Elizabeth Siders caressed her swollen stomach in an Ohio courtroom Wednesday as her attorney refused to deny she is pregnant again.
The 34-year-old mother, clad in orange prison garb, appeared unsteady on her feet while holding her midsection during her arraignment in Vinton County Common Pleas Court in Hamden. She pleaded not guilty to 19 counts of child endangerment and sex-related charges involving an underage relative.
Siders appeared without handcuffs, which law enforcement is banned from using on pregnant women in Ohio. Her co-accused have been cuffed in earlier hearings, the Columbus Dispatch noted.
Her attorney, Thomas Stolly, stayed silent when asked directly about speculation that she is pregnant once more. “I can’t address that at this time,” he told a reporter, according to the local outlet.
Stolly instead pointed to Siders’ history of near-constant pregnancy as central to her defense, telling the court she has been married since age 15 and essentially pregnant for the better part of two decades.
“We have an individual… who was married at age 15 who has essentially been pregnant for the better part of two decades,” Stolly told the court.
“[Siders] has never fully gone through any postpartum period and has not been receiving regular medical care that would be appropriate for someone who has had 16… 18 children.”
He tied her mental state directly to her reproductive history, adding that he had concerns about “what effects those have had on her, what effect it has had on her being married at such a young age, being contained within the environment of the Siders household.”
Siders, her husband Gary II, and his parents Christina Siders and Gary Siders Sr., all face 16 felony child endangerment and neglect charges. The children, ranging from 20 months to 18 years, were found in a squalid, feces-strewn home in Hamden. None were enrolled in school.
The children can barely communicate, and some cannot speak at all, authorities said. The oldest child, 18, is developmentally disabled and unable to write her name, according to investigators.
Siders and Gary II were indicted last month on additional charges including sexual battery and two counts of unlawful sexual contact with a minor. Siders entered a not guilty plea on the new charges.
In July, Siders made a request through her lawyer to be able to see the children, but the court upheld its strict no-contact order. She will remain in custody on a total bond of $550,000.
The case first drew national attention when authorities discovered 16 “almost feral” children living in conditions so degraded that investigators described them as barely able to function in society. The family’s isolated home in rural Hamden became the center of a probe into one of the most severe child neglect cases in recent Ohio history, with prosecutors alleging the children were denied basic education, medical care, and socialization for years.
Siders will remain in custody as the case proceeds.