DeLand, FL – 3 children are now in state custody after deputies found one of them – a toddler – wandering around a road unattended.
40-year-old Jason D. Broome and 26-year-old Josephine S. Broome are each facing child neglect charges after the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was called out to their home on Circle Drive near DeLand around 4:30 PM Monday.
A VCSO deputy on patrol in the area came upon a 3-year-old boy walking on a roadway near a trailer park around 3:25 PM Monday, at which point a nearby resident pointed the deputy in the direction of a trailer home located around 70 yards away from where the boy was found. The locations were all redacted from the arrest report.
According to the report, a man found in the home identified himself as a friend of the Broomes and told them he had been sleeping on a couch for around 3 hours when they knocked on the door.
That man also told deputies that the Broomes were in the home at the time he fell asleep and that he had no idea where the Broomes or the other 2 kids living at the home – a 9-year-old boy and a 6-year-old boy – were.
A search of the trailer for the children turned up various pieces of drug paraphernalia – including some with drug residue on it – and a refrigerator that had more alcohol inside than food, per the report.
VCSO says the living conditions in the home were unfit for children, noting that there was only one stained mattress without covers, no medicine and numerous dangerous items within reach of the kids, including knives and razors.
There was also a hole around 2 feet in diameter on the floor of a hallway that deputies say was large enough for the kids to fall into, according to the report.
Jason returned to the home around an hour after deputies arrived and he claimed both he and Josephine were unemployed and addicted to prescription pain medication that they would buy on the street, per the report.
The report also noted that Jason admitted to lying to Department of Children & Families investigators for months about the living conditions and that he “knew this day would come”.
The other 2 children were found in the custody of a neighbor who brought them to the residence, according to VCSO.
A neighbor told VCSO afterward that she had spotted the 3-year-old boy naked outside the home in 50-degree weather the day prior and told Josephine to bring the boy back inside the house.
As of 2 PM Tuesday, Jason is held on $5,000 bond at Volusia County Jail. Josephine hasn’t been located at this time, according to VCSO, but VCJ records do show she was booked there 3 prior times, all in 2012.
Jason D. Broome
Josephine S. Broome (2012 mugshot)
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