Cops: Mom Warned About Leaving Kid in Car (No Charges Kid Died 100 Degrees)

[RamboLiberal]

A woman whose 2-year-old daughter died in an overheated car last month had left the girl unattended before and had been warned about the danger that created, according to a police report.

Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby had been told by a former administrator at her 5-year-old daughter's preschool that the younger sister shouldn't be left in the car by herself, the Union Township police report said.

A parent had complained about seeing the toddler left in a car during the winter. The former administrator told police that the event prompted the school to warn parents in its newsletter that no child should be left in a car unattended.

The Clermont County prosecutor said Tuesday that no charges would be filed against Nesselroad-Slaby, 40, in the Aug. 23 death of her daughter, Cecilia.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3567872&page=1


A surveillance camera captured Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby the day she forgot that she had left her toddler strapped in a car seat on her way to work as an administrator at Glen Este Middle School. The child's body was discovered more than seven hours later, after outside temperatures reached nearly 100 degrees.

I wonder if this was a habit with her. If we're all in high dudgeon about the cop who forgot his k9 partner - then we should be outraged by this case. I don't know that prison is the answer but community service certainly.

[redqueen]

1. I don't know anyone who isn't outraged about parents "forgetting" about their kids.

I notice she has a really nice mercedes SUV.

Greed sickens me more than ever, lately.

[Sequoia]

2. No charges ?!!!!! Other parents get charged, why not her?

[redqueen]

3. OH law requires "reckless" endangerment to prosecute.

The cops apparently bought her story that she just "forgot" her kid. Innocent mistake. :eyes:

[Vilis Veritas]

7. She is upper middle class. Driving a Benz...Assistant Principle.

Won't be fired. Won't be prosecuted.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[Sequoia]

16. I smell a rat here.

Who does she know in that town for a quick payoff?

[lonestarnot]

47. Oh yeah? Well I smell a dead ass rat... WTF is this?

[ComerPerro]

18. white, SUV-driving suburan mom. But I'm sure that has nothing to do with it...

[w8liftinglady]

22. Before I even saw her picture,i had a feeling this was the case.

..not that she isn't suffering.She obviously is unfit to be a parent,for this to have happened multiple times(that we know of).CPS needs to be involved.

[ComerPerro]

25. the disturbing thing is she apparently did do this quite often

[Beausoir]

41. Actually, women are 25% MORE likely to be jailed for this than men.

From the KidsAndCars website...



Since the mid-1990s, the number of children who died of heat exhaustion while trapped inside vehicles has risen
dramatically, totaling around 340 in the past 10 years. Ironically, one reason was a change parent-drivers made to protect
their kids after juvenile air-bag deaths peaked in 1995 — they put them in the back seat, where they are more easily
forgotten.

An Associated Press analysis of more than 310 fatal incidents in the past 10 years found that prosecutions and penalties
vary widely, depending in many cases on where the death occurred and who left the child to die — parent or caregiver,
mother or father:

_Mothers are treated much more harshly than fathers. While mothers and fathers are charged and convicted at about the
same rates, moms are 26 percent more likely to do time. And their median sentence is two years longer than the terms
received by dads.


_Day care workers and other paid baby sitters are more likely than parents to be charged and convicted. But they are jailed
less frequently than parents, and for less than half the time.

_Charges are filed in half of all cases — even when a child was left unintentionally.

A relatively small number of cases — about 7 percent — involved drugs or alcohol. In a few instances, the responsible
parties had a history of abusing or neglecting children. Still others were single parents unable to find or afford day care.



"But no one thinks it's going to happen to them," says Janette Fennell, founder and president of Kids and Cars, a nonprofit
group that tracks child deaths and injuries in and around automobiles.

The AP's analysis was based largely on a database of
fatal hyperthermia cases compiled by Fennell's organization.

[ComerPerro]

44. my focus was more on the socio-economic status, not so much gender

[Robson]

56. You could find many differing opinions on that, along with examples

I find it hard not to believe that the criminal justice system has a gender bias that favors females. She should have faced criminal prosecution on this death along with major publicity of the outcome. There have been far too many recent instances of leaving toddlers and babies alone in cars.

