A mother and stepfather in Oklahoma have been arrested for allegedly allowing their 11-year-old daughter to become pregnant and give birth in their family home with no medical personnel present.
Dustin Walker and Cherie Walker were both arrested this week and charged with one count of felony child neglect.
According to Tulsa NBC affiliate KJRH, the victim is the oldest of six children who previously lived in the Walkers’ home but have since been removed.
While authorities have not released many details about the child’s pregnancy, a reporter at the station spoke with the victim’s grandmother about the ordeal, and she denied that the family knew anything was wrong.
“I just want people to know that we had no idea this was happening. “None of us,” the grandmother, who only went by the name Michelle, said. “They transformed my daughter and son-in-law into monsters. They’re not. They adore those children. “They love them.”
Michelle also suggested an explanation for the juvenile’s pregnancy.
“She [the victim] keeps telling us that it was a little 12-year-old that I used to keep — that I used to babysit,” the reporter told her. “She keeps informing everyone that it was him. They became curious. “That is all I know.”
A neighbor told KJRH that the Walker home had been in disrepair for two or three years, with no running water despite having six children and several dogs and cats.
The neighbor also stated that she had made several calls to local law enforcement authorities about the well-being of the children in the home, and that she did not believe the family’s claim that they were unaware of the 11-year-old’s pregnancy.
“This is getting to me,” she told the station. “They robbed her of her childhood.”
The victim’s grandmother disputed the neighbor’s claims about the condition of the family’s home.
“We have animals, and so sometimes there’s trash on the floor because the dogs get into the trash,” she told me. “It gets cleaned up. It’s probably a mess right now because the animals are inside. We try to let them out, but they prefer to keep things clean.”
Muskogee County Assistant District Attorney Janet Hutson spoke with Tulsa CBS affiliate KOTV about the case, calling it heartbreaking.
The prosecutor also indicated that she did not believe the family’s claim that they were unaware of the pregnancy, stating that while the victim was “rather petite,” her baby was a “normal-sized infant.”
“This child is traumatized,” Hutson explained to the station. “She has been through a horrific ordeal. I mean, not only did someone get her pregnant, but she gave birth at home without medical care, and this will be her life for the rest of her life.”
The prosecutor stated that while a doctor or school personnel would typically report the child’s condition to authorities, the parents intentionally kept the 11-year-old out of school and had not taken her to see a doctor in over a year.
Hutson stated that she expects additional charges to be filed against the parents, but prosecutors are awaiting the results of a DNA paternity test, which should be completed within two weeks, before making any final decisions.
The defendants are being held in the Muskogee County Jail on a $100,000 bond. It was not immediately clear when they would appear in court again.
