DA seizes child from squalor

Children’s Services of Butte County took custody of a 7-year-old Oroville boy last week, after a search warrant of his home revealed the child had been living in an environment fouled by pet rats.

Children’s Services workers had accompanied investigators from the Butte County District Attorney’s Drug Endangerment Children Program on the search, which took place last Thursday (May 19) on Oro Dam Boulevard.

According to a press release from DA Mike Ramsey’s office, in addition to the deplorable conditions due to the rats roaming freely in the home, investigators also found methamphetamine pipes, baggies with meth residue, and marijuana within reach of the child.

The boy’s mother, Tammy Alberta Norton (pictured), 39, and her boyfriend, James Robert Knight, 41, were arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia. They are being held at Butte County Jail on $52,000 bail.