BTW I just ran across this site on the internet who also has an opinion on this.

http://glennsacks.com/blog/index.php?tag=clermont-county-prosecutor-don-white

[Annces]

4. How awful n/t

[earth mom]

5. That sure looks like an odd place to park-like she knew what she was doing.

:grr:

[redqueen]

10. She was unloading donuts at that time.

She then got back in her wasteful, conspicuous consumption-type vehicle, and parked it. With her unfortunate forgotten, soon-to-be-dead child fast asleep in the back.

[lonestarnot]

48. Looks like she unloaded a few donuts.

[Occulus]

23. It sure as hell isn't an Asst. Principal's parking space.

Such spaces were marked, right at the front entrance of the building, when I was in school- every year.

That looks like a service lot for the school.

[Vilis Veritas]

6. She forgot her kid was in the car?

No charges were filed? Speechless...

[mtnester]

8. Bull................... .......................... shit

pure as it gets

[Warpy]

9. There's so much about this we don't know

For instance, why wasn't the kid dropped off at day care? Was there day care? Was a tox screen done to check for substance abuse? Where the hell was the kid's father? Is he in the picture?

I always have a sneaking suspicion mom might have fallen through the cracks as much as her kid did. The only difference is that mom has lived through it.

[redqueen]

11. Does any of that matter?

Her child was in *her* care. She *allegedly* just FORGOT the child was there.

It's fucked. Beyond fucked.

[Warpy]

15. "forgot" is the fishy part

unless she'd been up all night trying to do everything because she'd been deserted by the kid's father and was mentally and emotionally fried; unless she was half in the bag early in the morning (which makes it worse, IMO), unless day care canceled at the last minute and she was hoping the kid would sleep all morning and she could find a friend to take her when it got too hot outside.

Like I said, moms can fall through the cracks, too.

[redqueen]

17. She said she had all-day meetings scheduled.

And her stop at the donut store 'threw her off'.

I don't buy ANY of these "OOPS I forgot about my kid!" stories. Not a damn one.

[Beausoir]

42. So...you are saying this was pre-meditated murder?

[redqueen]

53. What on earth gives you that idea?

[blondeatlast]

57. Mom's an assistant principal--she been warned several times before

about leaving her younger daughter in the car.

Assistant Principles don't generally "fall through the cracks." Do you have any idea of the certification provess and the betting that occurs for such a position?

Fingerprints, background checks, transcript reviews, peer reviews and on beyond zebra. The slightest suspicion of substnace abuse would have been addressed ASAP.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Arugula Latte]

13. WTF?!?!

:wtf:

[niyad]

14. we had a case like that here a couple of years ago--the woman forgot that her child wasn't at day

care that day,child left in car, and died. mother was prosecuted for negligent homicide.

[Maestro]

19. Pathetic and disgusting

I really don't know what to say.

[lapfog_1]

20. Ok, this is just insane...

On the one hand you have this...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/06/police.dog/index.html

and you also have this...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3567872&page=1

Does anyone else have a problem with this?

In Ohio, if you leave YOUR CHILD strapped in the car all day and YOUR CHILD dies... no charges.

But in Arizona, if you leave YOUR DOG locked in the car all day and YOUR DOG dies... you are arrested and booked for animal cruelty.

Just WTF???????????

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. The fishy part is that she'd been warned before and STILL "forgot" the child

Homicide by neglect, do you think?

It does happen.

[blondeatlast]

27. Exactly. I live in AZ and we have one or two of these every summer.

That's children--countless pets too.

And what an awful way to die. Miss Ass Principle needs to do some hard time--a hospital burn unit might finally get through to her.

This is revolting as hell.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

50. The Prosecutor interviewed yesterday said that when she was first told, it was when she ran into her

older childs' preschool to pick her up and it was all of five minutes. So the OP doesn't go into all the facts about that incident.

[blondeatlast]

24. SHE'S. A. SCHOOL. ADMINISTRATOR???

I don't care how awful she's feeling--that's negligent homicide. She needs hard damn time.

And for God's sake--fire her ass.

:mad::mad::mad:

[MODemocrat]

26. It looks as if she was walking right by the child

My heart aches for that little child; and to think it was it's very own Mother/protector who left her in that car..I just don't know how she must feel; but, she needs some punishment or some type of education on caring for a child, if just to wake her up in case she has another child.:cry:

[blondeatlast]

33. Creepy, isn't it?

:scared:

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. OMG She's a school administrator??

Hopefully not for long.

