removed from their home and then to be taken out of their community."

People also can help abused children is by supporting programs like The Bridge Children's Advocacy Center, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and the Rainbow Room, which stocks diapers, formula, clothing and other necessities for children who come into CPS' care.

Hundreds of children in foster care also are available for adoption, Campidilli said.

In Texas, potential foster parents and adoptive parents go through a 10-week training program as well as home studies and background checks, she said.

http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/082304/new_plight.shtml