Pocono News Section

Old Forge child neglect arrest

Old Forge child neglect arrest - Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 5:25PM EST

Tuesday, Sep 23, 2008 @ 05:25pm EST

Lackawanna County detectives call it a horrible case of child neglect

Five children taken from a filthy Old Forge house and their parents arrested.

It happened at 609 Main Street in Old Forge

Roy Rivers and Cynthia Sherman were arrested.

Neighbor Stacey Hill reacted, saying, "That's terrible, terrible. I couldn't imagine, you know, doing that to my children."

Rivers and Sherman are charged with endangering the welfare of children, and corruption of minors.

Hill says, "You never really saw them. They didn't come out of the house and there was always people coming and going."

Lackawanna County detectives say the children lived in awful conditions.

Their diapers allegedly weren't changed for weeks, and they weren't fed properly.

Rivers and Sherman apparently had food stamps, but sold them to buy cigarettes and booze.

Frank Nardone of Old Forge says, "That's a shame, that's a shame. That's the old story, people shouldn't have kids if they can't take care of them kind of thing."

Nardone’s father agrees and says, "A few years this area, these houses, it's gone down."

Back on December 18th, police say one of the five children set curtains on fire.

It led to this scene.

It's part of the case built against Rivers and Sherman.

Detectives say they weren't watching their children properly when this happened.

Now the couple is in the Lackawanna County jail on 50 thousand dollars bail apiece.

Rivers and Sherman had up to 11 social services offered to them, but they weren't used.

The children are staying with family.