New Explosive Details Unravel in Ohio ‘House of Horrors’ Case : The grandfather’s critical emergency condition and the young mother’s first statements about the 16 children spark outrage across the country.

New Explosive Details Unravel in Ohio ‘House of Horrors’ Case : The grandfather’s critical emergency condition and the young mother’s first statements about the 16 children spark outrage across the country.

had an inability to discuss uh with any sort of sophistication the legal process, what everyone’s roles were. >> A CERS family member rushed to the hospital. Questions about his mental state swirling as prosecutors bring in reinforcements to investigate and take these child endangerment cases to trial. >> Both of these women are outstanding prosecutors with extensive experience in child cases.

 Plus, the mother of the 16 children with a desperate plea to get out of jail. I have all of the new details. I’m Anchet Levy and this is Crime Fix. I have some new information for you about the Siders case out of Ohio. Since our last episode of Crime Fix about the case, some things have happened, including the mother of the 16 children, Elizabeth Siders, making a request to be released from jail.

 Elizabeth’s attorney had said he would file this motion, but the details he included about her are interesting. I’ll dig into that in just a moment, along with the latest on Elizabeth’s father-in-law, Gary Cider Senior’s condition, after he was rushed to the hospital and granted bail. Gary Senior’s lawyer, Dorian Bal, will be here to discuss that and the motion he has filed requesting an evaluation of his client’s mental competency.

 Right now, Gary Senior is in the hospital being treated for what’s called a serious condition. Here’s Venton County Prosecutor William Archer on what happened to Gary Cider Senior and why the judge granted him this recgnissance bond. Take a listen. >> First, let me stress the community is not at risk because of this bond.

Yesterday, as you all know, they the cases were scheduled for preliminary hearing. During the transport, Mr. Ciders fell and had had a medical issue that required treatment and assessment. Oblenna’s hospital was where he was taken and it was determined at that point upon some tests that Oblennis did that Mr.

 Cider senior has a serious medical condition that requires specialized care in a hospital outside of this area. Practically, um, and I don’t know if you folks know this or not, but when defendants are housed in county jails, it is the county’s responsibility to pay for the medical care. Prisons are for defendants who have been convicted.

 then the state pays for it, but he is still an innocent man that has not been convicted yet. So, the county was going to be on the hook for his medical care and uh again, based on the information that we were provided, his medical care could potentially bankrupt Vinton County. We were not going to put that burden also on our local taxpayers.

And so it was agreed that we would do a recgnissance bond so he could get the medical treatment that the doctors say he needs and um won’t cost the county that money if >> so Gary Senior fell on his way to court and then a more serious medical condition was discovered at the hospital although no one is commenting on that condition.

 If he is released from the hospital he will be given a GPS monitor right now. Gary Senior and his wife Christina Ciders, who actually goes by Lynn, face 16 counts of child endangering. Gary and Lynn’s son, Gary Cers Jr., of course, and his wife Elizabeth faced the same charges. All have pleaded not guilty to the counts. The charges, as I’ve been telling you, stem from Venton County deputies and agents with Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation finding Gary Jr.

 and Elizabeth’s 16 children in the house on R Street more than a week ago. It was June 30th when deputies and agents said they went to the house to execute a search warrant as they investigated a crime that has yet to be disclosed. The search warrant was not part of the four misdemeanor public indecency charges that Gary Jr. faces.

 I want to be very clear about that. 16 children between the ages of one and a half and 18 were found in that home and some, according to prosecutors, were in bad shape. All were taken to hospitals throughout the state and all have since been released and placed in foster care. One of the big questions here is why did Gary Jr.

and Elizabeth have so many children when prosecutors say they couldn’t take care of them properly? I told you earlier this week that Elizabeth and Gary Jr. were married in March of 2008 in West Virginia. Elizabeth was just 15 and Gary Jr. was 18. They had a child a short time after they were married and then more children came after that, including two premature twins who died shortly after they were born in November of 2022. They were conjoined.

 Now, one of Elizabeth’s older brothers claims she was indoctrinated by the Siders family into what? We don’t know. Now, he’s blaming low IQ for this situation. Elizabeth’s brother wrote on social media on July 7th, “This is what I think. Slap on the wrist. You cannot be charged for ignorance. The horror stories is not true. Nothing is true.

 My sister and her husband really did do the best to their IQ. Allowance is the one to blame. Low IQ. Getting that money. Similar just like me only on plus 500 app. I’d be chasing that money with a bit higher IQ. Everything is misunderstood. Their hygiene low IQ. The man of the house is responsible at most. He is the leader leading followers.

