Daughter Claims Neglect in Idaho Home

June 27 -- The oldest daughter of the Idaho mother whose arrest prompted a five-day standoff between her six other children and local authorities said today that she and her siblings lived in squalor and filth while mice ran around their home.

Erina McGuckin, 19, testified at a preliminary hearing today to determine whether her mother, JoAnn McGuckin, will stand trial for felony child neglect. JoAnn McGuckin has been in jail since May 29 for felony injury to a child, and her arrest sparked a standoff where the children held off officials with the help of a pack of dogs kept on the property.

Erina McGuckin left the family's home last year to join the Navy. Testifying before her shackled mother in a Sandpoint, Idaho, courtroom, she described a household that had very little running water and that her siblings had to use a bucket or the woods around them as a bathroom.

"It was unsanitary. It was squalid," Erin said. "Mice would crawl into bed when we were sleeping. … They'd run around under our covers."

A videotape of the Idaho home shown at today's hearing captured a home strewnwith garbage, broken furniture, dog feces, spoiled food, maggotsand mice. Bryce Powell, McGuckin's court-appointed lawyer, opposed introduction of the tape because he said it would turn public opinion against his client. The home, he also argued, was in worse condition after the standoff than when McGuckin lived there.

A separate hearing will determine who gets custody of McGuckin's children. Since the standoff, the children, ages 8 to 16, have been placed in foster care. They have visited their mother once in jail. JoAnn McGuckin could have been released three weeks ago when Bonner County Magistrate Judge Barbara Buchanan agreed to release her on the condition that she return to court to answer charges of child neglect and not violate custodial orders involving the children or attempt to contact them without permission. But the 46-year-old woman refused the accept the judge's condition and demanded the charges be dropped.