Courtroom Twist: The mother at the center of Ohio’s 12-by-12 r00m case makes a sh0cking new request in her bid for release from j@il
THE mother of the 16 kids found trapped in a small room in an Ohio home has made a desperate and troubling request as she remains behind bars.
Elizabeth Siders, 33, was among four adults arrested and charged with 16 counts of child endangerment after police rescued over a dozen children from a home on June 30.
Sixteen boys and girls ranging in age from one to 18 were found living in unsanitary conditions in a home in rural Hamden, Ohio, and police suspect they were kept in a room no larger than 12 feet by 12 feet for most of the last four years.
But on Thursday, Siders asked to be released from jail, according to a court filing reviewed by Fox affiliate WCMH, calling it her top desire to be freed and return to her kids.
The move comes after Gary Siders Sr., the 73-year-old grandfather of the children, was let out after he suffered a fall and medical emergency that required hospitalization.
Her attorney, J. Thomas Stolly, argued that Elizabeth has no known criminal record and has shown the court no indication that she would be uncooperative with law enforcement.
“Through conversations with Counsel, the Defendant maintains that her principal desire [is] to reunite with her children,” the court filing read.
“She understands that reunification of any sort is an impossibility if she does not appear before this Court.”
Elizabeth is currently being held on a $300,000 bond after she was arrested alongside her husband, Gary Siders Jr., 36, her mother-in-law, Christina Siders, 66, and Gary Sr.
Stolly believes Elizabeth is the mother of all 16 children.
Reports later came out that Elizabeth also gave birth to conjoined twins in November 2022.
Bailey Lee and Faith Lee were born prematurely at 24 weeks and died from natural causes on the same day, according to documents obtained by WOWK.
Elizabeth’s attorney further argued it was a violation of her Eighth Amendment right to hold her on “excessive bail.”
Stolly argued the case revealed Elizabeth was living “in a home which exhibited extreme poverty,” and therefore the court knows she cannot afford the $300,000 bond.
He added that Elizabeth does not pose a flight risk and has agreed to wear a GPS monitor, check in with her bond officer, and provide the court with a stable living address.
Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer said on Wednesday that if Gary Sr. is released from the hospital, he would be required to wear a GPS monitor.
Stolly explained Elizabeth’s main concern is seeing her kids again and pushed back on language used by officials looking into the case.
“She did not ask when she was getting out of jail. She did not ask what a timeline was for her to get out of jail. She started asking about the kids,” Stolley told WBNS after meeting with Elizabeth in jail on Thursday.
He also claimed there is no evidence that the 16 children were forced to stay inside a 12-by-12 room.
“There’s no indication that the kids were not free to move about the home. There’s no indication from my conversations with my client that the kids were not allowed to go outside.”
“We’re still at the early stages of this criminal case. And so that’s one of the reasons that it’s important to push back against language like that,” he said, referring to Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson’s comments that the scene was “pure evil.”
“And it’s important to remember that Elizabeth and the rest of the Siders family are innocent until proven guilty.”
Stolley also said Elizabeth has only had “positive things to say about Gary,” whom she married when she was 15 and he was 18 in 2008, and that they wanted a bunch of kids.
“What she’s told me repeatedly is that she and Gary wanted a big family. I don’t know if they wanted a family that was this big, but they repeatedly said, she’s repeatedly said to me that she wanted a big family.
“She said that kids are a gift from God and that she was open to that.”
Stolley said they talk about the kids for a significant amount of time when he visits Elizabeth in jail, and she told him some of the kids had phones and the older kids were on social media.
“When you use language like feral kids, you’re imagining people that have been isolated away from human contact.
“People who have never interacted with any sort of social media, with the internet, with humans outside of their own home, or even humans in general, who completely lack the ability to use language.
“There’s nothing to suggest that that is the case here. And in fact, we’ve seen some things to contradict that.”
When the children were rescued, authorities learned that many of them were unable to speak and the oldest couldn’t spell her own name.
Many of the kids were also hospitalized with injuries, with two flown to level one trauma centers and one intubated in the ICU.
After the news of the arrests broke, a Dollar General employee in Hamden, Ohio, revealed she saw saw Gary and Elizabeth just one day before they were taken into custody.
It was mind-blowing once I saw the mugshot. I just saw them on Monday. They were my last customers,” Ariel Gutierrez said in an interview with ABC affiliate WSYX.
Gutierrez claimed the children would sometimes be brought into the store and that one of them was kept close to the adults and was not allowed to speak with anyone inside the store.
She also recalled noticing the children’s hair covered their faces and that they were extremely thin.
Employees at the discount store had concerns that the family was struggling, and would try helping by giving them clothes and hygiene items that appeared to go unused.
“The smell will never leave my mind. It was so potent.”
