This is downright insane. An idiotic* woman (Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby) faces absolutely no charges for leaving her 2 year old daughter in her car for 8 hours while she went to work for the day.
Apparently (and I will have to read more info. to see if this is true) the woman returned to her car over 3 times during the day to retrieve donuts from the vehicle, and at one point the security camera video shows her actually moving the car to a different parking spot. Most of the stories I found are somewhat vague as to the exact timeline of events for the day, but one thing is certain- only a complete moron or someone who is guilty of a crime forgets about their own baby roasting in a car on a day with the temperature over 100 degrees (to forget about your baby in 70 degree weather is crazy itself.)
The prosecutor in the Ohio county where this took place said that he will not file any charges against the woman, and regarding the woman’s other child, a 5 year old, he said- “I have no reason to believe that she won’t take care of this child.”
I have to agree with others who have pointed out the clear fact of gender bias here. I have little doubt that if this had been a man, he would have been charged. If the reports are correct, you don’t get anymore negligent than this.
Mind boggling.
*forgetting you have a child and you left that child in a car that is probably roasting at around 115 degrees for 8 hours IS the definition of “idiotic”
You don’t leave a 2 year-old anywhere by itself. Ever.
You don’t even leave an animal in a car on a hot day.
Judge not, lest…
It was not hot in the morning.
I’ve paid attention to this story as it happened in my area. The insanity is simply that the mother forgot her child. There is no insanity in failing to pursue criminal charges. Losing a child is punishment enough.
I don’t think any sane person forgets they have a child. Or forgets where they put their child. If we can treat children as we do a set of keys, we’re on a slippery slope to destruction. Even if it was a nice fall day with a nice breeze- how do you forget a kid is sitting next to you? How do you forget the kid, or not notice the kid as you go to retrieve items from the car? Or move the car to a new spot?
If you refuse to file charges, where do you find yourself? I can imagine this will be a new defense. I forgot- I didn’t mean to. Parents could purposely leave their kids in cars to die and then claim stupidity. Equal protection under the law? Equality in sentencing?
You cannot file charges if there is no applicable Ohio law.
Law enforcement was interviewed in the media. They explained that they could not file charges for this instance because of certain legal tests that could not be met to prove neglect.
A wrongful death case could be made in a civil court, but that would have to be initiated by the family against the same family.
How was the child forgotten, you ask? The mother was a school administrator preparing for a new school year. She had a bit on her plate. That was the point of the meetings. She allegedly was not responsible for driving her child around for the past 3 months: her husband typically took the child on his way to work. A new schedule for the new school year threw her out of whack.
That’s a litany of excuses which just doesn’t hold up to any sort of scrutiny. ‘She had a bit on her plate’ She was thrown ‘out of whack’ by the new schedule. She wasn’t used to driving her child around?!
Come on – this was neglect.
I read 5-year old as 2 year old – but that doesn’t help matters. 5 year-olds are FAR easier to spot in a car…
What scrutiny? Legal? Of course it is neglect. It is neglect when you cannot keep your eyes on your kids 24/7 and they get into drugs and premature sex.
Where are your kids now?
The problem is that this was not a criminal act in Ohio based on the legal tests needed to prosecute for neglect. So if you feel better ridiculing someone who has made a deadly, absent-minded mistake and must feel very regretful, go for it… by all means!
Would you prefer to lock the parent in the car all day as punishment? You would be prosecuted for that as that would be intentional.
Children Services is appropriately reviewing the care of other children in the family and if they feel that the parents are not fit, they will lose custody.
I’m not posting excuses. That is how law works. If you don’t like it, write your legislators.
Nope; it’s neglect when you ‘forget’ that you have your 5 year-old child in your car.
My son is getting ready for bed – he’s 11 – when he was 5 he was easily trackable, no matter what was going on in life. He’s the first person you think of. I’ve never once forgotten that he was with me; and was stressed to hell if I looked like being late to pick him up from school or nursery even. What does that have to do with it?
(final paragraph of comment 4 – looks like you’re posting excuses…)
The last paragraph was not an excuse for being neglectful. It was an explanation of why the parent was not >>criminally
…neglectful.
I am not here to defend Slaby or put her down. What I am here to do is let people know that there are devices out there that can stop these terrible tragedies. Why are we allowing this to happen? You CAN NOT leave the hospital without having your baby in a car seat. When will they enforce having a technological device that will never allow you to forget your child. Search Car minder system and also check out this news release from 2002 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/releases/2002/02-008.html
Another good website to go to is http://www.kidsandcars.org
This is what I don’t get. If you “forget” your child in a car, even if it is for hours upon end while you are working (like this woman was) or whatever, the authorities typically don’t charge you with child abuse or neglect. However, if you intentionally leave a kid in a car, even if it’s only for 2 minutes, you will be charged. For instance, a couple months ago in Orlando, a woman was going somewhere with her 2 month old baby. She realized that she left her umbrella in the house, so, without turning the car off, she jumped out and went to grab the umbrella. This is a task that should take what, 3-4 minutes tops. Well, when she went into the house, someone jumped into her car and started to take off with it. When the carjacker realized that there was a baby in the car, he bolted. The authorities found the car and the baby (unharmed)shortly there after. Now here’s the kicker, this woman is being charged with child neglect and with leaving a child in a car with the keys in the ignition. She should of just said that she forgot the kid was in the car; maybe she would not have been charged. Personally, I just don’t see how this is fair. Yes, I know we are talking about two different states here. It doesn’t seem right that one woman cause her child’s death by leaving her kid in her car all day, even though she had plenty of opportunities to notice the kid was in there and get off scot free but the other woman leaves her child for a couple minutes just to grab an umbrella, and she is charged with a third degree felony that could get her 6 years in jail.
By the way, if you want to check out the story that I am talking about here’s the link:
http://www.local6.com/news/13778100/detail.html