Photo: Courtney Denise Taylor
The teenage daughter of a woman now jailed and accused of harboring a fugitive who killed himself rather than be arrested, has filed for an order of protection on behalf of her 16-year-old brother.
According to the petition for the protective order filed Friday, the daughter wants her mother, 43-year-old Courtney Denise Taylor, kept away from her brother. Taylor is an inmate in the Baxter County Detention Center charged with hindering apprehension and endangering the welfare of a minor. Her bond is set at $50,000.
The endangering charge stems from Taylor allegedly keeping the 16-year-old, who lived with his mother, in the dark that she was harboring an armed fugitive. According to investigators, Taylor took her son to school last Wednesday and brought him home after classes, allegedly knowing 28-year-old Alton Bruce Cooke was armed and hiding in her residence along Kirkland Street in Gassville.
As law enforcement officers surrounded the house last Thursday, the 16-year-old was escorted away from the residence by U.S. Marshals, according to a press release by Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery. Click here for the original story.
In filing for the order of protection, the daughter said she “received a call from a neighbor that the SWAT (team) was surrounding my mother’s house.” She wrote she immediately drove from Heber Springs, where she now lives, to get her brother.
She said she discovered Cooke, who is referred to as her mother’s “boyfriend,” was wanted for a shooting and her mother was hiding him, placing her brother in danger by keeping the 16-year-old in the dark that the man was armed and a fugitive.
The daughter said she took charge of her brother and commented if her mother is released from jail, “I do believe…she will try to take him back, and he is not safe with her.”
According to court records, the daughter and her mother have had a rocky relationship. A petition for emergency guardianship was filed in 2017, in which Taylor’s parenting was described as “bordering on abandonment or neglect.”
The petition was filed by the daughter’s maternal grandparents. They were awarded guardianship. The case was dismissed on order of Circuit Judge Deanna “Suzie” Layton in March. It would appear from various court records the daughter would have reached the age of majority in February.
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