April 10, 2019
By Paragon News Director Paul Joseph –
An Elk City mother of five juveniles has been charged with five cases of child neglect after leaving them home alone and unsupervised for a number hours.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the Department of Human Services was granted to take the five children including a 1-year-old baby into custody.
32-year-old Stephanie Delease Frank allegedly told authorities that she and her boyfriend had only been gone for 45-minutes to an hour on the night of March 14. The court document says that one of the children called 9-1-1 from a cell phone about 11:35 pm and spoke with an operator long enough for for them to dispatch officers to search for the children. Frank later arrived at the residence in the 500 block of Nichols Avenue about 12:52 am telling police that they had been at a friend’s house helping move furniture.
She denied having dealt with the DHS on other incidents, however upon investigation, it was discovered that she had numerous prior dealings with the DHS in the past concerning herself and her children in other locations in Oklahoma.
Also, statements made to authorities by her children allegedly indicated that the recent incident was not isolated.
According to statements made to police and to DHS, it was approximately six-hours total that Frank had left her young children alone without supervision. The 1-year-old was found roaming freely in the home. Also found in the home were three male boys aged 10, 5 and 4 and an 8-year-old female.
During an interview, Frank allegedly told authorities that she left the children alone that evening after feeding them, returned to the residence to make sure they were asleep at about 8:15 pm and returned around 12:52 am the next morning when the police were at her house.
She is due in Beckham County District Court on April 29 for a preliminary hearing conference on the felony charges.
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