A toddler discovered wandering alone in the middle of a Florida street with a heavily soiled diaper led authorities to a home with shocking and hazardous living conditions, where the child’s father was found passed out from intoxication, police report.
The incident unfolded on Sunday, March 16, when the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department received multiple emergency calls about a 2-year-old child “walking in the middle of the street in pajamas with a heavily soiled diaper,” according to a statement from the department released on March 18.
Witnesses reported seeing the child in the front yard of a nearby home and escorted the toddler back to his father’s residence. Upon arrival, they found 44-year-old Ross Judy of Palm Coast “passed out in his bed, intoxicated,” police said.
When deputies arrived at the home to investigate, they encountered “dangerous tools and garbage both inside and outside,” alongside animal feces, filth, and a neglected dog that was emaciated with nearly rotted ears and missing fur, according to the authorities.
“The living conditions were deplorable, characterized by numerous alcoholic beverage containers, bugs swimming in the toilet water, and a sink piled high with cigarette ash, making it virtually unrecognizable,” the Sheriff’s Department detailed. “Pill bottles were haphazardly scattered throughout a spare room and on living room shelves, alongside exposed razors and hypodermic needles, all accessible to the child.”
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly condemned the situation, stating, “No child should be living in such deplorable conditions with an adult who clearly does not care about their wellbeing. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has zero tolerance for anyone putting children or animals at risk. I appreciate our residents for ‘seeing something and saying something,’ which allowed our deputies to step in.”
Judy has been arrested and charged with child neglect without great bodily harm and abandoning an animal to die, sick, diseased, or infirm. He is currently held at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility on a $4,000 bond.
The Florida Department of Children and Families and Palm Coast Animal Control are also actively investigating the incident, and their inquiry is ongoing.
