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New details on conditions inside Brooklyn Park home

Court documents detail the conditions inside a Brooklyn Park home where authorities removed four children and hospitalized their mother for mental health issues, following the report an 11-year-old ran away.
Authorities outside a home in Brooklyn Park. An 11-year-old girl was missing from there. (Credit: KARE 11)

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. - The initial report from Brooklyn Park police on Monday, as they removed four children from a home and went inside wearing haz-mat suits, was that the house was infested with rodents and bugs.

Details inside newly-filed court documents suggest the truth is more complicated.

Hennepin County has now filed a petition to civilly commit the mother, and another petition to permanently remove her parental rights.

Previous efforts to remove the children were denied by Judge Peter Cahill, despite reports the children were subject to physical abuse, sexual abuse and had missed many days of school.

An 8-year-old sibling died in the home on Feb. 1, his death is still undetermined, and Brooklyn Park police say they're still investigating it.

Authorities outside a home in Brooklyn Park. An 11-year-old girl was missing from there. (Credit: KARE 11)

The new court documents say that when police entered the home on June 18 after the mother reported her 11-year-old daughter missing, she told them she was angry that the girl threw "rat-tailed maggots" all over her door. According to the report, police could see no maggots.

Police reported standing water on the floor and live extension cords plugged into the wall and lying in the puddles. Mattresses were strewn on the back deck and yard. Garbage and canned food was lying all over the upstairs floor, according to the petition.

The children told authorities their mother was throwing boiling water and bleach on the floors and walls in an effort to combat "worms and termites," that she could see but the children could not.

While searching for the 11-year-old girl, who was later found 20 miles away by an alert neighbor, police found her 12-year-old brother sleeping in a park swing in the rain, "soaked to the skin and shivering because he was so cold."

The boy told police he ran away three days prior and had been living in the park, due to his mother "yelling and screaming at him and because he thought she was going to hit him." The mother had not reported the boy as missing.

According to the court papers, police initially entered the home because they believed another child was in imminent danger. They found that child in the bathroom, wrapped in a blanket. The child said her eyes were burning because her mom sprayed chemicals.

The children, when interviewed, told authorities their mother pours hot water on them, beats them with a belt and extension cord, does not let them sleep if they are in trouble and does not feed them when they are hungry.

The Child Protection Investigator reports in the petition that the children had marks consistent with hot water or chemical burns, and scars consistent with being hit with a belt or cord.

The mother is currently held at North Memorial Hospital pending a June 25th hearing on her commitment case. According to the petition, when the mother arrived at the emergency room, she told hospital staff she believed there were maggots in her bed and parasites inside her. But the hospital reports there were no maggots on or in the woman.

KARE 11 is not naming the woman because she has not been charged with a crime. Brooklyn Park Police say they will send the case to the Hennepin County Attorney to review for potential charges next week.

Four children are in protective care. Brooklyn Park inspectors have ruled the home on Queen Ave. unsafe for human habitation.

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