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Mill Creek woman facing two counts of felony child neglect

MILL CREEK — A Randolph County woman faces child neglect charges after a 6-year-old in her care was found playing and walking by the roadway on US-219 on two separate occasions.

Britney Nichole Arbogast, 33, is charged with two counts of child neglect creating a risk of serious bodily injury, a felony. Arbogast was being held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $25,000 10% cash and 90% personal recognizance bond, that has since been posted.

According to the criminal complaint, filed by Trooper H. J. Bonetti with the West Virginia State Police, on Aug. 2, Bonetti, Senior Trooper A.P. Petrella and Senior Deputy T. J. Knotts and Deputy J. L. Wolfe with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office were all dispatched to a child welfare complaint in Mill Creek after a child was “spotted along the roadway.”

Upon arrival at the scene, the officers spoke with the person who called police, who advised that the child was now in her vehicle, the complaint states. She told the officers in a recorded statement that she had been driving southbound on US-219 when she observed the child “poke his head up from the ditch.” The ditch, according to the complaint, is approximately one foot away from US-219.

The caller said she turned her vehicle around and was able to get the child out of the ditch. She said the child told her “(their) mom had left earlier in the day and (their) older (sibling) is mean to (them),” the complaint states. After identifying Arbogast as the child’s mother through the West Virginia Education Information System, Knotts contacted Arbogast via public service. Arbogast told Knotts that her oldest child was supposed to be watching the child at her residence.

According to the complaint, Arbogast arrived on the scene and told officers that her oldest child watches the younger children while she’s at work. She said she was told that the child had been missing from the home for approximately 15 minutes and was getting ready to call the police when Knotts contacted her.

The complaint states that the child had been been missing that day from approximately 3:30 p..m to 4:30 p.m. before Arbogast “realized he was missing.”

On Aug. 7, Sergeant G.S. DeWeese was dispatched to a child welfare complaint once again in reference to a child along the roadway, the complaint states.

Upon arriving on the scene, DeWeese made contact with the new caller who, in a written statement, said he had been driving north on US-219, passing the “water company building,” when he noticed a “small child” walking southbound along the roadway by themselves.

The caller said in his statement that he pulled up next to the sidewalk and attempted to speak to the child with no response, the complaint states.

After he called 911, EMTs arrived and spoke with the child, the said in his statement. The child was identified as the same one who was found by the road on Aug. 2.

According to the complaint, DeWeese informed Bonetti that the child’s aunt was on the scene and had contacted Arbogast to let her know where the child was. Arbogast arrived on the scene around 12:20 p.m. and a 911 CAD Call Log exhibited that the initial call was created at 11:52 a.m., “demonstrating that (the child) was again unsupervised, playing at or near the roadway, for an additional 30 minutes,” the complaint states.

A Child Protective Service’s employee arrived on the scene and implemented a seven-day emergency plan, granting custody of the child to their great-grandmother, the complaint states.

Starting at $3.92/week.

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