Siders 16 Kids: Officials Were Told To Stay Quiet

**Tony Brueski** (0:00)
This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski. Here now, Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:07)
On Monday, July 13th, the Ohio Controlling Board approved $1 million in emergency state funding to care for the 16 children who moved from the house on Omar Street in Hamden. On Tuesday, July 14th, a judge in Vinton County signed a gag order barring the Attorney General's office, the county prosecutor, the sheriff, the clerk of courts, and all defense council for making any public statement about the Siders case.
One day, the state wrote a million dollar check to clean up the damage. The next day, a judge told the people who exposed the damage to stop talking about it. Back to back, nobody in Columbus seemed to notice the contradiction. The gag order was filed by Lee Roberts Junior, the attorney for Gary Siders Junior. Gary Junior is the mutant, the man, I mean, whose indecent exposure warrant brought deputies to that house on June 13th. Deputies were not looking for children. They did not know the children were inside. They arrived to serve a warrant on a man who allegedly exposed himself to members of the public four times in May. How nice. What they found instead was 16 kids crammed into a 12 by 12 foot room, contaminated with human waste and insects. The fifth, the filth rather, was so severe that first responders nearly fell through the rotted floor.
Attorney General Andy Wilson called what they found pure evil. Sheriff Ryan Kane said his county's livestock were kept in better conditions than those children. Those statements are the basis for the gag order. Roberts argued they were inflammatory, too inflammatory. He argued they would prejudice the jury pool in a county of roughly 12,600 people. Judge Lania Featherhoof Rogers agreed. Or they're just calling it like it is. And somebody doesn't like it. Here's a part that should follow around the rest of the day. The gag order technically applies to Gary Junior's case, but its language restricts every agency involved in the investigation from speaking publicly. The AG's office, the prosecutor, the sheriff, the clerk, defense counsel, all of them, to officials whose words prompted the order were describing what they saw with their own eyes inside that house. They are now legally prohibited from discussing it. A fair trial matters. That is foundational. Nobody with any understanding of the justice system disputes a defendant's right to an impartial jury. But a gag order does more than protect a defendant. It also determines who gets to speak and who has to stay quiet. In this case, every official who might face a camera and be asked, How did 16 children live like this without anyone knowing?
Just received a court order reason not to answer.
We'd like to hold you accountable. We'd like to ask how this happens.

**Tony Brueski** (3:20)
Can't talk.

**Tony Brueski** (3:21)
We got a gag order.

**Tony Brueski** (3:23)
How convenient.

**Tony Brueski** (3:25)
How convenient.

**Tony Brueski** (3:29)
Hmm.

**Tony Brueski** (3:31)
Because, look, I mean, the evidence is there for Gary and the Siders. They're pretty clear cut what the hell was going on in that hellhole.
It's not so clear cut how everyone around seemed to like pretend this wasn't happening or was unaware of it happening.
And the public would like to know also why a million dollars of their tax money is now suddenly going over here for this. I mean, good, the kids are getting help. But, hey, imagine if we had caught this ahead of time.
We'd like to ask you some questions. Can't talk, got the gag order. Who does the gag order benefit more? The people who the system, the system that failed these children and this family and humanity in general?
Or the family that failed humanity in general and their own family? Or all of them? I mean, it really it protects accountability for pretty much everybody. It protects everybody from the world, from accountability, the mutants and the monsters that look the other way. Five years before deputies stumbled into that house, someone knew, not vaguely, not through the rumor, through official court filings. In October 21, Gellia County Juvenile Court filed six truancy complaints against Elizabeth Siders and Gary Siders Junior. An attendance officer named Ronald Hammond filed the paperwork. Six of their children, ages 7 through 13, were allegedly enrolled at Advil Elementary and had not shown up for a single day of the 21-22 school year. Not a week missed, not a month, the entire year. The complaints meant Ohio's legal threshold for habitual truancy. The school notified the parents. The attendance officer warned them in writing, Oh, get that notice in writing. The court processed the filings. Three months later, in January 22, the Gellia County judge named Thomas Moulton terminated every complaint. The reason, written in the court journal, the Siders' family was unable to be served. Their whereabouts were unknown. And that's really how the Siders seem to live their life, from what we can see. Just go off the grid. Don't turn in the paperwork. And you know what happens when they just can't find you? Well, that's where the story ends. They just can't find you. Unable to be served. We got other fish to fry over here, kids. So, sorry.