Records show a man faces repeated child neglect charges because of multiple attempts by social workers to intervene

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla – A man is facing child neglect charges for a second time after the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office found his five children were living in conditions officials described as “deplorable.”

FOX 35 News reviewed records related to this case and previous incidents that show the sheriff’s office and the Florida Department of Children and Families have been involved for a long time.

Nicholas Carter and Tiffany Berry were first arrested in 2020 for neglecting their children. The sheriff’s office said they found mold, decay and general filth in the couple’s home; live and dead beetles; a ceiling fan directly above the children’s bunk beds that is rotting and falling down; the bathroom had a missing roof and a dilapidated floor with gaping holes and leaking sewage.

The conditions officers found in the couple’s home in September 2024 were largely the same.

“It’s really terrible, terrible,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly told FOX 35 News. “And it looks like things have gotten even worse.“

Body camera video from Carter’s 2024 arrest shows officers listing what they found during their preliminary investigation of the home.

“The living conditions are absolutely deplorable,” one lawmaker tells Carter. “There’s poop everywhere. There’s food being spit out, there’s urine, things that are clearly older than just a day.”

This time only the father was arrested; Last time it was both the mother and the father.

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Berry’s 2020 arrest report states she told officers, “No one would help her and DCF simply told her to move.”

However, there were people who tried to help them.

Mary Ferguson is one of them.

“I want them to succeed, you know,” she said in an exclusive interview with FOX 35 on Wednesday.

Ferguson retired two years ago but was formerly a social worker at a dedicated case management agency called Medallion Health.

She says she was the type of person who was overly committed – someone who couldn’t just work 9 to 5 and forget about the family at the end of the day.

“I learned that I can’t help everyone,” Ferguson said. “I can only help some people who want to be helped.”

Flagler County Sheriff’s Office records show deputies and DCF have a long history with Berry, Carter and their five children.

School officials and a school district social worker tried to help them back in 2016.

A report from the time said: “DCF has been notified and engaged with the children many times, but the concerns have not subsided.”

Reports between 2016 and 2019 detail what help the family was offered – and rejected.

“The judge doesn’t like to remove children from the home. So he gives them the opportunity and the benefit of the doubt,” Ferguson explained.

FOX 35 News learned through a request for call logs from the sheriff’s office that officers were at the family’s Bunnell home every few months for a variety of reasons, including weapons complaints, verbal disturbances, animal welfare checks, animal problems and more.

After they had to move, officers continued to go to their new home in Palm Coast – reporting to the home 16 times since January last year.

The children are now 2, 4, 8, 15 and 16 years old – meaning one of them wasn’t even born when DCF last removed the children from the home. They are back in the care of DCF.

“We have done our part. We made the arrest for child neglect,” Sheriff Staly said. “Now it’s really up to DCF, the district attorney’s office and the courts.”

FOX 35 News has reached out to both the mother and father in this case. Tiffany Berry told her that she was trying to deal with things and didn’t have time for an interview. Nicholas Carter also declined, saying he was tired of seeing his name being insulted.

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