A Florida pastor was arrested after authorities alleged she severely neglected five children in her care, forcing them to use a bucket as a toilet and bathe outside with a garden hose while providing preferential treatment to her biological daughter.
Gwendolyn Rolle, 59, faces five felony counts of child neglect without great bodily harm in St. Lucie County.
The Fort Pierce Police Department launched an investigation following an anonymous complaint regarding the welfare of the children, who are all siblings ranging in age from 4 to 9. Rolle is a pastor at New Hope International Church in Fort Pierce.
According to an arrest warrant seen by Law & Crime, the anonymous tipster informed police that Rolle “has foster kids in her custody and treats them very poorly.”
The tipster said that “since Gwendolyn is a pastor and held to a higher standard within the community, [the tipster] has always been afraid to speak out on anything.”
Rolle told police she took the children in after their father abandoned them. According to investigators, she is not a licensed foster parent.
The arrest warrant details how differently Rolle treated the five siblings compared to her own daughter. One of the victims told investigators that the biological child received special treatment.
“[The daughter] gets special treatment such as getting to use a toilet instead of a bucket to go to the bathroom in, she gets to shower, and get better food such as KFC or Popeyes,” the arrest warrant states.
The victim further stated that “sometimes [the child] and her siblings do not get to eat dinner due to Gwendolyn not letting them eat and have to go to bed hungry.”
When Rolle did feed the siblings, they were reportedly given ramen noodle packets or leftovers from meals provided at school.
The children also described their forced bathing routines to investigators.
“[The child] stated that she was forced to shower on her front patio while her siblings would hold a sheet to cover them since only one bathroom has a working shower,” the warrant alleges. “[The child] stated her siblings would rotate out of holding the sheet and showering with a garden hose and soap.”
Rolle told authorities that her home only had “one working restroom due to one being out of order for repairs,” and maintained that she bathed the children regularly. However, the children told police that Rolle kept the door to her bedroom — the only point of access to the functioning bathroom — locked.
“Gwendolyn keeps her bedroom door, the only access to the working bathroom, locked even when she is home,” the warrant states, per Law & Crime. “[The child] said that they must get Gwendolyn's permission to use that bathroom and that Gwendolyn primarily only unlocks it for [her biological daughter] to use the bathroom.”
The alleged neglect extended into the children’s school lives. The victims and school staff reported that the siblings were frequently “bullied at school due to them smelling bad because they are not allowed to shower and do not have clean clothes to wear.”
One child told police “when she goes to school, she is sometimes given perfume or a spray to mask the odor from not showering so other kids would not bully her.”
A community member who occasionally allowed the children to stay at her house supported these accounts, telling police that “her living room smelled horrible after the children slept there, due to the odor emanating from their bodies.”
The community member added that “she said that she has tried giving the children food, clothes, and toys, but that Gwendolyn always confiscates the items and either throws them away or gives them to [her biological daughter].”
In addition to the neglect charges, the children accused Rolle of physical abuse, including slaps to the face, and stated that she used derogatory language toward them.
Rolle has been released from jail after posting bond and has been assigned a public defender to represent herm Law & Crime reports.
