Birdsong’s criminal law students will learn in coming weeks that both neglect and negligence can sometimes become actionable criminal violations. Here is a true story that might be one of criminal neglect or criminal negligence:
On Wednesday, September 17, 2008, a Florida Department of Children and Families investor in Leesgurg, Florida, along with a Leesburg police officer went to the home of James Seever, 40 and Debra Chappell, 27 to investigate allegations that the couple’s two year old child was being raised in unsanitary conditions. The first thing they noticed was a pile of 40 to 60 dirty diapers outside the house, six inches from an empty trash can.
When Chappell let the investigators inside, they were overwhelmed by a foul odor and found that the house was overrun with insects. There were thousands of roaches running up and down the hall, hundreds of roaches — mostly dead — inside the refrigerator, and several crawling on the child’s mattress, where she was sleeping.
Chappell and Seever were both arrested for child neglect and are being held in the Lake County Jail with bail set at $5,000 each.
If convicted of neglect or negligence Birdsong advises that they be put under the jail. How nasty can people get?
You wanna bet that it was the child’s grand ma that dropped a dime on the nasty couple?
