A couple in Oklahoma has been arrested after an 11-year-old girl in their care gave birth at home without any medical assistance – though they insist they did not know the girl was pregnant.
The young girl’s mother, Cherie Walker, 33, and her stepfather, Dustin Walker, 34, are facing felony child neglect charges after they allegedly failed to provide supervision or medical care to the child, who gave birth at their house in Muskogee on August 16, Fox 23 reports.
She was 36 weeks pregnant and gave birth to a full-term baby, according to court documents obtained by the local news station.
Investigators also claimed in the charging documents that the 11 year old received no prenatal care and had not been to the doctor in over a year. She was also reportedly homeschooled.
Prosecutors then only found out about the incident after the girl was taken to a local hospital following the birth of her child.
‘I was horror-stricken to find out it’s an 11-year-old girl who’s given birth, and that she had no medical care and she had no one to be with her,’ Assistant District Attorney Janet Hutson told KJRH.
She added in remarks to News on 6 that the young girl is ‘traumatized.’
‘She’s been through a horrific ordeal. I mean, not only has somebody gotten her pregnant, but she gave birth at home without medical assistance and this will be with her… for the rest of her life.’
Dustin, 34, and Cherie Walker, 33, are facing felony child neglect charges after Cherie’s 11-year-old daughter gave birth
The young girl gave birth to a full-term baby inside the family’s home in Muskogee, Oklahoma (pictured) on August 16, prosecutors say
Hutson says she is now planning on filing additional charges against Cherie and Dustin, who are being held on a $100,000 bond ahead of their scheduled September 3 court appearance.
Prosecutors are also awaiting paternity tests to determine who may have impregnated the young girl. Those may take two weeks to complete.
In the meantime, the 11-year-old girl and her five siblings have been removed from the home, where next door neighbor Cheryl Adkins said they were exposed to unstable and unsanitary conditions.
‘They have no running water for the last two or three years,’ she claimed to KJRH, noting that she made several calls to police and authorities over the years to check on the children – and is now afraid that help arrived too late.
Adkins also said she is convinced that Cherie and Dustin knew about the young girl’s pregnancy, despite their insistence that they were completely unaware.
‘This is getting to me,’ the neighbor said. ‘They robbed her of her childhood.’
The young girl’s grandmother, only identified as Michelle, though, said the community does not know the whole story.
‘I just want people to know, we did not know this was happening. None of us,’ she said, adding that she is upset that her daughter and son-in-law are being portrayed as ‘monsters.’
The young girl’s grandmother, only identified as Michelle, said the community does not know the whole story
‘They are not,’ the grandmother said. ‘They love those children. They love them.’
She also claimed that the house is in such poor condition because of the family’s pets.
‘We have animals, and so sometimes there’s trash on the floor because the dogs get into the trash,’ Michelle explained. ‘It gets cleaned up.’
‘Right now it’s probably a mess because the animals are in there,’ she admitted. ‘We try to let them out, but they try to keep it clean,’ she said of her daughter and son-in-law.
As to who may have impregnated her granddaughter, Michelle said the young girl told her the baby’s father is a 12 year old whom Michelle used to babysit.
‘She keeps telling everybody it was him,’ she said. ‘They got curious. That’s all I know.’
