Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Drug Dealing Mom and Boyfriend Abused Toddler Boys: Police

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

Haley Province and her boyfriend, Bobby Bender, face aggravated assault, child endangering and conspiracy charges after police in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania said Province's children suffered serious injuries in their care. Doctors found the two-year-old and three-year-old boys had fractures to their legs, ribs and one had cell damage to his brain. The two-year-old also tested positive for cocaine. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the disturbing case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/CrimeFixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Marian Braccia https://www.linkedin.com/in/marian-braccia-024634133/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A woman and her boyfriend charged after she takes her two young sons to the hospital and doctors find serious injuries. I'll tell you what Haley Province and her boyfriend are accused of doing. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Janette Levy.

When Haley Province took her two little boys to the hospital last month because one of them was in pain, it led to a police investigation and criminal charges for Province and her boyfriend, Bobby Bender. And Allegheny County Police in Pennsylvania say drugs are a part of this.

This started back on November 4th when Province took her two-year-old son to Children's Hospital because the boy was having leg pain and swelling. The criminal complaint states, it was determined by the ER doctors that the two-year-old had suffered a severe femoral fracture to his right leg. Due to a concern for abuse, the other child was also evaluated by Children's Hospital doctors. The other child was identified as a three-year-old male. The two-year-old is identified as John Doe 1 in the complaint, and the description of his injuries is so incredibly sad. The injuries are listed as a

10th rib fracture, a femur fracture, a tibia fracture, a metatarsal fracture, which is part of the foot. Other injuries listed, two humerus fractures, which are bones in the upper arm, a scapula fracture, which is in the upper back. Doctors also found cell death in the brain, multiple cuts and bruises, and the child tested positive for cocaine. It's just unbelievable, that poor little boy. So with all of those injuries, which are horrific for a two-year-old boy or any child for that matter, police say that little boy tested positive for cocaine. And because of his injuries, doctors examined his three-year-old brother. The three-year-old's injuries were listed as a clavicle fracture.

That's the collarbone on both the left and right side. Also, he had a 10th rib fracture, according to the complaint, and neck ligatures. This is horrible too, but that last part about neck ligatures is terrible. That means the child showed signs of strangulation. Detectives wrote, according to Dr. Clayton, all of these injuries were in various stages of healing ranging from one week to approximately three months. Dr. Clayton also informed us that all of these injuries would have caused extreme pain to the children and would have been noticeable. Dr. Clayton further stated that all of these injuries

were inherent of child abuse and would not have been accidentally inflicted injuries. The complaint says detectives interviewed Haley Provence and she told them that her sons were primarily with her and her boyfriend Bobby Bender and that since she and Bender had moved in together in July, their relationship had changed. The complaint said, when asked what she means by that, Provence elaborated and explained that he has become more physical with her and that the two of them argue and fight a lot. The detective said Haley Provence also noticed bruises on one of the boys after leaving them with Bender, and you'd think that might have prompted some questions. Now listen to this part of the complaint. According to Province, she noticed that Doe One would not put weight on his leg the week prior.

Based on Province's statement, it is estimated that this would have occurred on October 28, 2024. Province explained that she went to the store for approximately 45 minutes, leaving the children in the primary care of Bender. When Provence returned from the store, she stated that Doe One was sitting on the floor playing and would not stand up. She stated that she then put him to bed at approximately 1830 hours and did not wake him until approximately 0900 hours the following day. Provence said that she provided Doe One breakfast in bed and then proceeded to get him up for the day at approximately 1200 hours. When Provence attempted to have Doe One stand to put clothes on him,

he would not stay standing and would not put weight on his right leg. Provence also stated that Doe One was fussy and crying the entire time she would attempt to have him stand. Provence then provided no care for Doe One from October 28th, 2024, until her, Provence's grandmother, instructed her to go to Children's Hospital on November 4th, 2024. Detectives then questioned Bobby Bender. Detectives said Bender told them he used cocaine, but he only uses soft while province used crack. He also claimed that he hadn't used cocaine in two weeks

and didn't use it around the children. Detectives say they did a search warrant on the apartment where Bobby Bender and Haley Province lived with the two boys, and they found a bag with white residue believed to be cocaine and a straw. And they also found a cell phone with the following text message that led them to believe Bender and Province were not only using

