Posted: 1/27/2006 2:11:03 PM EDT
A 35-year-old mother of 14 was arrested on a charge of physical abuse of a child late Thursday after three of her children were found at an abandoned house they used as a "safe house" when she abused them, according to the Milwaukee Police Department.
The woman, whom police would not identify, remained in police custody this morning. The children were taken into protective custody, said Anne E. Schwartz, police spokeswoman. The women’s children range in age from 3 to 20, Schwartz said. Six were removed from her custody earlier and she is now pregnant, Schwartz said.
The woman called police around 10 p.m. Thursday to report that three of her children, 9-year-old twin boys and a 6-year-old boy, were missing, police said. An older child led police to the abandoned house on the 3500 block of Brown St., where they found the three children, Schwartz said. The children had bruises and scars and told police their mother beat them with her fists, broomsticks and belts, Schwartz said. The twins and the 6-year-old have different last names, she said.
The house where the children were found is boarded up and has no heat, water or electricity, Schwartz said. The floors are unstable and there is feces on the floor.
At a morning news conference outside the house, Ald. Michael McGee Jr. said that local churches and the woman’s family had a responsibility to intervene in this case. He also made an allusion to the millions-dollar deal to bring the headquarters of Manpower Inc. downtown, even while "there is so much poverty in this neighborhood."
"The children lived in terror," Schwartz said.
She said that the kids lived near the 5th District police station, located at 2920 N. 4th St., but that is a significant distance away from where they were found. Schwartz, at the news conference, said that the home where the children usually lived was well-kept and it was mainly the violence in the household that drove them into the "safe house."
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http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan06/388074.asp
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