Daughter Claims Neglect in Idaho Home
June 27, 2001 -- 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.
Defense: Poverty Not a Crime
Weeks before the standoff, the children's father, Michael McGuckin, died of complications from multiple sclerosis. Growing up, Erina McGuckin testified, her family lived well off her father's $500,000 trust fund. But when the money began to run out, she said her mother would use the family's limited funds on alcohol.
"When she was dead drunk, she was usually more affectionate to all of us than when she was sober," Erina said.
Powell has said the difficult conditions in which the children lived were aggravated by the illness and death of their father and cannot be considered criminal.
Bonner County prosecuting attorney Phil Robinson and Powell, previously said they hoped to work out a deal to allow McGuckin to avoid charges and possibly regain supervised custody of her kids before today's court appearances.
When JoAnn McGuckin was arrested, authorities said she was lured from her home by county officials who promised her money for food. Though law enforcement authorities said her children were starving, health-care workers who examined them after the standoff said they were not in a life-threatening condition.