(Valley News Live) — A Grand Forks woman and man are charged with child neglect after police were called to a home Nov. 2, according to court documents filed in Grand Forks County District Court.
Gail Storm Waltman, 27, is charged with terrorizing and child neglect, both class C felonies, and with hindering law enforcement by giving false information, a class A misdemeanor. Elijah James Belgarde, 23, is charged with child neglect, a class C felony, and with violating a domestic violence protection order and giving police false information, both class A misdemeanors. Both are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
According to probable cause summaries from the Grand Forks Police Department, officers were sent to a home around 11:30 p.m. after a 911 hang-up. Dispatchers could hear yelling on the call and recognized the number as Waltman’s, and they found an active protection order between Waltman and Belgarde in which Waltman is the petitioner.
One officer wrote that a woman could be heard screaming inside the home, followed by a back door slamming, and that Belgarde was standing near a vehicle behind the home. Belgarde repeatedly told the officer Waltman had left in the alley but couldn’t say who had shut the door, the summary says. He was detained because of the protection order.
Another officer called Waltman, who didn’t answer, then exchanged text messages with her. The summary says she told the officer she was at a shelter, sick, and that she and her child were fine, and sent a photo of herself and the child. Other officers had seen the child inside the home, the summary says, and the officer told her to stop lying. She responded with a text that included a reference to Cody Holte, a Grand Forks police officer who was shot and killed while on duty, according to the summary.
Officers searched the home with permission and didn’t find Waltman. Belgarde was released and told to call police if she returned.
Officers were sent back around midnight after a neighbor reported hearing a woman yelling. The homeowner let them in. Belgarde came upstairs carrying a basket of laundry and repeatedly said Waltman wasn’t there, according to the summary. Officers found her hiding in the basement. She told them she was homeless and had nowhere to go, and she also yelled profane comments about police, the summaries say.
Belgarde was then told he was under arrest for violating the protection order. The summary says his account changed during the search, from saying Waltman wasn’t there to saying she had left and come back.
Conditions inside the home
Both summaries describe the conditions inside the home. One describes garbage everywhere, dog feces and urine on the floor, no clean surfaces and what appeared to be feces on the wall next to the child’s crib. The other describes a room so full of garbage that officers couldn’t walk across the floor, stains and filth and what appeared to be dried feces on the walls of the room where the child sleeps, a bathroom that looked as if it had never been cleaned, and dirty dishes piled in the kitchen. Both mention a bad odor.
The child was in the home during the encounter and was going to be placed with Child Protective Services, according to the Belgarde summary.
The charges
The documents don’t say which of Waltman’s statements or actions the terrorizing charge is based on, and they don’t identify the victim, other than listing the victim as an adult. Court documents list her address as homeless.
Both were confined at the Grand Forks County Correctional Center and are due to appear in court within 14 days, according to court documents.
Grand Forks County jail records list seven charges against Belgarde: two counts of disobedience of a judicial order, two counts of violating a civil protection order, and one count each of child neglect and abuse, giving police false information, and driving under suspension or revocation, fourth or subsequent offense within five years.
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