How Could You? Hall of Shame-George Bernard Lacy & LaQuron D. McLean Lacy UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Perris, California, adoptive parents [correction January 19, 2016 “foster parents”] of seven children, George Bernard Lacy,60, and LaQuron D. McLean Lacy,43 “have been arrested on suspicion of abusing their children, court records show. They were booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on Oct. 10, jail records show.”

They owned a house “where a 46-year-old man was shot dead in July [2012 and] had been converted into an “Exotic Zone” complete with a platform and pole for strip club parties, court records show.”

“Riverside County sheriff’s officials investigating the July 22 killing of Calvin Lynch, of Moreno Valley, found the strip-club setup, along with ecstasy pills on the kitchen counter, court records show. They also learned that the Lacys’ seven adopted children, all of whom were under the age of 11, were living in the house.

The children told sheriff’s officials and child protective services that there had been strip club parties in their presence from late at night into the early morning.

A least four of the children described being hit by “Dad” with belts and a metal cane and the blows left them with injuries and scarring, according to an investigator’s statement in support of an arrest warrant.

A 6-year-old child said Gregory Lacy had threatened them with a Taser, court records show.

One young girl told authorities that Gregory Lacy had recently molested her on a bathroom floor and some of the children said they had witnessed it, court records show.

All seven children described being hit by “Mom” with fists, belts, hangers and metal objects, court records say. They said LaQuron Lacy often refused to feed them and locked them in their bedrooms, the investigator wrote.

Gregory Lacy is charged with lewd acts on a child under 10 and one felony child abuse count, court records show. His bail was set at $1 million.

Laquron Lacy is charged with two felony child abuse counts and bail is set at $50,000, court records show.

The Lacys were in court in Riverside Friday, Oct. 12, but their arraignments were rescheduled for later this month.

Homicide investigators have disclosed few details about the July shooting, which took place about 3 a.m. in the front yard of the Lacys’ two-story home on a cul-de-sac of newer homes in the May Ranch subdivision off the Ramona Expressway. Sheriff’s officials in July described Lynch as an acquaintance of someone who lived at the home but declined to disclose a possible motive and made no mention of strip club parties.

Homicide Sgt. Jeff Buompensiero said Friday that no arrests have been made in the killing.”

PERRIS: Parents with home ‘strip club’ charged with child abuse

[The Press Enterprise 10/12/12 by Sarah Burge]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Update: “Court documents called the pricey, two-story, terra-cotta-style home in the city of Perris’ “Exotic Zone.”

The lower level, authorities said, had been converted into a strip club with a platform, a dancing pole and a private room.”

“The kids, ages 6 to 11, told child protection workers they had seen parties at the converted strip club that stretched into dawn.

They said they were beaten with sticks, belts and a metal cane. They were locked in their bedrooms without food — and threatened with a stun gun, authorities said.

A 7-year-old girl told authorities she was sexually abused on a bathroom floor. Several of the children said they saw it happen.”

“Riverside County court documents do not say who is now taking care of the scarred children. Children, who despite the alleged beatings and the sexual abuse, told police they called the couple ‘mom’ and ‘dad.'”

Police: Couple ran strip club in home; abused, beat their adopted kids

[CNN 10/17/12 by Lateef Mungin]

Update 2: “A child-abuse case involving seven foster children — and an adult strip-club set up in a Perris home — was discovered by accident as Riverside County sheriff’s deputies were investigating an unrelated homicide in July 2012.

A Riverside County Superior Court jury heard a prosecutor delicately question five of the seven children during a two-week trial that neared an end Tuesday, Jan. 12, with closing arguments in the case against adults the children called “Mom” and “Dad.”

LaQuron Deanise McLean-Lacy, , 46, faces 13 felony counts, including torture, inflicting corporal injury on a child and willful harm or injury to a child. The siblings were ages 6 to 11 at the time. Gregory Lacy, 63, is charged with oral copulation with a child under age 10, lewd acts on a child under age 14 and inflicting corporal injury on a child.

“They were monsters to them,” Deputy District Attorney Elan Zektser said of the defendants. He said the children’s testimony about being hit with belts, hangars, a metal can, and in one case the louver wand from blinds was corroborated by physical evidence of scars and testimony of an expert witness.

The children described how girls slept in one bedroom and boys in another, with the doors locked from the outside. They slept in soiled clothes if they weren’t let out to go to the bathroom. Zektser described how McLean-Lacy grabbed and suspended one girl by the neck, until she saw stars.

Defense attorney Souley Diallo, though, said the actions don’t warrant the charges against her.

“I would submit horrific, horrible things happened in the house that Mrs. (McLean-)Lacy is responsible for,” Diallo said.

He said the circumstances of her attempts to discipline the children did not meet the legal threshold of the great bodily injury charges against her, and noted the medical expert and the children could not tie every bruise and scar to his client.

“A lot of people use different methods to discipline their children, “ he said, “That’s why we have 12 folks to discuss what is reasonable.”

A 10-year-old boy, identified as R.M. in court records, suffered three wounds to his forehead. The complaint charges McLean-Lacy with torture, but her attorney said the cuts don’t meet the legal definition of torture.

“You can’t watch those children (testify) without your heart breaking,” said Gregory Lacy’s attorney, Robert Gazley, but jurors can’t let sympathy interfere with weighing the case facts.

The defense attorney made it clear he wasn’t calling the child witnesses liars, but pointed inconsistencies in their stories.

Zektser said the defendants were receiving $6,000 a month from the government to care for the children.

With the children locked upstairs, adult strip club parties were held downstairs, according to court records.”

PERRIS: Jury weighs abuse charges against foster parents [The Press-Enterprise 1/12/16 by Gail Wesson]

Update 3: “A child abuse case involving seven kids under age 12 has ended with guilty verdicts against their foster parents whom authorities say also operated a strip club in their Perris home.

Gregory Bernard Lacy, 63, and LaQuron Deanise McLean-Lacy, 46, face up to life imprisonment, prosecutors say. A sentencing date is scheduled to be set next week, court records show.

A Riverside Superior Court jury convicted the pair Friday, Jan. 15.

Gregory Lacy was charged with 11 counts of sexual abuse and unlawful detention. The jury voted guilty on all but one count of inflicting corporal injury on a child.

Deanise Lacy faced 21 counts of counts of torture, corporal punishment and child endangerment. She, too, was found guilty on all but one count of corporal injury to a child.

“They were monsters to them,” Deputy District Attorney Elan Zekster told the jury during closing arguments.

During the trial, the children testified that they were hit with belts, hangers and a metal can.

Girls slept in one bedroom and the boys in another, with the doors locked from the outside, the jury heard. When the children weren’t allowed to go to the bathroom, they slept in soiled clothes, according to testimony.

The government paid the couple $6,000 a month to care for the children, the prosecutor told the jury.

But with the children locked upstairs, court records show, adult strip club parties were held downstairs.”

PERRIS: Foster parents convicted in child abuse case [The Press-Enterprise 1/16/16 by Richard Brooks]