Toddler found wandering streets alone with soiled diaper leads police back to shocking scene at home
Facebook / Flagler County Sheriff’s Department
(PALM COAST, FL) — A toddler found wandering in the middle of a Florida street with a heavily soiled diaper ended up leading police to a home with extremely hazardous living conditions with the father passed out intoxicated in his bed, police say.
The incident occurred on Sunday when the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department in Florida responded to multiple emergency reports concerning a 2-year-old child “walking in the middle of the street in pajamas with a heavily soiled diaper,” according to a statement from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday.
Prior to the incident, witnesses say that they observed a child in the front yard of a nearby home and that they took the child to the residence where they found the child’s father, 44-year-old Ross Judy of Palm Coast, “passed out in his bed intoxicated,” police said.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Department responded to the home and, during their investigation, they found “dangerous tools and garbage in the interior and exterior of the home along with animal feces, filth, and an emaciated dog with an ear that was almost rotted off and fur missing from its body,” authorities said.
“The residence was in deplorable living conditions with several alcoholic beverage containers, bugs swimming in toilet water, and a sink piled high with several inches of cigarette ash to the point the sink was no longer visible,” according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department. “Pill bottles were scattered throughout a spare room and on top of living room shelves along with exposed razors and hypodermic needles, which were all accessible to the child.”
“No child should be living in deplorable conditions with an adult who obviously doesn’t care about their wellbeing,” said Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly in a written statement following the incident. “The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has no tolerance for anyone endangering children or animals. I am thankful to our residents who ‘saw something and said something’ so that our deputies could intervene.”
Judy was arrested and charged with child neglect without great bodily harm and abandon animal to die, sick, diseased or Infirm.
The suspect was taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility and is currently being held on a $4,000 bond, authorities said.
The Florida Department of Children and Families and Palm Coast Animal Control are also investigating this incident, and their investigation is currently ongoing.
(LOS ANGELES) — Hours before a long-awaited, critical hearing in Erik and Lyle Menendez’s attempts to get out of prison, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office indicated it wants to put Thursday’s hearing on hold.
Lyle and Erik Menendez are set to return to court on Thursday for a high-stakes resentencing hearing that could bring them one step closer to potential freedom, despite objections from Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman.
Now, in a filing late Wednesday, prosecutors have urged the court to obtain a copy of a recently completed risk assessment conducted on the brothers by the California Board of Parole Hearings at the request of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The filing by the district attorney’s office urges the judge to delay the sentencing if the court cannot get a copy of the report in time for the hearing.
“On April 15, 2025, the People were made aware that the Parole Board has completed its Comprehensive Risk Assessment Reports for Lyle and Erik Menendez,” the filing states, later adding, “There is no legitimate reason why the Court should not now possess the most current and up to date risk assessments before making any resentencing decisions in this case. The People believe that the Court should have all available information before making any sentencing decisions in this case.”
“To the extent the Court needs additional time to obtain these documents from the Governor’s office, the People request a continuance as necessary,” the filing adds.
The brothers — who are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez — are fighting to be released after 35 years behind bars.
If the court decides to move forward with Thursday’s resentencing hearing, a judge will decide whether they deserve freedom. Ten family members are ready to take the stand at the hearing, ABC News has learned, while a prison expert and former inmate may also testify.
On Friday, Lyle and Erik Menendez had a major win in court when the judge ruled in their favor at a hearing regarding DA Nathan Hochman’s motion to withdraw the resentencing petition submitted by the previous DA, George Gascón, who supported resentencing and the brothers’ release.
In the DA’s three-hour argument Friday, he argued the brothers — who were listening to the hearing via video — haven’t taken responsibility for their actions and he called their claims of self-defense part of a litany of “lies.” Hochman also dismissed the brothers’ claim that they were sexually abused by their father.
Menendez attorney Mark Geragos fired back, calling Hochman a “’90s Neanderthal” for refusing to believe the brothers.
The judge on Friday denied Hochman’s motion to withdraw and said the brothers’ resentencing hearing will proceed as planned this Thursday and Friday.
Geragos called the decision “probably the biggest day since they’ve been in custody.”
“They’ve waited a long time to get some justice,” he said.
Hochman said in a statement after the ruling, “We concluded that the case was not ripe for resentencing based on the Menendez brothers’ continuing failure to exhibit full insight and accept complete responsibility for the entire gamut of their criminal actions and cover-up, including the fabrications of their self-defense defense and their lies concerning their father being a violent rapist, their mother being a poisoner, and their trying to obtain a handgun for self-defense the day before the murder.”
