Two addicted parents almost kill their children.
Tessa Zelek, 25, found guilty on two counts of cruelty to children, four counts of contributing to the deprivation of a minor and two counts of prescription drug forgery. Zelek, who fed her twins so little that at 13 months they reportedly looked like skeletons and weighed only nine pounds each (more than 50% underweight for their age), blamed the pediatrician for failing to tell her what and when to feed them and give proper parenting advice. The twins’ father, James McCart, also 25, copped a plea and admitted he didn’t “know how many days went by that the kids weren’t fed. I thought like two, but I’m not sure.” What could possible distort the perceptions of parents to the point they would starve their children? McCart admitted they spent months in a drug-induced haze, each taking about 20 Methadone tablets a day, along with Xanax, Oxycontin and alcohol. As a result of the drug addiction, McCart testified “we were both throwing up and we stayed in bed….We just ignored the baby monitor. We turned it down.” The boys’ aunt, Lisa Scroggins, now shares custody of the children with McCart’s parents. Zelek’s mother, Christi Ann Zelek, 53, a special education coordinator, will be tried for her failure to report child abuse. Incredibly, she was reportedly teaching a class on child development at the time of her arrest. (Amazingly, the twins are reportedly now only a bit behind and a little smaller than others in their 3-year-old age group.)