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Kids taken from 'deplorable' home

Deputies arrest three people. The house had rotten food in the refrigerator and no working bathroom.

By SHANNONCOLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published January 13, 2006

TAMPA - Sheriff's officials have jailed three people, including a mother and daughter, after authorities found three young children living in "deplorable" conditions inside their north Hillsborough home.

Hillsborough sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said deputies went Wednesday afternoon to 8220 Cindy Way - where 31-year-old George A. Oliveras lives with 19-year-old Jessica Tomasik and her mother, Kimberly Bursey - after a neighbor reported that Oliveras was violently spanking a 2-year-old girl with a belt.

A sheriff's deputy found bruises, cuts and swelling on the toddler's upper thigh, Carter said. Inside the home, conditions were dangerous and unsanitary for the toddler, a 4-year-old boy and a 6-month-old baby boy living there.

There were dirty dishes and doorways without doors. The bathroom did not work and was filled with trash, according to a sheriff's report. The refrigerator was filled with rotting food, some of it months old, Carter said. Dirty clothes littered the rooms.

Broken lamps and electrical wires were within reach of the children, the investigator noted.

To protect their identity, authorities did not disclose the children's relationship to the three arrested. But Carter said the Department of Children and Families took the children, and authorities took the three adults to the Orient Road jail.

Oliveras, previously convicted of domestic battery, is charged with child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a child. He was being held without bail Thursday. Bursey, 38, and Tomasik are charged with three counts each of child neglect. Bursey also is charged with one count of contributing to the delinquency of a child. Tomasik is charged with three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child, jail records show.

Bursey was being held in lieu of $23,000 bail. Tomasik was being held in lieu of $24,000 bail.

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 13, 2006, 01:45:18]