Man Pleads Guilty To Keeping Sons In Filthy Home
DENVER (AP) — A father accused of neglecting his four young sons and keeping them in a filthy Denver apartment pleaded guilty Thursday to felony child abuse.
Wayne Sperling faces up to seven years in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 30. Prosecutors agreed to drop all other charges in exchange for his guilty plea.
The boys were aged 2 to 6 when they were removed from their home last October. An emergency room doctor suspected abuse when the youngest was taken to the hospital for a cut on his forehead.
Sperling, his wife and the boys lived in an apartment filled with cat feces and flies, authorities said. The children were malnourished and could only communicate in grunts when they were found.
Prosecutors have said the boys are improving in the care of their foster mother but have never asked about their parents.
Sperling's wife, Lorinda Bailey, was sentenced last week to 90 days in jail and five years of probation after pleading guilty to child abuse.
"Considering what they've gone through, they're doing remarkably well," Denver District Attorney spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said Thursday. That the boys are living together has "helped them in their ability to try to recover from the horrifying neglect they were living in."
Detective Teresa Gessler testified in Bailey's case that all the surfaces in the family's apartment were covered with dead or living flies and that about an inch of solidified cat feces covered with urine lay beneath one of the children's beds.
After they were rescued and given bagged lunches to eat, the boys acted as if they hadn't seen normal food before, Gessler testified. They patted the sandwiches and played with the apples. After an adult mimed eating an apple to encourage them to eat, they licked the fruit, she said.
When the boys were placed with the foster mother, prosecutor Bonnie Benedetti said, they did not know how to dress themselves.
Benedetti said they are still not all toilet-trained and their snack cupboard has to be kept locked to prevent them from hoarding food.
