California child welfare officials moved quickly to remove 10 children from the squalid conditions inside a home covered in trash and feces. The story is making headlines everywhere. None of the children died.
Jonathan Allen, 29, and Ina Rogers, 30, were charged with neglect and torture after officials removed 10 children, ages 4 months to 12 years old, from the four-bedroom Fairfeild home in March.
Investigators charged the couple with torture after one of the children suffered internal puncture wounds from a pellet gun, in addition to burns and bruises.
The couple reportedly tortured the children for “sadistic purposes.”
All 10 children were forced to share one bedroom, the NY Daily News reports.
The other three bedrooms were a master, playroom and meditation room, Rogers said.
“It literally breaks your heart, and you’re outraged by how a parent or anyone could commit those acts,” said Sharon Henry, the chief deputy district attorney for Solano County.
Fairfield police Lt. Greg Hurlbut said his officers were shocked by the unsanitary living conditions inside the home.
He said officers saw “spoiled food on the floor, animal and human feces and a large amount of debris making areas of the house unpassable.”
Rogers was arrested and released on April 9 after posting a $10,000 bail.
She denies that she and Allen abused or neglected the children.
“I strive on being a good parent to my children,” she said after inviting reporters to tour the decrepit home. “My husband has a lot of tattoos, he looks like a scary individual and that’s why people are so quick to judge him,” she said.
“My husband is an amazing person, I am an amazing mother,” she continued. “I’m not going to allow this to break us and I’m not going to stop fighting.”
Rogers blamed the filthy living conditions on her “maddening search” to find a missing son.
Allen has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of torture and nine counts of felony child abuse. He is being held on $5.2 million bail.
