A 31-year-old Pontiac mother has been arrested and charged with child abuse after her children were found living in a shockingly unsanitary apartment. According to WWJ Newsradio, Teriomas Tremice Johnson is facing three counts of second-degree child abuse. Law enforcement responded to the home after a report of a possible break-in. While no evidence of a break-in was found, deputies found the home in a disgusting state, with no working plumbing and filled with faeces and rotten food.
Johnson’s three children, ages twelve and nine, were found unsupervised with their conditions described as deplorable. The Oakland County Sheriff's Office reported to WXYZ that the children had been left alone frequently, and were using a cardboard box in the bathroom due to the inoperative plumbing. When deputies contacted Johnson, they located her in Ann Arbor. She returned to Pontiac approximately three hours later and was arrested.
The conditions uncovered at Johnson’s residence were disturbingly similar to another case earlier this year involving a Pontiac mother. Johnson, who was already on probation for separate charges, had been not home regularly, and her kids' school attendance was sporadic. It was a situation that prompted Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard to remark, “It defies understanding how parents blessed with the gift of a child could show such cruelty,” in a statement obtained by Midmichigannow. “The complete lack of compassion and humanity is heartbreaking, and I am eager to see justice served for this unconscionable act.”
After the children were discovered, Child Protective Services placed them with their biological fathers. During her arraignment via Zoom, Johnson was initially given a $250,000 cash bond, but following an outburst where she threw a chair and yelled at the magistrate, Magistrate Angelena Thomas-Scruggs ordered her held without bond. Her past convictions include retail fraud, fleeing police, and child abuse, outlined in a release from the Sheriff’s Office. Follow-up on this case is ongoing, as Johnson awaits further legal proceedings, as per Midmichigannow.
