Dad arrested after toddler found wandering outside ‘unlivable home’

By Dacia Johnson

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    PALM COAST, Florida (WESH) — A Flagler County man is facing child and animal neglect charges after deputies found his 2-year-old son wandering alone outside of their “unlivable home.”

Deputies with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday morning responded to 911 calls about the boy being alone outside.

“I found a little boy, wandering in the road,” said the 911 caller. “…I walked up to the house that I believe he lives in. The door was wide open. I yelled inside, I did not want to go inside.”

Deputies responded to the Palm Coast home and asked the child to take them to his parent.

Inside the home, deputies contacted the child’s father, 44-year-old Ross Judy, who smelled of alcohol.

An arrest affidavit says the home was covered in bugs, feces and urine.

“It might as well be a landfill on the inside of the home,” said Sheriff Rick Staly, Flagler County. “That’s how disgusting it looked. “

“The bathrooms were unusable due to the amount of trash, feces, general filth, alcoholic beverage containers, bugs swimming in toilet water and the sink was piled high with several inches of cigarette ash to the point the sink was no longer visible,” the arrest affidavit says.

A large dog was found locked in a cage with a rotting wound on its ear and in poor condition.

The Department of Children and Family, and animal control responded to assist, FCSO said. The 2-year-old was taken to a nearby relative’s home.

Judy was placed under arrest for felony child neglect and animal abandonment.

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