After First Bath, Filth Remained on Baby Found in Acworth

As they undressed the 10-month-old girl for her first bath since who knows when, it became clear to investigators with the Acworth Police Department that the baby they found Saturday night had been sitting in a urine-soaked diaper filled with human waste for a long period of time.

She had a rash on her right buttock. Feces and urine ran up her legs and inner thighs.

Even after one bath, the filth remained.

Those are some of the new details that Patch obtained late Wednesday from a police incident report that includes one of the officer's own words.

But the baby's grandmother, whose pandhandling activities drew the officer's attention and ultimately triggered this whole case Saturday, refuted the Acworth Police Department's version of events.

While the department's report indicates that the baby's hair was matted in places and that feces was on her face as well as in and around her mouth, Rachael Tice said that the baby was given two baths Friday night. She gave her one. And her daughter, Mindy Kay Parton, gave her another.

During a nearly 30-minute interview with Patch late Wednesday, Tice repeatedly said that Parton was a loving mother who went without food at times so that her children would not go hungry.

"Mindy is a dang good mom," said Tice, 55. "You make sure you put that in there."

• • •

Parton, 24, was arrested Saturday on a charge of cruelty to children in the first degree after an officer found her baby surrounded by trash, clad in urine-soaked clothes, wearing a soiled diaper and eating her own waste.

The officer made the discovery just after 7:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Shell Travel Plaza on Cowan Road, according to a Cobb County criminal warrant and the Acworth Police Department incident report.

He was there to respond to a report of a suspicious white male in a maroon 1994 Ford Thunderbird who "kept moving around in the vehicle and didn't appear to be parked in the lot for any purpose," the officer wrote in the report. After 15 minutes, the officer saw Tice head toward the same vehicle, stop and walk toward gas pumps to ask customers for money.

That's when the officer decided to make his move, according to the incident report. When he approached the Thunderbird, he found Charles Michael Csicsak in the passenger seat and Parton in the back seat. He instructed Tice to come to the area near the car. A records search revealed that the car was registered to Tice.

As the officer talked with Csicsak and Parton, he saw a baby seat and a child in the rear of the Thunderbird. He got a whiff of a "strong, foul odor." Tice consented to a search of the vehicle, and the officer discovered the source of the odor, according to the incident report.

Parton's daughter was surrounded by trash and clothing. Her arms, hands, legs and face were covered in filth. Her clothing and body were soaked in urine. And feces oozed from a diaper that appeared to be more than a day-old.

The officer said he spoke to Csicsak about the condition of the child.

"He too told officers that he felt it was not fit for a child and that he was familiar with a current case with (the Division of Family and Children Services) in Floyd County involving Ms. Parton," the officer wrote in his report. "He explained he has only known Ms. Parton for 6 months and was only with them this date because he was asked by Ms. Parton to come and help them watch the child while they panhandled."

• • •

Parton has three children, Tice said. The middle child is two years old. The oldest is four. They live with their father's mother, according to Tice and information in the incident report. Their father, she said, is in jail.

Tice said that she was pandhandling Saturday afternoon in Acworth when police approached her car. Parton was not.

Tice said she has fallen on hard times since moving from Hernando, Miss., to Georgia to help Parton. They were passing through Acworth to get enough money for "gas, cigarettes and for whatever we needed." Parton bounces around motel rooms in Rome, according to the incident report.

When Tice consented to a search of her vehicle, police asked Csicsak and Parton to exit the vehicle. Tice knew that her Thunderbird wasn't in the best condition, she said.

"Like I said, I come from Mississippi to help my daughter," Tice said. "My trunk is full. I have clothes in the back of the car. They were not on the baby. The baby was in the car seat, buckled up, all safe and secure with a baby doll in her lap."

During a telephone interview from her Cartersville motel room late Wednesday, Tice initially said that "there was no feces and all that on the baby" and that "the baby was changed before we left the house."

She later corrected herself.

"Yes, (the baby) messed in her pants," Tice said. "(My daughter) was already in the backseat, if the police would tell you that, about to change the baby."

When the officer spoke with Parton about the condition of her daughter, she told a story similar to the one that her mother told Patch.

"She didn't seem to think the child was dirty or in an unhealthy situation," the officer wrote in his report. "She attempted to say the child had been bathed the night before and that the diaper was changed regularly. The child was covered in feces and urine that clearly has been building up for a period of time and the filth on her arms were not consistent with regular baths."

Parton also denied knowing anything about that open DFACS case in Floyd County that Csicsak mentioned to authorities.

Beyond the information in the warrant and the police report, Patch was not able to obtain information about that case Wednesday. However, both documents indicate that the same child was found in unhealthy conditions.

In his narrative, the officer wrote: "I contacted DFACS official Patty Sipos and advised her of the situation. She did confirm the open case in Floyd County and explained she would be in [sic] route to pick up the child."

The only thing in the officer's narrative that Tice agreed with was that Acworth Police found a methamphetamine pipe in Csicsak's possession on Saturday.

The pipe was taken and destroyed, and police gave Csicsak a verbal warning, according to the incident report. He and Tice were allowed to leave the area. 

Parton was taken to the Acworth Detention Center without incident. Tice said her daughter was transferred to the Cobb County Adult Detention Center, where she remained until she was released Tuesday on a $5,000 bond.

• • • 

It was clear, the officer wrote in his report, that the baby had to be bathed as soon as possible.

As investigators waited for the DFACS official to pick up the baby from the Acworth Police Department headquarters, they took the child to a nearby residence.

Before the bath, authorities took pictures of her car seat and her clothes. Her diaper was removed. Authorities had to get rid of all of the items because of potential health hazards, according to the incident report.

New clothing, diapers and other items were purchased for the child.

One bath did not remove the filth. She required "several" baths, the officer wrote, "in an attempt to get her fully clean."

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