Michael A Haber PA Criminal DUI Defense Litigation Miami Blog

Six (6) Florida children are found living in a filthy house in Ocoee with feces, trash, roaches, and neither electricity nor running water

Meet 50 y/o Delthy Graham, grandma and apparent matriarch of the filth empire that her six (6) grand kids were removed from by DCF last week (on Thursday, January 22nd, 2015).   Yes, that's Granny below, booked and charged with six (6) counts of child neglect:

And here's the proud daddy, 35 y/o DaQuan N. Smith, who, with six (6) prior felony arrests under his belt, was also booked and now faces six (6) new felony counts of child neglect:

Ans of course we need a mommie figure, so here's 32 y/o Eboni S. Tucker-Smith, who, atop of her six (6) counts of child neglect was also booked for an outstanding felony warrant for perjury:

And how did this atrocity come to light?  Ironically, because there were no lights.... Power had been cut to the home because of several thousand dollars in outstanding electricity bills and after several months the electric company went to the home to pull the meter.  What they discovered led to the police securing a search warrant and arresting gran-gran, mumzie and pops.  From the outside the house presented as normal....

But what was going on inside was anything but normal.  Cops discovered toilets full of feces, trash strewn everywhere and dog feces all about the home.  The refrigerator did not close and had both living and dead roaches inside of it.  Per the police report: "There was old and current dog feces on the floors and beds of which appeared to be where the children slept... In two children's bedrooms the beds were old and dirty with mold and rust stains on them.  I observed insects on top of the beds (roaches) and rotting food on the floors and the beds."  A broken bedroom window had been used to throw trash into the backyard.  There was neither electricity nor was there running water (apparently the family had been pilfering water from a neighbor's home).  The children were removed and placed with relatives and the kicker is that it wasn't even the Graham / Smith house. It seems that the family, all nine (9) of them, were squatters.

I don't know the "why" of this, and I am not sure that my sympathy would extend to any of the adults, but, regardless, this involves six (6) innocent children and accordingly it is just plain sad.   Defense lawyer or not I think that these "parents" should be forcefully sterilized and rendered incapable of breeding again. I know that it's not a popular position but if adult folks cannot take care of themselves then in my little utopia they have no business being permitted to assume the responsibility which comes with having children.  What's done is done.  Let's just hope that DCF doesn't screw these kids up any more than their biological family had already managed.