The grandfather of 16 children rescued from what authorities described as an Ohio “house of horrors” has been ruled unfit to stand trial.
Gary Siders Sr., 73, was found incompetent after a medical evaluation concluded he is unable to help his attorneys with his defense and cannot be restored to competency.
Vinton County Common Pleas Court Judge Laina Fetherolf Rogers accepted the evaluation on Wednesday. Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer raised no objection to the findings.
Archer must now decide whether to dismiss the charges or pursue mandated mental health treatment if prosecutors want to continue the case against Siders, WCMH reports.
Siders faces 16 counts of child endangerment tied to the children, who were between 18 months and 18 years old when they were removed on June 30 from a rundown home in Hamden, roughly 80 miles south of Columbus.
Although Wednesday’s ruling leaves open the possibility that Siders could one day return to court on the charges, his attorney, Dorian Baum, said the case appears close to ending. “The prosecution against him is very likely coming to a very quick end,” Baum said.
“It’s not really a surprise to any of us that he’s not been found competent at this point,” Baum added. “He doesn´t fully understand or appreciate what’s going on.”
Baum said he does not expect Siders’ mental health to be restored and believes the charges could be dismissed within the next couple of weeks.
Gary Siders Sr, 73, t he grandfather of 16 children who were rescued from an Ohio ‘house of horrors,’ was declared incompetent, unable to assist his lawyers in the case and cannot be restored to competency on Wednesday
The 73-year-old has been charged with 16 counts of child endangerment related to the children, who ranged in age from 18 years old to 18 months when they were rescued on June 30 from a dilapidated home in Hamden, about 80 miles south of Columbus
Baum also told WMCH he has had concerns about Siders’ mental well-being ever since his first court appearance.
He explained that the grandfather has been unable to give direct answers to any of his questions, seemed unable to grasp what was going on and had memory problems, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Baum now says it is a ‘travesty’ that Siders ever spent time in jail in his condition.
‘If he wasn’t aware of what was going on, that certainly seemed to indicate that he may not have been a part of much of anything,’ he suggested.
Of the six adults charged across three cases related to the discovery of the so-called ‘feral’ children, Siders is the only person out of jail.
He was released due to an unspecified medical condition that required hospitalization. His son-in-law has since explained that Siders suffered a stroke in recent years.
The grandfather is now out of the hospital and is being tracked by the court on a GPS monitoring system.
When he appeared in court on Wednesday, he was seen wearing a plain gray t-shirt and sitting in a wheelchair. He expressed no emotions as the hearing progressed.
The children’s parents, Gary Siders Jr, 36, and Elizabeth Siders, 33, are facing 19 counts of child endangerment, as well as four charges related to child sex abuse in a separate, parallel investigation
Christina Siders, 67, is also facing 19 charges of child endangerment in the case
The ruling on Wednesday effectively leaves three defendants in the case related to the children’s living conditions, Siders’ wife, Christina, 67; as well as his son, Gary Siders Jr, 36; and his daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Siders, 33.
They have pleaded not guilty to 19 counts of child endangerment, as the children’s parents face four additional charges related to child sex abuse in a separate, parallel investigation.
Authorities have said they discovered the 16 children living in what they called ‘third world’ conditions while investigating the Siders family for ‘family child sex abuse,’ for which two other family members are facing charges.
The investigation began when ‘diligent Dollar General clerks’ called police last December ‘with concerns over children they observed,’ Archer said at a news conference last month.
When police then executed a search for Gary Jr’s DNA in relation to the child sex abuse case, they discovered the ‘existence and condition’ of the Siders’ decrepit home on the 180 block of Ohmer Street.
‘It looked like almost feral animals,’ State Attorney General Andy Wilson said, according to WTVG. ‘It was terrible.’
The children lived in the home, which was covered with feces, authorities said, describing what they discovered inside the property as ‘pure evil.’
Wilson said that the children were forced to endure ‘unimaginable conditions’ that were arduous, especially for children.
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain described a small room where investigators believe the kids were kept for about four years.
‘Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children,’ Cain said.
Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer announced last month that the 16 kids were found during an investigation into ‘family child sex abuse’
Our News Outlet has since revealed that Gary Jr and Elizabeth had been investigated by children’s services as early as January 2020 over fears about their kids’ health and stalling education.
In December of that year, Gallia County Family Services launched an investigation over the couple’s failure to take their kids to medical follow-up appointments after four of them were diagnosed with ‘high levels’ of lead in their systems.
The revelations were made in a court affidavit submitted by caseworker Erin R Canter of Gallia County Department of Jobs and Family Services, as part of a January 2021 neglect and dependency complaint filed by the county.
Canter claims the couple later blocked her from seeing the children upstairs in their Cheshire home, claiming they were asleep.
When she later gained access, Canter found the home infested with cockroaches, flies and gnats, which left one child covered in insect bites and scratches, she wrote in her affidavit.
She said a doctor had flagged concern over the children’s ‘odor,’ as well as one child’s teeth, warning they were not in ‘good condition.’
Meanwhile, one four-year-old child could not ‘speak any clear language’ and was recommended to undergo a speech evaluation, she wrote.
Though the couple later complied with completing medical follow-ups, the caseworker wrote their initial refusal to allow her upstairs to see the children raised ‘new concerns’ of ‘possible abuse and/or severe neglect.’
Canter reported seeing ‘bruising’ on one child’s thigh, while another was ‘tugging her ear and scratching her head profusely.’
She said their parents always wore the same clothes and they and their children ‘lacked consistent hygiene.’
The children lived in the home which was covered with feces, authorities said, describing what they discovered inside the property as ‘pure evil’
State Attorney General Andy Wilson said that the children were forced to endure ‘unimaginable conditions’ that were arduous, especially for children
The couple had already been investigated months earlier, in January 2020, over their seven-year-old child’s ‘significant development delays’ while enrolled in a digital home-school program.
In a March 2020 court complaint, another case worker, Olivia Meadows, said the child showed an ‘inability to speak in complete sentences or initiate in conversation’ and had not been seen by a pediatrician for ‘any medical or developmental delays.’
She said their 13-year-old child had not completed any of her schoolwork set through the online academy, which she officially withdrew from in February 2020.
According to Meadows, the school later raised concerns over three of the Siders kids aged 12, 11, and nine and their low academic performance below the level expected at their grade.
The 11-year-old was reported to have been assessed in January 2020 by a teacher as a ‘non-reader’ who only knew 14 of the 26 letters of the alphabet, no letter sounds and could only count 1 through 12 before making mistakes, according to the affidavit.
The social worker pointed out that Christina was the point of contact between the school and the family and not their parents.
But Elizabeth and Gary Jr were still singled out in the complaint for their failure to heed the school’s advice to take their children for medical exams, speech therapy, vision and hearing tests, and taking part in support programs.
‘It appears the parent/caretakers are either unwilling to, or are not capable of, assuring the children’s well-being when it comes to educational, developmental, and mental health needs,’ the complaint stated.
In both cases, children’s services asked judge Thomas S Moulton Jr to order protective supervision of the children until their ‘safety and well-being can be assured’ by their parents.
But instead of removing the children from the home, the judge ruled the kids could stay with their parents under protective supervision so long as the adults completed case plans.
In an update in the first case in August 2020, the court heard Gary Jr and Elizabeth had made ‘significant progress’ on their case plan, had completed parenting classes and found ‘appropriate housing’ but other evaluations were stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two months later, the judge closed the case and terminated the protective supervision.
