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Messy Lodi house leads to parents' arrest
Children placed in protective custody
Two Lodi parents are accused of having such a messy house that police arrested them and took their two young boys into protective custody.
Alisha Blake, 28, and Rick Munn, 34, are expected to appear in court today, two days after their Wednesday arrest.
Prosecutors had not yet filed formal charges Thursday against the two, who were being held in jail on suspicion of child cruelty. Blake could also face a charge of violating terms of her probation for a February petty theft conviction at a Stockton Mervyn's store.
Lodi police said the couple's Park Street home was so filled with clothing and garbage piles that they could barely walk through, and one bedroom door wouldn't open due to the accumulation.
A strong smell of garbage wafted out the partially open kitchen window Thursday, near the adjacent front door that held a sign reading, "Bless Our Home."
A city code enforcement officer had posted a notice on the door that the house has substandard living conditions and must be vacated within five days. The piles of belongings and garbage made it an immediate risk to the residents' safety, said Supervising Community Improvement Officer Jamie Aldred.
"Most people who are in this kind of situation don't even realize they would be encapsulated in their own home if there were to be a fire," she said.
Two boys in the home, ages 2 and 4, appeared to be healthy, Sgt. Fernando Martinez said. However, the home's condition was bad enough to warrant calling Child Protective Services, he said.
Martinez estimated that police arrest the parents in about one out of every six such cases involving reports of child cruelty or neglect. In the rest, officers refer the matter to prosecutors, who decide whether to pursue criminal charges.
Tuesday's incident started around 8 a.m., when police dispatchers received a 9-1-1 call that was disconnected. As they typically do, dispatchers then sent an officer to the home to check on the occupants.
When police arrived in the neighborhood just west of Ham Lane, they found "clothing, garbage and property covering the floor and stacked to the ceiling in some places," Martinez said.
In a bedroom where both boys sleep, officers allegedly found clothing and other items stacked five feet high. The garage was filled with stacks of personal belongings reaching seven feet high, Martinez said.
Police said they found old food in the refrigerator.
A neighbor, who declined to give her name, said she'd seen the inside of the home once about a year ago, and saw that it was filled with piles of clothing.
Another neighbor, Marlene Schwedhelm, said the couple had rented the home for perhaps six years and had "cute little kids." Munn used to wave at Schwedhelm as he left for work, but she didn't know them personally and had noticed that the garage was now filled with belongings.
The residents always enter the house through a gate to the back yard, Schwedhelm said, and Wednesday's police visit was the first time she'd seen the front door used.
In the code enforcement order taped to the front door, city officials said the house cannot be occupied until excess items are cleared out, "focusing primarily on the front living room first, and garage as suggested."
The notice ordered that all rooms have three-and-a-half-foot clear walkways in case of emergencies, that clothing cannot be stored next to a hot water heater, that inoperable smoke detectors must be fixed, and that garbage and junk be removed from the back porch.
Owners of the home could not immediately be reached for comment.
Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.
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jramagic wrote on Aug 3, 2009 3:01 PM:
purelyprecious wrote on Aug 1, 2009 12:27 AM:
north of the border wrote on Aug 1, 2009 12:23 AM:
dogs4you wrote on Jul 31, 2009 7:46 PM:
Purely, yes you are putting the reporter down, Ms. Bohm is well qualified and has written about Michel Morales which I believe qualifies her for this article. To write about it, I believe she was on sight, and it was not made up. And I sure as Hell do not believe her boss told her what to write. Your wrong. "
dogs4you wrote on Jul 31, 2009 5:40 PM:
purelyprecious wrote on Jul 31, 2009 4:50 PM:
NORTH OF THE BORDER wrote on Jul 31, 2009 3:36 PM:
Lodian wrote on Jul 31, 2009 3:10 PM:
Lodian wrote on Jul 31, 2009 3:05 PM:
LodiReaderFromStockton wrote on Jul 31, 2009 2:06 PM:
dogs4you wrote on Jul 31, 2009 1:37 PM:
Lodian wrote on Jul 31, 2009 1:14 PM:
"Two boys in the home, ages 2 and 4, appeared to be healthy, Sgt. Fernando Martinez said." "
Lodian wrote on Jul 31, 2009 1:13 PM:
T & C wrote on Jul 31, 2009 12:57 PM:
dogs4you wrote on Jul 31, 2009 12:37 PM:
north of the border wrote on Jul 31, 2009 12:06 PM:
Was this place a dump? Probably. But how do you legislate how messy a house can be or how clean it must be?
Last time I checked, the adults payed the bills- not Lodi PD or CPS.
How do you legislate where the line is drawn without impeding the rights of others? "
Journey wrote on Jul 31, 2009 11:58 AM:
wtf wrote on Jul 31, 2009 10:29 AM:
With all the budget cuts - including the PD and Sheriff's department, for some reason, I think the priorities would be different; however, the "messy" parents and the teacher will both be a source of revenue for CPS when they're fined for their "crimes" "
north of the border wrote on Jul 31, 2009 10:00 AM:
I guess this makes up for not catching the real bad guy that had every Lodi PD doing K9 house to house searches on Corbin. "
Mad Dog wrote on Jul 31, 2009 7:58 AM:
Comments on this story are now closed.