Dependency Petition Filed Against Parents of Children Removed From Filthy Home

A dependency petition was filed in children’s court Friday detailing why four children cannot be with their parents, two-plus weeks after they were found living in squalor with them.

On Aug. 8 the Department of Children and Families removed the children from a filthy West Flagler Street apartment where police also found a broken crack pipe and used needles. Their mother Renee Marie Garcia, 31, and father Gabriel DeJesus Orellana, 35, face multiple charges.

Garcia appeared in court at the Juvenile Justice Center Friday, but Orellana did not.

However, Orellana’s father, Cesar Orellana, spoke about the family’s troubled past. He said through a translator that Garcia and his son weren’t sending their children to school or feeding them on time, and that their priority was drugs.

When the judge asked Garcia for a drug test Friday, she admitted it would come back positive.

“I would assume marijuana and detox pills from heroin,” she said in court, adding that she detoxed while in jail.

The children were placed with their father in July. Now, both he and their mother face child abuse charges.

The children are currently in the custody of their grandmother and uncle in Broward County.

The judge repeated to Garcia that she is to have no contact with her children Friday.

“If you have contact with the children you will be in contempt of court. Do you understand that?” she asked.

“Yes, Your Honor. I have had no contact for at least a year,” Garcia replied. When Miami Police arrested her for prostitution and other charges recently, she was in the apartment at 971 West Flagler St. with the children, however.

Next week both parents are due back at the Juvenile Justice Center for an arraignment hearing.

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