Parents of five who left Child Haven have earlier child neglect convictions

Five siblings who ran away from Las Vegas’ Child Haven this week have been to the emergency shelter before, court records show, after their parents were charged with child neglect.

Jerry Nicholas, 39, and Theresa Bimbo, 38, both were convicted of misdemeanor neglect charges in 2011 after police found their children playing in the road and filthy conditions in their house on Grand Mountain Circle, a short street with one- and two-story homes off Spring Mountain Road near South El Capitan Way.

Nicholas and Bimbo could not be reached for comment Thursday.

A neighbor called police June 7, 2011, to complain that she had seen the children come in-and-out of the house for a few days but hadn’t seen any adults, according to an arrest report. When police arrived, the kitchen was dirty and didn’t have much food, and both parents seemed to be “under the influence of some unknown narcotic.”

Bimbo didn’t know what schools the kids attended, police said, and Nicholas couldn’t spell the children’s names.

Police said a check of the bathroom showed urine and feces on the floor. Clothes covered the floor in parts of the house, and carpets were stained and “littered with garbage.”

Nicholas said the house was a wreck because both he and Bimbo were “on disability,” police said. He told police he had taken half a muscle relaxer.

Officers arrested the parents and took the couple’s seven children, then ages 5 to 17, to Child Haven. Two of the children are no longer minors.

This week, the younger children – Demetri Nicholas, 7, Sarah Nicholas, 9, Luchiano Nicholas, 11, Violet Bimbo-Nicholas, 13, and Savannah Nicholas, 14 – ran away from Child Haven after at least their second trip to the facility. They left Tuesday, and police took them back about 24 hours later after a caller reported seeing them at a fast-food restaurant.

Police had asked the public for help locating the children.

Child Haven has released few details, citing case confidentiality, about how the brothers and sisters left. Staff at the Clark County Department of Family Services-run facility say they followed policy by not blocking the children from leaving the property. The staff promptly called police when the children left.

Police are trying to figure out where the siblings went and how they got there. Investigators had no new information Thursday, spokeswoman Laura Meltzer said.

Officer involvement with the family this time around has been “strictly from the missing persons standpoint” and not a criminal investigation, Meltzer said.

Contact reporter Adam Kealoha Causey at acausey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0361.