Welfare Check Leads to Child Neglect Charges After Portland Police Find Three-Year-Old Outside Alone

PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland felon convicted of heroin distribution in 2014 and for failing to register as a sex offender in 1999, will be arraigned next week on two counts of child neglect and criminal mistreatment.

The charges relate to a welfare check on Tuesday evening at the Columbia Park Annex on North Lombard, where officers found a three-year-old boy standing outside with neighbors. The child was dressed in a shirt, shorts, and a pair of socks.

Three-Year-Old Was Vomiting and Coughing

Neighbors told the police that the child had been vomiting and coughing.

The boy then led the police to his home several blocks away in the 7000 block of North Dwight Avenue. The door was open and an eight-year-old boy was inside, dressed only in underwear.

An officer managed to contact a man identified as Herbert Lee Streeter III (48), who said he had left home about 15 minutes earlier to buy food for the children at McDonald’s. However, Streeter only arrived at the residence after 6 p.m., which was nearly an hour after the police responded to the welfare call.

There Was No Sign of Any Food for the Children on the Suspect’s Return to the Residence

According to court documents, Streeter had no food for the children when he arrived back at the residence.

Court records reveal that in Florida, in 1999, Streeter was convicted of a felony sex offense, and in 2013, for failing to register as a sex offender in Multnomah County. He was also convicted of delivering heroin in Clackamas County in 2014.