CINCINNATI — A Norwood woman is facing child endangerment charges after police found children padlocked in her apartment, Norwood police said.
Nicole Jones, 29, is facing charges of child endangerment after police responded to her Norwood apartment on June 29 where she allegedly padlocked her children inside her apartment.
Norwood police responded to 5144 Hunter Ave. on Wednesday to meet with an Ohio Department of Job and Family services employee who had received a report of two children — ages eight and nine — left alone in an apartment and made an unexpected visit. Upon her arrival the caseworker noticed the apartment was padlocked from the outside, which is when she knocked and heard children inside prompting her to call police, court documents said. After calling police, the caseworker called Jones, according to body cam footage.
Police said after multiple attempts at knocking on the door with no response, they cut the padlock and entered the apartment, which was made difficult due to a couch also pushed against the door. After officers pushed the couch far enough away to enter the residence, they found a locked bedroom where they could hear children inside.
The children eventually opened the door for the officers and stated that they didn't know where their mother, Jones, had gone. According to police, the children said after Jones left they pushed the couch against the door because they were scared.
Jones arrived at her home talking on the phone roughly 20 minutes after police arrived. From there, she was taken into custody. Police said Jones stated she locked the door because it was previously broken in an unrelated incident.
According to the body cam footage, the childrens' aunt and grandmother came to take care of them.
This isn't Jones' first run in with the law. On May 30, she was charged with aggravated menacing for allegedly having a gun while spitting on a man's face. According to the court schedule for that case, Jones was supposed to have a hearing for those charges on the day police found the apartment padlocked. It in unclear whether Jones locked the children inside the apartment so she could attend the hearing.
Otherwise, Jones was charged with aggravated menacing in 2019 for threatening to shoot a woman, but that charge was dismissed.
Jones has been released from jail for the child endangerment charges and has a court hearing scheduled for July 20.
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