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Maternal aggressor finds doughnuts more important than own child
or Prosecutor finds broiled children to be delicious.
http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-34/118892338443080.xml&storylist=cleveland
So what do you think? Would you go to trial if this case was ploped on your desk or do you think that this was just one of those things as the prosecutor suggests?
No charges filed against mother in death of toddler left in car
9/4/2007, 4:25 p.m. EDT
By TERRY KINNEY
The Associated Press
CINCINNATI (AP) — No charges will be filed against a middle school administrator whose toddler daughter died when she was left in her mother's SUV for about eight hours on a day when temperatures reached about 100 degrees, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Leaving the child in the car was "a substantial lapse of due care" but did not meet the definition of reckless conduct necessary for prosecution, said Clermont County Prosecutor Don White.
Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby, 40, is an assistant principal at Glen Este Middle School, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati. Authorities said she left her 2-year-old daughter, Cecilia, strapped into a car seat in the SUV's back seat while she went into work on Aug. 23.
White said his office has received numerous comments from the public, about evenly split, regarding possible prosecution. (I hope that's not true.)
"However, unlike most elected officials, judges and prosecutors should not, and by law cannot, make their decisions based on popular or public opinion," White said. "Judges and prosecutors are bound by the law."
Nesselroad-Slaby has been on paid leave since her daughter's death. There was no answer at her home phone after the prosecutor's decision was announced, and her lawyer, R. Scott Croswell III, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Croswell has said that Nesselroad-Slaby became distracted from her normal routine of dropping Cecilia at a baby-sitter's house because she stopped to buy doughnuts for a faculty meeting, then forgot about the girl when she unloaded the doughnuts from the back of the vehicle.
White has said from the beginning that the child's death was an accident, and the only question was whether a charge of child endangering was appropriate.
On Tuesday, he said he would not ask a grand jury for an indictment.
"The statements of witnesses, a significant interview with Cecilia's mother and a review of videotape and audiotape support the conclusion that Cecilia's mother simply, albeit tragically, forgot that Cecilia was asleep in her car seat when she arrived at work early Thursday morning," White said in a statement released by his office.
"As bad as that appears, it is not a perverse disregard of a known risk."
A July analysis by The Associated Press showed around 340 heat-related deaths of children trapped inside vehicles in the past 10 years, and a wide range of prosecutions and penalties.
Charges were filed in just less than half the deaths. Of those that had been decided, 81 percent resulted in convictions or guilty pleas, and half of those brought jail sentences.
The AP identified more than 220 cases in which the caregiver admitted leaving the child behind. More than three-quarters of those people said they simply forgot.
The same day as Cecilia's death, a 7-month-old infant died in a parked car near the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where the child's father is a research analyst, authorities said. Prosecutors there have not said if they will file charges.
This weekend, an Oregon man was charged with child neglect, accused of leaving his 2-year-old daughter in a car in 95-degree heat in the parking lot of a Nevada brothel. The toddler was treated for dehydration and released to the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services.
9/4/2007, 4:25 p.m. EDT
By TERRY KINNEY
The Associated Press
CINCINNATI (AP) — No charges will be filed against a middle school administrator whose toddler daughter died when she was left in her mother's SUV for about eight hours on a day when temperatures reached about 100 degrees, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Leaving the child in the car was "a substantial lapse of due care" but did not meet the definition of reckless conduct necessary for prosecution, said Clermont County Prosecutor Don White.
Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby, 40, is an assistant principal at Glen Este Middle School, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati. Authorities said she left her 2-year-old daughter, Cecilia, strapped into a car seat in the SUV's back seat while she went into work on Aug. 23.
White said his office has received numerous comments from the public, about evenly split, regarding possible prosecution. (I hope that's not true.)
"However, unlike most elected officials, judges and prosecutors should not, and by law cannot, make their decisions based on popular or public opinion," White said. "Judges and prosecutors are bound by the law."
Nesselroad-Slaby has been on paid leave since her daughter's death. There was no answer at her home phone after the prosecutor's decision was announced, and her lawyer, R. Scott Croswell III, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Croswell has said that Nesselroad-Slaby became distracted from her normal routine of dropping Cecilia at a baby-sitter's house because she stopped to buy doughnuts for a faculty meeting, then forgot about the girl when she unloaded the doughnuts from the back of the vehicle.
White has said from the beginning that the child's death was an accident, and the only question was whether a charge of child endangering was appropriate.
On Tuesday, he said he would not ask a grand jury for an indictment.
"The statements of witnesses, a significant interview with Cecilia's mother and a review of videotape and audiotape support the conclusion that Cecilia's mother simply, albeit tragically, forgot that Cecilia was asleep in her car seat when she arrived at work early Thursday morning," White said in a statement released by his office.
"As bad as that appears, it is not a perverse disregard of a known risk."
A July analysis by The Associated Press showed around 340 heat-related deaths of children trapped inside vehicles in the past 10 years, and a wide range of prosecutions and penalties.
Charges were filed in just less than half the deaths. Of those that had been decided, 81 percent resulted in convictions or guilty pleas, and half of those brought jail sentences.
The AP identified more than 220 cases in which the caregiver admitted leaving the child behind. More than three-quarters of those people said they simply forgot.
The same day as Cecilia's death, a 7-month-old infant died in a parked car near the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where the child's father is a research analyst, authorities said. Prosecutors there have not said if they will file charges.
This weekend, an Oregon man was charged with child neglect, accused of leaving his 2-year-old daughter in a car in 95-degree heat in the parking lot of a Nevada brothel. The toddler was treated for dehydration and released to the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services.
So what do you think? Would you go to trial if this case was ploped on your desk or do you think that this was just one of those things as the prosecutor suggests?
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