The Coxes were indicted on Wednesday, but when sheriff’s deputies went to arrest them on Thursday, they learned the parents had taken their other two children out of school and left the area, according to Chief Tony Dwyer.
When they are brought to trial, the Coxes will face six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said he could not discuss how the couple’s brief disappearance might effect the first-degree misdemeanor charge they are already facing.
The boy’s guardian ad litem Adolfo Olivas said he was told the boy was displaying aggressive behaviors so the parents turned him back over to Butler County Children Services around Oct. 24. A sheriff’s report indicates the boy threatened to kill everyone in the house with a knife on Aug. 9.
The mother reported to the deputies her adopted son suffers with mental issues.
“According to Mrs. Cox (the boy) has outbursts every day but nothing this severe,” the report stated. “Mrs. Cox explained that (the boy) has been hospitalized for these disorders and has been to Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati on several occasions.”
The report indicated the mother planned to take her son to Children’s Hospital in Dayton to have him placed on a 72-hour hold for additional testing.
Olivas said he was not told about this incident but has requested the report. When he learned earlier on Friday the family appeared to have disappeared, he said it was “upsetting.”
This story, first reported by the Journal-News, has grabbed national headlines in recent days.
The Coxes’ neighbor Amy Coons, who was waiting for a Lakota kindergarten bus Friday afternoon, a routine she usually shares with Lisa, said she was shocked by the developments. Coons said Lisa Cox has been very kind to her and “so sweet” to her little girl.
“I am shocked, literally shocked,” Coons said. “She talked about how much she loved her kids and really I’m beyond belief. I can’t believe this.”
Dr. Leah Casuto, an adolescent and child psychiatrist at the Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason, said adopted children can often experience problems, sometimes from a lack of bonding early on — the Coxes adopted the boy when he was 3 months old — or because of feelings of abandonment.
“Children who have been adopted often have psychological issues that they find very difficult to contend with,” she said. “How do they process what happened, why were they given up for adoption. Often kids will internalize this concept that there’s something wrong with me. What’s wrong with me? And that’s in part because children are kind of egocentric, it’s normal for them to be the center of their universe… So their whole life they are trying to put this together: what is my flaw that led the person who should have been loving me and caring for me to reject me? So they will act out some of this.
The couple is due in Juvenile Court on Nov. 27 to address their request to terminate parental rights.
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