Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Mom Bakes 2-Year-Old in SUV, Walks Free

Gotta love Cincinnati. From the Cincinnati Enquirer:
UNION TWP. - Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby won't be charged in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Cecilia Slaby, who was left in a car for eight hours amid searing heat Aug. 23, the Clermont County prosecutor said Tuesday.

Nesselroad-Slaby, 40, forgot that she had left the sleeping girl strapped in a child seat of a sport utility vehicle at Glen Este Middle School, where she is the assistant principal.

All evidence indicated that Nesselroad-Slaby didn't intend to leave Cecilia in the car, Prosecutor Don White said.

The only charge that might have been appropriate was child endangering, White said. But Ohio law doesn't allow for the prosecution of someone on that charge if a death results from an accident.
...
Prosecutors also reviewed video from security cameras at the school, which showed that, a few minutes before 7 a.m., Nesselroad-Slaby stopped near a school door to remove boxes of doughnuts from the rear cargo area of her car through a hatchback.

Nesselroad-Slaby then moved the car to a parking spot.

She didn't notice Cecilia, who was sleeping in a child seat behind the driver's seat, Croswell said. The doughnuts were for a 7:15 a.m. faculty meeting that Nesselroad-Slaby led to plan the Aug. 27 start of school. A teacher who parked next to Nesselroad-Slaby's car about 3 p.m. noticed Cecilia. Nesselroad-Slaby had not returned to the car before then, White said.

The child died of heat-related causes on a day the temperature averaged 98 degrees in that part of Union Township, police said. It could have reached 149 degrees in the car, which had its windows up.
Oopsie! I's forgets da baby...for 8 hours! What the hell?

It's being stated - repeatedly - that Ohio law, by apparent fluke, does not have a prosecutorial process for accidentally killing your child by leaving them in the car until their brain bakes. This is almost as unfathomable as someone remembering the doughnuts but leaving their child in the car - for 8 hours.

I am certain, however, that if you changed the facts of the case to a woman driving a beat-up Lincoln who forgot she had her child while she shopped at Big Lots and Dollar General for an hour or two and that child died, that woman would be in jail right now.

I'm also sure that this story is a comfort to anyone in Ohio who just doesn't really take to their kids; if they're young enough to be strapped in a car seat, it's hot enough, and you can park where no one's going to interrupt the baking process: problem solved. Oopsie! I didn't mean it.

I urge you to contact the following organizations. If this woman is seriously not going to be charged with reckless endangerment, involuntary manslaughter, or the like, at the very least she should not be supervising children for a living.

Clermont County Prosecutor's Office
(513) 732-7223

Glen Este Middle School
(513) 947-7700

West Clermont Local School District
(513) 943-5000
contact_wcs@hccanet.org

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

For her punishment, she should be locked in a searing hot car for 8 hours and left to ponder the tortuous death that she inflicted on that poor child.

Ricky Shambles said...

Agreed. No one gets to forget about and - oops - kill their child and then just walk away.

dmvnana said...

I live in Cincinnati this women has a history of leaving her children in the car. There are police reports stating that. She left her in the car in the freezing cold some one called the police from her former job at the Compus School. Two days before she baked her 2 year old she left her 5 year old in the car. This women should be in jail.