Mom Allegedly Harasses Daughter's Friend
Indiana mom-daughter duo charged with diaper dump on daughter's friend's lawn.
May 23, 2008 — -- An Indiana mother is facing criminal charges after allegedly helping her 15-year-old daughter scatter baby diapers scrawled with vulgar slogans on a classmate's lawn.
Julie Phillips, 50, allegedly helped purchase the diapers at a local CVS pharmacy for her daughter, 15, and her daughter's friend, according to a Bloomington, Ind., police report obtained by ABCNEWS.com.
In addition to driving the two girls to the classmate's home where they left the diapers, Phillips allegedly helped come up with the messages written on them, which included "close your legs," "baby killer," "you have no friends" and "bitch," according to police.
Phillips is facing criminal misdemeanor charges of harassment and trespassing as well as a civil lawsuit filed by Kim Capps, the mother of the daughter victimized by the prank. A lawyer for the victim claims the prank led the young woman to attempt suicide.
"[Capps' daughter] was hurt, distraught, embarrassed and afraid she was going to be branded at school, so she tried to take her own life," attorney Betsy Greene, who is representing the Capps family, told ABCNEWS.com.
According to Greene, Capps and her husband removed the diapers from their front lawn before their teenage daughter woke up on May 3, but not before taking digital photographs of the scene to show to police. Their daughter, who later found the photographs, took a combination of over-the-counter and prescription drugs and was found by a neighbor to be unresponsive in her home later that day, the lawyer said.
The diaper incident may stem from an altercation that occurred between the girls last year, Green speculates, in which Capps alleges the Phillips girl assaulted her daughter.
Greene said that she did not know whether the teens were fighting over a boy, despite the suggestive slogans written on the diapers. One diaper was tagged with the number of the local Planned Parenthood clinic.
Phillips' lawyer, Geffrey Grodner, did not return messages left by ABC News but told local news station KARE-11 that his client regrets for her actions.
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