Cape man pleads guilty to keeping filthy home on Pearl Street

A 46-year-old man charged with felony child endangerment for keeping his home in filthy conditions pleaded guilty Tuesday.

Cedric C. Moore admitted during a hearing before Circuit Judge Benjamin Lewis that the home his six children lived in at 215 Pearl St. was dirty.

Reading from a plea agreement with prosecutors, Lewis asked Moore if it was true the defendant had failed to provide a safe, clean environment for his children, all of whom are under 17 years old, and that the home was littered with trash and human feces.

"It was dirty," Moore said.

When asked specifically by Lewis if there were feces, Moore said it was possible there could have been.

"Well, a lot of people have kids and they don't have trash and human feces lying around," Lewis said.

Also charged in the case was Karen J. Clark, 40, who lived at the home with Moore.

In December, she pleaded guilty to the same charge and received five years' probation on a suspended imposition of sentence.

When social workers and police visited the Pearl Street home in September, they found large quantities of trash, broken furniture, mouse droppings near a bare mattress and a bucket used as a toilet.

Moore's sentencing was scheduled for March 13.