That’s what I think. So that was according to Elizabeth’s older brother. I’m looking into the possibility that there might be a religious component to all of this. Christina Cider’s Facebook has images of Jesus and the Lord’s Prayer. She posted about God frequently and has a cross as her profile photo on one of her accounts.

 There are also photos of Gary and Lynn, that’s Christina, from 2023 where they look well and clean. The photos are nothing like what was described by law enforcement after their arrests. And I’ve told you that I’ve learned that children’s services in a county near Venton once visited Gary Jr. and Elizabeth Ciders.

 And then the couple moved with their children, I’m told, to avoid social workers, fearing their children would be taken away from them. The attorney general said they were basically hiding these children. Prosecutor William Archer said during a press conference that Gary Siders senior and Christina Siders were the only Siders family members that he is aware of that were receiving welfare benefits.

I am looking into whether Gary Jr. and Elizabeth were also receiving these benefits and how many times they may have actually encountered children’s services over the years. Now, Elizabeth’s lawyer is asking that her bond be modified from the current amount of $300,000. Elizabeth’s attorney, Tommy Stalie, filed this motion and wrote that Elizabeth has cooperated with the investigation.

 Attorney Stalie wrote, “In this case, the defendant is a 33-year-old mother with no known criminal history. Given the defendant’s lack of a criminal history, she has never been charged with failure to appear before a court for a criminal proceeding. There has been no indication that the defendant has been anything but cooperative with law enforcement since the initiation of this case.

 As such, the defendant does not pose a significant flight risk. The defendant has indicated that she will provide the court every assurance necessary that she will appear to all future hearings and will comply with the terms set forth by this court. Should the defendant be released, she is willing to wear a GPS monitor, to check in person with her assigned bond officer at whatever frequency this court deems appropriate and to provide the court with a stable living address within Vitten County or a surrounding county. Now, Stalie did not

write about Elizabeth’s current health situation or her pregnancy, but Stalie says Elizabeth doesn’t have the ability to post any cash for bail. And there’s more. Staly wrote, “The defendant understands that the charges alleged in the amended complaint are serious. However, the defendant has denied all allegations.

 The defendant has a vested interest in appearing for future court hearings in an effort to clear her name. There has been no evidence provided by the state that the defendant is a risk to herself or the atlarge community. Further, the children living in the defendant’s home have been removed by the state, so there is no risk to any alleged victim of the charges the defendant faces.

 Through conversations with council, the defendant maintains it is her principal desire to reunite with her children. She understands that reunification of any sort is an impossibility if she does not appear before this court. The defendant is indigent. The basis of the amended complaint was that the defendant was living in a home which exhibited extreme poverty.

 As such, while in many cases some bond may be necessary to ensure that the defendant appears as ordered, it seems clear that in this particular case the defendant does not have the means to post any money as a bond and they have been unable to post the current bond as it has been set. Now, we’re still awaiting the prosecutor’s response to this motion.

 Will he oppose it? We don’t know. As for Gary Senior, his lawyer is asking to receive a mental health evaluation and to determine whether he could be not guilty by reason of insanity, meaning can Gary Cider Senior appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions because of a mental illness or other mental infirmity.

 Dorian Balm wrote, “It was clear to council that the defendant exhibited significant confusion about the legal process, was unable to describe the specific roles of the various participants in the court proceedings, including even the role of counsel to aid in his legal defense, and was unable to describe even basic facts about himself.

 The defendant was generally unable to maintain a clear and consistent train of thought throughout the interaction and was clearly struggling to understand what is going on. The defendant’s conduct leads counsel to believe that the defendant may be suffering from significant mental health issues and that competency may be an issue and clear impediment in the defendant’s ability to aid in his own defense.

 Collateral information has seemed to confirm that the defendant suffers from significant health issues, including a decline in mental function and functionality, which would be consistent with council’s observation of the defendant both during his interactions with the court and with council. So, I want to bring in Dorian Bal. He represents Gary Cider Senior.

 Uh, thank you so much, Dorian, for coming back on. I appreciate it. Well, >> thank you for having me. I appreciate the time. >> Yeah. So, what is the very latest uh on your client? Uh he’s been hospitalized at first from a fall, which sounded serious enough for somebody of his age, but now uh they’ve discovered a more serious medical issue that can’t be discussed because of privacy rules and things like that.

 But, I mean, he’s been released on the bond. You were asking for a modification of the bond. So, what’s the latest? >> Uh yeah, thank you again for having me. As I said, as you noted, I can’t really talk about certain things due to privacy issues, not only HIPPA, but also just his own privacy. We’re all entitled to certain privacies, but I was asking for a modification of Bond.

 As I’ve already sort of said elsewhere, I was able to meet with him after, uh, the court hearing didn’t take place. Uh, but the court hearings were scheduled. I was able to finally meet with him and upon meeting with him, I did see additional concerning uh, behaviors, as you’ll probably get into. I filed a motion for competency. uh NGRI.

