A Gary couple faces neglect charges after police responded to their home and saw “deplorable” conditions for five young children.
Romaldo Bruno, 27, and Alayla Rodriguez Delgado, 26, are both charged with several felonies.
Bruno is in custody, held on a $7,500 cash bond. Rodriguez was released on her own recognizance Wednesday. Bruno is the father of the two youngest children.
Gary Police were called at 9:16 a.m. April 6 to the 400 block of 33rd Avenue after a boy called 911 and hung up.
“Mommy and daddy are sleeping,” he said. Another snippet mentioned, “cut their chest and head.”
The home appeared “unsuitable for living” with garbage, feces, bugs, flies, maggots and dirt scattered throughout. Mattresses were soiled. Cops walked out and called the Indiana Department of Child Services.
One boy had bruises – including a handprint-sized one – he said, for calling 911.
That afternoon, caseworkers arrived and took the children into their custody. Police arrested Rodriguez.
Police noted the basement and bathroom were flooded, smelled like human waste and the children had not been recently bathed.
DCS caseworkers called police days later when Bruno showed up at their office on the 600 block of Broadway to ask about his kids. Officers arrested him.
Rodriguez is charged with five counts of neglect of a dependent.
Bruno is charged with battery resulting in bodily injury to a person less than 14 years of age, domestic battery, and five counts of neglect of a dependent.
mcolias@post-trib.com
