Woman Charged With Toddler Endangerment

Glad the kid is OK, glad the woman was charged.

Provided the time span given is correct, by the way, THREE HOURS is an awfully long time during which to "drop off some items" even at a Home Depot.

This sort of thing used to happen in Dallas all the time. There is some connection between an absent minded driver of a building on wheels, vunerable children and HEAT. I guess those Suburbans are so big, you forget how many passengers you have.

i was at home depot yesterday when this happened, what a scary, horrific and totally avoidable incident. i hope this woman is not only convicted but also made an example of. she remembered to take her own 15 mth old out of the car but didn't think twice about the neighbors 2 yr old she was also responsible for!?!

You know, I feel awful for the child, but I still feel bad for the woman too. She had a busload of kids and I'm sure a mental list of tons of errands to do and she made a horrible horrible mistake.

It will haunt her for years and she may yet see jail time. Though I too find the timeline a bit odd, I see nothing to suggest that she was being willfully negligent.

Everybody makes mistakes. Thank God when your worst mistake is calling Cathar out and not something this serious.

This woman will be punishing herself. She is a mother herself and will need forgiveness to get on with her life.

Regarding the time line, if you read the newspaper article, it sounds like actually she went home or to her neighborhood or house leaving the child in the car for several hours, then got back in the car, went to Home Depot, with the child still in the back and did not notice him until she finished at Home Depot - she wasn't actually at Home Depot for 4 hours although God knows it is possible with the crappy service they have there. I am glad that they were quick to help the child though.

Regarding the time line, HVS, if it is indeed as you wrote above, this is a stupid, self-possessed, woman seemingly oblivious to everything but her own needs.

So I'm not moved that this may haunt her for years. I trust it will, and that some of the haunting will occur while she does a little bracingly rehabilitative time.

Does anyone actulaly know just how "well" the child now is? I still wonder about lasting brain damage.

(Many attempt to call me out, MellonBrush, but so many are second and third-stringers at best. This should be noted. I'd also add a smile icon if I knew how...)

Hope Depot's service sucks. The SUV was TOO big. She had a lot on her mind. Gee, she didn't just forget her dry cleaning, a human life was at stake here. If the child died would you still hunt for the same excuses?

This is the not the first time this has happened. In NJ and other places as well. Many people are not as lucky as she is, and the child did not pull through. Although, this was a careless act, she did not do it on purpose and I am sure she feels awful. Many parents have done this to their own children, and they were not charged.

Poor kid. The world can be a harsh place.

Last year in Cincinnati, Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby forgot her sleeping 2 year old in the car last year because she went to get donuts for her coworkers. The child died after being in a locked car for 7 hours while the outside temperature was almost 100 degrees.

There was quite a local uproar about the case because the local DA declined to prosecute. To be a crime in Ohio, the act would need to "recklessly disregard a substantial risk to the health and safety of that child". The proscutor decided that "If she was not aware the child was there, she did not disregard a known risk and, therefore, did not act recklessly, as the law defines that term." This decision was made even though she had previously left her child unattended in a car and had been warned about the dangers of doing so.

The mother was an Assistant Principal, and there was an attempt made to remove her from her job (I'm not sure if it was successful). I'm not sure what became of that, but I do remember her complaining about it in the local press and maintaining that SHE had "suffered enough". In the same interview with the press, she also mentioned selling the car that her daughter died in for $4500 because "it was just too painful to keep".

NJGator,

As a law and order kinda guy, I do think there are times when the punishment is to leave the person alone with themselves.

If an accident, living with this is probably worse than anything punishment I can think of.

Wow, its bad enough when you do that to your own kid, but someone ele's?!?!?!?! I'm guessing her kid will be receiving less invites to BBQs this summer. She must feel like such an idiot. I bet this wouldnt happen if they finally enact the no women allowed a Home Depot rule. Home Depot should be partially responsible for allowing an obviously overwhelmed woman to wonder aimlessly in the big bad man box called Home Depot

I understand where you're coming from, prof. I defer to the prosecutor's reading of the law, but I must say that something about the woman's narcisstic need to talk to the press about her own suffering always bugged me.

And mentioning how she sold the car - totally understandable about the need to get rid of it, but if it were me, I probably would have given it away to charity.

I have those days when all is a tired blur (socks in the fridge, milk in the draw). However this is not quite the same thing as socks.
These things can and do happen, it is sad. I feel she is guilty, just as the person that falls asleep driving their car and accidently drives in to a pram injuring/ killing a child is guilty. Not intentional, but neglict. She is an adult, and sadly at fault here. Thankfully the boy survived and we hope will make a full recovery. Hopefully she will do the same from the guilt and horror she must now be feeling. I trust the law will be fair, and not focus on the fact she is a woman with children of her own. If a guy had done this, I am tempted to say that we'd all be less critical.

I disagree Brit - being responsible for the vehicle you are driving is a gender free issue. ?

She took on the responsibility of another person?s child! That means pausing to look around your vehicle before walking away from it - even if you?re just looking for a left behind juice cup! If that is too much to do then take away her own damn kids before she forgets them too!

I babysat as a career during my teens - including when I had a car. I took my kids to the park and various places at 17, and often more then one kid! And if I, the silly princess girl, can avoid forgetting a kid - then no one has an excuse!

Yeah, I really don't think gender is an issue here. I read stories about negligent dads leaving their kids in the car and I have the same reaction.

I would throw her in jail, except for the fact that she's got a ton of other kids to look after(or to also forget in the car)

I would assign her 1000+ hours of community service working in children's hospitals or similar.

Maybe as a community service she could be made to patrol store car parks looking for trapped babies or dogs?

On the gender issue, it is proven that women suffer harsher punishments for crimes relating to children than men do... sorry to have made this about gender, I just wanted to make the point that I hope she is treated fairly, certainly not preferentially.

It was very lucky for this child that the woman decided to go to Home Depot. It seems that he was discovered in the nick of time.

i'm with cathar on this one. i too wonder about brain damage. the child was not breathing. how long can the brain go without oxygen?

Honestly - - what is the woman doing in the Home Depot for 3 to 4 hours? Its not like you would park there and visit neighboring stores - - there is nothing adjacent to it. Even when I go there to exchange my propane tank, it doesn't take that long!

If she was exchanging a propone tank at the Clifton Home Depot, it can very well take 3 to 4 hours.

The fact that she has to live with herself is punishment enough.

If that this woman has to live with herself constitutes 'punishment enough,' resa, then the jails might all be opened, no?

But they should not, and many people live with themselves quite happily after committing either felonies or crimes borhe out of emotional lassitude. You seem to assume too much about the weight of conscience.

This doesn't seem to be someone, say, intentionally robbing a bank with a gub, so don't open all the jail doors. There is always a degree to a crime like this, people per-meditate...people screw-up (royally in this case, though not as bad as others). I agree with Brit that as a case of negligence against an adult, she deserves a fit punishment. People have always screwed -up, always will, send the wake-up call that this is serious, but judge the person going forward before you sentence solitary.
Which, by the way, takes the whole story to do.