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Couple threatened
Child abuse suspects can move until trial
By Carl Chancellor and Marilyn Miller
Beacon Journal staff writers

The couple charged with endangering five children in their Kenmore home told a judge they've faced threats since their release from jail Saturday.

So Akron Municipal Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer on Monday gave Mary Rowles and Alice Jenkins permission to live somewhere else until their trial.

But then Stormer offered a threat of her own.

``Let me assure you that trying to leave would be a very big mistake,'' Stormer warned. ``See all these people here -- everyone knows what you look like,'' said Stormer, gesturing to spectators and media in the courtroom.

``You couldn't get very far. Everyone knows what you look like. They'll all be looking for you. This isn't the movies. You don't live out there for two or three years like Harrison Ford,'' said Stormer, referring to his role in The Fugitive.

Rowles, 30, and her partner, Jenkins, 27, entered not-guilty pleas to five counts each of felony child endangering. Jenkins also faces two counts of felonious assault.

Police said the women have admitted some of the allegations.

Meanwhile, Summit County Executive James B. McCarthy wants to review what went wrong in the case.

McCarthy said he will ask the Child Fatality Review Board to examine the case to see where the system failed and what policy changes may need to be made.

Rowles, the mother of six children, and her partner are accused of locking the five boys in a dark closet for weeks at a time. The boys were malnourished. The 12-year-old daughter appeared to be well-nourished.

At the hearing Donald J. Malarcik, the court-appointed lawyer for Jenkins, told the judge the two women have received death threats since Saturday, when they each paid $1,000 -- one-tenth of their $10,000 bonds -- and were released.

``One of our main concerns (is) the death threats,'' Malarcik said after the hearing.

He said he even had a death threat directed at Jenkins left on his office voice mail.

``The threats were serious, disturbing and dangerous. I'm taking the threats very seriously,'' Malarcik continued.

Stormer told Rowles and Jenkins that they didn't have to continue to live at their Florida Avenue home if they felt their safety was in jeopardy. The only requirement Stormer stated is that if they decide to move, they must make the court aware of their whereabouts.

The women are next scheduled to appear for a hearing on May 14 in Summit County Common Pleas Court.

Malarcik said Jenkins is under a great deal of stress.

``Alice is devastated and traumatized,'' he said. ``This has been an ordeal for her and her family.''

He went on to note that Jenkins, who he stressed has no prior police record, has cooperated with the Children Services Board and the police.

``She's struggling through,'' Malarcik said. ``This is her first time being involved with the justice system and the media.''

McCarthy is writing a letter today to the board asking for help in examining the actions of everyone involved in the case. The Child Fatality Review Board was formed in 1991 under a different name and renamed in 2000. It evaluates the deaths and serious injuries of children.

``Children Services' first requirement is to try to keep families together, but not at the risk of a child's health and future,'' McCarthy said. ``We'll investigate the system, but I'll leave the criminal investigation up to law enforcement professionals. I'm not going in with any predetermined judgments, but there are no sacred cows.

``We need to look at how the system broke down, what were the warning signs and how we can prevent this in the future,'' McCarthy said. ``The facts just don't add up. We need to find out what happened and how it happened.''

The Child Fatality Review Board was renamed in 2000 after the Ohio legislature mandated that all counties have a review board to evaluate deaths and suspected child abuse that could lead to death.

After examining the actions of everyone involved, the board determines whether ``facts presented indicate any flaws in the handling of the case by an agency or whether interagency cooperation could have been more effective,'' according to the board's most recent annual report.

However, the board specifically does not assign blame. The proceedings of the board are exempt from Ohio public records law. In that way, the board is similar to the review boards in hospitals.

The hope is that people will be completely forthcoming about the particulars of how a case was handled if they don't have to fear public scrutiny.

The board, which meets in June, includes representatives from law enforcement, the county medical examiner's office, courts, community members and Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron, as well as CSB and its executive director, Joseph White Jr.