[blondeatlast]

29. Ms. N-S might remember this time if she has to spend 15 minutes or so

in that damn car with the windows rolled up and the keys in an armed guard's hand.

[Beausoir]

43. Good god. That's it....I'm hiding all these threads from now on.

Honestly...who ARE you people? This is some sick shit. This is Free Republic-type shit.

[lancer78]

30. IMHO...

That woman has been punished enough already. Accidents happen. Maybe if children were allowed to be in safety seats in the front passenger seat, this wouldn't have happened.

[LeftyMom]

38. Then they'd get killed by the airbag instead

And be at 30% greater risk in a collision even w/o the airbag.

Great idea. :sarcasm:

Here's an idea- people who don't want to keep track of their kids shouldn't have them.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

31. Another child left behind

I generally have sympathy for those who have accidentally left a child in the back seat, but this smacks of someone who probably glanced at the newsletter reminding parents not to do this and tossed it out, or got in the face of the person who complained and said "DON'T TELL ME HOW TO PARENT MY KID!!!!". She appears to be the perfect representative of the self-absorbed society, who doesn't give a shit about anyone but themselves and what they are doing at that second. Parked across three spaces, driving a big SUV, couldn't give a shit attitude.....say what you want, but there is a certain mentality you pick up on from these type of people in small situations that ends up manifesting itself in a major issue like this.

Reminds me of the lady last summer in CT who told the 911 operator she refused to break the window of her BMW to get the child out and couldn't someone just come quicker to unlock the door......

[Robson]

32. Childslaughter sounds appropriate

Wasn't someone recently sent to jail for 14 days because their dog died in a car?

Here we have a person that has repeatedly left her child alone in a car. While it is extremely sad that this child died a horrific death, and that accidents do happen, people regularly spend time in prison because of accidents. In the long run it gives society and justice system fairness and us accountability.

Culpability because of recklessness and negligence are obvious factors.

[DemBones DemBones]

34. I will never understand how you "forget" your child

is in the car. Taking donuts to school might be a momentary distraction but in seven hours, she never thought about her child, never asked herself, "Gee, did I take her to day care or not?"

That's a pretty big memory lapse. I hope she doesn't have more kids in the future.

[Fierce]

37. Yup. Funny, no one ever forgets to go to work.

nt

[blondeatlast]

45. Good point. nt

[JI7]

46. that's the first thing that stood out to me. she FORGOT about her child ?

how the fuck is that even possible.

[JerseygirlCT]

35. How in the world do you forget your child - for 8 hours??? nt

[Desertrose]

39. Yeah, see, thats my question,too.

How can you forget you left your child in the car...FOR 8 F'ING HOURS?????

I don't get it.

[JerseygirlCT]

49. I can see the hurried, harried ten minutes

followed by the "OH SHIT! I FORGOT THE BABY!"

But eight hours? Not on your life. I can't go 30 minutes without thinking of my kids.

[Beausoir]

36. This is an horrific story with an horrific ending.

I feel badly for all involved.

As a momX5, I can't imagine the horror of what that woman has to face for the rest of her life.

I can't even think about what the child endured.

[cali]

51. I hope she suffers horribly for a very fucking long time

She should have been charged.

[BlooInBloo]

40. On DU, the parents are not to blame for what happens to the kid...

... to say otherwise is to be a "child hater".

Yes, I know that doesn't make any sense in this context - I'm just the messenger.

[newportdadde]

52. Todays To-Dos - Don't forget to drop off donuts... CHECK, go to work.. CHECK.. remember kid.. oops.

[RB TexLa]

54. Here they tell them to put their purses or laptop on the seat by the kid to keep from forgetting

guess it works, haven't heard of many of them dying in a while.

[Done]

55. Is it possible to forget a child in the backseat?

Must be, this does sometimes happen. Many parents would never do this, and can not image how it could happen, but it does happen.

Should she suffer for it? - She will, don't worry about that.

If she was black, working at McDonald's, driving an old car, would she be treated different? -Oh yeah.

A car will sound an alarm if you leave the keys in the ignition or the lights on...it could save the lives of a few children if the car would sound an alarm when there is a child in the back seat. (If there is a child seat strapped in). It could be argued that few people are so forgetful to do something like this, so why should every car be modified for those few times when something like this happens. Then again, a dead child is more tragic than a dead battery.