PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla., July 20, 2007
Cops: Fla. Woman Kept 9 Handcuffed At Home
5 Foster Children, 4 Adults Were Malnourished And Handcuffed Together, Police Say
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Photo
Judith Leekin, 62, in an undated booking photo from the Port of St. Lucie Police Department. Leekin faces five counts of aggravated child abuse and single counts of tampering with a witness and possession of a fictitious identification after an 18-year-old woman told investigators her "adoptive mother" left her on July 4. (Port of St. Lucie Police Dept.)
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When Judith Leekin, 62, would leave her home she bound the teenagers, ages 15 to 17, and adults together, police spokesman Deputy Robert Vega said.
"They were not allowed to leave the home," Vega said.
Some of the children were found with marks on their wrists, as well as scars and burns. Two of the teens had less than a fourth-grade education, while another is illiterate, authorities said.
"We have no idea how these kids came into her custody. We have no idea where these kids came from and no idea who they are," Vega said.
It also was not clear how long they had been with Leekin. She was charged Wednesday with five counts of aggravated child abuse, one count of tampering with a witness and one count of possession of a fictitious driver's license/identification, authorities said. She was being held on a total bond of $435,000.
None of the children ever attended school or visited a doctor while in Leekin's care, Vega said.
The investigation began when police were called to a supermarket July 4 because Leekin had apparently left an 18-year-old girl there, Vega said. The girl told police Leekin was her adoptive mother and that she had been living with her since she was 5, Vega said.
Leekin told investigators the girl had left a year ago, denied the abuse allegations and said she lived in the home with her son, a court record said.
During a search of her home, authorities found handcuffs, zip-ties and a surveillance system. A fictitious birth certificate also was found for one teen.
"We found more than one of the people under her care suffering from malnutrition," Port St. Lucie Police Captain Scott Bartal told the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers at a press conference Thursday. "We were able to verify that they were restrained using handcuffs and plastic ties."
Detectives were trying to determine the real identities of the nine people found in the home. They were placed in the care of the Department of Children & Families, Vega said.
"We are very saddened by the situation," Lorrene Egan, district 15 operations manager for DCF told The Palm Beach Post.
Leekin had several identities and Social Security numbers, and authorities were trying to verify her identity, Vega said.
Authorities investigated Leekin in 1999, but the case was closed when she left the area, police said.
Leekin's Miami attorney, Mario Garcia Jr., told The Post it was premature to comment on the case.
"We are doing our own investigation to determine what is and is not true," he said. "We don't have any comment because we don't have any information at this point."
"We found more than one of the people under her care suffering from malnutrition," Port St. Lucie Police Captain Scott Bartal told the Port St. Lucie News at a press conference Thursday. "We were able to verify that they were restrained using handcuffs and plastic ties."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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That's what I was thinking. Someone must of put these people in her care. Gosh, this kind of *** just makes me mad.
Holy ***
...
On the bright side... 9 missing persons have been located!
My prayers go out to the children and adults.
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More cases of terrorists 'baking' children cited
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56723
ITS A SAD COMMENTARY ON A CULTURE WHEN THOSE CHARGED WITH PROTECTING CHILDREN CAN NOT KEEP THEM SAFE. NOT EVEN WHEN CHILDREN DIE IN STATE CARE DO THINGS CHANGE.
Here is a tip for the police, find any government benefits that have gone to that address or made out to that woman (or any of her fake aliases) for the past 10 years. She is holding them there for welfare and SS or disability benefits. Several authors have written about people in their area who make a living housing foster kids or handicapped state kids. The facts are, they make money by cramming as many as they can in their home.Due to the deregulation by Reagan, there are few state run homes anymore and the unwanted are farmed out to people who often care more about the money than the humans that come with it.
Because so many of the people have mental problems and are apt to wander off, or otherwise get in the way of their "keepers" they are often chained or handcuffed to keep them at the home.
The homes are found often, to be in squalor as no one person can keep up with so many people --and they often have very little help. In addition, cuts in Social services mean many go unmonitored for years. No one should act shocked by this, we would all puke if we had to visit the homes of many of the elderly, disabled and handicapped and see how we really treat and house the people that Reagan and others no longer want to support in state care.
You are absolutely right.
The sub-title calls them foster children and then the authorities seem to not have a clue?
something doesn't add up.
In their eagerness to move the people out (many are not kids but handicapped or mentally disabled adults) the people who take them in are often not vetted very well. This means a lot of private homes may house about 10 people but the caregivers may lack training or have no interest in the welfare of the people. This is not to say that all caregivers are just in it for the money. but in Foster care as well as halfway houses and disabled care, often the government places people who cannot speak for themselves (children or mentally disabled)in households where they can be sexually and physically abused or harmed. In a book called "Country Matters" by Michael Korda the author makes the aside, that in New York, often in trailers or mfg houses hidden on muddy, acreages, many people make their living working for the state in this way. He talks about the squalor and the handcuffing and attack dogs on chains not from a social view point, just as an aside to his moving to the country. Still it points out how grim life is for anyone caught in the system and how we, as a country may talk about caring for the handicapped or mentally disabled--but very few of us are actively involved.
