PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (WOWT) – A husband and wife who were arrested after authorities said they found their children living in horrible conditions have been sentenced after pleading guilty.
David Reynolds, 43, and Amanda Reynolds, 43, both pled guilty to three misdemeanor charges of child abuse earlier this year.
On Monday, Amanda Reynolds was sentenced to 48 months of probation. Her husband, David Reynolds, received the same sentence Aug. 4.
The charges were reduced from felony child abuse and one misdemeanor charge of cruelty to an animal from a felony.
WARNING: The details of this report may be too disturbing for some.
According to court documents, Plattsmouth Police Officers had been investigating the couple after someone reported the Nebraska Health and Human Services that the children had been eating in the bathroom because it was the only clean room in the house.
Officers arrived at the home on July 26 to find David Reynolds sleeping in his car; documents state he slept there to avoid the conditions inside the home. He told the officer he was in the car waiting and that he believed the children were inside the house in bed, records show, noting that Amanda Reynolds was at work.
David Reynolds agreed to let the officer inside the home to inspect it, at which point the officer said he detected the odor of a large amount of feces and urine and found multiple dogs and cats inside. Records show there were animal feces smeared across the floor and large amounts of clothing and trash on the floor — many of the items on the floor had been urinated on or had feces on it. There were also urine stains in the bedrooms, the report states.
The officer went with Reynolds to wake up the children, walking through a dining area that was littered with trash and fly papers. Feces covered the hallway to the children’s rooms.
The three children there weren’t bathed and were not wearing clean clothing; one child had several holes in their clothes, the report states.
One of the children had a bed covered nearly entirely with trash; there was only a small area of the mattress left for the child to sleep on. The flypapers hanging from the ceiling in the bedroom were completely covered with dead insects, and there was a rabbit hutch — with two rabbits — in the room that that overflowing with feces and urine.
Another child’s room contained a litter box for the cats.
The officer reported his eyes were stinging as they went into the basement, and noted a pile of feces that had been piled in the corner, the document states. The officer asked Reynolds to open the door to a kennel there so the dog could get fresh air; he asked if they could get one of the kids to do it for him.
The next day, the officer said he returned to inspect the home and found much of the living and dining areas had been cleaned. At that time, Amanda Reynolds was cleaning the rabbit hutch in one of the children’s bedrooms, but the children’s rooms had not been cleaned.
When the officer returned on July 28 to further inspect the basement, he reported that an entire room had been made into a rabbit pen that contained at least four dead rabbits. The animals’ food dishes and water bowls were empty, and the room was covered in feces.
David Reynolds claimed he did not know the rabbits were there, according to the report.
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