By Robert Medley
Managing Editor
After an emaciated young girl child was found hiding behind a building, and five children were taken into state custody, a Piedmont woman and a man who lived with her have been charged in connection with what was described as a horrific report of abuse made by Piedmont police.
Tina Marie Ramirez, 43, was booked into the Canadian County jail Tuesday, March 19 on three complaints of child abuse by injury, five complaints of child neglect and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
On Thursday, March 28, Ramirez was charged in Canadian County District Court with two counts of child neglect and four counts of child abuse, according to the Oklahoma Supreme Court Network website. She had a preliminary hearing conference scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday, April 12 before Special District Judge David H. Halley, according to Oklahoma Supreme Court Network information available online.
Anthony Chukwuemeka Ibeziako Jr., 26, of Norman, was arrested on a child neglect complaint, and then posted $50,000 bail and was released, a Canadian County jailer said Saturday, March 23.
Ibeziako was charged Thursday, March 28 in district court with two counts of enabling child neglect and two counts of enabling child abuse, according to the court records available online.
Anthony Chukwuemeka Ibeziako Jr., 26, was arrested on a child neglect complaint, and he posted $50,000 bail and was released, a Canadian County jailer said.
Both were charged in Canadian County District Court Thursday, March 28.
A police incident report shows that an officer searched in the area of 1800 Piedmont Road after Ramirez called police to report a child missing on Friday, March 15.
About 2:10 p.m. the officer reported finding an emaciated female who appeared to be about the age of a first-grader, hiding under a blanket behind a building.
“Her skin appeared to hang on her bones. And her lips were dry and cracked. I saw that she was visibly frightened, crying even, Lt. Andrew Stephens wrote in the report. “Once I realized that … was not going to flee, I reassured her.”
The girl asked Stephens not to take her home and Stephens took her to his police car parked nearby, the report reads.
The girl appeared frail, and he asked her why she ran away.
The girl said, “She’s scary,” according to the report.
“I asked her who she was talking about,” Stephens wrote. The girl said, “The one who takes care of us,” Stephens wrote.
Police Chief Shayne Clark said the child was found about 45 minutes after Ramirez reported the child had been missing for 12 hours.
After the girl was found, the investigation began at a home on Jackson Avenue NW near Stout Drive.
What police were told by child
The police report from Stephens gave more information about the allegations made by the girl. They found that five foster children lived at the home of Ramirez and Ibeziako.
Stephens wrote in the report, “I asked her what was scary about her and she said, ‘I’m scared to get in trouble because she goes to the extreme, she goes very far when she gets us in trouble.’ I asked her what happens when she gets in trouble. She said, ‘Sometimes she locks us in the closet.’ I asked her, ‘Locks you in the closet? For how long?’ She said, ‘The longest I’ve been in there is like four days.”
The report describes what the girl said she got in trouble for. She told Stephens her sister had taken food home from school at Easter in 2023 kept the food in her room. Her sister hid in her room to share food with her, and when they were caught she was stunned with a Taser and locked in the closet for four days,” the report reads.
The girl was struck in the head with a Nerf gun that caused her to bleed, according to the police report.
The girl told police she is also “regularly punched, slapped, kicked and choked,” according to the police report.
The other children were also thin with visible bones and little muscle mass, the police report reads.
The children had been caught looking for food out of trash cans at neighbor’s and at the local Casey’s.
According to the police report, Ramirez denied using a Taser to stun a child. But she said she plays a game with the Taser and holds it close to them and waves it around. The game is called, “The buzz, buzz game,” the report reads.
On Saturday morning, March 23, a neighbor said she did not know the people who lived in the house. Two dogs remained in the backyard of the home at the corner of Stout and Jackson.
A vehicle was in the driveway, and the dogs appeared to be well-taken care of.
Ramirez remained in the Canadian County jail on $125,000 bail this week.
On Saturday morning, March 23, a neighbor said she did not know the people who lived in the house. Two dogs remained in the backyard of the home at the corner of Stout and Jackson.
Ramirez remained in the Canadian County jail on $125,000 bail.
Read more about this case in the upcoming edition of The Piedmont-Surrey Gazette.
