By Juan Carlos Rodriguez
Journal Staff Writer The house is empty now, and it's hard to tell from the outside that a short while ago 17 children lived there among urine and feces, in dire need of medical care and with no food in the refrigerator or cupboards. An empty box of diapers poking out of a garbage can and a child's chalky scrawl on the wall next to the front door are the only traces that remain of a large, extended family that has now been separated. The children, ranging in age from 3 months to 9 years, lived there with six adults � five women and a man � who are related and who were arrested Monday. Veronica Sarinana, 25, Leonard Pe�a, 30, Nancy Pe�a, 28, Frances Pe�a, 24, and Mara Pe�a, 21, were charged with child abuse after a Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office investigation found "deplorable" conditions at the home. Another woman living at the house, Monica Pe�a, was arrested for failure to appear in court but not for child abuse. A criminal complaint said that on Oct. 4, upon arriving at the home at the corner of Tapia and San Ygnacio SW, deputies found the 17 children dirty and without food. The complaint said there was a "strong odor of urine and feces" in the house and a nonworking toilet was full of human waste. The children were malnourished, in need of medicine for untreated sinus infections, and suffering from such poor dental health that some of their teeth had rotted to the gums. The complaint said several of the children had been disenrolled from school or had never gone. All were developmentally behind their age groups, and some could not read or write. The Children, Youth and Families Department took custody of the children in the early morning hours of Oct. 5. Leonard Pe�a is a brother to four of the women and a first cousin to Sarinana, the complaint said. He told authorities that he and Sarinana were the parents of two of the children. CYFD is conducting DNA testing to determine the parentage of the rest of the kids. At a news conference Tuesday, Sheriff's Office spokesman Lawrence Koren called the case "extreme" and pointed out that there were only four mattresses in the house when the deputy first came by. He also said the family has a habit of disappearing. "In fact, our deputy went out there and took these kids in and turned them over to CYFD. The very next day, that family, the adults, moved to another location on Tennessee NE.
That's where our detective ended up having to find the adults and finish up her investigation. This is a consistent pattern with these folks. In fact, they've had as many as five addresses within a short period of time in this county," Koren said. CYFD spokeswoman Romaine Serna said the department had been referred to the home a couple of times before October. "CYFD initially provided in-home services to the family, and that is the program where there is services provided so that we could safely maintain the children in the home," Serna said. "When it became clear that wasn't in the best interests of the kids, law enforcement gave us (an emergency) 48-hour hold on the kids, and they have remained in the custody of CYFD since then." She said the children are all in foster care, but the parents are allowed to visit, as are the siblings. "It's a sad case, it's a challenging case, but we'll continue to work with them," Serna said. The adults were all booked into the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center and were being held Tuesday in lieu of bonds ranging from $25,000 to $50,000. The criminal complaint said the family had previously had a run-in with the Colorado Division of Child Welfare, and Koren said the family had most recently lived in Texas. But it was unclear when that occurred. Representatives from child welfare agencies in both states said they could not provide any information about the family. Some of the adults have faced misdemeanor charges in Albuquerque dating to 1998 for offenses such as driving without a license or not having insurance, driving on a suspended license, trespassing and shoplifting. Koren said there is a chance the children could be reunited with their parents, but CYFD would make that call. "It's a very difficult decision any time a deputy has to break up a family and take the kids away from their parents," Koren said. "The parents are going to have to learn some basic child care techniques. CYFD has their work cut out for them."
Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO: Six Adults in Extended Family Arrested; Children in Foster Care
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/01234519metro12-01-10.htm#ixzz16uhk39mR
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