Couple May Avoid Jail In Child Abuse Case Prosecutors Offer Deal To Post Falls Parents Accused Of Child Injury

A Post Falls man and his wife may avoid jail after pleading guilty to injuring their five children.

Leslie Clyde Hall, 23, was arrested last month after Post Falls police said they discovered Hall’s two 3-year-old girls locked in a bedroom in a house full of filth and human waste.

On Wednesday, Hall waived his preliminary hearing on charges of felony injury to children.

Kootenai County prosecutors said they made an offer to Hall and his wife, Dannielle, that if the couple would plead guilty to the charges, prosecutors would not object to a judge withholding judgment or not giving them any jail time.

Both cases will go before 1st District Court Judge Charles Hosack.

The charges have not been reduced, said deputy prosecutor Jim Reierson. And the judge doesn’t have to go along with the agreement between the Halls and prosecutors.

The maximum penalty for injury to children is 10 years in prison.

Police obtained a search warrant for the two-story home at 3740 Highwater Drive on Dec. 3 after receiving a tip from a family acquaintance.

When police arrived that afternoon, Leslie Hall allowed them into the home.

“As I was allowed in by Leslie, I instantly smelled a foul odor,” Detective Dave Beck wrote in a report. “The odor smelled like feces. As I took two steps in, I nearly stepped on feces, which was on the floor.”

Police said they saw dried-up food and “hundreds” of pieces of clothing in the living room.

Two 10-day-old twins had been placed in car seats, where they slept, officers said.

They also found two 3-year-old twin girls locked in an upstairs bedroom that had urine and human waste smeared on the walls.

Officers said the heat had been turned up to about 90 degrees.

The two girls were locked there typically 15 hours a day, because the Halls said they couldn’t control them during the night, according to the report.

A 1-year-old boy was found in his crib crying and sweating with severe diaper rash.

Police said they also found marijuana and a marijuana pipe.

Dannielle and Leslie Hall lived at the home with Dannielle’s mother, Bonnie Cuffe, 51.

Cuffe, a nurse at Coeur d’Alene Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, was the only one working, reports said.

Cuffe was also arrested when she and her daughter returned to the home the day of the search after getting their hair done.

Cuffe pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of injury to children in December.

First District Magistrate Barbara Buchanan sentenced her to one year of probation and withheld a judgment.

If Cuffe has no brushes with the law during probation and follows the judge’s orders, she could have a clean record.

The children are currently in foster care. A hearing was held for them about a week ago.

Social service workers won’t talk about the Halls’ case, but say such abuse of children usually isn’t a new occurrence by the time it’s discovered by social workers.

“They tend to repeat a pattern of behavior that has gone on for some time,” said Rob Gregory, program manager for Family and Children Services for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. “It’s not something that just occurred this week and things got really bad and we haven’t had time to clean the house up.”

Witnesses told police the family had been on the run from child protective services in Spokane, Minnesota and South Dakota.

The Halls denied ever running from social service workers, according to police reports.

The Halls told police they were aware of the problem and said they just didn’t know what to do. Leslie Hall told police he had a marijuana problem.

“In some cases, some of the families find themselves overwhelmed. I can’t speak for this particular case,” said Morgan Richardson, director of I-CARE, Idaho Child Abuse Response and Education. “I think the families find themselves overwhelmed and without resources, without support. In the neglect cases, a lot of times parents just don’t realize how important hygiene is for their children.”