JAILED MOTHER LONGS FOR CHILDREN SONS IN CUSTODY OF STATE AFTER POOR FOSTER HOME CARE

Augusta Chronicle, The (GA)

Author: Associated Press

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - She is sitting in jail awaiting trial on charges of robbery, assault and battery with intent to kill and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Her three children are in state custody after investigators say their adoptive parents starved them.

But Nina West, 24, still harbors the hope that someday she'll be reunited with her sons and a fourth child she is carrying.

"All I wanna do is curl up on a couch with my kids, watch some TV and fall asleep," Ms. West told the (Spartanburg) Herald-Journal.

Her aunt, Molly McCurry and Mrs. McCurry's husband, Scott, are charged with three counts each of intent to inflict great bodily injury upon a minor in connection with Ms. West's three sons, ages 5, 7 and 8. The boys' father, Harley West, died after a bicycle accident in 2004.

The state Social Services Department is deciding where the boys will stay on a more permanent basis. One option is Nina West's mother, Juanita Fisher.

Ms. West could eventually regain custody if she completes parenting classes and goes to drug and alcohol rehab at the Spartanburg Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission.

"I've had a lot of time to think in a tiny room with nowhere to go," she said. "I think about how I'll be when I get out."

Ms. West admits she hasn't seen her children in more than a year, and probably just 15 times altogether since they were taken from her by the state in early 2003. According to a court document, a judge found "the children were physically neglected by their mother" and Ms. West had failed to complete her treatment plan for alcoholism.

With her children gone, Ms. West said, she lost touch with the rest of her family and floated from place to place in a Greer neighborhood she described as a place "bad people live."

She and her boyfriend did drugs. She says he might be the father of her unborn child, but she doesn't know his last name and doubts he knows hers.

Ms. West lost her children after a cousin reported conditions in the home she shared with Ms. West and the boys.

"Nina was separated from Harley, and I was living with her and the kids and a bunch of guys in a trailer with no running water or electricity," said Jamie Reed, 22. "We had to go next door and take showers. The kids were eating out of a trash can, and I didn't feel like the kids needed to be there."

Ms. West denies circumstances were ever that bad, but said she thought her sons would be better off with her aunt, Molly McCurry.

Now, however, she has the new baby and the hope of being with her boys again, and family members are helping her with that goal, Ms. West's father, Freddy Justice, said.

"Right now, it seems like the whole family is pulling together, whereas before, no one cared," Mr. Justice said. "It took a huge tragedy to get everyone to cooperate."