“Until the Menendez brothers finally come clean with all their lies of self-defense and suborning and attempting to suborn perjury, they are not rehabilitated and pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety,” he said.
This potential path to freedom gained momentum in October, when Hochman’s predecessor, Gascón, announced he was in support of resentencing.
Gascón recommended their sentences of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and said they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.
Gascón’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón — who lost his reelection bid to Hochman in November — praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.
Over 20 Menendez relatives are in support of the brothers’ release. Several of those relatives spoke with ABC News last week, including cousin Diane VanderMolen, who said Erik Menendez asked her to relay a message.
“They are truly, deeply sorry for what they did. And they are profoundly remorseful,” VanderMolen said. “They are filled with remorse over what they did. And through that, they have become pretty remarkable people.”
Besides resentencing, the brothers have two other possible paths to freedom.
One is their request for clemency to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom announced in February that he was ordering the parole board to conduct a 90-day “comprehensive risk assessment” investigation into whether Lyle and Erik Menendez pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if they’re granted clemency and released.
After the risk assessment, which Hochman said in the filing is now complete, Newsom said the brothers will appear at independent parole board hearings in June.
The other path is the brothers’ habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 for a review of two new pieces of evidence not presented at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father, and allegations from a former boy band member who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.
In February, Hochman announced he was asking the court to deny the habeas corpus petition, arguing the brothers’ new evidence wasn’t credible or admissible.
(ORANGE COUNTY, CA) — A shooting occurred at Featherly Regional Park in Yorba Linda on Sunday afternoon, according to a post on X from the sheriff’s office in Orange County, California, where the wilderness park and Canyon RV campsite is located.
There was an altercation earlier in the day, after which a man returned to the park and tried to run over another man with his car, a police information officer said in a video posted to X on Sunday evening.
The driver then exited the vehicle and shot two people — “firing several rounds at them before turning the gun on himself,” the PIO said.
All three gunshot victims were transported to the hospital, the video explained, adding that the person who was hit by the car suffered minor injuries and was assessed by firefighter paramedics but was not hospitalized.
The victims’ conditions are unknown as of Sunday night.
The incident happened in front of multiple people, according to police.
It’s believed that all of the victims and the suspect knew each other, officials said, calling it an “isolated incident.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(CLEARWATER, FL) — One person was killed and 12 people were injured when a boat struck the Clearwater Ferry in Clearwater, Florida, on Sunday evening.
All of the injured individuals were people on the ferry, according to the Clearwater Police Department. BayCare Health System said it received a total of nine patients on Sunday night at three of their hospitals, and said Monday all but one have been treated and released.
There were 45 people aboard the 40-foot ferry, including two crew members, when it was struck from behind by a 37-foot privately owned boat, police said.
The boat that struck the ferry fled the scene and traveled to Belleair Boat Ramp, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said on Monday. Authorities said it was later found by a responding agency.
The incident took place near the Memorial Causeway Bridge in Clearwater. Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg was notified at approximately 8:40 p.m., the Seventh Coast Guard District wrote on X. During a press conference on Monday, officials said there was “definitely a point where these boats were fully entangled.”
After the crash, the ferry came to rest on a sand bar just south of the bridge. First responders and emergency personnel were then able to remove “all patients and passengers” from the ferry, police said.
“We were just enjoying the ride, and then all of a sudden we hear the first mate yelling, ‘Hey, hey, hey,'” one passenger told Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS.
“And then we looked back behind us and this big yacht just came through the boat,” said the passenger, who was riding the ferry with his two kids and his wife, who is 31 weeks pregnant.
The Coast Guard said there were six people on board the recreational boat, which left the scene.
The captain of the recreational boat was cooperative with authorities and submitted to a Breathalyzer test, but no alcohol was found, officials said on Monday.
No one has been taken in custody and authorities are working with the states attorney’s office to determine if the incident should be categorized as a hit-and-run, officials said.
Officials said they will soon release the names of the victims, along with the name of the captain of the recreational boat.
“We’d like to offer our deepest condolences to the loves ones of the deceased,” Coast Guard Cmdr. Fredrick Pugh, chief of response, Sector St. Petersburg, said in a statement on Monday. “Coast Guard investigative officers and FWC are working to determine the cause of the collision and verify the details leading up to the incident.”
Clearwater Ferry said it is “heartbroken for the person who lost their life” and are cooperating with the investigation.
“We deeply appreciate the dedication of the first responders and others who rushed to help Sunday night,” Clearwater Ferry said in a statement on Monday.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will be taking the lead on the crash investigation, police said.