Eeeew - she is one scarry mutha!
I agree this woman needs to go away for a long, long time.....
And when gov. got rid of the hospitals they also cut the oversight. these people probably do not even see a Social worker for years at a time, or when they do, are given lots of warnings before they come out. I'm not excusing this woman, but I am pointing out that every single American is complicit in what was in place to allow this one woman and many others like her to harm others.
The downside of privatizing anything is very little oversight (out of sight out of mind) everywhere the government does that, in time the private business or citizen runs amok--after all, it rarely is about altruism and is about the money. There is a book called "Somewhere a child is crying" if you can stomach it (it is a bunch of case histories) you will learn a lot about what is going on behind closed doors in this country.
I think you would be surprised at how well our gov. agencies do NOT interface with each other or exchange information.
Here is a possibility. She is not the original care giver, but she is the one who others would turn their charges over to when they had enough OR when the original care giver became too ill or elderly. Here is another: she is the original caregiver, but due to her many aliases she is not in the local system for those people. The key is in the checks she received or receives (and you can bet your sweet boots she wasn't holding them for nothing)
The aliases allow her to have more people than her particular state will allow (for some states the max is 5 people) but always, no matter the crime--FOLLOW THE MONEY. Whether her income came from SS, disability, welfare, or other government sources, OR from others who are the true care givers, who give her a cut to keep their charges--the money and how she got it will reveal a lot. Figure this: if the CIA and the FBI and Homeland Security can't get together to fight terrorism, what makes you think the police and CPS and other gov. agenices are info sharing? The information is there, watch.
In the early 1980s I was involved in a case where a woman who was being beat by her boyfriend left her children with coworkers and ran off. The co workers called the police, who took the child away. When I got involved, the woman had gotten away from the man (same day) but could not find her kid. The police did not know where the child was sent, and since they did not have a name for him and the coworkers did not know the last name of the woman, the child was just "in the system" intake at several juvenile holding centers had to be done to determine that the child had been sent into the next county due to overcrowding.
We did not do it by name, we had to do it by date of admission and time. The police had no idea who the child was and since they had called CPS, they had no idea what happened from that point on. CPS did not know where the child was, because the case worker in charge had taken the boy in the car to one center, and learning they were over crowded, had taken him to another before electing to remove him to another city in another county altogether. She had not documented her traveling because she planned to do it the next day. WE drove around for around 6 hours and were able to retrieve the boy (who was 3) that night. THAT is just one example of how things can get screwed up.
Why does this stuff happen in Florida all the time?
Sheesh! Are you sure that's not a picture of MISTER Leekin?!
Posted by yardman222 at 02:37 PM : Jul 20, 2007
Too funny LOL!
Dog fighting case: "In South Carolina, after the attorney general got involved, a legendary breeder was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to 40 years in jail. That's sure to get the attention of other "fanciers."
Posted by salty1954 at 02:50 PM : Jul 20, 2007
It's because of all the weirdos coming down from New York! lol
Posted by ***********
Please do not denigrate 'lunch ladies' by comparing them to this piece of garbage. My mom spent her whole working life in school cafeterias. Yes, there are some that do not need to be in that business, but that is true in any service-type job.
As far as the close-set eyes go, take a good look at the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! His are like that, or maybe even worse!
Thirdly, not everyone who lives or has lived in a mobile home or trailEr is trash.
JUST KIDDING!
Florida doesn't corner the market in abuse or crime cases as you must surely be aware! But Florida's rep of Disney, manatees & dolphins, NASCAR, endless beaches & "wholesome family fun", etc., makes it seem more of a shocker to the rest of the country when stuff like this hits the news. People aren't surprised when this stuff happens in Las Vegas (sin city), or NYC (what freaky stuff is going on in a city that never sleeps, hmmm?), or Detroit (downward spiral of decay & lost dreams)- people almost expect horrible crimes to happen in major cities & back woods trailer/shack parks because every day the news tells us how horrible those places are, whether it's true or not!
But this is the price paid for everyone living with their collect heads in the sand- people have more knowledge about Paris Hilton's love life or who the Next Top Model will be than what happens in their neighbourhoods, back yards, or- even worse- their own homes amongst their own family members.
She looks like my father's (yuck) mother, man when I saw her I felt my heart drop. Man these lady could've freaked me out if I was alone at night. I hate her for as evil as she is but I guess all who look alike must be have some come things in life.
If nothing else is known how is this known?
I wouldn't doubt it; because he does look like someone who should be in cuffs. LOL
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