Man faces repeat child neglect charges after social workers' multiple attempts to intervene, records show

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Published  October 2, 2024 8:10pm EDT
FOX 35 Orlando
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Father accused of child neglect

A man is facing child neglect charges for a second time, after the Flagler County Sheriff's office found his five children living in conditions deputies called "deplorable." FOX 35 News reviewed records from this case and previous incidents, which reveal a long history of involvement by authorities.

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. - A man is facing child neglect charges for a second time, after the Flagler County Sheriff's office found his five children living in conditions deputies called "deplorable."

FOX 35 News reviewed records from this case and previous incidents, which reveal a long history of involvement by the sheriff’s office and the Florida Department of Children and Families. 

Nicholas Carter and Tiffany Berry were first arrested for neglecting their children back in 2020. The Sheriff’s Office said inside the couple’s home, they found mold, decay, and general filth; live and dead bugs; a ceiling fan directly above the kids’ bunk beds, rotting and falling off; in the bathroom, a missing roof and a decayed floor with gaping holes and leaking sewage.

The conditions deputies say they found in the couple’s home in September 2024 were much the same. 

"It's terrible, horrendous, really," Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly told FOX 35 News. "And it looks like it's gotten even worse."

Body camera video from Carter’s 2024 arrest shows deputies listing what they’d found in their preliminary investigation of the home. 

"The living conditions are absolutely deplorable," a deputy tells Carter. "There’s feces everywhere. There’s food spewed about, there’s urine, things that are clearly older than just a day."

This time around, only the father was arrested; last time, it was both the mother and the father. 

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Berry’s arrest report from 2020 says she told deputies, "No one would help her and DCF just told her to move."

They did have people trying to help them, though.

Mary Ferguson is one of them.

"I want to see them succeed, you know," she told FOX 35 in an exclusive interview Wednesday. 

Ferguson retired two years ago, but she used to be a social worker with a targeted case management agency called Medallion Health.  

She says she was the type to get overly involved – someone who couldn’t just work a 9 to 5 job and forget about families at the end of the day.

"I have learned that I can’t help everybody," said Ferguson. "I can only help some people, the ones that want to be helped."

Flagler County Sheriff’s Office records show deputies and DCF have an enormous history with Berry, Carter, and their 5 children.  

School Resource Deputies and a School District Social Worker started trying to help them back in 2016.

A report from back then notes, "DCF has been notified and involved with the children many times, but the concerns have not subsided."  

Reports between 2016 and 2019 detail all the help the family was offered – and turned down.

"The judge does not like to remove children from the home. So he gives them the opportunity and the benefit of the doubt," Ferguson explained. 

FOX 35 News learned from a records request of Sheriff’s Office call logs that deputies were at the family’s house in Bunnell every few months for a variety of reasons, including weapons complaints, verbal disturbances, welfare checks, animal problems, and more.

After they were required to move, deputies kept going out to their new place in Palm Coast – they responded to the house 16 times since January of last year. 

The kids are now 2, 4, 8, 15, and 16 years old – meaning one of them wasn’t even born yet, the last time DCF removed the children from the home.  They are again in DCF's care.

"We've done our part. We've made the arrest for child neglect," said Sheriff Staly. "Now it's really up to DCF, the prosecutor, and the courts."

FOX 35 News reached out to both the mother and father in this case. Tiffany Berry told her she was trying to deal with things and didn’t have time for an interview. Nicholas Carter also declined, saying he’s tired of seeing his name bashed. 

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