NORTH VERNON — North Vernon police arrested a North Vernon couple on preliminary charges of neglect of a dependent after responding to a report of a battery on a small child.
Officer Shane Trepanier was sent to the call in the 200 block of Manor Road at 11:25 p.m. Aug. 10, said Sgt. Andrew Richmond, police department spokesman.
After determining the child was physically OK, officers determined the living conditions in the home to be “horrid,” Richmond said. A fish tank had dead fish and there was leftover food in the tank on the font porch, there were exposed electrical wires in the bedroom, sewage in the bathroom, no electricity, no hot water, no cold food storage and little food in the cabinets.
The parents, Justin Dubben, 42, and Karen Dubben, 47, each were arrested on a preliminary charge of felony neglect of a dependent. Their bonds were set at $1,055 at the Jennings County Jail, jail records indicate.
A 9-year-old child in the home was asked when his last meal was and the child replied that he had last eaten at lunchtime at school.
Officers asked the Jennings County Department of Child Services to take emergency custody of a 9-year-old child in the home.
Jennings County Animal Control removed a dog from the home.
