The Miramar police department has made a second arrest in a child abuse case after discovering three firearms in a hamper of dirty clothes, under a mattress and inside a bag at the kids’ home.
Daphne Sharray Brownlee was arrested Sunday and has been charged with four counts of child neglect without bodily harm. The 39-year-old woman remained behind bars at the Paul Rein Detention Facility on Tuesday morning on a $10,000 bond.
This follows the arrest in March of Ellon Shawn Clarke, Brownlee’s boyfriend, after police accused him of striking one of his stepchildren with a stick and a rock over a missing handgun. The 43-year-old man, who was charged with aggravated child abuse and child neglect, remains at Broward County’s Main Jail.
Their attorney information was unavailable Tuesday morning.
According to Brownlee and Clarke’s arrest reports, police first learned about the child abuse allegations on March 19 after the father of two of the children told officers that the kids’ stepfather had beaten them after accusing them of stealing his firearm. Police didn’t release the children’s ages nor the name of their father.
One of the children told his father that Clarke chased him around the house and hit him with a stick. After the child ran out of the house, investigators said, Clarke threw a rock at him, lacerating his right cheek. The other minor said Clarke punched him on the nose but officers didn’t observe any injuries on him.
In April, a detective responded to a “school threat assessment” after one of the children was accused of having a gun with a laser attachment. The detective wrote on Brownlee’s report that it’s unknown whether the kid was planning to bring the gun to school but that he admitted to having played with it at home.
The school threat investigation led to the discovery of the unsecured firearms: two handguns and a rifle. According to Brownlee, one of the handguns belonged to her and the others to Clarke.
“The mother’s bedroom where the firearms were located was not locked and could be access(ed) by the children at any time,” police wrote. “According to one of the children, the stepfather will leave the firearms in multiple places and ask the children to watch them.”
On Sunday, police arrested Brownlee, noting that she failed to appropriately supervise her children and that she was allowing Clarke inside the home after he was arrested.
“The defendant has failed to provide the children in her care with the proper supervision necessary to maintain their physical and mental health,” police wrote. “The defendant has failed to make a reasonable effort to protect the victims from abuse, neglect and exploitation of another person by allowing the stepfather continued access to the home despite the violence toward the victims which resulted in his arrest.”
