By Matt Wiley
A parking lot is no place for an unclothed and unsupervised toddler to be at night.
According to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO), around 4 a.m. on April 21, 26-year-old Evan James Ferguson, of 6412 Ryerson Cir. — in the Pasco Woods apartment complex behind The Grove at Wesley Chapel shopping center — and Angela Patrice Walsh, 24, were arrested on multiple charges of child neglect, after their 4-year-old girl was found wandering the apartment complex parking lot around 9:45 p.m. on April 20, wearing nothing but underwear. A neighbor found the child and called PCSO.
The report indicates that the child already had been returned to the home once previously that day by a group of neighborhood children, who also found the child roaming the apartment complex unsupervised.
The PCSO report says that a deputy responded to the residence and interviewed Ferguson, who said that he did not know the child had unlocked the front door and exited the home because he (Ferguson) was sleeping.
When asked if there were any more children in the home, Ferguson showed the deputy to a bedroom, where a naked 18-month-old boy was laying next to his crib covered in feces. The deputy reported that the apartment was in filthy condition and that there were several beer bottles in Ferguson’s bedroom.
The mother, Walsh, was interviewed at her work (the Waffle House in San Antonio, located at 29537 S.R 52). She admitted to the state of the apartment and that the child had left the home while she, too, was sleeping.
The Florida Department of Children and Families removed both of the children from the residence and the parents were taken to the Pasco Detention Center. Ferguson was charged with two counts of child neglect and released on a $5,000 bond, while Walsh was charged with two counts of child neglect and released on a $2,000 bond.
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