A Hephzibah woman currently under indictment for neglecting her children by allegedly allowing them to live in squalid conditions was arrested this week on charges of exploiting and neglecting a disabled adult.
Lacey S. Cadle, 32, was arrested Tuesday, Sept. 27. Currently she is being held in jail without bond.
Sheriff officers were called to a residence on Patiller Road on Sept. 14 to speak with a bed-ridden 59-year-old man who said he paid Cadle to be his caregiver. He told the officers that he had learned Cadle attached his bank debit card to her CashApp account. He said that $600 had been charged to his account without his permission the day before, according to the incident report.
Deputy Matthew Mercer also learned from a bank employee that more than $10,000 had been taken from the disabled man’s account since June, according to the report.
The address the officers were sent to speak with the disabled man is the same address where on April 16, 2021, other officers and two investigators found two of Cadle’s children living in what they described as horrid conditions. A third child had run away, Cadle told the officers.
A social worker with the Department of Family and Children Services told the officers that one of the children said she would rather die than live at the residence, and that Cadle made her child pay for food and cleaning supplies.
The residence, described on the city’s property records as a 41-year-old trailer, was extremely dirty and in poor condition, with animal feces in every room, which were also infested with vermin and insects, according to the incident report.
Cadle has pleaded not guilty in Richmond County Superior Court to three counts of cruelty to children in connection with the April 2021 call.
Sheriff officers had been called to the same residence on Dec. 25, 2020, when a woman died there. DFCS took two of the children into protective custody that day, and Hephzibah code enforcement employees gave Cadle a list of repairs to complete before the children could live there again. She was told the same thing on March 12, 2021, according to the incident report.
In 2014, Cadle was charged with the misdemeanor offense of deprivation of a minor. According to media reports then, sheriff officers saw her walking on Kissingbower Road with her 6-year-old daughter. She was stopped because officers believed Cadle appeared to be under the influence. The child was very
dirty and missing several teeth. She also had a large cut on her chin. The officers called for an ambulance because the child hadn’t eaten in five days, and she was suffering from a fever and elevated heart rate. Cadle was allowed to plead to disorderly conduct, according to court records.
In between the 2014 arrest and the most recent charges, Cadle was arrested for possession of methamphetamine twice in 2016. She entered drug court in lieu of prosecution.
