Idaho standoff children in foster care
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, June 7, 2001
Associated Press
SANDPOINT, Idaho — Six children who holed up in their squalid home after their mother was arrested for child neglect have been placed in foster care, authorities said Thursday.
The six left Bonner General Hospital to temporarily stay with a family whom they know, Michelle Britton of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said.
A hearing on Monday will determine whether the children will stay with the foster family for at least 30 days while the department investigates charges against their mother, JoAnn McGuckin.
McGuckin, 46, remained in the Bonner County Jail on Thursday, refusing to leave until the state drops felony child neglect charges and apologizes.
Prosecutor Phil Robinson said neither would happen.
McGuckin is free to leave the jail, but refuses to sign documents limiting her contact with her children.
Sheriff’s deputies arrested the children’s recently widowed mother on May 29 on a warrant alleging child neglect and tried to take the children into custody the same day, believing they were malnourished, cold and living in unhealthy conditions in their rural Idaho home.
But the children holed up for five days, keeping officials at bay with their pack of semiwild dogs. They finally agreed to surrender last Saturday after they were assured their mother was OK, they would be allowed to stay together and their dogs would not be harmed.
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