Police on Florida’s northeast coast arrested a man on Sunday after they found his 2-year-old son wandering around in the middle of a street in pajamas and “a heavily soiled diaper.”
Deputies responded to multiple 911 calls about the child, including some who reported the toddler in the front yard of a home, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said.
The witnesses reportedly took the child home but found the father, 44-year-old Ross Judy, “passed out in his bed intoxicated.”
Deputies arrived at the home and found dangerous tools and garbage all around and inside the house “along with animal feces, filth, and an emaciated dog with an ear that was almost rotted off and fur missing from its body.”
The deputies said the entire home was in “deplorable” condition, filled with alcoholic beverage containers, bugs swimming in the toilet, and the sink piled with several inches of cigarette ash “to the point the sink was no longer visible.” They also found pill bottles, exposed razors, and a hypodermic needles, all in easy reach of the toddler.
“No child should be living in deplorable conditions with an adult who obviously doesn’t care about their wellbeing,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “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.”
Judy was charged with child neglect and abandoning an animal and given a $4,000 bond, $1,500 on the animal charge and $2,500 on the child neglect charge. He bonded out a few hours after he was booked.
The sheriff’s office said the state Department of Children and Families and Palm Coast Animal Control were also investigating, but they provided no information about the status of the child or the dog.
