FAIRFIELD, Calif. (AP) — Police say they have removed 10 children from a squalid Northern California home and charged their parents with neglect and torture. A California police lieutenant says the children had puncture wounds, burns, bruises and injuries consistent with being shot with a pellet gun.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Sharon Henry says the torture was carried out “for sadistic purposes.”
Police in Fairfield north of San Francisco said Monday that the children range in age from 4 months to 12 years.
Lt. Greg Hurlbut says an investigation revealed a lengthy period of “severe physical and emotional abuse.” Hurlbut said the abuse was revealed in interviews with the children over the past six weeks.
He says officers found spoiled food on the floor and animal and human feces when they removed 10 children from the home in March. He says some areas of the home were impassable.
He says 29-year-old father Jonathan Allen faces nine counts of felony torture and 30-year-old mother Ina Rogers faces child neglect charges.
The investigation began after police responded in March to a report of a missing 12-year-old. The children's mother reportedly called authorities when her 12-year-old son didn't come home.
Nine other children were found living in what Hurlbut says were “squalid and unsafe conditions.”
Roger is denying the allegations that he children were tortured and neglected. She says the “squalor” officers saw when investigating the missing-child report was her tearing apart the house as she searched for her child.
Rogers was arrested on March 31 and charged with neglect. She was released after posting $10,000 bail.
Hurlbut says the children’s father, 29-year-old Jonathan Allen, was arrested Friday after officials interviewed the children.
Allen faces torture and child cruelty charges. He’s being held in lieu of $1.5 million bail.
Court records do not indicate whether the parents have lawyers.