Pre-dawn call brings abuse to light
Man alerts Akron police after seeing three boys walking toward I-77

Knife wrote:While they are dispicable and their actions should be comdemed, why the hell is their sexuality being used to identify them? They should be identified as the 'shit moms' or 'those fucking bitches'. I see no reason why they should be identified as 'lesbians' as that has little if nothing to do with the crime.

Steven Snyder wrote:

Knife wrote:While they are dispicable and their actions should be comdemed, why the hell is their sexuality being used to identify them? They should be identified as the 'shit moms' or 'those fucking bitches'. I see no reason why they should be identified as 'lesbians' as that has little if nothing to do with the crime.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they systematically destroyed the lives of five boys through brutal torture and mistreatment from birth, but left the little girl to flourish?

Their actions already made a statement, I am just making sure everyone hears it. If you don't like the message, maybe you should talk to them about it.

Knife wrote:

Steven Snyder wrote:

Knife wrote:While they are dispicable and their actions should be comdemed, why the hell is their sexuality being used to identify them? They should be identified as the 'shit moms' or 'those fucking bitches'. I see no reason why they should be identified as 'lesbians' as that has little if nothing to do with the crime.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they systematically destroyed the lives of five boys through brutal torture and mistreatment from birth, but left the little girl to flourish?

Their actions already made a statement, I am just making sure everyone hears it. If you don't like the message, maybe you should talk to them about it.

I do not disagree with the fact that they are fucktards and criminally neglegent fucktards at that. But I do detect a 'special interest' slant in the article with respect to bringing up their sexuality as a lable when it has nothing to do with what happened. If some redneck couple had done the same, would they have labled them the 'hetrosexual' fuckheads that abused their kids or would they just call them fuckheads.

Col. Crackpot wrote:it is apparant , if the article is true, that they were persecuting these boys because of some kind of gender-vendetta.

Simon H.Johansen wrote:

Col. Crackpot wrote:it is apparant , if the article is true, that they were persecuting these boys because of some kind of gender-vendetta.

I had that suspicion the first time I saw the article... but for some strange reason, I now suspect that it might just be a coincidence.

Stormbringer wrote:I don't know. It seems awfully fishy to me. I really do wonder about that. Given the systematic abuse that they committed on just the male children I think it'd be a really strange coincindence. People are fucked up.

Enforcer Talen wrote:this could turn one into a homophobe? although these freaks should be hung, that doesnt say anything about the orientation in general.

Simon H.Johansen wrote:

Col. Crackpot wrote:it is apparant , if the article is true, that they were persecuting these boys because of some kind of gender-vendetta.

I had that suspicion the first time I saw the article... but for some strange reason, I now suspect that it might just be a coincidence.

Simon H.Johansen wrote:

Stormbringer wrote:I don't know. It seems awfully fishy to me. I really do wonder about that. Given the systematic abuse that they committed on just the male children I think it'd be a really strange coincindence. People are fucked up.

Maybe it indeed is a case of genuine misandry.

Simon H.Johansen wrote:I just had too much faith in humanity to consider this possible, to begin with.

Still, this story isn't enough to turn me into a homophobe. At least not into a raving one.

Gil Hamilton wrote:This has nothing to do with them being lesbians, but everything to do with them being psychotic. It goes like this; they are psychotic and they also happened to be lesbians. Because they are psychotic, they decide to have this gender-vendetta thing using militant lesbianism as a sort of a motivator. But in the end, their being lesbians didn't cause this shit, had they been sane people, this wouldn't have happened. After all, there are millions of lesbians in the world, if this was caused by lesbianism, then you'd see a trend of such crimes.


This being said, these specific people need to be drawn and quartered, but that's my personal opinion.

Steven Snyder wrote:Let me clarify, I do not think that this sort of practice is a common thing among lesbian couples raising children. I have seen lesbian parenting in action and it wasn't anything like this.

I think Col. Crackpot said it best that this is a gender vendetta, from two people that are gone off the deep end of psychotic pool. I think a litttle cranial ventilation is in order, but I don't think the law will provide for that...pity.