Prosecutor: kids were in ‘living nightmare’

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By Valerie Lough, Staff Writer Updated 4:46 PM Thursday, November 5, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — James and Vonda Ferguson appeared to be a model family, but behind closed doors, their five adopted children were in a “living nightmare,” special prosecutor Chris Wagner said in opening statements Thursday, Nov. 5.

Vonda Ferguson, 46, is standing trial on 20 counts of child endangering, two counts of rape and five counts each of permitting child abuse and felonious assault. Clark County Common Pleas Judge Richard O’Neill is presiding over the case.

Ferguson is accused of using extreme forms of punishment on her children — hitting them with hammers and sticks until they bled, forcing them to eat excrement and burning them with irons — between 2000 and 2004.

Defense attorney Jim Marshall said the allegations came from two children — adopted at age 7 and 5 — who disrupted the home and later grew resentful after the Fergusons gave them up.

“(The 5-year-old) hits Vonda repeatedly, he is violent with the other children in the home,” said Marshall. “(The 7-year-old) lies, steals, she runs away.”

Ferguson’s husband, James, 49, was convicted on similar charges last year and sentenced to 65 years in prison.

The children, who are now ages 14 through 19, were taken out of the home in 2004 and the couple gave up custody in 2005.

The Fergusons had faced the same charges in Union County, but those charges were dismissed in 2007 after prosecutors there conceded that many of the incidents took place in Clark County

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0360 or vlough@coxohio.com.

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