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Idaho mother wants children back; prosecutor calls home 'abominable'
SANDPOINT, Idaho (CNN) -- The house where five children staged a standoff with Idaho authorities was covered with feces and trash, and child neglect charges against their mother will not be dropped, the county prosecutor said Tuesday. Joann McGuckin, 46, is charged with felonious neglect for failing to provide her family with food or electric power. The children's father, Michael McGuckin, died May 12. Prosecutor Phil Robinson described conditions in the house as "abominable." He said dog feces covered the basement and was matted into clothing on the bedroom floor, and there was food rotting in some sinks. "I wouldn't put my dog in that house," Robinson said. District Judge Debra Heise barred news media from entering the McGuckin family home and ordered prosecutors to not turn over to reporters any photographs or videotapes gathered during the execution of a search warrant. She also prohibited photographic evidence of the home be given to the media "except as is a matter of public record."
McGuckin was ordered released on her own recognizance Monday, but on condition that she abide by the court's custody orders. McGuckin has rejected the state's neglect charge, demanded an apology and called her children to be returned. She has refused to leave jail under the court's terms. "Those are my kids. The state needs to mind their own business and leave ours to us," McGuckin said in a statement read by defense lawyer Bryce Powell. "There will be no bargaining because there is no valid charge. I refuse to accept any implication that there is a valid charge when there is not. May God bless you, to all those watching." McGuckin's children, who range in age from 8 to 16, are in protective custody. A hearing to determine where they will live in the immediate future was postponed until Monday. The children surrendered Saturday after a five-day standoff with authorities that began when their mother was arrested. When sheriff's deputies tried to take them into protective custody, the children released several dogs on them and authorities suspected they were armed. Robinson said authorities found five weapons in the home. Neighbors said the children were afraid their family would be split up if they gave themselves up to police. Powell said the condition of the home was a result of standoff, and blood tests indicated the children were not malnourished. He said Kathryn McGuckin, the eldest daughter, told him that the children were never mistreated and just "want to go home" with their mother.
Powell said outsiders have offered to help, even buying back the house that the family no longer owns. He said McGuckin was lured out of her home last week with the promise that she would be able to place a phone call to seek some help for her family from social services offices. The children went to a hospital after the standoff, and those who remained were in good condition. Robinson said they would be placed in a foster home after their release, and he disputed the suggestion that the standoff itself led to the conditions at the home. "It's pretty obvious this didn't happen in five days," he said. |
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