 So, I saw some of those uh continuing concerning behaviors, but also saw some physical issues. Um Mr. Ciders himself, you know, expressed discomfort. So, I asked the staff there, they get him checked out. Happily, they did. And when they took him to get checked out, it appears that there were some pretty significant uh medical issues that were discovered that required pretty uh significant and immediate treatment.

 So, at this point, obviously, he’s been released for those reasons. Um, you know, the the prosecutor said, “Look, this bond, this is not he’s not a threat to the community. He’s a 73y old man. It appears he’s in a wheelchair.” Um, is is he in a wheelchair all of the time? Is that is that common for him or is that just what we saw in that one court appearance? >> When I met with him, he was also in a wheelchair.

 It’s my understanding he has uh pretty significant mobility issues. Uh, it’s my understanding he has some hip issues. So, uh, you know, in every every video recording I’ve seen of him and every interaction I’ve seen with him, both in both in person and on video, he has had difficulty with mobility. So, being in a wheelchair full-time would not be uh surprising to me if it were in fact the case.

 I don’t know that for a fact. Obviously, I don’t live with him, but it does appear he has those issues, >> right? Um, without going into anything that would violate privilege or, you know, your your duty to him as his lawyer, I mean, what exactly did you see that was very concerning to you? I mean, when you said, “Hey, I’m Dorian Bal.

 I’m your lawyer and I’m here to help you.” I mean, did he even understand what that meant? Uh, I mean, he obviously understood a person greeting him, but again, as I noted in my motion, he definitely had some confusion about the process about what was going on. He had an inability to discuss uh with any sort of sophistication, the legal process, what everyone’s roles were, which again, as I’ve said in here and elsewhere, you know, competency is a bedrock uh it’s a bedrock precondition to be able to move forward in any criminal case. And if you

don’t have that, you just simply can’t. You know, I’m going to circle back around to what you already asked also. You know, is he a danger to the community? I would have suggested he’s never been a danger to the community and certainly in his present condition, he isn’t. Uh he is not dangerous. What I would consider him to be is a sad and sympathetic character primarily because of his general level of confusion and the me, you know, both the mental health uh and physical issues that I was sort of seeing. Uh and when you ask what I

was sort of observing, it was very similar to what we’ve all seen during the preliminary hearing and his behaviors and mannerisms there where there was just a general lack of confusion, inability to hear very well, certainly mobility issues and an inability to sort of in any way uh discuss with sophistication what was going on around him.

 And so now, uh, after having now filed my motion, we’re going to have a professional psychiatrist or psychologist go in and speak with him so we can actually establish what his baseline is. >> Yeah. And I I wanted to get to that because it seems like the prosecutor didn’t sound like he was going to oppose that.

 Um, he even mentioned that you filed this motion and he seemed to acknowledge and recognize that maybe there are some potential issues here. I mean, without not trying to hide the ball here, but I think everyone saw Mr. Cider and so I don’t think it’s a I don’t think it’s a surprise that anyone might be concerned about his competence. Um, just sort of getting back procedurally if someone asks for a competency in good faith.

 I have in my career, and maybe this is just because I’ve never in bad faith made this motion, but I have never had anyone object to a an evaluation to see if the defendant is competent so long as it’s made in good faith. This is not an unusual motion to be filed with the court. As I said, it’s a bedrock precondition to move forward.

 Uh, you know, same thing with a, you know, in that same motion, it’s not atypical. In fact, it’s a matter of course that I typically file both that and the motion for an evaluation for not guilty by reason of insanity because they are very similar evaluations. And in just so your viewers know, procedurally speaking, you first have to determine if they’re competent.

 If they’re not competent, then of course you have to determine whether they are restorable to competency or not. If they’re restorable or potentially restorable, they will send them to a mental health facility for restoration services to see if they can in fact be be restored. If they’re not restorable, then they are just deemed incompetent.

 And then the court is left with sort of other questions of how are we going to handle this moving forward with an individual who’s not competent. If they are found found to be competent, then they will do the second part of the evaluation, which is were they legally insane at the time? And again, you do a a law show, so I’m sure you understand, but perhaps your viewers don’t.

 Legally insane is not some colloquial throwaway term. It’s a term of art. It’s a term that says was the person did the person understand the wrongfulness of their actions at the time it was allegedly committed. So it is a very specific term of art. It’s not just going he’s crazy so go ahead and fight him off with the technicality some nonsense that gets thrown out there on the internet all the time.

