TOLEDO, Ohio — Newly-released body camera footage of police responding for a wellness check on children at a west Toledo apartment shows the children living in deplorable conditions.
Toledo police responded to the apartment of Jason and Maryann Baran off Douglas Road on Aug. 31. When police enter, video shows the four children, whose faces have been blurred to protect their identity, covered in mud and dirt.
Police spend multiple minutes trying to wake a child who appears to be sleeping in a closet with no door attached.
An officer can be heard saying, "No, she needs to wake up because she's currently sleeping in a hole in the wall. No, it's a closet".
According to court documents, the children at the home "spoke of molestation, unprovoked and unprompted" and did not have clothes, food, furniture or lighting in the apartment.
Documents also state the children "were covered from head to toe in dirt, mud and feces," "flies and gnats surrounded the children as they slept" and one child had circular burn marks on their wrist similar to cigarette burns.
An officer in the video can also be heard saying to the parents, "You got to understand our concern with what we've got to do though, too, because we're getting a call that kids are running around the street in their boxers."
Documents indicate two of the children were of age to attend school but had never been enrolled.
The children are now in protective custody. Jason and Maryann Baran are charged with endangering children, charges which both are fighting in court.
"I don't know what game you think you're playing right now, sir," an officer can be heardd sying to Jason while taking him into custody. "You're embarrassing yourself by trying to identify yourself and then tell me you're leaving."
The Toledo Police Department has also launched an Internal Affairs investigation into the incident. A department spokesperson said officers were called out to the home once in June and once in July. The circumstances of those initial calls were not provided by Toledo police, but at those times, officers did not report the alleged child endangerment at the home to Lucas County Children Services.
LCCS declined to comment, saying the incident is a police matter.