cocaine, but also selling it. Someone named Mikey Barr was messaging their phone. Mikey Barr says, yo. Bender and Province's phone responds, what's up, brah? Mikey Barr responds, emoji of a snowflake. Bender slash Province respond, how much? Mikey Barr responds, emoji of a snowflake. Bender slash province respond, how much? Mikey Barr responds, how much? Bender and province respond, 100. Mikey Barr responds, it gas. Bender province responds, fire. Mikey Barr says, meat. Bender and province face several counts of aggravated assault, endangering welfare of children, and conspiracy. The cases I cover each day for you here on Crime Fix show you just how scary the world can be. And one of the scariest things that can happen is if you ever get hurt. But I want you to know if you're ever

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There are no upfront fees. So if you're ever hurt, you can easily start a claim at ForThePeople.com slash CrimeFix. Marian Bracha is a Temple University professor and also a former child abuse and sex crimes prosecutor. So, Marian, your first thoughts on this case. First thoughts are that it's an all too common occurrence and that these children really need a voice and an advocate because they are of an age where they are probably not going to be able to testify or to report what happened to them. So I really, really hope that there are systems in place that will make sure that they have a voice in the process.

You know, you said it's all too common. And I feel like we do way too many stories about children being abused or killed, heaven forbid. Thank goodness these children got to the hospital when they did. But what kind of bothers me about this or what really bothers me about it is the fact that Haley Province, according to the criminal complaint, had to be told by her grandmother to take the two-year-old to the hospital. I mean, the kid could not stand on his leg and was having so much pain. And she had to be told to do this. And it still took some time for her to take the child to the hospital. Right.

Denial, I suppose, is a was someone like Grandma who was there, who was the voice of reason, who was something of a Jiminy Cricket lending a conscience to the situation to make sure that this child did receive some care. Better late than never, unfortunately. But let's thank goodness that there was at least someone looking out for the best interests of the children. The two-year-old had some really serious injuries. I mean, it wasn't just the leg injury. There was a 10th rib fracture. There was some brain, it sounded like some cell death in the left side of his brain. So it sounds to me as if this child, I mean, I don't know what happened because I'm not an expert in this. You would be more somebody who would be an expert in this. So, you know, the cell death part

in the brain really, that's very concerning. Did the child suffer a head injury? Was the child shaken? I mean, this is some serious, serious stuff. And it sounds like the two-year-old bore the brunt of these injuries, according to the complaint. Right. And I think what it also indicates is that this abuse wasn't a one-time thing. This wasn't just a single critical incident. It sounds like this was ongoing because these injuries were recent and some had begun to heal and heal over. So it tells me that this was activity, that this was abuse, that was certainly not just a one-time thing and it had unfortunately been course of conduct.

And I think that that was reflected in the criminal complaint because the endangering the welfare of a child charge was charged as a felony, which typically means that it was charged as a course of conduct, not just a one-time incident or event, but something that was occurring over a course of conduct, not just a one-time incident or event, but something that was occurring over a matter of time. Haley Province, according to the investigators, said that the relationship had soured or become more intense after she moved in with this Bobby Bender. And really, the implication here is that Bobby Bender injured these children. She certainly didn't admit to injuring the children, but it's implied that he possibly did this while left alone with the children because the children were either in her care or in Bobby Bender's care. And she talked about him becoming

more frustrated and them arguing a lot more after they moved in in July. So obviously, you know, the cops are putting this, she's charged as well. So they're putting this also on her. Sure. And I think that from what I saw in the complaint, that that is a fair charging decision, that she is a parent. She has the responsibility to ensure and to protect the welfare of the children by keeping them from medical care for any amount of time when it was needed. That would certainly fit the statute for endangering the welfare. But more than that, keeping them in a situation and putting them in the care of someone who she knew or reasonably should have known would have caused injury or was causing

ongoing injury to these children was just as, in my opinion, just as much a criminal act or could be shown to be just as much a criminal act as actually inflicting the blows herself. There's also an argument to be made that in not taking the children for medical care, that she participated in something of a cover-up. And even a cover-up after a crime is committed could lead to a conspiracy charge because if there was a meeting of the minds of two people to do something wrong, to do something criminal like hide evidence of abuse or keep a child from the necessary care, that that was the formation of a conspiratorial relationship.

