Jessie and Andy Meeks of Connecticut get slap on the wrist for beating and starving their own children

Jessie and Andy Meeks of Connecticut get light sentences for beating and starving their five children.
Parental rights at least were terminated!
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Abuse: Jessie Meeks and her husband Andy Meeks, both 25, were jailed for seven years in Connecticut for starving their children and leaving them to sleep on soiled mattresses

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June 10, 2011|By DAVID OWENS, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], The Hartford Courant

MIDDLETOWN – — In the months leading up to the April day when state authorities removed Andy and Jessie Meeks' five starving and filthy children from their squalid Berlin Street house, the family's situation was growing more and more desperate, officials said.

A premature baby was born to Jessie Meeks in November, creating further stress in a home with four other children, aged 2 to 6, including one child born prematurely who has developmental delays.

The baby tested positive for opiates, but Jessie Meeks said that was because she'd had two poppy seed bagels shortly before giving birth, according to warrants for her and her husband's arrest.

There was little income. Jessie Meeks told police she relied on about $650 a month from the state to help feed her children. Andy Meeks worked occasionally as a gutter installer, according to court documents.

Foreclosure proceedings had begun on the house at 71 Berlin St., which is owned by Edward Wilder, identified by neighbors as Jessie Meeks' foster father. Jessie and Andy Meeks were also named as defendants in the foreclosure action. Wilder, reached Friday afternoon, declined to comment.

There was money for cigarettes; for the marijuana Jessie Meeks admitted to police that she smoked; for alcohol; and for herbal remedies Jessie Meeks took for her ailments, court documents state. A neighbor said she saw pizza being delivered.

Jessie Meeks claimed a host of medical issues, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and polycystic kidney disease, that prevented her from cleaning the house and properly caring for her children, the warrant reads.

Andy Meeks spent days away from the house, sleeping in parks. When the Meeks were together they argued violently and, in one case, one of the children told police, they threatened to kill each other.

It was one of those domestic disputes that brought Middletown police to the house on April 15. What police found horrified them. The house was filthy and stunk of urine. There were no sheets or blankets on the mattresses, which were stained with vomit, urine and feces. The then-5-month-old baby was so small he appeared to officers to be a newborn, according to court documents.

Middletown police called in the state Department of Children and Families, and the children were removed. Two were taken to Middlesex Hospital, and the youngest, near death, was flown to Connecticut Children's Medical Center, where with proper care he recovered and continues to do well in foster care, the warrant states.

The other children are gaining weight in foster care and telling police and social workers they like their new families because, among other things, they feed them.

The DCF had already been involved with the Meeks family and is now conducting an inquiry, said DCF spokesman Gary Kleeblatt.

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Yes and he got one year and probation and she got two years and probation. What do you want to bet that she gets pregnant again - if during those five years on probation they will probably take the baby -but afterwards = what then? They dont know about condoms? they can afford beer but not condoms she cried when she couldnt get the money for the children from welfare. They each should have gotten 20 years at least. This was a slap on the wrist sentence.