Idaho siege mother freed for five days
A US judge has freed the Idaho woman whose six children held off law enforcement officers for five days, reducing the child neglect charge against her to a misdemeanour.
The unconditional release allows JoAnn McGuckin the right to see her children without supervision, but she still faces a custody battle with the state which has placed them in a foster home. A custody hearing was set for Friday.
McGuckin had refused another judge’s earlier offer to leave jail on condition that visits with her children be supervised. The children visited McGuckin in jail only once.
McGuckin’s six children, aged eight to 16, held authorities at bay at their ramshackle home near Sandpoint after their mother’s arrest on May 29.
First District Court Magistrate Judge Debra Heise ruled yesterday that there was insufficient evidence to support the felony neglect charge.
‘‘I find the state failed to sustain its burden that the conditions were likely to cause death or great bodily injury,’’ the judge said. ‘‘The state has proven that their health may have been in danger.’’
The misdemeanour charge carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a 3,000 (£2,100) fine. McGuckin pleaded innocent yesterday to the reduced charge.
The judge heard testimony from the family’s eldest daughter, 19-year-old Erina McGuckin, who left home last year to join the US Navy. She complained to authorities about the living conditions at their home. She said her family lived in an ‘‘unsanitary...squalid’’ house without running water since 1977, with little or no heat and intermittent electricity.
But a conflicting account was given yesterday by Kathryn McGuckin, 16, who said the family had been under extreme stress for several years because both parents were sick. She said that had caused some of the housecleaning, laundry and other chores to remain undone for periods of time.
The children’s father, Michael McGuckin, died of multiple sclerosis in May
‘‘We could not deal with the stress of the house, being on shift all night long with Dad, haul water, prepare food for the kids, and our education and keep up the house to the world standards of what all homes should be,’’ Kathryn McGuckin said.
The teenager said she was prepared to shoot anyone who attacked her brothers and sisters. She said she test-fired two weapons in the house to make sure they worked.
‘‘If someone started shooting, we had the right to shoot back,’’ she said.
