FAMILY ANGUISH
Claims of abuse before fatal cliff plunge
A dark picture emerged Thursday of the two moms whose SUV fatally veered off a Northern California cliff with at least three of their six adopted children — as authorities continued to search for their three other kids.
Jennifer and Sarah Hart, of Woodland, Wash., were being investigated for allegedly starving their children before Monday’s crash, and Sarah was previously convicted of hitting their girl, according to new reports.
Cops say they had no evidence the 2003 GMC was deliberately driven off the Pacific Coast Highway near Westport but have noted there were no brake marks.
The bodies of the married cou- ple, both 38, were found with the SUV, as were those of their kids Markis, 19, Jeremiah, 14, and Abigail, 14. On Thursday, investigators were scouring the shore for the remaining kids — Hannah, 16, Sierra, 12, and Devonte, 15.
Devonte Hart, who is black, gained wide attention for a 2014 photo of him tearfully hugging a white cop at a Portland, Ore., rally over the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
Bruce and Dana DeKalb, the Harts’ Woodland neighbors, said they recently called Child Protective Services after Devonte repeatedly came to their house asking for food, The Oregonian reported.
They said that the boy told them his parents weren’t feeding them and were withholding food as punishment and that he asked them to leave food by their fence.
Officials said they had tried to reach the family three times to investigate. The family fled after a CPS worker showed up Friday, according to neighbors.
Last year, one of the Harts’ girls rang the DeKalbs’ doorbell at 1:30 a.m. accusing her moms of abuse, Bruce DeKalb said.
She “was at our door in a blanket saying we needed to protect her,” he recalled. “She said that they were abusing her.”
In 2011, when the family lived in Minnesota, Sarah Hart pleaded guilty to domestic assault when their then-6-year-old daughter came to school with bruises on her stomach and back.
Sarah told police that she was spanking the girl and “let her anger get out of control” and received a three-month suspended jail sentence and a year of probation, The Oregonian reported.
The Harts moved to the Portland suburbs but relocated to rural Woodland last year after Devonte’s viral image brought media scrutiny on their family, including of the 2011 abuse charges, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, Portland Police Sgt. Bret Barnum, the cop who hugged the weeping Devonte in November 2014, expressed his sadness, calling their embrace “one of those moments in my career which reinforced my love, passion and duty in providing compassion and service to my community.”