Woman charged with child neglect after overdosing while caring for two toddlers

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Rockell Ta’qwon Ellison, 29, was arrested yesterday morning and charged with child neglect without great bodily harm after officers found her passed out from an apparent drug overdose with two toddlers sleeping nearby.

Gainesville Police Department officers responded at about 2:30 p.m. on November 18 to a call about an unresponsive person in a residence. A witness told officers that she had been letting Ellison stay at the residence with her two children, who are two years old and three years old, but that the electricity had been turned off and Ellison “knowingly and intentionally” had stayed in the home with her children with no electricity. The officer noted that it was 55 degrees outside at the time.

Officers also reportedly observed numerous dirty dishes in the kitchen, open food on the counter, dirty clothes all over the living room area, and “a smell of wetness in the house.”

The witness told officers that she had found the two children sleeping on the couch, dressed only in soiled diapers, and that she had covered them with a blanket. Officers noted that one child also had dried feces on his legs. The children were transported to the hospital to be evaluated.

Officers also reported finding several pills and a blunt near Ellison and within reach of the children. The report alleges that Ellison knowingly took drugs and overdosed while she was the primary caretaker of the children and then passed out so that nobody was caring for the children.

Ellison was transported to the hospital and was treated there until yesterday, when she was transported to the jail.

Ellison has no criminal history; bail information is unavailable.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.