Couple charged with criminal abuse
The Floyd County Sheriff’s Department arrested a McDowell couple on Saturday evening for allegedly criminally abusing their child.
Floyd County Sheriff Deputy Darrin Lawson arrested Austin Collett, 23, charging him with first-degree criminal abuse of a child under the age of 12, and Makayla Collett, 23, charging her with complicity to commit first-degree criminal abuse of a child under the age of 12.
Lawson reports in citations filed in Floyd District Court that he was dispatched to the couple’s residence on the Left Fork of Short Branch in McDowell at 7 p.m. on Feb. 22, to help child protective services officials there.
A family member showed Lawson and the child protective services official the “back side of the young child,” who was reported in citations as being three years old.
“Child was black and blue from his mid back, down to his lower legs,” Lawson wrote in the citation. “You could see the hand prints that (the couple) had left on the child. The child also had a large scab on his back.”
The family member told officials that the parents would lock the toddler in a bedroom “for hours while they were high on meth,” Lawson reported.
“(The family member) stated that because the 3 year old didn’t have a door handle on his bedroom door, that the parents would tie a rope through where the door handle was supposed to be and tie it off to the bathroom door so that the child could not leave his room,” Lawson wrote.
He reported that the family member claimed the child would “repeatedly use the bathroom” in the bedroom floor.
The child told Lawson that his mother was the last person who whipped him, according to the filing. Makayla Collett told Lawson, however, that her husband whipped the child “because he had dropped an egg in the kitchen floor” and put him in the bedroom.
The bedroom “smelled of human urine and feces,” Lawson reported.
“Also you could see where a rope had been tied to both the bedroom and bathroom doors, just like the (relative) had stated.”
Arraignments were held for the couple in Floyd District Court on Monday.
District Judge Eric Hall ordered them to have no new violations, no contact with the alleged victims and to follow family court orders.
He placed them under $5,000 cash bonds and scheduled preliminary hearings to be held March 2.
By Mary Meadows
Floyd County Chronicle and Times
I would love to have a little child like this and show him what true love is. Please don’t ever give him back to these people. He deserves as all children do to be loved.
You sound like a decent person Sara. What Floyd County is app to do is give the little fellow to an aunt or sister who’ll treat them worse. They did just that a few years ago in Prestonsburg, and the little one was killed by an aunt and uncle. I don’t remember them going to prison either?
This just shows how little people know and will judge the situation without any knowledge. Rest assured these children are being very well taken care of and in the best home they could ever be in. The whole entire family will come together to support these children and they’re loved. Pray for the parents to get the help they need.
Often times it is stated that CPS just gives the kids back. This is gross mischaracterization of what they do. They are bound by laws and regulations. More often than not, these CPS agencies do not want the child to go back but the judge will force CPS to work with the family and the second they complete a stretch of activity the kids go back.
Further still, everyone believes CPS to have unrivaled authority when it comes to children but this is patently untrue. CPS is forced to use laws in order to enact a removal. What this means is that even if the worker themselves believes it is bad enough to warrant such removal, a judge still must agree.
CPS also has to think about the trauma to the child as well. In other words, a dirty house might seem bad enough for a removal, but do the positives outweigh the negatives when the family could get it clean in a day, go to court Monday and have the kids back? This would traumatize the child more than allowing them to remain in the home.
Unfortunately, the work those men and women do is often grossly misrepresented, underpaid, and under appreciated. They see the worst of our society daily. I commend them. I know their job is a thankless job from past experience. Nobody wants them around, but they are needed to ensure the safety of our children.
Notice how in the article it stated the officer only went because CPS called him? And yet that’s the only mention of CPS in the whole article, but without them there on scene seeing it all, making a call, following through finding homes, hospitals, etc. this child would still be locked in that room.
You are so right about ppl believing that CPA can do more than they can really do. So many regulations. I was one of those ppl until I started go to to school to be one. I really had no idea .
Thank you G. W. Franklin! Those who aren’t involved with CPS or foster care, do not realize the sorrow, heartbreak, and frustration that CPS officers often experience. But it’s worth it when to them when a child is saved from abuse.
It’s so sad that any child has to go through what this child has. Unfortunately, it happens far, far too often.
I know this wont be posted, but I would like to ask why the Lazer is limiting who posts and what they post? If this a public forum, why not let people speak, or do away with it altogether? People who post here, just might support the people who advertise. What is your problem? Either it’s free speech or it isn’t. Even if you don’t post this, please respond as to why?
To James P. Allen We reserve the right to limit comment and or any other use of The Lazer. Your return url has DICE on it, BTW!
DICE? What exactly does that mean?