GREENFIELD — A Greenfield couple faces seven criminal counts, collectively, amid allegations they neglected their three young children.
David and Jessica Nulliner of Greenfield are accused of placing their kids — one of grade-school age, one toddler and one infant — in danger as well as depriving their oldest child of her education, according to court documents.
The couple denies the allegations, records show; each has pleaded not guilty in court.
Investigators believe David Nulliner battered one of his daughters by grabbing her around the throat to pull her out from under a bed where she’d been hiding, court documents state.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
After the incident was reported, state case managers brought the three children to a hospital to be examined. There, they learned Jessica Nulliner was giving her daughter’s prescription Klonopin to one of the other children, court documents state.
But police where already involved with the couple prior to the incident, records show.
Officers with the Greenfield Police Department first began investigating the Nulliners in February when an anonymous report was made to the Indiana Department of Child Services, saying the couple had pulled their oldest daughter out of school and never enrolled her in a new program or started homeschooling her, court documents state.
The child had been out of school for at least four weeks when investigators intervened to get the girl back in school, police said.
It was her teachers who then, in April, saw marks on the child’s neck that seemed to be caused by fingernails, court documents state.
When questioned about them, the girl told investigators her father had grabbed her around the neck to pull her out from under a bed, according to police.
She’d been hiding, she said, because she’d “called her mom, Jessica Nulliner, a bad name, and thought she was going to get spanked,” court documents state.
All three children were taken to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis to be examined.
The doctors there said the couple’s infant was underfed, and their toddler had occasionally been given the oldest daughter’s medication.
Jessica Nulliner told police a doctor told her the two children could share the pills — which are commonly used to treat anxiety — and to “knock down the (infant’s) formula” because the baby was suffering from acid reflux, court documents state.
David Nulliner admitted to “popping” his daughter because she was behaving badly, court documents state.
David Nulliner faces one Level 5 felony count of neglect of a dependent, two Level 6 felony count of neglect of a dependent and one Class B Misdemeanor of battery.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, which are filed in Hancock County Superior Court 1.
Jessica Nulliner faces three Level 6 felony counts of neglect of a dependent. She has also pleaded not guilty. Her case is filed in Hancock County Superior Court 2.