Featured Image Credit: Muskogee County Jail
Topics: Crime, US News, Oklahoma, True crime
Emily Brown
Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
A grandmother from Oklahoma has been arrested in the latest in a series of charges brought after an 11-year-old girl was allegedly forced to give birth at home without a doctor present.
Michelle Justus, who is the 11-year-old’s maternal grandmother, was charged with six counts of felony child neglect after the young girl delivered her baby on August 16, after which Justus claimed no one was aware of the pregnancy.
The girl's mother, Cherie Walker, 33, and stepfather, Dustin Walker, 34, were arrested and charged last month, with Muskogee County Assistant District Attorney Janet Hutson telling KOTV that even the parents had no idea the young girl was pregnant until she gave birth.
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In an even more horrific discovery, DNA test results revealed that the stepfather was a 99.9 percent match for the baby’s father.
According to 2 News, Justus said her daughter and son-in-law had been made to look like a 'monster', but prosecutors have now claimed the grandmother knew the 11-year-old was pregnant and failed to report it to authorities.
Per NBC News, prosecutors said Justus lives just across the street from the Walkers, and acted as 'caretaker' to the 11-year-old and five other children who live at the home.
Court documents have claimed Justus failed to provide proper supervision and medical care for the children, leaving them to live in deplorable conditions.
The grandmother allegedly had regular contact with the 11-year-old and saw her almost every day, including the day she gave birth, but she is accused of failing to report her situation to authorities.
Justus had previously told 2 News: "I just want people to know, we did not know this was happening. None of us."
The charges against Justus relate to all six children in the home, and she is now being held on a $75,000 bond.
Meanwhile, Cherie Walker has been charged with enabling child sex abuse and Dustin Walker has been charged with sexual abuse of a child under 12.
Both parents have also been charged with six counts of felony child neglect. They are being held without bond.
Janet Hutson, Muskogee County Assistant District Attorney, described the case as 'one of the most, if not the most, serious child sexual abuse and neglect cases [she has] ever prosecuted'.
“I was horror-stricken to find out it’s an 11-year-old little girl who’s given birth," she told 2 News previously.
"And that she had no medical care, and she had no one to be with her.”
The 11-year-old and her siblings have since been removed from the home.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.