Baltimore mother faces child neglect charges after 6 children found alone, malnourished
BALTIMORE —
A Baltimore mother faces six counts of child neglect after children ranging in age from 1 to 9 were found Monday on East Monument Street.
A judge on Wednesday denied bail for Teonna Brown, 34, on the child neglect charges. According to charging documents obtained by WBAL-TV 11 News, the oldest child was released to a grandmother while the other five children were released to an aunt.
The charging documents state that officers found six young, malnourished, partially clothed children alone in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Police said some of the children were only wearing socks and dirty diapers and that there weren’t even enough items to fully clothe each child.
The children were seen walking barefoot near broken glass in a house that had little to no furniture and no electricity, air conditioning, food or water.
Police discovered that the children’s mother had left that morning without confirming whether another adult had arrived to watch the children.
The children were taken for medical evaluations, where doctors shared concerns for signs of neglect.
The charging documents state city housing officials placed the family in the house in April with a few hundred dollars’ worth of supplies. A building inspector has since condemned the property.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott on Wednesday confirmed that the family was receiving city housing crisis assistance, and he’s now demanding answers about how the situation was missed.
“It’s unacceptable that those children were living in a condition like that, and everybody that had an opportunity to do something and didn’t will feel the full wrath of me and city government,” Scott said.
The mayor said crisis assistance should have provided more oversight for the children, which clearly did not happen in this case. Scott said he’s addressing the matter with housing officials and investigating the landlord of the property.
The mayor said city housing and fire officials are now checking other properties that are receiving crisis assistance through the same program.