Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 3, 1994 TAG: 9402030234
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: Medium
"Will you be my mommy?" the child asked. "I want to go home with you."
The scene in that apartment, Warner said Wednesday, was probably the worst she has come across in her 10 years as a Chicago police officer. She and three other officers went to 219 N. Keystone Ave. to investigate reports that drugs were being sold through a front-room window.
Instead, the officers found the children. Huddled on bare mattresses. Wearing little but soiled diapers and dirty underwear. Sharing a gnarled bone with the family dog.
"I was in shock that there were that many kids in the apartment," Warner said. "We just kept finding kids under blankets."
The apartment had little heat. Neither the refrigerator nor the oven worked. Asked if they found any toys, an officer said, "Maybe one."
"There were several children sleeping on a mattress in the corner," Sgt. Russell Mueller said. "They were lying like hamsters and gerbils do when there's no room, kind of wrapped around each other, on top of each other."
All but one of the children - a 14-year-old boy who police said acted more responsibly than the parents - were age 9 or younger.
At least six adults, including four mothers of the children, were arrested and charged with misdemeanor child neglect, police said. Another mother who turned herself in Wednesday afternoon is likely to face the same charge.
All but one of the children were taken to an emergency shelter run by the Department of Children and Family Services, the largest single influx of children the state agency has faced.
A sixth mother was expected to be questioned, but she was occupied Wednesday - giving birth to her third baby.
Though family services had previous contact with three of the six families living in the apartment, spokeswoman Martha Allen declined to say which mothers were involved. That prior contact led family services to begin an internal investigation of its performance.
When police arrived at 11:10 p.m. Tuesday to investigate the tip of narcotics sales, they were let in by Maxine Melton, 26. Two men were asleep, including one who was alone in a bedroom while the children slept on the floor or packed onto a mattress, police said.
No drugs were found. Police arrested those three adults and three more who arrived as the children were being taken out.
Arrested were Maxine Melton, Denise Turner, 20, Cassandra Melton, 21, and Mayfay Melton, 25, who are mothers of 14 of the children, police said. Maxine Melton had rented the apartment, but she rarely paid the entire monthly rent of $380, according to the landlord, who asked that her name be withheld.
The landlord added that she had no idea of the number of children living there. "When I saw it on television today, I almost had a heart attack," said the landlord.
Police said Melton and the other adults failed to grasp the gravity of the children's plight, questioning why the officers were taking the kids away and why they were arrested.
by CNB