Child Neglect and Easter Baskets

UDPATE, April 28, 2008: Parents in diabetes case charged

The parents of an 11-year-old girl who died of complications from untreated diabetes last month have both been charged with second-degree reckless homicide, according to Marathon County District Attorney Jill Falstad.

...In a statement released at a 1 p.m. news conference, Falstad said the parents' actions meet the standard of the charges.

"Second-degree reckless homicide has two elements," Falstad said. "The first element is that the defendant caused the death of another. The second element is that the defendant caused the death by criminally reckless conduct.

"In this case, that conduct was the failure to seek medical intervention. The failure to seek medical intervention created unreasonable and substantial risk of death or great bodily harm to Kara and the Neumanns were aware of the risk."

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A father is in trouble, facing possible charges for leaving his young daughters inside a car while he shopped at Wal-Mart to pick up Easter baskets and candy.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office is considering whether to file charges against a Muskego man who allegedly left his daughters, ages 5 and 3, inside his car in the parking lot of a Greenfield Wal-Mart for at least 20 minutes on a cold day last month, according to an incident report filed by a Greenfield police officer.

According to the report:

Greenfield police were called to the parking lot of the store at 4500 S. 108th St. about 10:51 p.m. March 22 to check on two children who had been left unattended in a Honda Accord.

The responding officer saw the children in the back seat of the car and noticed the car's rear windows were fogged.

The officer opened the unlocked driver's door and asked the girls who they were with at the store. The older sister, whose breath was visible as she spoke, told the officer that their father had left them in the car when he went into the store.

The older girl estimated that she and her sister had been in the car about as long as an episode of "Barney and Friends," but not as long as an episode of "Sesame Street."

...As the officer was talking with the girls, their father, 25, came back to the car. He insisted the car's doors had been locked and said he had left the girls in the car because he wanted to surprise them by buying Easter baskets and gifts.

The father estimated he had been in the store for about 10 minutes, but a man who was parked nearby told police the girls had been inside the car for at least 20 minutes before the officer arrived.

TMJ4 has some additional details:

25 year old Jordan Ebbott is facing the possibility of child neglect charges after leaving his three and five year old daughters in a car in the Walmart parking lot here.

...“We have a nine month old yellow lab puppy,” explained Ebbott’s stepfather, Bob Rose. “The dog got into the candy and now there was no candy for his two little daughters.”

Rose went on to say that his stepson is a “good father” and didn’t want to disappoint his daughters on Easter morning.

...The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s sensitive crimes unit is considering what, if any, charges to bring against Ebbott. But the unit is awaiting a report from the Bureau of Child Welfare. The case will be reviewed again on May 2nd.

It appears that Ebbott's intentions were good. And thankfully, his daughters weren't harmed as a result of being left alone in the car.

But, under no circumstances does one leave a 5- and a 3-year-old unattended in a car, especially at around 11:00PM.

The girls should have been in their beds sleeping at that hour, not waiting in a cold car in a dark parking lot.

Ebbott had other options. He could have had someone, like his step-father, stay with the girls while he ran out for the Easter treats. If that couldn't happen, then Ebbott could have gone out early the next morning. Or, he could have asked his mother or step-father to shop for him.

The "dog ate it" excuse sounds a little weird. In any event, children that young should not be left alone in a car. Period.

So, the case will be reviewed again at the beginning of May, and Ebbott will learn what, if any, charges he will face.

Compare this case with what happened to 11-year-old Madeline Kara Neumann.

Kara died from complications of untreated diabetes because her parents chose to pray for her to be healed rather than seek medical care for their daughter.

From the Wausau Daily Herald:

It will be Wednesday or Thursday before the Everest Metro Police Department completes its investigation of the sudden death of an 11-year-old girl, Chief Dan Vergin said [Monday] afternoon.

Vergin said last week the case could be forwarded to the Marathon County district attorney’s office today to determine if criminal charges would be filed in the death of Madeline Kara Neumann. Investigators now want to conduct more interviews and corroborate some information before that happens, Vergin said.

There's no question that Ebbott used very poor judgment when he left his little girls unattended in the car for about 20 minutes. I think some sort of charge or citation is in order.

I'm not excusing Ebbott, but the lapse in judgment that he displayed is in a completely different league than Dale and Leilani Neumann's failure to get their daughter to a doctor when it was clear that she was seriously ill.

These two cases are similar in that the issue is child neglect. In Ebbott's case, something could have happened to the girls when he briefly left them alone, but nothing did. In the Neumanns' case, their neglect resulted in death. Their daughter died because of their choice to try to pray her back to health.

There's something very wrong with our criminal justice system if Ebbott is charged for what he did and the Neumanns are given a free pass for their actions because their neglect stemmed from practicing religious beliefs.

Adults must held responsible for properly caring for their children. Exercising one's religion should not provide an excuse for allowing a child die.