Yeah, and they are facing a conspiracy charge. You know, there were fractures in the upper arm of the two-year-old, multiple cuts and bruises, and also the child tested positive for cocaine. So, you know, two-year-olds are busy. We know that. So we don't know if this two-year-old somehow accidentally ingested the cocaine. They said that they found a straw in a bag with white residue in the apartment. So the child could have accidentally gotten into the cocaine.

Or I don't know, are there other ways that the child, you know, heaven forbid, I would hope that they would not, somebody would not have actually given a child a toddler cocaine. Well, my my response to that is why is there cocaine in any kind of residence with a child where a child would have access? And so to me, it doesn't matter how the child came came to ingest it, whether it was accidental, whether it was exploratory, experimental on the part of the child, pure curiosity, pure childlike behavior and kind of grabbing anything and putting it in their mouth. But the fact that it was somewhere that could be accessed and could be ingested by the child contributes to the endangering the welfare charge. Let's talk now about the three-year year old. He's John Doe, too. And he had a clavicle fracture, you know, so that's basically the collarbone on the left and right side and then a 10th rib fracture as well. And then neck ligatures. So that's I mean, ligatures to me, that makes me think of somebody actually putting something around somebody's neck and trying to strangle them.

That indicates a strangulation incident to me. That is a foreign object that blocks the airway, blocks the trachea. It ultimately be able to testify as to the risk that's involved in depriving the brain of oxygen. Even deprivation of about 10 seconds of oxygen to the brain can lead to serious bodily injury. That's why Pennsylvania has a separate strangulation charge. But ligature marks are almost always indicative of an external object being used around the neck to block the trachea. That's just really horrible to think about what these poor little boys, what they went through. Just little, little kids, little kids, defenseless. They can't do anything for themselves. You know, they're facing charges now. They've got the endangering

the welfare of the children charges, aggravated assault, conspiracy. I mean, they're saying basically that cops are in here, that they believe Bender and province, Haley province, that they were selling drugs. They were dealing drugs. They found text messages on a cell phone in there where basically they're talking with some guy named Mikey Barr about about selling him drugs. So basically they're saying these are two people who are selling drugs, probably using drugs as well, probably addicted. Bobby Bender admitted to using drugs and said that Haley Province used crack and children are being abused. I mean, you said this is far too common. What was your experience when you were prosecuting these cases? How often would you see people in similar situations to this? Every day, which is a really heartbreaking and pitiful thing to think about, that these crimes are happening behind closed doors and in people's homes, where a home should be a child's haven.

It should be your safe place to go. It should be where you are cared for and loved and nurtured. And it's the place where all of the scary things in the world can't and don't get to you but when you go home and close the door and that is your safe haven and it's turned into a hell because of the two people who should be most caring and most nurturing toward you and and they're turning your existence into a living horror that is just that's just unimaginable. And in any case that involves children, what I have to think about from my experience as a prosecutor is how can we prove this, right? So you're not going to put, in all likelihood, you're not going to put a two or a

three-year-old on the stand. Certainly not a two-year-old, probably not a three-year-old. And even if you did put a three-year-old on the stand, there would be the hurdle to surmount, which is competency, proving that a three-year-old understands the importance of an oath and understands the difference between the truth and a lie. So ultimately, the prosecutors are going to prove this case with medical testimony, with the medical records, with the statements of each defendant against each other saying, I left the children with Bender for this period of time and Bender admitting, yes, the children were left with me for this period of time on a weekly basis. And so these are little individual pieces that have to prove that these two people

had sole access to these children for the period of time where these injuries could have resulted. But this case isn't going to rest on the testimony of the children who are truly the ones who lived through this and survived this and would, if they were a little bit older, be the ones to tell us, this is what happened to me and this is who perpetrated it. It is just an awful, awful case. And let's hope that those children, we know they are probably in a safe environment now, obviously, because they would not be allowed to stay with their mother. She's in jail right now, as is Bobby Bender, facing these criminal charges. So hopefully they're getting the physical and emotional care that they need.

Marion Bracha, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Anjanette. Thanks for having me. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.