Thursday, August 20, 2015

"Court: Leaving Baby in Car for 10 Minutes May Not Be Abuse"

"Reversing a lower court, New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the state couldn’t add her name to a child-abuse registry without evaluating the “totality of the circumstances” at an evidentiary hearing. The 7-0 opinion also said a charge of neglect had to be backed up with a finding that the parent’s conduct put her child in “imminent risk of harm.”"

Reports the Associated Press:
According to court documents, the woman, identified by the initials E.D.O., left her sleeping daughter in a locked car with the engine running and the windows slightly opened while she shopped in a South Plainfield store for about five or 10 minutes in May 2009. 
The temperature at the time was about 55 degrees, according to court documents. A security guard noticed the child in the car and called police.
The Division of Child Protection and Permanency filed a complaint against the woman and her husband seeking care and supervision of their four children.
The woman appealed, but her request for a hearing in front of an administrative law judge ultimately was denied and the appeals court upheld that determination.
"The court also said it was troubled by how much time it’s taken to resolve the case."

3 comments:

Methadras said...

Oh the geological time nature of litigation. Especially when the state is involved. I've told you all before, once the state has you in their eyesights, they will never let go. Ever. They will spend inordinate amounts of money to see you are brought low. They will exceed with delight and hubris the near infinite reserve of resources at their disposal to assure that you are deemed unworthy in every possible way to society.

I wonder now if this will resonate with municipalities that shit bricks when parents let their kids walk to school alone or go to parks alone or do anything alone and rethink their stupidity.

rhhardin said...

My mother parked by the railroad tracks so I could watch the half-hourly trains when she went shopping in the A&P.

Methadras said...

rhhardin said...

My mother parked by the railroad tracks so I could watch the half-hourly trains when she went shopping in the A&P.


She would put in the stocks in the middle of the upscale, rent controlled, $15/hr minimum wage zone, downtown hipster urban square for that and then tortured with presentations of sweat-shop items from walmart. THE EEEEE-vil of it all!!!