A 2-year-old child was reportedly wandering alone in Palm Coast, Florida, on March 16, 2025, prompting multiple calls to 911. The Flagler County sheriff’s office responded and reportedly found the child outside in pajamas and a heavily soiled diaper. Deputies located the child’s home and allegedly found his father, 44-year-old Ross Judy, who had passed out drunk in bed.
According to a statement from the sheriff’s department, the home was in deplorable condition both inside and out. Deputies reportedly found dangerous tools and garbage, animal feces, and filth in the home. Inside the home there was also “an emaciated dog with an ear that was almost rotted off and fur missing from its body.”
Deputies noted finding several alcohol containers, bugs in the toilet, and a sink piled high with cigarette ashes. The child also reportedly had access to pill bottles, exposed razors, and hypodermic needles.
“No child should be living in deplorable conditions with an adult who obviously doesn’t care about their wellbeing,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in a media release posted on Facebook. “The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has no tolerance for anyone endangering children or animals. I am thankful to our residents who ‘saw something and said something’ so that our deputies could intervene.”
Deputies arrested Judy and took him to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility, per the release. He is being held on a $4,000 bond, facing charges of child neglect without great bodily harm and abandoning an animal.
Many thought the judge set Judy’s bond too low.
One person commented on Facebook, “Wtf $4k bond for 2 serious issues in that condition. What i d i o t judge did that because they have no morals let alone business being a judge if they can’t do their job PROPERLY with correct justice. That’s a slap in the face to that child and that dog.”
Someone else agreed, writing, “Obviously the judge doesn’t value that poor childs life. Makes me sick to my stomach to think that the useless man (and or woman) has absolutely no conscience about letting the child and animal live like that. He doesn’t deserve to be in the Flagler county jail, he’ll get better treatment there than what he gave to that baby and dog.”
The Florida Department of Children and Families and Palm Coast Animal Control will investigate the incident.
