Children allegedly sprayed with bleach in forced-labor case. KY mom pleads guilty.
An Eastern Kentucky man forced his girlfriend’s four children to sell items door-to-door and abused them if they didn’t bring back enough money, spraying them with bleach and sometimes beating them with a wooden rod, according to a federal court document.
The mother of the four, Tiffany Louise Walsh, 33, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to a charge of benefiting from forced labor.
Walsh’s boyfriend used the money her children collected to buy lottery tickets, cigarettes and food for himself and Walsh, she acknowledged in her plea agreement.
The plea document said Walsh has four kids who were ages 12 through 15 during the time of the offense.
Walsh and the children lived with her boyfriend in Mount Sterling about seven years ago, then lived with him in other states for several years.
The plea document identified Walsh’s boyfriend only by his initials, J.O.
J.O., Walsh and her children returned to Kentucky around March 2017. They lived in Hazard for a time.
Walsh had worked when they lived in other states, but didn’t work when they lived in Hazard, the court document said.
J.O. never worked during the time he lived with Walsh and her children, staying home “under the guise” of homeschooling the children.
J.O. had the four do writing assignments, but used threats and physical force to make them make produce items such as wooden plaques.
He forced the kids to go door-to-door for about six hours a day selling handmade items and cancer awareness bracelets, Walsh said in her plea.
J.O. also made them hand out flyers advertising services the kids would do for payment.
If the children did not bring in J.O.’s required daily quota of money, they suffered severe emotional and physical abuse at his hands, the plea document said.
They often had to draw a slip of paper from a “punishment jar” that J.O. had made.
“During the time they lived in Hazard, Kentucky, J.O. made the victims do excessive physical exercise, eat food condiments that made them sick, sprayed them with bleach, threatened physical injury to them and on occasion beat them with a wooden rod,” Walsh’s plea agreement said.
J.O. inflicted those punishments and others not only in Kentucky but in South Carolina and Tennessee.
At one point in another state, J.O. held down three of the children and gave them tattoos.
If the children tried to contact their biological fathers, J.O. inflicted physical and emotional abuse on them, according to Walsh’s plea deal.
Walsh knew J.O. forced her children to sell items and knew about the punishments. She helped make some of the items and sometimes went out with J.O. and the four kids to do sales, she said.
The alleged abuse finally came to light after the children knocked on a door in May 2017 to sell bracelets. It turned out the house was a children’s advocacy center.
The employees became concerned that the victims were not in school, which led to an investigation by child protective workers and Kentucky State Police.
Walsh and J.O. were charged in state court with abusing the children. The federal government can prosecute Walsh and J.O. separately.
The maximum sentence on the charge covered in Walsh’s plea would be 20 years. She is to be sentenced in October.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Wier ordered Walsh jailed after her plea.
This story was originally published July 1, 2019 at 6:16 PM.
