Inset: Ross Judy (Flagler County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Home in Palm Coast, Florida, where Judy allegedly passed out and his 2-year-old son escaped and wondered in the middle of the street (Google Maps).
Deputies in Florida arrested a father after they allegedly found his 2-year-old son wondering alone on the street wearing a soiled diaper.
Concerned neighbors along Collins Lane in Palm Coast called the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office around 9 a.m. Sunday when they saw the boy walking in the middle of the street “with no guardian in sight” and cars stopping in the road to avoid hitting him, a probable cause arrest affidavit said. When neighbors approached the boy, he pointed to where he lived.
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A neighbor saw the door was wide open and went inside to find the boy’s father, identified as 44-year-old Ross Edward Judy, sleeping inside, the affidavit said. Judy woke up and came outside to retrieve his son, who was uninjured. Neighbors noted the boy had been outside alone for at least 30 minutes.
When Judy saw cops arrive, he went inside and shut the door. Police noticed the boy had a “very soiled” diaper.
The outside of the home was in “disarray” and covered in “trash, bottles, rusty cans, rusty tools, electrical wiring, and other miscellaneous hazardous items,” the affidavit said. There also was a chain saw on the ground at the front door.
Judy, who allegedly reeked of alcohol, allowed the deputies to search the inside of the home. Feces, trash and alcoholic beverage containers covered the floors and countertops, cops wrote.
“The bathrooms were unusable due to the amount of trash, feces, general filth, alcoholic beverage containers, bugs swimming in toilet water, and the sink was piled high with several inches of cigarette ash to the point that the sink was no longer visual,” the affidavit said.
There were also allegedly pill bottles, exposed razors and needles that were “readily accessible” to the boy. His room contained a crib and dirty diapers on the floor, according to deputies.
The alleged neglect expanded beyond the boy, officials said — deputies reportedly found a large dog locked in a cage.
“The dog had a rotting ear infection to the point that the ear was literally rotting,” deputies wrote. “Urine stains [were] on the underbelly of the dog. Fur was gone on his back and his tail partially.”
Cops arrested Judy on charges of felony child neglect without bodily harm and animal abandonment. He remained at the Flagler County Jail as of Wednesday morning on a $4,000 bond.
Deputies released the boy to his grandparents.
“No child should be living in deplorable conditions with an adult who obviously doesn’t care about their wellbeing,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in a statement. “The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has no tolerance for anyone endangering children or animals. I am thankful to our residents who ‘saw something and said something’ so that our deputies could intervene.”