 So >> yeah and I want I want to I’m glad you brought that up because that is not what that means. It doesn’t mean this is a crazy person just you know with some great like some mental illness where they are insane and did something horrific. that that is a possibility. Um, but this could be that he has a a condition mentally where he just couldn’t appreciate what was going on around him.

 So, that could qualify under the NGRI statute in the state of Ohio. >> That’s right. And and as you mentioned, it could be that a person is crazy. I mean, I’ve had clients who are found NGRI because they were hearing voices or they believed they were in an alternate reality. I’ve also had people found NGRI because they have such a decompensation or of their mental faculties.

 You know, they have dementia or some other degenerative disease such that they truly don’t know what’s going on. And I I use the term dementia not because I myself am a doctor and I’m diagnosing Mr. Cers, but most people have had some experience meeting a person with dementia. And I think we can all appreciate that a person who has dementia may say something inappropriate.

 you know, let’s talk about lowlevel, not talking about this case at all, just low-level issues. You might they might say something inappropriate or they might accidentally lash out and we all recognize that person, we say things to even colloquially, well, they don’t know what they’re doing, right? So, this is of course a more serious matter, but it’s also a more serious legal term of art where it’s that, but put within the law, right? It’s does this person appreciate the wrongfulness of what took place? And if he doesn’t, then that is where the,

you know, not guilty by reason of insanity might come in. And again, I’m not I don’t know, but that’s the whole point of filing the motion is so that the appropriate medical professionals can do the evaluations they need to. >> I know you’re still early on in your investigation. It’s actually still early on in the state’s investigation as well, but there was a family member of um Gary Cers senior and uh his wife Lynn who came out and said that they didn’t raise their children um you know this way.

Does it seem to you that there’s been some type of in your limited investigation of this case, there’s been some sort of decline over the last couple of years possibly um with your client because I see pictures on Facebook of him and his wife where they they are clean. They they look well um but obviously it looks like something may may have changed in the last couple of years.

Uh I can’t comment on anything more than what’s been posted on Facebook that you’ve probably already seen. Uh you know, I would agree that there are other pictures um and the statements made. I personally have not received any information uh that relates to a either his specific mental health diagnosis or what he was in the past or what he is now.

 I don’t have any of that information. So if the family knows that this is not what they were at one point, then perhaps there can be something important to that that I don’t know. If he’s released from the hospital, is there a family member willing to take him in? >> Uh, I don’t know at this point. We would have to determine whether that’s something that the court finds appropriate.

 Obviously, you know, he is still technically on bond. Even though he’s been released, he’s been given a recognizance bond with certain requirements, including a GPS monitor. Uh, as a you know, he when people are given a recognizance bond, they still have terms and conditions of bond they have to comply with. I don’t know at this point.

 I think we’re still in the early stages of what that might look like. It’s up to the court ultimately where he can stay as long as it’s an appropriate facility. Then I’m sure the court would be open to that. But the court may be thinking about again if he has these significant mental mental health issues or physical health issues then perhaps a trans transitional care or a transitional medical care or something else might be more appropriate.

 It’s really going to be I don’t really want to prognosticate on exactly where he’ll go because it will be up to the court. >> And that was my discussion with Gary Senior’s attorney Dorian Bound. After Dorian Bal and I spoke, Judge Rogers ordered the competency and mental health evaluations for Gary Cider senior. All of the Citers family members, as I mentioned, have pleaded not guilty to the 16 child endangering charges they face.

 The next step, the investigation is continuing. The case will be presented to a grand jury, but that could take some time. Venton County is the least populous county in the state. Grand jury isn’t held that often. A practically normally Venton County has a grand jury every other month, which is why the preliminary hearing issue came up is because we don’t have grand jury that often.

 And by right, the defendants have the ability to have that hearing. >> And we discussed in the last crime fix the possibility that special prosecutors were being brought onto the case in case the current prosecutor would have any type of conflict of interest. But prosecutor Archer says these cases are staying with his office in Bitten County and Assistant Attorney General Cara Keading and Highland County Prosecutor Anakah Collins will assist with the investigation and prosecutions.

>> The attorney general did offer assistance and has agreed to provide a assistant AG. Her name is Cara Keading and yesterday motions were motion was filed to have her appointed special prosecutor to assist me in the prosecution. also Anakica Collins who is a Highland County prosecuting attorney. I also filed a motion to have her appointed as a special prosecutor as she was an old colleague of mine when I worked in Highland County.

 Both of these women are outstanding prosecutors with extensive experience in child cases and they will do nothing but help our team progress through these cases. And that assistance is being provided free of charge, so the taxpayers won’t be on the hook for it. And we’re going to keep a close eye on this case, of course.

 Let me know if you have anything you want us to look into in the comments. That’s it for this episode of Crime Fix. I’m Anget Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I’ll see you back here next time.