Jury finds Monessen parents not guilty of child endangerment

They were acquitted on two felony charges.

By RICH CHOLODOFSKY
TribLive

Felicia Dugan embraced a friend and sobbed Thursday afternoon outside a Westmoreland County courtroom after a jury found her and her former boyfriend not guilty of endangering their 2-year-old twins in their Monessen home in 2024.

“I am so happy. I’m getting my kids back, and that’s all that matters,” Dugan said.

Dugan, 31, and Jerimiah Roberts, 32, were acquitted of two felony counts of child endangerment following a four-day trial. Prosecutors contended the pair left their two young children alone and in squalor in an upstairs bedroom that police said was filled with feces, trash and insects.

Dugan did not testify during the trial. After her acquittal, she was asked if she believed police overreacted to the conditions in her home.

“Yes,” she responded before being cut off by Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Nace.

Roberts, the lone witness to testify in his defense, said he, too, was pleased with the verdict.

“Everything went as it should have gone,” he said of the trial’s outcome.

Roberts had testified he was unaware of the conditions in his kids’ bedroom on June 10, 2024. He said a foot injury left him on crutches and confined to the first floor of the family’s home while under the influence of pain medication and muscle relaxers.

Dugan said she expects her children, currently living in the care of a relative, will soon return to her custody.

Lawyers for both parents argued to jurors that prosecutors were unable to prove they knowingly left the children in dangerous conditions.

Jurors viewed videos, including one taken by Dugan’s mother in the late morning and another taken about five hours later by police when they responded to a call to check on the welfare of the children. In both videos, the bedroom was strewn with what appeared to be feces and trash.

Dugan’s mother testified she found the children naked on a bare mattress and trapped in the upstairs room. Monessen police officers told jurors they saw similar conditions when they went to home.

The twins were bathed and taken to a hospital, where they were evaluated and released after medical personnel found they were unharmed and healthy.

Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Ranger argued that the videos and testimony from police and Dugan’s mother proved the parents were guilty of endangering their children.

“Parents have a duty to check on all of the small humans in their custody,” Ranger said. She told the jurors that the only differences in the two videos shown to them during the trial was that the children wore diapers when recorded by police hours after the initial report was lodged.

“You can infer someone knew about the conditions,” Ranger said. “This was not legal.”